My Tongue Tie Journey as a Singer and Vocal Coach- I've started treatment!

How do tongue ties affect the singing voice? Online vocal coach Gemma Milburn shares her personal experience.

Are you struggling with your singing?

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

hello everyone it's been I honestly I don't even  know when the last time I uploaded a video but  

my tongue tie Journey was I think it was in the  summer it's now January 2024 I've been waiting  

until I had concrete stuff to share and I've been  learning absolutely loads about um tongues about  

tongue ties about how they affect singing about  who treats them about what the current research  

says I've been learning loads but all of that over  the last six months or so but I wanted to update  

you again my aim here is always for people to be  able to learn from me um as in to kind of pave  

the way like if this happens to you and um here's  some information from my journey so I've started  

Mya functional therapy I've had my f I've had like  an assessment and my first session and I've been  

doing exercises three times a day for the last  less than a week um so I'm really feeling great  

I'm really excited I'm finding the whole process  really interesting um and I'm really just like  

looking forward to improvements and changes in my  singing in my health cuz I'm learning more about  

that too and kind of just to see how it all goes  so to give you all an update I have um spoken to  

since I found out about this I've spoken to like  four different practitioners who specialize in  

tongai um one of the which was just a phone call  like an introductory kind of thing three of them  

looked at my tongue two of them looked at my  tongue online and one of them I actually went  

to see in person and that's been interesting then  they all described my tongue in the same way um  

there's different ways of describing and and sort  of grading tongue ties and there are um videos on  

YouTube which I might link to um that talk about  this grading system of 1 two 3 4 um one being like  

a mobile fully mobile tongue or as mobile as  possible and for being the least mobile it's  

all about how much your tongue can move what it  range of motion is um and I would say of all the  

people that looked at my tongue they all sort of  described it the same way um I'll get more into  

that at some point which is helpful because um  there's a lot of skepticism that I've also faced  

um I've spoken to Al two other and I know I've  said this before non tongue typ Specialists but  

people that are sort of in this area of the body  and um the ones who weren't tongue Tie Specialists  

were both like looks fine to me um I applied for  some funding again I'm not going to name any names  

unless it's like unless I have permission so  I'm not going to name any names but I applied  

for some funding um that is there to help people  fund this kind of treatment not this kind of treat  

but treatment for specific things um I didn't  receive it and I think that is on the basis

that research into tongue tie and understanding  more than just the Classic anterior tongue TI is  

new um and unless you have specialized like chosen  to specialize in that you're not going to know  

and it's not a criticism I knew nothing about this  until 6 months ago and um you know we are we don't  

no one specializes in everything so I'm finding  that people who know about this stuff who are like  

really passionate and interested they know they go  down that rabbit hole and really understand it um  

those who don't will probably tell you you don't  have a tongue tie if yours is not an anterior all  

the way to the very front now an anterior tongue  tie is often described as a grade four mine has  

been assessed as being a grade 3/4 so one of the  most severe kinds I don't know if I've said this  

in any of my videos yet um however I have had  people say that I don't have a tongue tie people  

who are nonp Specialists who work in this kind of  basic field of anatomy but who um aren't tongue  

Tie Specialists they've told me that I don't have  one whereas all the tongue Tie Specialists have  

basically told me I have a fairly severe one  so I'm just saying this so that you know like  

don't be dishearted if you go to someone and they  say you don't have one it's not personal it's not  

mean it's just you need to find someone that is  like um an expert in this stuff if you suspect you  

have one um I've also been told there's been an  article at some point in the New York Times saying  

that um doctors are diagnosing lots of people with  tongue TI as a way to make money um and I think  

that might be some other the skepticism behind  this now I'm in the UK so our health system is  

different like um doctors don't get paid in that  way but I didn't go to my um GP because I knew  

that they wouldn't they wouldn't prioritize  this I'm doing this mostly as a singer um not  

I would say to enhance my singing But actually to  solve a lot of difficulties and insecurities I've  

had about my voice for a long time that was my  main starting point now since I've had my full  

myo assessment so I'm working with breathe first  speech and Mayo based in Manchester UK um happy  

to say that because we have a working relationship  and um I know that Emily would be happy to kind of  

have any of you contact her if you wanted more  information so I went to see her in person and  

she is also speech and language therapist which  I love because um vocal cultures we work quite  

closely with speeching language therapist and is a  bit of crossover and we work with the same bits of  

anatomy but often in different ways um so I love  that she's from that background too and um she  

she did such an amazingly thorough assessment of  my whole my tongue my jaw my body she took photos  

she analyzed my posture my whole body posture  to an extent um she took a detail told history  

of my health from childhood from to now um asked  me questions about my um teeth you know my all  

sorts of stuff and um she got me to do like a  chew test she had to watch How I chew and how  

I swallow and really interesting thing that came  up is that I don't I I have trouble swallowing  

chewing and swallowing which I didn't know and now  like I know that you can sort of be like well if  

you didn't know it can't have been a problem but  imagine you've been like chewing and swallowing a  

certain way your whole life and you didn't know it  wasn't supposed to be that difficult like I had no  

idea it was meant to be easier and I didn't never  thought of it as difficult because um again I had  

nothing to compare it to but what she has shown  me is that I use a lot of compensatory muscles  

in my was sternal clom mastoids which if you have  tense um SCM muscles that's quite a common thing  

for singers and it can be really restrictive to  um flexibility of the larynx I didn't realize  

that that was an issue for me and that's caused by  the way I chew and the way I swallow um so nothing  

to do with my um singing it's something that I  have to do all the time anyway could be causing  

me problems with my singing so that's something  that we're hoping to improve and I believe that  

is because of the tongue tie so I have tongue  thrust as well um when my tongue goes forwards  

when I swallow um and that I don't this is  all new to me so apologies if there's anyone  

watching this and being like that's not accurate  but I'm trying my best so um I've got relapsed  

Orthodontics um and my have quite a significant  over jet with my teeth um caused by the fact that  

my teeth are constantly pushing on my sorry my  tongue is constantly pushing on my front teeth  

so um that will be cool if we can solve that it's  going to help my teeth should I go ahead and get  

orthodontic treatment at some point which I very  much plan to do um that was part of this process  

um was that I was trying to get my teeth sorted  and was not sure whether they I kept getting told  

I didn't kept getting told it was complicated and  that I would need surgery because my jaw was not  

in line so um this will help with that um again  if you think that my swallowing muscles aren't  

effective my tongue um I my tongue gets very  tired when I'm chewing so I don't chew enough  

while I'm eating um if you think about that  and how if those those pieces of mine Anatomy  

are just weak um and potentially tense and and  I'm also using other compensatory mechanisms in  

my body for something that I have to do several  times a day every day how then when I get around  

to singing how problematic that's going to be  so I'm super excited about that um to see how  

the exercises and the treatment and just having  an an expert guide me through this is going to  

help um I have a narrow palette because my tongue  wasn't against the roof of my mouth throughout my  

development so my palette has has not developed  um it's not as wide as it should have been it  

hasn't had the tongue there to sort of guide its  development um which could impact upon whether I  

can have tongue tie release surgery so I don't  know that yet um so doing the Mayo doing the  

exercises and and stay in the course to see what  happens um obviously I'd like to have the surgery  

but not if it's risky um this yeah I mean I'll do  whatever it takes to help my health and my singing  

whatever that is um what was the other thing my  jaw range of motion is apparently very restricted  

now I didn't no I didn't know I didn't know that  um I have had singing teachers and the like say  

to me before open your mouth mod and I I opened  my mouth more when they told me to um but I don't  

feel TMJ pain um particularly um but apparently  I should from what my um from how restricted my  

jaw is apparently it should be painful so um  I don't know what that is so um I wrote some  

stuff down I wanted to make sure that I mentioned  in this video so let me just make sure um yeah so  

one of the things that came up in my assessment  was was that I can't lift the back of my tongue  

particularly or at all like back of my tongue  doesn't lift and in singing lifting the back of  

the tongue is really important particularly for  certain frequencies and um yeah for certain kind  

of technical aspects of singing so I didn't  know that I I I mean I'm sort of surprised  

that I can't lift it at all because um um my voice  doesn't sound bad it just feels like hard work so  

that's sort of interesting and I hope that through  this process like I what's going to happen if I go  

from not being able to lift the back of my tongue  at all to being able to lift it quite well like  

how is that going to change my voice like I'm  super excited about that um and what else let's

see I mean that's most of it as to where I'm at  right now um if you are experiencing any of this  

feel free to reach out to me um not that I'm an  expert I just like chatting about this stuff um  

I'll go for an assessment with Emily breathe first  speech Mayo in Manchester UK um honestly even if  

you don't live near there I would say it's worth  the journey to go and learn a lot about yourself  

and be put on the path of development and see  where that takes you um because I've learned  

so much about myself and about there are other  aspects of my health that um I'm hoping that this  

will improve I'm hoping it's it will improve  my sleep cuz I do find it hard to fall asleep  

um I'm hoping it will improve my focus and  concentration cuz that's something I really  

suffer with um and I'm not going to get into why  it would help with that right now but apparently  

it can and yeah um what are the other things I  mean if like I can eat and chew more easily that  

would be cool and keep my I do have some issues  with gum disease although I do floss twice a day  

and brush twice a day with an electri electric  toothbrush um but I do have some issues with  

that and supposedly that can be linked to all  the issues that I have so I sort of feel like  

there's nothing to lose and for anyone saying  that it's a cash cow um like no one's pushing  

me into this and I don't really see what I can  lose from this so um yeah super excited I'm going  

to do some more videos soon that will detail  more about um a bit more sciency details about  

how it affects singing and singers um but like  I said if you want to know any more please feel  

free to reach out to me we can have a chat and I  can nudge you towards some info and um or if you  

got info of me like I would love to receive that  so um I'll check back in with you soon bye folks