Hey Songbirds! Your Wednesday W.O.W. is brought to you by Pillar #1: Weekly Lessons in section 2 called Warm-Ups.
So that’s our W.O.W.: “Vocal Warm-Ups”
According to the interwebs, and I would agree, the definition of a vocal warm-up is simply: A series of exercises meant to prepare the voice for singing, acting, or other use.
Before we go into a deep-dive of the definition/necessities of warm-ups, I first need to express that this section of my 10 Pillars of Successful Singing is the cornerstone of being a great singer, but sooo many singers overlook this and go straight to song practice. #guiltyascharged
I did this, too… till I began to work with an incredible vocal technician and realized the error of my ways.
It really wasn’t my fault; I was just misguided by previous teachers who excitedly pushed me too soon into opera rep before I was vocally ready for it, and they didn’t take the necessary steps with exercises I needed to develop my voice faster.
This caused a disconnect between my mind and my voice. It also wasted a lot of time, money, and emotional energy; I was left frustrated often, and felt like I wanted to quit a hundred times.
I didn’t understand breath control or technique specific to the rep. I just sang songs I was told to sing. YIKES! Thank goodness I discovered yoga around the same time I started singing lessons; I otherwise would have been greatly held back with my understanding of the breath and the voice.
But, I finally found the right voice teacher who taught me solid technique, and my vocal development grew exponentially. I was excited to practice every day because I could see massive strides in my vocal strength, stamina, and flexibility. It was liberating and empowering!
As you develop your daily practice, you’ll see significant changes not only in your physical voice but also in your mind-body connection and how quickly your brain adjusts to muscle memory. With a regular warm-up practice you will hone your technique in each way possible: the shape of the mouth for correct vowel & consonant placement, posture and alignment, strengthening the lungs, muscles, and diaphragm, relaxing the jaw and facial muscles, where certain sounds resonated, etc.
As your muscle memory improves, the easier it will become to integrate all of these techniques directly into the text/lyrics of the song without having to think about every single pitch/consonant/vowel/dynamic/expression. It’ll feel like it “magically” happens.
After years of solid near-daily practice, you may find you need those warm-ups less and less because your mind-body has fully integrated the technique.
Today, the most I do for my warm-up practice are the Heritage Exercises for stamina and strength training every other day, breathwork / alignment / focus / yoga posture exercises, and if there is a specific technique I need to polish because it’s called for in my repertoire.
I can rely on my very dependable muscle memory, but this took me a decade to get to that point.
Which is why I still consider Warm-Ups the cornerstone of successful singing.
So let’s get down to it and why it’s so important:
Vocal warm-ups are intended to accomplish five things:
1) A physical, whole-body warm-up
2) Preparing the breath
3) Preparing the articulators and resonators
4) Moving from the spoken register to the singing register (or an extension of the spoken register for actors and public speakers)
5) Preparing for the material that is going to be rehearsed and/or performed
1) A physical, whole-body warm-up
Physical whole-body warm-ups help prepare a singer’s body in myriad ways. Muscles all over the body are used when singing, which is why we technicians stress that the entire body is the voice.
Stretching helps to activate and prepare the large muscle groups that take care of balance and posture, and the smaller muscle groups that are directly involved with breathing and facial articulation.
Stretches of the abdomen, back, neck, and shoulders are important to avoid tension, which influences the sound of the voice through constriction of the larynx and/or breathing muscles. Actors (including opera singers and musical theatre performers) may need to do a more comprehensive physical warm-up if their role is physically demanding.
2) Preparing the breath
Preparing the breath involves stretching the many muscles involved with respiration, but also for preparing them to sustain exhalation during long singing/speaking passages.
Specific training of the respiratory muscles is required for singers to take very quick deep breath and sustain their exhalation over many bars of music. A good vocal warm-up should include exercises such as square breathing, panting, or puffing air, which is used to engage in the intercostal muscles.
3) Preparing the articulators and resonators
Vocal articulation is controlled by a variety of tissues, muscles, and structures (places of articulation), but can be understood as the effects of the lips, the teeth, and the tip of the tongue. Untrained singers also try and use the jaw for articulation, which creates unnecessary tension in the facial muscles and tongue.
A good vocal warm up will relax the jaw while activating the lips and tongue in a variety of exercises to stretch the muscles and prepare for the more defined vocal articulation that is required when singing or acting.
Resonators are the hard and soft surfaces within the oral cavity that affect the sound waves produced during phonation. Hard surfaces, such as the hard palate, cannot be controlled by the singer, but soft surfaces, such as the soft palate, can be trained to change the timbre of the sound. A vocal warm up should include exercises which direct sound towards these hard and soft surfaces – these exercises can help singers/actors be aware of lifting the soft palate, which can create a darker, richer timbre when singing.
4) Moving from the spoken register to the singing register
Changing pitch stretches the vocal muscles and singing or (projecting the voice for acting) requires a more strenuous use of these muscles. A good vocal warm-up should move the singer/actor from the spoken register (small pitch range (“the comfort zone”), small dynamic range, and colloquial diction into the singing register (large pitch range, large dynamic range, and diction specific to the demands of the role or piece). This is often the largest and most complex part of the vocal warm-up, and requires a multitude of exercises.
These exercises also provide voice training, and are sometimes called vocalises. These activities teach breath control, diction, blending, and balance. A vocalise is a vocal exercise (often one suitable for performance) without words, which is sung on one or more vowel sounds.
5) Preparing for the material that is going to be rehearsed and/or performed
Finally, a good vocal warm-up should prepare the specific material that is going to be rehearsed or performed (usually a vocal warm-up is a precursor to either rehearsal or performance). This could be as simple as doing some exercises in the key that is to be sung, or with the accent that an actor must use for their role. Certain difficult passages of the repertoire might be broken down and used as an exercise, and any language requirements must be prepared (if the performer is singing in their non-native language, they will want to do exercises to prepare for the sounds and shapes which are required in that language).
Beyond Lessons:
When a vocal warm-up is led by a director (either musical, choral, or theatrical), it also provides an important opportunity to assess the vocal abilities of the singers/actors without the distraction of the repertoire and to specifically train areas of weakness.
Unfortunately for some, their director may be the only voice teacher they ever work with, so the vocal warm-up is the only time where they receive specific training for the muscles required by their craft.
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