How to tongue trill

What is a Tongue Trill?

Tongue Trilling is a form of vocal warm up siren.

A siren is a way to warm up your voice completely independent of any musical support.

There are many different sirens including:

• Lip bubble

• Tongue Trill

• Hum

• Oo-ee-oo vowels

So here I am specifically talking about the Tongue Trill Siren. It’s using that sound of ‘rolling your r’s” to go across your entire vocal range starting with the lowest part of your voice up to the highest and back down to the lowest. For some people the tongue trill can be the trickiest one to do. 

How to Tongue Trill

Step 1

First we have to find the right place to put the tongue.

Run the tongue from the back of the top teeth to the soft palate (the soft fleshy part of the gum above the top teeth). 

Step 2

Now slightly curl the tongue and let the tip of the tongue lightly find the soft palate. Be sure to drop the jaw and keep it relaxed.

Step 3 

Now take a deep breathe (into the diaphragm) and sigh aiming to curl the tongue up to that spot on the soft palate at the same time. When you find the right balance of the breath and the tongue position the tongue should trill or flutter.

Be sure to keep the jaw relaxed.

(NB The tongue never rests on the soft palate. If you try to hold the tongue there you will lose the trill. Just blow and aim for this position and you will feel the flutter).

Step 4

Once you have found that “flutter” or “rolling r” sound on the out breathe now try to sustain that ‘trill’ or ‘flutter’ for as long as you can.

Step 5

Now that you have are able to sustain that ‘flutter’ let’s add a tone to it.

Start with a low tone in your voice and bring the tone up to higher tone in your voice and back down to the lower tone like a siren all the while keeping that ‘trill’ with the sound.

Tips

• Be sure to keep the jaw relaxed.

• Be sure to keep the tongue light and soft

• Be sure to use the diaphragm to support the siren all the way up and down the entire siren to keep the trill constant.

• Relax the facial muscles.

• And remember it should feel effortless…

Happy practising!

Zara McFarlane x

For vocal coaching with multi award-winning vocalist Zara McFarlane click here.