Best Voice Warm Up Tips for Singers

by CYV Industries Online Marketing Consultancy

As a professional singer, you may have experienced moments when you feel like the control you have over your voice has disappeared. Proper voice warm ups are an essential part to decreasing the likelihood of such issues. Each singer should be aware of several warm up essentials. Here are three of the most important ones.

1. It is NOT All about Breathing

Having control over your air flow will also keep you in control of your voice. This is only one of the most important voice training for singing rules, it is not however the be all and end all of singing and is sometimes well over prescribed. Air flow contributes to how you speak and how you sing. You need to have breathing awareness at all times and awareness that you are in control over it.

There are several simple exercises you can use to build on the control of your breathing. You will need a regular tissue to do one of the exercises.

a) Pinch the edge of the tissue between your fingers and hold it in front of your mouth.

b) Breathe out, trying to get all of the air you have out of your lungs.

c) Once you do that, breathe in and breathe out very gently.

d) Try to do it without moving the tissue.

e) Now try section b) using an exercise scale or phrase of your choice then try the same again but this time with section c) and monitor the differences you experience. Then try the tissue exercise again using c) but this time, time yourself to see how long you can maintain your breath as you gently exhale.

This is one way to learn how to control your breathing during voice warm ups.

2. Learn to Control Your Vocal Cords

The vocal folds or vocal cords, as they are commonly known, play an equally important role in singing. Learning how to control them is an important part of proper voice training for singing.

The vocal folds work when air passes through them. The air is naturally pushed up by the diaphragm and as it leaves the body, it engages with the vocal folds. Good tension or good compression of the vocal cords is crucially important for singing.

Professional singers have the ability to increase or decrease the vocal cord tension, depending on the outcome or effect they are looking to create. This ability will immediately translate into higher quality of tones.

3. Control over Your Mouth

Finally, you should learn to have full control over your mouth. Your Natural resonator, just like a hi-fi stereo speaker, helps resonate, amplify & boost sound waves. This is another essential of professional singing. You control the sounds and the tones, you control the manner in which consonants and vowels are pronounced and produced.

You can choose whether to pronounce wide or narrow vowels. Full control and vowel tuning will help you produce a particular tone and it will seem effortless when it’s tuned right. Through proper voice training you will learn how to do that consciously and once you’ve mastered the technique, even subconsciously.

Voice Warm Up Myths

Many singers and beginners in the niche believe in a range of voice warm up myths, which only stand in the way.

One of these myths focuses on the control over the diaphragm. As a semi-involuntary muscle, the diaphragm will never be 100 per cent under your control. The only thing you can do to affect its functioning is to hold your breath. If that continues too long, however, the diaphragm will “take over” and force you to start breathing once again.

If you are just getting started with professional singing, you need to master the basics of proper voice warm ups. A voice coach can help you learn how to control your breathing and the compression of your vocal cords. Mastering the three basics mentioned in this article will result in well-controlled, well-performed and dynamic singing – something that every music professional is trying to achieve.

Author:

Joshua Alamu is Director of the “Mad About The Voice” vocal academy and a professional voice coach with over 10 years’ experience as a singing teacher within the music and television industry. He was also the voice coach for the BBC’s talent show, “The Voice UK” - series 1 and 2.

Please visit: http://www.madaboutthevoice.com/