Vocal Warming Up

...FREELY SHARE, WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN FREELY! MT


ORDER OF THE HOLY ROSE
MARIAN SCHOOL

VOCAL WARMING UP
by Mother Ziggy Agocsi OHR

1 Standing:

Be aware of how you stand. Do all 26 bones of each foot have contact
with the ground? Are your knees slightly bent? Are your buttocks and
back relaxed? Are your shoulders hanging down relaxed? Are your
shoulders hanging down? Is your head resting comfortably on your
shoulders, and uplifted?

Now close your eyes and enjoy your breathing.

Observe, how the breath is coming in through the nose.
The little hairs inside the nose filter the air and leave out dust
and pollution.
The filtered air then streams into the sinuses, where it is warmed up
and moistened before it goes down the throat into the lungs.

Meanwhile the nerve in the brain that regulates your breathing, sends
an impulse to the diaphragm, which is the biggest muscle in your
body, which makes it descend into the abdominal area. There, it
pushes the intestines forward and to the sides. The more the
diaphragm descends the more can the chest expand and the lungs with it.

When you feel your tummy coming out and the two lowest pairs of ribs
expanding in the back, then you know that you are ready to breathe out.
This is all happening involuntarily without any additional effort on
your part.

Make sure that you are relaxed in this position, so that all your
muscles can work from alone.

2. Sitting

How much damage has the small command ‘Sit straight!’ caused to so
many people?! Sit only as straight accordingly to the S-shape of your
spine. If you are not sure, how that feels, do the following:

Make sure that your feet have complete and firm contact with the
ground. If your feet cannot reach the ground, when you sit leaned
back, just move more to the front of the chair, until you can reach it.
If you are tall, sit with your back leaning at the back of the chair.

Your legs and feet should not be further apart than your shoulders
and hips.

Relax, step by step, your legs, your thighs, your bottom, your lower
back, your upper body, shoulders, neck and arms.
Let your head rest comfortably on your neck. Make sure that your arms
are also comfortably resting on your lap.

Now close your eyes.

Put one hand on your tummy, and enjoy your breath coming in and
leaving again.

3. Facial Warming Up/Breathing Out on Consonants

Breathe out on a sharp fffff... with your lower lip having contact
with your upper front teeth as long and regularly as you can without
squeezing yourself out.

Wait for the next breath to come in.

Now breathe out on ssssss... by placing the tip of your tongue
somewhere behind the upper front-teeth at the palate.

‘Smile’ while breathing out!

Then you wait again for the next breath.
This time you breathe out on shshsh... by bringing your lips forward.

With this sound combination you have warmed up the different muscle
groups in the face and also moved other muscles in the body which are
connected also.

4. Vowel Kaleidoscope
on one tone

ah, oh, oo, ay, ee (a, o, u, e , i)

The lower the tone the more relaxed is your jaw. With the lower tones
you will feel and emanate more vibrations in the lower part of the body.

The higher you sing the more you stretch your lips sidewards, as that
is their natural movement, and the more you will feel the vibrations
also increasingly in your head and skull.

We use our whole body as our instrument, and the muscles need to be
moving effortlessly, so that the blood circulation is always working,
which supplies us with the right amount of oxygen. The sceleton is
our resonator, and the more flexible we are with our muscles the
stronger will be the vibrations in the body.

If you move all your muscles in the direction nature wants them to
move your sound will be most powerful and rich in nuances, and your
vocal folds will never ever be strained at all, no matter, whether
you sing low or high.

Start on a medium tone and sing the vowels by breaking them up into
the individual sounds. Enjoy the fascinating changes and movements of
the different muscles in the face, and their effects on the quality
of the vowels.
From e-flat you will feel the shifting of the resonance into the
head in addition to that of the chest area. Let it just happen
naturally, and your voice will not break.
You will always feel at ease and relaxed, if all muscles are doing
everything with just as much effort as is necessary.

Apply the vowels on the different shapes to a song.


5. VOICE RANGE


Take your songs through the whole area of your voice by starting
on a low key, working your way halftone-wise down with the whole
song, then start again from the key that you started in and work your
way upwards to the higher range of your voice. Remember to lower the
jaw muscles the higher and louder you want to sing, and to stretch
the lip and facial muscles sidewards the higher you are singing.
Remember also to finish each sound/word before you start the next in
order to give the sound the time to travel to the listener.
NEVER close your eyes, when you sing high in order to avoid vocal
nodules on your vocal folds. -
The range is often much bigger than we think, and the more experienced
and toned the muscles are the more they will be able to refine in their movements,
as you will find out with experience.





6. FOOD

To avoid:

Dairy products as they probably cause an increase in mucus production.
No heavy digestable foods before a concert or rehearsal. The last
light meal should be 3-4 hours before the performance.

It is best to stick to plain water all day together with the
occasional herbal tea.
If you are very tired, have a black coffee (plus water) an hour to
half an hour before the performance.



7. ENJOY!


MAKE LIFE A MINISTRY OF SONG
FOR GOD'S PRAISE,
AND SHINE IN HIS INFINITE LIGHT,
THEN IT IS ALWAYS WORTH LIVING,

AS IT MAKES YOU IN FAITH, HOPE
AND LOVE STRONG, AND WILL
OTHERS IN CHRIST'S SPIRIT RAISE!


GOD BLESS YOU!