Why and How Should You Warm-up for Singing? What Should You Get from Vocalising?

    
Hopefully, you are studying with a professional vocal teacher and here is what you should be getting from those lessons.  If you are not constantly working on any of these, you should definitely speak to him or her and ensure that each of these components is a regular part of your warm-up activities.  Areas Vocal Exercises SHOULD include are:

·      Warm-up your BODY, including the abdomen and pelvic floor; facial muscles, including the mouth, jaw, cheeks, eyes; the shoulders; the back; and even the hands.
·      Work on breathing and connecting breathing with your singing.  Learn to control breath, especially the exhale for phrasing, pitch, and tonal control
·      Begin warming the voice in its lower registers to increase blood flow to the area and make it easier to warm higher registers.
·      Learn to access and utilize all resonators, and warm-up using each.
·      Work all areas from the lower chest voice to the highest note of the head voice.
·      Work to increase your range both lower and higher
·      Take time to understand what you are doing, why you are doing it in that way, how you might improve your skills, and how to accomplish those improvements.
·      Make note of any suggestions your teacher has and make certain to understand any specific details he or she shares with you.
·      Work on exercises to connect the chest and head voices, so that the voice becomes not separated into separate registers but one solid, consistent, smooth voice from bottom through the top.
·      Sing exercises, which connect all the vocal registers and allow the voice to easily traverse its entire range with ease and consistency.
·      Instruction in specific areas of challenge for you, whether that means an issue of pitch, nerves, or song choice.

Areas to AVOID during your lessons:
·      Anything that cause vocal fatigue or strain on the voice or throat
·      Any exercises that cause stress, anxiety, or tension in the throat or that do not successfully connect the breath with singing
·      Redness in the face; veins pulsing in the forehead; lifting of the chin in an “attempt” to reach any given note
·      Tension in the shoulders, face, chest, or, of course, the throat

Any lesson that includes all of these matters should be considered successful and productive.  Please feel free to comment below or leave questions, or contact me at my website, SingitForward.net.  Happy Singing!

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