I'm a Singer and Vocal Coach and I have a tongue tie.

If you are a singer with a tongue tie and would like to chat about it some more, please reach out!

If you prefer to read your content, here is a transcript of the above video.

Hi there,

if we haven't come into contact with each other before my name's Gemma Milburn. I'm a singer and a vocal coach based in the UK (if you can't tell by my accent.) This video and I think potential video series is going in a direction that I didn't expect. I'm kind of I'm a bit lost for words because I'm here to document a personal Journey that I think will also be relevant to people watching my content and potential singers and other people out there. So basically I'm 38, I've been singing my whole life probably since I was three, and being a vocal coach for 13 years at this point since and I recently discovered that I (it's not

100 certain yet ) but I believe strongly that I have a tongue tie.

I will post a bit of information about tongue tie below, I'm not at a point where I am remotely qualified to really explain what that is but basically it means that part of your tongue is tethered down and there's different types of tongue tie. There's an anterior tongue tie and a posterior tongue tie so one is tethered at the front more and one is tethered at the back more

The reason why I've got to 38 and didn't know that is because I think I have a posterior tongue tie so that means the back of my tongue is Tethered down more than it

should be. Because it's the back of my tongue it's not as visible, so if the

front of your tongue is tied down you can probably see that and if the back of

your tongue is tied you would have to look for it and know what a tongue is meant to

look like. I look at tongues all the time I do tongue exercises I have my clients do tongue exercises and I didn't notice that mine was different to most people so I'm I'm kind of in this head space right now where I'm a bit flabbergasted and also I must admit I'm curious to see… I guess I always

suspected there was something different about me or my voice and I don't know I guess maybe everybody feels that way. My vocal coach said to me maybe two weeks ago that she suspects I have a tongue tie so I'm still at a point where 1) I don't know for certain if I have it and 2) I'm kind of mind blown and not sure what it means, not sure what to expect- I don't even know if I do have one so it's that's why I'm possibly not super

clear right now. Over time once my thoughts have got clearer I'll go I'll probably do videos on different topics but basically I normally work with my coach online and I went to see her in Spain and we did some in-person sessions and I might even get her to input on this at some point she was going over and over

some breathing exercises that again we've done before and because breathing exercises are very

exploratory and experiential she kept kind of like I guess to me she looked confused and kept asking me like is that hard and certain questions and I was

just like “I don't know, I don't get it.” I thought , I think I'm

doing what you're asking me to do and she looked sort of confused and then later on when I was doing some singing related stuff she noticed my tongue do something that sparked her to ask me more questions. She also has a tongue tie so and she's done some research into it so she had some

resources to hand so she could ask me a series of things which again I'm not clear enough to

go through all that stuff yet but I will over time. It became pretty clear to both of

us like a few questions in and she got me to do a few things with my tongue that the chances seem quite high that I have a tongue tie.

I guess what I want to say now is what does it mean? It means that if your tongue can't move as much as it's

supposed to, that's clearly gonna cause you some issues. I'm mostly interested in this as a

singer because I want to know how my voice might be different if I have treatment. I'm hoping it will solve some problems I've had for a long time. I also have done a lot of Googling and it doesn't seem that clear how to get this treated as an adult in the UK so I'm hoping that if I can go through this process I can

perhaps make it a little bit clearer. Firstly how to know if you have a tongue tie, how to know whether it is

affecting you detrimentally and what your options are. From what I can see so far is I'm gonna have to pay if I want it sorted which I really really do and I'm really curious to see if certain things about my body change afterwards so things that I am hoping or I'm curious about is first of all I've always had these really random

pain. My vocal coached asked “do you get get neck pain “ ? I said no because I was thinking back of the neck right but I've had achy throat pain unrelated to singing for I can think back 15 years. I've had this really random ache that goes from here all the way down there and I have a sense of discomfort here.

Mostly I tend to sit like this or if I’m… I've got photos if I'm sitting I'll tend to put like my top there and so to a point last year where it was really quite painful I was taking a lot of painkillers and noting it down in

a diary because I thought it was linked to my menstrual cycle because it went all the

way down here. I thought it was achy boobs, and then it wasn't linked to my menstrual cycle when I diarized it so I'm kind of like “well I wonder if that

could be linked to tongue tie? ” I don't know.

I also I'm I'm curious how my singing will change because I've always had this feeling that it's harder for me

than the next person. I can do bits but when I have to join the bits together it suddenly gets

really hard. I keep joking to people like I'm gonna be Whitney Houston after this it's going to be like whoa

mind-blowing! I’m trying not to put on my eggs in one basket but it does seem clear to me that if I do have a tongue tie and then I have it treated and suddenly my tongue has much better range of movement that's going to change my singing.

Another thing is my teeth, I have an overbite and I've had orthodontic treatment that's relapsed and last year I saw an orthodontist who told me I might qualify for I can't remember it's called orthogonatic surgery where they would break my jaw and reset it, and I didn't follow it up at the time because I've moved house but I've been meaning to go and see my current dentist about braces but now I'm I'm curious because I've

heard that tongue tie can cause some of these issues too so I want to check the tongue thing first before I

do as you can see I have an overbite and I have a gap in my teeth that I had fixed as a teenager but

as an adult they've kind of drifted back to where they were before which is really annoying.

I also have quite severe performance anxiety or have in the past, where my voice is very unsteady when

I sing and even the tiniest bit of anxiety my breathing becomes like that and I've heard that tongue tie can be related to anxiety and to breathing issues.

So I'm just super curious. I'm sure there's more stuff again I'm not qualified to really list those things yet and I'm not clear enough in my own mind to list them but I'm gonna be video diarizing this whole process as I

go and I hope that I'll be able to make things a bit clearer. I have an appointment with my

dentist today and he knows I want to ask him about tongue tie so he's gonna have a look. I

don't know if this is his specialism but he's gonna have a look anyway.

Who knows if they might say “you don't have one” but I'm pretty convinced at

this point having looked at my tongue a fair bit and done a bit of research, I would be shocked if I was told I

didn't have one. Step one is getting a diagnosis.

I've also spoken to another clinic in the UK that specialises in this stuff and I'm my next step is going to be

to book in with them and private clinic so I've got a couple of steps in mind basically as an intro to figuring out what this is all about and seeing what needs to happen next. This one is me getting some clarity on

whether I do have a tongue tie and then I will hopefully be able to talk you through the process and tell you a bit as I learn more about what it means and how it impacts me and hopefully in sharing my experience I can help other people. Because I am a vocal coach I know a bit about voice and a bit about the tongue a little bit, a little bit about breathing you know hopefully I can improve my service for other people and

raise awareness. Like I said I'm 38, I've been singing my whole life, and we don't really get taught about tongue ties as vocal coaches we sort of have to seek out information as stuff comes up so it literally

never crossed my mind that I might have one. There's a whole host of

stuff there-I'm gonna get back to you when I have more info so thanks for watching.