1) Warming Up The BODY and FACE (“Relax” “Be Expressive”)

• Staccato verbalizing (Shh-Shh-Shh-Shh-Shh-SHHHHHH) • Legato verbalizing (long SSS) • Panting like a dog/sipping through a straw • Establish kinesthetic feedback by placing hands on stomach, sides and back Staccato and Legato Breathing Exercises:

Questions:

“Where in the body is the air pushing?” “What muscles are you using?” “How do the muscles work differently from staccato to legato singing?”

2) Warming Up The BREATH (“Breath Low”)

• “Attention seeking” exercises (“Simon Says” Mirrored body movements) • Stretches, rolling shoulders, neck relaxation, bending at the waist • Massage yourself and your partner’s shoulders • Deep breathing or relaxing sips and sighs, both stacatto and legato • Massage face, smack lips, kisses to warm up the lip muscles • Echo extreme sounds; “high sighs” “deep lows” “cartoon voice” “scary voice • Copy extreme facial expressions with spoken words; “excited face” “angry face” “shy face” • Establish the accepted universal “singing position” by the end of the body warm up Questions: “why do we relax the body?” “How do you feel when you are relaxed?” “What specific areas need to be relaxed when you sing?”

Warm Up Routine for Young Voices

ALWAYS start young singers with DESCENDING exercises first.

• Sip and sigh to find a high note or do a police siren sound. NOTE: it is VITAL that young men start using their falsetto voice and sigh down to a common tone, (A above middle C is a good starting note). It seems to “unlock” pitch matching.

• Sing descending fifth scales down from that note (SO-FA-MI-RE-DO) to the vowel OO

(The consonant “Z” allows the students to use their articulators; the consonant “M” allows them to place the sound with correct resonance)

• Next sip and sigh but change the vowel to OH and sing (SO-FA-MI-RE-DO-RE-MI-FA-SO),

descending/ascending 5ths to change it up. Don’t be afraid to expand the range really low as that expands the higher range too, especially if they don’t use their chest voice.

• Sing descending arpeggios that really exaggerate the vocal range. First lower the key by semi-

tones, then ascend in key by semi-tones, while still using descending arpeggios. • Finally they are ready for ascending exercises like “Where are you going today/tonight?” and

“Deebeedee Loh”, make sure you expand the range up as far as you can.

NOTE: we do not do sing ascending exercises until the END of the warm-up to encourage good head tone.

Questions: “How do your lips make a good OO vowel?” “What does your mouth do to make a good OH vowel?” “What does is feel like to open the inside of the mouth to a dome shape?” “How does it change your sound?”

3) Warming Up The VOICE (“Vowels and Placement”)