Most singers know they should warm up before singing — but what exactly should a warm up contain?
I’ve written before about why warm ups matter— see The singers who didn’t like warm ups (and what became of them) — but it’s worth looking more closely at what actually makes a warm up effective.
Last week I wrote about Why a warm up shouldn’t be just vocal exercises.
This week I’m going to revisit five old posts which look at warm ups in more detail. This is one of a series of summary posts around a specific topic, bringing together five relevant posts from the past.
Many of us choir leaders are constantly on the look-out for new warm up ideas.
Whenever I look on the internet, I always come across sheet music for vocalises. But these are only a small part of what a warm up should be.
I was singing along with my electric shaver the other day – as you do.
I realised that it was a great way to explore harmonising in the privacy of your own home.
I’m always looking for new ideas for the warm up start of my singing sessions.
But constant novelty is not necessarily a good thing. It can often lead to overlooking old, familiar, tried and tested exercises.
Often a singer will come up to me in a session and tell me their throat is hurting. I usually tell them to stop singing.
In this post want to look at what might cause pain or discomfort when singing and what you can do about it.
It is human nature for our heads to go up and down as we sing extreme notes.
If a note is very high, we tilt our head up to reach for it. If a note is very low, we tip our head down. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help us to reach those notes. In fact it makes things worse.
In a recent blog post, Robert Sussuma urges singers to “stop warming up, doing exercises, and practising.”
He is being a little provocative, but it has prompted me to reflect on whether singers need to warm up or not before singing.
I thought I’d share a few vocal exercises that I use to help singers tune in to a cappella harmony.
I often integrate these into the warm up sessions to get people listening more closely before we move on to learning harmony songs.
I believe that proper preparation for singing is vital.
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But sometimes I forget to explain why to singers who come to my one-off sessions. This is what I should remember to tell them.
Here in England, we’re limited to a maximum of six singers rehearsing indoors.
When restrictions are finally lifted (in three weeks we hope), many choral skills will have gone rusty over the last year or more.
