How to Strengthen Your Soft Palate Muscles?
- Soft Palate?
- Advantages Of Building Soft Palate Muscles
- Strengthening Practice
Everyone you know has a soft palate, but not everyone knows how to properly use it. The soft palate is one of our vocal muscles that help us control our sound quality.
This muscle is not limited to just that. There are many benefits to strengthening this muscle.
To improve our volume, high notes, and resonance it is important to practice exercises daily for this muscle to reach its full potential.
Soft Palate?
The soft palate is toward the back of the mouth where your uvula hangs. It is the muscle that opens and closes the cavity when you are breathing through your nose and mouth.
This works like a trap door. Try placing your fingers on the bridge of your nose and make a “Nnaahh” sound. You will feel vibrations on the N but will feel them go away as you start to make the ahh.
This is because your muscle has raised in the back of the throat to block the nasal passage. You can feel your it by placing your tongue atop the roof of your mouth and sliding it back to where it is soft.
You can also touch it by placing a finger towards the back of the throat, and hold your nose, you will feel this muscle move.
Advantages Of Building Soft Palate Muscles
There are multiple benefits to using the soft palate. The soft palate is a muscle that works like an echo chamber. This muscle helps you personify your volume.
The muscle itself strengthens as you sing songs or exercises that push its limit. One day you may have trouble belting a note, and in a few weeks of doing exercises, that note wont feel as difficult to reach.
Raising that muscle helps you filter your air to only leave through the oral cavity. If you leave air to pass through your nasal cavity, this can make you sound more nasally.
Having a nasally sound isn’t a bad thing. Many artists use this technique to create very unique sounds.
This muscle will also help you reach higher notes. When singing higher in your register. Your vocal chords have to work harder in order to reach them.
Your diaphragm is producing more air and when that air comes up. You want to make sure you have enough space for it.
Your soft palate is a muscle that helps you create that space, just like your nose, cheeks, jaw, and tongue.
Strengthening Practice
There are many soft palate exercises to help you keep these muscles healthy and relaxed. Try to practice songs in a key that fits your voice.
Practice doing the soft palate yawn exercise. While maintaining your volume, try to feel the note coming from your highest note all the way down to your lowest note.
This will help you build strength and get those muscles moving. Then you can practice the “how are you” exercise.
Imagine someone is 45 feet away and you want to ask them how they are. Shout “how are you”; the “how” should start at your lowest note.
The “are” should be around where the end of your chest voice is (Males C4-G4 | Females G4-C4).
Finally, the “you” should start from the same note you chose for the chest voice. When singing the “you” slide your voice all the way down to your lowest note.
Practice makes perfect, these exercises are great before singing as they help you strengthen and warm up those muscles. Try to get comfortable with your soft palate as this will help you make less vocal mistakes.
