I have collected a range of vocal warm up exercises, these are the ones I have used and found helpful:
Exercise 1:
- starting with a note at the lowest point within your range, humming it first.
- then move that hum smoothly through your range to as high as you feel comfortable before returning to the original note. Doing this a few times helps to warm up the vocal chords touching upon all notes in your range.
Exercise 2:
- focus on your breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth, as this is how you should breath when singing.
- taking a deep breath in through your nose, keeping your shoulders down and relaxed, you should feel the breath going into the bottom of your lungs, filling them.
- then when breathing out, try to keep the expanded shape of your body until all the air has gone.
I found this exercise is helpful for breath control within singing, when singing the song 'I dreamed a dream' there is a note that is held for 8 beats whilst contending with a crescendo. Using this warm up technique I was able to gain control of my air release. I was then faced with a 16 beat note that has to be held on in 'Say the Word.' To do this we made the warm up more controlled, breathing in for 8 counts then breathing out for 8, we'd then take it up by breathing in for 8, out for 12 - in for 8, out for 16 - in for 8, out for 20. By doing this I was training myself to conserve air even with the same intake. By doing this I was able to hold the note on for longer without it starting to fade or break as I had preserved enough air to keep the note strong.
Exercise 3:
- starting at the bottom end of the range, you count from 1 to 8 step by step, using one note for each number singing the pattern of: 1 121 12321 1234321 123454321 12345654321 1234567654321 123456787654321
- now the highest note has been reached, you go from this and move downwards: 8 878 87678 8765678 876545678 87654345678 8765432345678 876543212345678. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERZqqagdRys)
To make this exercise really useful we start to move it up a key, this means that each time we get to '8' it's a higher note than it was previously, this means that you are gently pushing your range as you're not jumping straight into the higher notes, you're gradually building up through notes you can sing confidently. This is the exercise I used for the song "Say the Word", as I could now sustain the 16 beat note but I now had the challenge of it being a C, a note that is in the 'break' of my voice when I transition between chest and head voice. By using this exercise I was pushing my self to use my chest voice for as many of the notes as possible, this is easier to do when going up in steps, especially when I know the note before the 16 count one is only a tone (note) lower but comfortably in my chest voice.
Exercise 4:
I wanted to look at more ways of strengthening the 'break' transition between head and chest voice. One that I found very useful worked with octaves.
When trying this with my fingers balanced on my larynx I can how it shifts between high low notes. I used the last exercise within the picture to help push my chest voice, as when you start singing in a particular register, your voice tries to stay in the register as long as it can. This allowed me to work with notes in my transition area and subtly push my chest voice into the higher notes, expanding it's range.
Exercise 5:
Singing uses the entire body not just the throat and mouth. Posture is key, making sure that the diaphragm, stomach and lungs are up right, with the chest held high is critical as it makes the production of sound easier. It is crucial that the diaphragm is able to expand and relax for the voice to be used to it's full potential. Warming up the body physically is just as important as it helps to make your body adjust from being a human to a musical instrument.
Correct Stance:
Head: upright
Neck: relaxed, straight, supportive
Shoulders: held back and down, not strained
Chest: upright, held high
Arms: relaxed, either side of the body
Back: straight, supported
Hips (abdomen): firm, in an expandable position
Hands: loosely relaxed by the side
Knees: flexibly loose, never locked
Feet: slightly apart, one slightly in front of the other, weight further forward.
- Stretching the spine by placing your feet apart, hands on your bent thighs, round your spine and bring your shoulders forward. This stretches the muscles within the back, elongating the spine and improving range of motion in the ribs.
- Warm up the neck and upper shoulder muscles, tilt your head to one side, placing the hand of the arm the head is tilted towards, place slight pressure onto the head, this helps to elongate the muscles, warming them up. repeat on the other side and facing forwards.
- Lift up one arm, use the other to pat the side of the stretched rib cage. Repeat on the other side. This gets the blood flowing and wakes up the chest area. Humming whilst doing this shows the effect of almost 'clearing the throat' in a way that removes the damage coughing can do to the vocal chords.
- Massage the cheeks. The cheeks are so used and can become very tense. Gently starting to massage from the temples with your middle and index finger push in circular motions, moving into the cheeks to relieve tension. This will make it easier to control your mouth and sustain singing for a longer amount of time.
I find that doing these after doing 'Exercise 1 (sirens)' prepares you do continue warming up your voice.
Exercise 6:
There are a variety of catchy warm up songs such as 'Many Men' that allow you to not only work on your range and gently warm up your voice but help with diction. I have used variety of tongue twisters and more difficult sentences put together with a melody, this helps to warm up the cheek and jaw muscles. Some of which are:
'Red Lorry Yellow Lorry' - moving up in a scale ascending then descending.
'Chicken Tikka Mango Chutney and a Pint of Larger x3 Naan and Pillar Rice'
'Bumble Bee x7 Wasp' - ascending and descending scale
'All I Want is a Proper Cup of Coffee, Made in a Proper Copper Coffee Pot. Tin Coffee Pot and Iron Coffee Pot, They're No Used To Me, No Sir! If I Can't Have A Proper Cup of Coffee in a Proper Copper Coffee Pot I'll Have a Cup of Tea'
'Mini mini ma mini mini ma mini mini ma ma ma ma ma'
Another song that has been used before my group rehearsals is 'the banjo song' which goes:
'I used, to play, my old, banjo, and rest, it on, my knee. But now, the strings, are broken, and, it's no, more used, to me. I took, it to, the menders, shop, to see, what he, could do, he said, your strings, are broken, and, it's no, more used, to you'
We then add a banjo noise to the word before each comma by moving the tongue between the teeth. This means to song will be sung more like:
'I ulalalused, to plalalay, my ololold, banjololo, and relalest, it ololon, my knelelele. But nololow, the strililings, are brololoken, alaland, it's nololo, more ululused, to melele"
I find this really helps me to use the entirety of my mouth as it uses this 'banjo' replication on all of the vowel sounds, you exaggerate, which helps for the jaw, cheeks and mouth to be warmed up.
Sight Singing:
Rhythm is the most important part of sight reading. You can have the incorrect pitch but be at the correct place which is a lot easier than having the correct pitch but having the wrong rhythm as you will soon become lost. Understanding time signatures, quavers, crochets, minims and rests will help you be able to follow the music competently.
I already have a basic knowledge of sheet music and therefore my understand of rhythm is at a higher level than someone who does not play an instrument. I like to refresh and clarify my knowledge of notated rhythm by clapping out these type of notations:
I then make the rhythm more advanced by adding in semiquavers, triplets and eighth rests.
To really test myself I then play around with time signatures, this makes me use my head as I must work out the change in length each note would be.
Once you recognise a rhythm and know you can confidently replicate then you can start thinking about the melody and the notes.
Being able to read music is really helpful as I am comfortable with note names as well as the indication if they are a 'sharp' or a 'natural', this is also noted in the key signature. Knowing this will allow me to identify which notes will be pitched slightly higher or lower than what we'd usually expect.
'The Solfege System' uses the commonly know tune of 'do re mi fa so la ti do' which can be used to help enforce an ascending or descending scale. 'Do' is always placed as 'the root note' (would be C in a C major scale or A in a A major scale). By singing the solfege system from the root note you will hit every note in that scale.
The difference with songs is that the melody sung is not written in scale. To help me from jumping between notes I use solfege system by going up but between each note returning to the root note. example: Do Re Do Mi Do Fa Do So Do La Do Ti Do Do, by the end, the last jump will be an octave, the same note, but a whole scale higher.
In preparation to sight singing I would use the solfege system replacing the lyrics to songs I already know with it. This is a great way to help myself develop an understanding of music and it familiarises myself with the system. Knowing that if I have the 'root note' I'd be able to identify the other notes more confidently. It can become tricky when the key changes as this means the 'root note' also changes. Working on it a section at a time is good for practice.
When faced with the piece I would look at the sheet music and identify the key, from this I could play the root note on the piano and run the solfege scale a couple of times to get familiar with the notes that I will be singing. Then I can check the tempo and style, this will be indicated with vertical lines on the stave. There are also words in Italian that indicate pace, such as 'andante' - walking pace (90 beats per minute), 'allegro' - fast 'adagio' - slow are the most common.
When tackling a harder piece I must try to focus on keeping the pace and rhythm as correct as possible, pitching the notes is harder but easier to fix, make sure you follow the notes position on the staves, getting higher as the notes move up. Finding a point where the root note or a familiar note is sung will help you get back on track with pitching but keep the rhythm going.
'Insert Sight Singing Trial'
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