Singing is a much-loved creative interest of many men and women all over the world. People are uplifted, calmed and entertained each day when they listen to music on CDs, mp3s, the radio and more recently, on the internet. It can be even more wonderful and empowering to attend a vocal or choral performance, wherein the members of the audience are enthralled by the sounds of delightful vocal talent, accompanied by harmoniously tuned instruments.
With expert singers as your inspiration, you have made the decision that you wish to improve your voice by investing some time in vocal lessons for beginners. Your experienced singing coach advises you to rehearse your singing at home, starting with a comprehensive vocal warm up. It is important to warm up your voice in order to maintain excellent vocal health, as this builds a strong voice for singing and can help prevent injury to your vocal chords.
The following steps given below will enable to warm up your voice properly:-
It is best to initiate your vocal warm up by singing the lowest notes to start with. Prior to singing the complete musical scale, you should gradually ease your voice into singing. For instance, sing “doh, re, mi, re, doh.” Ahead of singing larger intervals (skipping between five or so notes), sing smaller intervals, such as thirds, such as, “doh, mi, doh.”
At this point you should be prepared to start singing the complete musical scale. Sing a major scale by using the names of the solfege notes – doh, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, doh – this can be done as you play your keyboard or piano. Sing all the way through the ascending scale and then all the way back down the descending scale a few times. Now you can start singing the scale in some different keys.
Singing a “major arpeggio” scale is also a good exercise for your vocal warm up. This scale is consists of the principal chord notes taken from the major scale: “doh, mi, sol, (high doh), sol, mi doh.”
Yet another singing exercise requires singing both the major and major arpeggio scales, commencing with the top note and finishing with the bottom note (doh).
You can also warm up by humming. It takes practise to learn how to hum notes, so it is best start with a straightforward exercise, for example humming small scales, each consisting of three notes within a scale of five notes, i.e. hum “doh mi sol mi doh” a few times, beginning with the lower notes, then repeat the process with some higher notes. Humming notes in the correct pitch will assist you with warming up your “singing muscles” – your vocal chords.
It is of great importance to warm up the muscles in your face, which are all used in correct articulation and pronunciation of song lyrics. The muscles that you use to speak and sing comprise the jaw, tongue, lips and soft palate. You should warm up these groups of muscles by performing tongue twisters. These will help you to warm up your voice properly and rehearse proper breathing techniques. An example would be, “Suzie sells seashells by the seashore. The shells Suzie sells are surely seashells. So if Suzie sells shells on the seashore, I’m sure Suzie sells seashore shells.”
Make sure that you keep your vocal chords and your body sufficiently hydrated during your warm up exercises and singing practice. Also, you can help to improve your breathing and posture by taking part in a complimentary activity such as Pilates or yoga.
Source by Jemma Wilson