So I have been doing the back-swing, taking a relaxed breath in, relaxed all the way to my lower abdomen – I find that I can hold that relaxed inhale without the urge to push air out and have my throat totally relaxed but had to really work hard at relaxing as the tongue come into position – as soon as my tongue comes up tension triggers and I go from singer mode into choker mode.

I managed to get to the point now where I have a relaxed breath in, and gently relaxed movement of my tongue into position but do not feel that the tongue is holding back anything. I practice this so many times a day – just using the mmm–ahhhh-ooooh, then on the visualizer and then with the mouthpiece.

It’s highly likely that the tongue is sealing off the airflow but it does not feel that way to me, to my mind if I feel a sensation of ‘holding in’ that indicates tension (which I want to get rid of) – just did the execise now to confirm – although my tongue stops the air flow – it’s so relaxed now I don’t think about it as sealing off anything or acting like a valve.

So what also helped me was to use the breathing bag to just take air in and turn it around – many times until I could found it totally relaxing (paying attention to dropping my tongue into a relaxed state)

Hope this helps and if anyone has anything to add that might help me please jump in 🙂 (I need all the help I can get)