Warm-ups before singing

The Handbook

Benedikt Lorse

• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9783981796902
• eBook ISBN: 9783981796919
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Warming up before singing- a boring and tedious chore? It shouldn't be. Warming up can be fun and an important ritual in each choir rehearsal! In order to achieve a good start before rehearsing, however, every singer or choirmaster requires a good treasure of basic warm-up exercises. Warming up - the manual shows a variety of solo and polyphonic exercises and examples of diaphragmatic activation, as well as basic information on breathing techniques. An additional collection of simple canons and short songs makes the collective warm up a fun part of each rehearsal. In addition to that, a number of practical tips that go far beyond the initial phase of a choir rehearsal are provided.This book is aimed at choir directors, choir singers and soloists who want to use more than just scale exercises during rehearsals.

Why you should warm-up

W arming up before the beginning of a rehearsal has various goals; three of which should be discussed in detail. However, the meaning and the importance of the various goals vary from choir to choir and can't be described as standard.

a) Warming up as a starting ritual

Very important points in any group dynamic are rituals and routine. Especially in a choir, which often stands in a big contrast to daily routine, it is absolutely necessary to create a certain attunement. Choir rehearsals often take place in the evenings on workdays because of practical reasons. Therefore, they are usually preceded by a stressful day of work or other duties of everyday life. As an example, we could take a family man, who left home in the morning to get to his job in the company he works for, who spent the day in meetings or talking to clients, picked up his children after work, shortly discussed the holiday arrangements with his wife, and then rushed to the choir rehearsal. It is understandable that this man might need a smooth transition before having to focus for two hours straight on a possibly complicated choir performance. This often happens to many singers. Warming up covers this transition. It's all about creating that certain ambiance that helps choir members to focus on their task. Following these reflections, an effective warm-up should be organized. Start with something very calm and quiet, i.e. with breathing exercises.

Hum for a little bit and slowly increase the intensity. When the singers have reached a calm state of mind and are ready to focus on the following tasks, you can start with the actual rehearsal.

b) Warm-up to prepare

Far more often, warming up is understood as simple preparation. The voice, the vocal cords, and the entire vocal tract can be seen as a large muscle that needs to be activated slowly and gently before having to work hard. Any athlete knows, before the actual training, warming up is necessary in order to prepare the muscles, prevent injury, and get ready for the coming burden. No one would do a 100 m sprint or similar exercises without previous preparation. The same can be applied to the voice. Light, simple exercises, therefore, are well-suited to prepare the voice for the coming tasks.

c) Warming up as voice training

In literature, the voice formation function of warming up is the most described. Accordingly, in the first phase, phonation is mainly operated. Voice training means teaching vocal techniques, facts about the vocal tract, and forms of an individual choir sound. Since most people have their own intrinsic concept of voice and singing, which has crystallized over many years in everyday life, it is very costly and time-consuming to change these ideas and to shape the voice. Therefore, a lot of time is needed to produce a noticeable change in sound by voice training. Therefore, it is necessary to regularly complete units on this aspect, at best, at every rehearsal. The pho...

Table of contents

• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Why you should warm-up
• Warm-up before a performance
• Protect your voice
• What do professionals think of warming up?
• About the author
• Copyright