I'm delighted to learn that researchers at the University of Alberta have been applying vibrating sex toys to the throats of actors and singers, with predictably fantastic results.
If you're debating whether you ought to try this for yourself, my recommendation is: Yes. Absolutely.
I have written extensively on the importance of alleviating areas of chronic muscular tension for developing a free vocal technique. Otherwise, you are building a technique around a stiff and armored instrument, and eventually you're going to hit a wall. To a large extent, developing vocal technique consists of identifying areas of physical resistance and then resolving and releasing them - a process of unmasking areas of tension or rigidity that impede the flow of breath, muffle resonance, prevent the vocal folds from proximating cleanly, and/or inhibit vibrancy.
The vocal exercises that I use are designed to achieve this, but there's only so much you can do in the studio to resolve chronic muscular tension. There are a variety of helpful practices and techniques that I recommend to address it, including yoga, deep tissue massage, Bioenergetic therapy, and Alexander Technique lessons. But if we're talking about something you can easily do on your own to alleviate chronic muscular tension in the muscles that directly impact on the larynx, I can think of no better and swifter way than a gentle massage with a vibrator or showerhead.
The researchers are talking about applying the vibrator "over the vocal cords," but my suspicion is that many of the important muscles being massaged and relaxed include the ones that are extrinsic to the larynx - muscles of the tongue and the various strap muscles that orginiate in the sternum and act on the larynx and neck in various ways.
The muscle highlighted in red is the hyoglossus, which retracts and depresses the tongue. When we complain of tongue tension, this is the usual culprit; if you apply vibration to your chin and neck, this is also the muscle easiest to access and massage. I think of hyoglossus tension as the vocal equivalent of having tight hamstrings that keep you from touching your toes. Most singers overuse the hyoglossus and have to do at least some work to stretch and relax it to free up the larynx and achieve efficient articulation. It may very well be that using a vibrating massager indeed loosens up the vocal folds and other intrinsic muscles of the larynx, and certainly it will increase bloodflow to the entire area, which can only be a good thing.
Vibrators come in a daunting array of shapes and sizes. Without doing more exhaustive research on my end, I'm going to recommend the device pictured above. This is the Lelo Lily Massager. It's a good size and shape to cover a broad area of your neck and can be adjusted to five different levels of intensity.
It's also "discreet" in appearance - if someone sees it in your bag, they won't necessarily know what it is. Unless they already know what it is, in which case they won't judge you for it. At any rate, the Crave company metioned in the article referenced above is only one of many sources for "discreet" vibrators. People have been disguising vibrators as everything from rubber duckies to lipstick cases for some time now.
In conclusion: I often say that whatever is good for you body is also good for your voice. Now we've got some more research to back that up!
I'd love to see/hear the scientific studies backing this up, though I doubt there are any. :D
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Alexandra
https://hatar.ro/collections/vibratoare
Posted by: Pop Alexandra | 06/25/2021 at 06:43 AM