Choral Warm-ups Handout - Myself and Emily Wright

Choral Warm-ups (Evan Harte & Emily Wright)

• Physical: (face-lift exercise)
  
  “Eyebrow situps” - This involves fully raising the eyebrows, relaxing them, and repeating continuously to create awareness of the extent of the eyebrows. Next, hold eyebrows in a fully raised position.
  
  “Lower jaw extension” – Keeping the jaw extended low used in conjunction with raised eyebrows while singing helps the performer communicate to the audience and makes the face look more pleasant.
  
  “Silent cheering” - Since shouting is bad for the voice, use silent cheering of letters of choice to practice this “pleasant face”.

• Breathing: (breath pulse)
  
  First off, take a deep breath. In staggered “sips”, let this breath out slowly while repeating the syllable “ch” (note: the entire breath should take about 10-15 seconds to release; the time interval between each “ch” sound should be quite short).
  
  Try rhythms on this syllable (“ch”): ta, ti-ti, ta, ta, etc.
  
  
  
  
• Diction: (forward tongue/tuned continuants)
  
  Place the tip of the tongue directly behind the teeth and say “oo, oh, ah, ae, ee” (note: remember to keep space in the jaw/mouth for resonance).
  
  To work on sustaining and emphasizing the consonances “m” & “n”:
  Say, “moo, mo, ma, mae, mee” ; then sing it on a single pitch
  Say, “noo, no, na, nae, nee” ; then sing it on a single pitch
  
  Sing the word “Amen” on a single pitch. Hold the “Ah” syllable first. Then move to the “Mmm” sound, holding at length. And finish by saying “men” but holding the “Nnn” sound at length.

• Resonance:
  
  Sing “do, re, do, ti, do” on syllables “oo, oh, ah, ae, ee”. Repeat with different starting pitches.
  With this exercise, one is looking for breath energy and for sound projection.
  (note: the extension of the lower jaw helps support this idea of sound projection)

• Flexibility: (broken triads up to an octave in range)
  
  (note: sing the following on “ah” ; solfege used to indicate intervals ; start on a comfortable pitch in mid-range)
  
  Sing the following triad arpeggios: do, sol, me, sol (x2)
  
  Once comfortable, add this to the above exercise: do, la, fa, la (x2)
  
  Then, combine the above two exercises with: do, ti, sol, ti (x2)
  
  Then, end on do just above ti in the last arpeggio. Repeat this vocal flexibility exercise on different starting pitches (recommended: C4, D4, E4)