how to warm up your voice in the morning: so your voice is ready for Singing

Ok so let’s take a look at “how to warm up your voice in the morning”.

Really we should call this the pre-warm up that you do before a warm up as…

There are really 2 types of warm up you do (or should do).

The one that we are about to look at and a more general vocal warm up that you would do to prepare your voice for if you are about to sing, or do a vocal work out.

So this warm up is the warm up you would do the second you get out of bed or around the first couple of hours after getting out of bed…

Then you would go onto the general vocal warm up as your voice would be warmed up from talking already (that is assuming you have been talking already and not being antisocial today).

So before I give you an example of a great warm up to do in the morning let’s take a look at what makes a great morning vocal warm up.

How to warm up your voice in the morning: In easy steps:

1)So this pre warm up should start with the body first…

Specifically the breathing, we need to wake up the breathing as this supports the vocal folds in creating sound so if we wake up your breathing first you take a lot of the work off the vocal folds(the guys that actually make the sound).

Just like how you like to take it easy and gently ease into the day physically your vocal folds should be treated the same way and waking up the breathing first will do this for them.

2) Next, you want to stretch out your articulators…

So that would be your tongue, jaw, soft palate, facial muscles…

You probably recognize some of these as you use these already when you speak.

The articulators shape the vowels and the consonant that make up the words that we speak and sing with, so it makes sense to wake them up as they like any muscle in the body work better once warmed up, quicker responding articulators mean you can sing the words in a freer more response way this then has a positive effect on your open throat and reduces tension that would normally then travel into the vocal folds creating a tenser tone.

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3) you then want to warm up your vocal folds

The vocal folds are the little guys that are responsible for making the sound we sing with…

You can’t touch the vocal folds or even see them directly but you can feel them work by putting your fingers on the pointy out bit of your voice box (the larynx) and saying sssszzzzsssszzzzssszzzz as you do this you will notice that the feeling under your fingers on the zzzz feels buzzy and when you alternate to the sss there is no buzz under the fingers. When you feel the buzz under the fingers then you are feeling the action of the vocal folds vibrating, this vibration is what creates sound in a process called phonation)…

WWOOOWWW! That’s a lot of stuff going on there…

I could go right off on one about all this (as I am a vocal nerd after all) but that’s of no help to you at this point in time so back to the elements that you need for a great pre vocal warm up that you would do first thing in the morning.

4) maximise your resonance for an effortless projected voice

Finally after all that you also need to make sure that you are resonating correctly, as resonance is the amplifier of your voice, so it makes the difference between you having to work hard to be heard (which often leads to pushing and fatiguing your voice) or talking and singing effortlessly.

The areas that we use as resonators for singing are the throat space (your primary and biggest resonator)…

And your oral cavity (that’s your mouth space)…

Some singers also use the nasal cavity too…

(I personally don’t as I like the cleaner sound but this is totally down to taste, the best thing to do here just tries it and see what you like more let me know in the comments below if you would like me to go over this for you).

Here I am demonstrating the difference between a cleaner sound and a more nasal sound.

So those are the main areas you need to work on, well actually there is one more…

5)Well actually there is one more but I might lose some of you here…

Some of you are going to go “ oh great, please don’t tell me we are going down that meditation road crap! Dyl”…

Unfortunately, if you are thinking like this in my experience any way you are the one that will benefit from it the must and unfortunately find it the hardest…

I see this over and over, students that struggle to relax and are all tense sing with a tense sound too…

Think of it like this when someone is stressed out, you can hear it in their voice, right? Well, it’s exactly the same when you sing and you will stress the audience out too!

At this point the most beneficial thing they could do is just calm themselves with some breathing and meditation and boy oh boy do i get some funny looks…I’ve tried all that rubbish before Dyl and it doesn’t work…

You see the thing is it doesn’t work because you actually need it often they will say it takes to long or they get impatient with it or bored…

Meditation when you do it correctly anyway… is an experience where time just disappears…

I have been known to lose myself for an hour at a time, totally surprised that I was gone for an hour as it felt like just minutes!

So try it again and give it time it will really help your singing and that’s a tip you can take to the bank!

How do you do this meditation thing then?

Well, you would start by sitting down on the floor cross-legged( stick with me)…

And just focus on your breathing…

Notice the inhale and the exhale, notice the rhythm of your breathing but do nothing to it.

All the elements that I have spoken about just focus your mind in each one (like a mind spotlight) as you calmly breathe in and out just move through each one…

Just notice how they feel…

Do they feel tight, tense or loose and flabby?

Just this simple act will really improve your awareness of your singing and help to maximize your warm up and it helps to chill your mind out for the day giving you better focus which is what we need if we want to do a great morning vocal warm up.

Think of this morning vocal warm up as you just have a morning stretch and no more than that…

You are just checking in with your body to see how everything is feeling and just giving it that little wake-up and that is it…

Also, your voice needs to be constantly fine-tuned otherwise it loses its balance and your singing starts to lose its edge (just like a guitar and the tuning pegs, you need to tune up your guitar everytime you pick it up, just like you should with your singing voice).

What I read in one of my old Bel Canto Books (old school singing technique book)

I remember reading…

About a famous classical singer who wrote…

If I miss one day of practice I will notice it in my voice…

I miss two days of practice then the critics notice it…

And If I miss 3 days of practice then the audience notice it!

I think I can rest my case there…

Onto the exercise then…

How to warm up your singing voice in the morning exercise

The first step was to wake up the breathing remember, and we can do this with the pulsing ss exercise:

1. Can you say socks? Good now say it again and hold the s so instead of socks its ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
2. Now think the word socks start to say it and hold the ssssssssss as before now start to slowly go loader and quieter
3. Now do the pulsing SS quickly ( it should sound like a train)
4. Do this for 3 to 4 minutes and then talk a little… you should notice if you’ve done the exercise correctly that your voice feels a little lighter, more projected.

The second step is going to warm up the articulators ready for fast, efficient clear singing of words:

1. Say the word “WOW!” as if you were going to say waw that was really cool man! (hey I am a musician and that’s how we talk…well I do anyway).
2. No, exaggerate it so on the www make your mouth very small and round like a little OO shape that you would make if you were about to blow something
3. Then go to the AA sound (that is the O in WOW) and make your mouth as wide and surprised as you possibly can.
4. Alternate between these to shapes over and over for 1 minute, so you would go WOWOWOWOWOWOW for the Minute.

A little tip here for you…If you want to keep your friends then best not to do this in front of them as you look like an absolute nutter doing this exercise!

The third step is to do a descending slide, this exercise works the vocal folds, the resonance and you can also work on calming your mind to this:

1)start with the SS like in the first step.

2) then move to an NG sound as in the word sing (practice saying the word sing and holding in the NG before you move on).

3) now go back to the SS.

So what you should have now is SSSNGSSS

4) now start on a comfortable note in your range and then slide down to a comfortable note lower in your range (it is crucial that you do not start too high or too low and that you are constantly listening to what your throat is trying to tell you. If it feels to tight at the bottom or the top then the range is too big at that moment reduce the range and wait for the notes to become easy before you move onto a bigger range.

5)I would then once I have opened up my range to about half of my range do sirens (a siren is a combination of a descending slide and an ascending slide).

I demonstrate a siren here.

So there you have a great warm up to do first thing in the morning, oh and as I am doing this over and over mentally I work on releasing into the sound.

OK so give it a go for a couple of days then report back and let me know what you thought of this exercise…

Or have you got an exercise that you do that is better than this one? If you do I would love to know, leave a comment below and share it with is all. Oh, and if you leave a comment I will send you some free scales as I thank you, just for letting me know.

OK so that was how to warm up your voice in the morning (and it is no longer morning as I am finished this blog, due to my slow typing)…

This is vocal coach Dylan…Don’t forget to Sub to my newsletter to get some cool tips on singing!

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