– before you can learn to relax it.

Whether you are working on your voice because you are an actor, a singer, a startup entrepreneur preparing for a 5 minute pitch, or a CEO wanting to improve your presentation skills, you need to be able to relax your jaw. As anyone who has ever tried it, it’s not as easy as it sounds. There are good reasons why we hold tension in our jaw muscles, and there are equally good reasons why it is well worth the effort to let that tension go.  So before you begin, here are 5 important things you need to know about your jaw:

1 – Your jaw is your best friend

2 – Your jaw will protect you to the death

3 – Your jaw is a workaholic

4 – Your jaw will not voluntarily take a holiday

5 – Your jaw will love you even more when you manage to convince it that you can manage without it from time to time.

Next time, I will go into details about why these 5 points are so important to understand, and why they are relevant to your voice. In the meantime, click HERE (thanks to Eric Armstrong and York University, CA) to see just how complex, and how many muscle sets are involved. Do Not Fear, you can do this – and so can your jaw.