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Why do my eyes water when I sing?

This is caused by the fact that your whole face shakes when you practice specific vocal placements, and the vibrations that hit your eyes could be causing irritation that can make them water.

yonamariemusic.com - Why Do My Eyes Water When I Sing? - Yona Marie Music

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Why Do My Eyes Water When I Sing?

Why Do I Cry When I Sing?

So you're finding yourself tearing up when you're singing a song. It likely sucks because you might lose vocal control when you're crying during a performance. Notes will start to get all messed up, your breathing technique will get noticeably worse, and then on top of that, you might get self-conscious about how you look crying while singing and lose your comfort. You need to ask yourself, "Am I crying because I'm emotional, or am I crying because of something more technical?". You'd be surprised how many people involuntarily tear up while singing and didn't even realize they were experiencing an emotional effect. It can be confusing to differentiate, but take a look at some reasons for your eyes watering up below and see if any makes sense for your particular situation.

Reason #1 (Emotional): The Song Lyrics Hit You

The most obvious reason for tears is because the lyrics affected you. It might be hard to pin down why the lyrics hit you, though; it could go deeper than a simple reason like "these heartbreak lyrics reminded me of my heartbreak." Song lyrics can bring on intense nostalgia, for example, bringing up emotional feelings from your youth or past. Or, in another example, the lyrics could be speaking about a situation that wasn't yours but makes you think of someone you care deeply about that relate to the lyrics. The lyrics could just be generally sad, and you feel the pain just because the lyrics are that good. To get rid of these feelings, it may help to run through the song repeatedly until your brain numbs to the emotional aspect of it all. Singing a deep song only for the third time will likely affect you pretty hard in comparison to singing that song for the 15th time.

Reason #2 (Emotional): The Music Itself Hit You

Similar to the first reason, you might be overwhelmed by the song's emotion or greatness without even thinking about the lyrics. Music is a magical gift that pleases the soul, so don't beat yourself up about it if you're so lost in the vibes that you start to cry from overwhelming emotion. Repetition can also help you lessen these types of tears, but it's not as easy as getting over the lyrics. One can never really get over how good music is, especially if it's amazing music. You could make yourself tired of the song by really overkilling the repeat, though, so find a good balance of singing it a lot and not overdoing it. The fact that it hits you emotionally this way is a good thing. Your singing is likely far more passionate.

Reason #3 (Technical): Your Jaw Placement

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Sometimes, you get tempted to yawn if you're singing with wide (long) enough jaw placement. Yawning often is accompanied by tears. Sometimes the yawn doesn't fully come out, but the teary eyes of a yawn still begin. Yawning while singing often happens during your first attempt at singing on any particular day (which is likely early). To avoid these types of tears, spend extra time on your warmups, especially 'ahhs' with very long vowels that will shake out all the yawning teary eyes.

Reason #4 (Technical/Emotional): You're Very Nervous

If you're performing in front of a lot of people and you're incredibly nervous, it can cause your eyes to water. When affected by anxiety, your body does very strange things, and the reactions to people's fears can vary widely. People have reported reactions including blurred vision, dry eyes, watery eyes, twitching, and tunnel vision when it comes to the eyes. The fix, for this reason, will take some time and might require a professional to help you. Anxiety is a common but extensive problem to treat, but you can successfully lessen the fear if you take the time. It's a challenging process that I am still working on, but very much worth it for the many reasons that all types of anxiety inhibit the greatness in us all. Having confidence on stage is very possible even with anxiety present.

Reason #5 (Technical): Humming/Closed Vowels

It isn't common, but some singers have reported getting teary-eyed while singing in a hum or singing a long note on an "n" or even holding a hard "e" vowel. This is caused by the fact that your whole face shakes when you practice specific vocal placements, and the vibrations that hit your eyes could be causing irritation that can make them water. This is another hard problem to fix, but play around with the wideness and intensity of your vowels when singing and see if you can lessen the vibration levels without messing up your sound quality. For example, singing "eee" with longer jaw placement instead of singing with a vertically wide jaw placement will automatically lessen the amount of vibration that comes out, effectively decreasing the eye-watering and irritation. Certain placements of your tongue against the bottom of your mouth can also cause vibrations. Placing your tongue further away from the back of your throat can reduce the risk of irritation.

yonamariemusic.com - Why Do My Eyes Water When I Sing? - Yona Marie Music

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