Do you warm up your voice before your performance or worship service? Whether I’m leading worship, doing live or studio background vocals, or performing my own material, I try to always get some warm-ups in.
Why? Your voice is made up of muscle. We could easily compare using your voice to an exercise workout. You want to warm up your voice to prepare it for more strenuous work. You can cause damage and strain to your voice by exercising it without warming it up, and preparing it for what’s to come!
When I need a quick warm-up I lean towards double duty ones that warm up more than one thing at a time. These two warm ups focus on the 1) voice and 2) diaphragm.
The Webster’s medical definition of diaphragm is “a large flat muscle that separates the lungs from the stomach area and that is used in breathing.” Yes BREATHING. We have to pay attention to what is supporting our voices when we sing! The way you breathe while singing effects the way you sing.
WARM UP #1
I really like to warm up my diaphragm because it often doesn’t get a lot of attention, unless I’m singing hard and high. This warm-up helps me remember where my diaphragm is. It’s done on the 5 note scale. Each time you sing through it, you modulate a half step. I broke it down by number to explain how it goes:
“Haaa ha-ha-ha-ha haaa”
1 – Sing up the scale with “haaa” on notes 1, 2, 3 and 4
2 – Sing “ha-ha-ha-ha” on the top note – 5
3 – Sing down the scale starting on note 5 with “haaa”
Repeat by modulating up the scale
The sound: The sound you make is not like a laughing “ha!” The mouth should be more elongated, and it should be round and wide inside. Your tongue should be pushed down behind your teeth. It feels funny at first, but it really helps to open you up quickly!
While doing this warm-up really focus on pushing the notes out through the diaphragm, and not your throat.
WARM UP #2
A simple variation of the aforementioned warm warm up is this:
“Ha-ha-ha-ha-haaa”
You do this entire line on the same note, and you go up as high as you like on each modulated note of the scale.
I hope this helps to remind you of the importance of warming up, or maybe gives you new ideas.
It’s so important that we as singers do not skip this step, because it’s our way of showing love to our voices.
What are your favorite warm ups? Please share!
“Diaphragm.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 11 Sept. 2013.