Warm Up Techniques

When singing it is very important to look after your voice to prevent you from losing it or damaging it. In sport you warm up to stop yourself from pulling mussels and straining yourself and this is exactly the same in singing. Most people start with some simple scales to certain vowel and continent sounds, before possible going to a fun warm up song that is usually quick and exercises the mussels around your mouth. The scales usually start at around middle C (depending on how low or high your voice is) and will go as high as you can, or are trying to go. Saying this it is very important not to try and go too high or low because that can be very damaging, know your limits. I used to go to a place where the singing instructor would make us pretend we were chewing gum as we warmed up. This make it so our mouth was flexible and ensure our pronunciation was good.

Scales

Scales are an important part of most people’s warm up, they prepare your voice without stressing it and can be fun to change the tempo and sound of. They help you explore your full range without being distracted by how high or low you are going. I have reached notes in scales that when singing (especially reading music) I have backed out of. I have found I have a range of around D3 to D5 or E5, a relatively low female range but one that can manage most of the songs I like to sing (except Disney because they always have a ridiculously high melody L). My singing teacher usually gets me to sing to sing to ooh in 3 or five steps (C – G or C, E, G) going up a semi-tone each time. This gets me well prepared for singing.

Warm-up songs

I sing with Peterborough Youth Choir and have done since I was 10. We are a choir of 100+ members of both genders age 7+. Because of our size we have 3 sections who come at different times: Juniors come from 4pm – 5:30pm; Intermediates come from 4:30pm - 5:30pm and seniors come from 5pm – 6:30pm. As I go to school very close to where we have youth choir I go all the way through from 4pm to 6:30. This means I am sometimes given some responsibilities such as teaching a song to the juniors, or warming up, so I know that it can be very difficult to keep children exited and focused, this is where, after 115 words in this paragraph, I link back to the warm-up songs. Some we use include what should we do with the drunken sailor, John Kanaka sea shanty, and King Kong. All of these songs are easy to pick up and quick to do. The last one also includes actions, another way to create an atmosphere of involvement.

This section of my blog is for the 'sharing skills' section of the arts award. To complete my arts award I need to prove that: I take part in an arts activity; be inspired by an artist or arts organisation; experience an event and share my skills. Of course the final stage is to create a portfolio of it. For my portfolio I am writing this blog and I hope this is living up to all the things that I must do!