Vocal warmups

Puzzle · 08-07-2004, 10:18 PM

I've recently started voice training, not for singing or screaming, but just for being able to sing intervals, and I was wondering if there are any warmups I should be ding to prevent damage to my voice.

thanks
-ay

shadedlife · 08-07-2004, 10:40 PM

scales

Puzzle · 08-07-2004, 10:57 PM

I'm working o those, I meant simpler things should they exist

Merkaba · 08-08-2004, 12:23 AM

go through all of your vowels. ay, ee, I, ooh, uu, and ahhh do them all at various levels and octaves. keep it in chest or head for a while. it helps warm up the edges of the cords, which is what you use in falsetto. after a few minutes move your way up to falsetto. even if you dont use it, you want to go to falsetto in your warm up. if youre going to be singing professionally. of course dont do anything with alot of push while youre warming up. or at least until youre fully warmed. alot of push is part of my warmup but i do it at the end. and do scales with each vowel, do one or two legato, i think thats what its called, you connect together without a pause in between. then do one or two staccato. which is with a pause in between. then do vowels starting with H's. hay, hee, hah, hi, ho, hu. and do crescendos and decresndos in volume. you can do that with one note. dont get into the habit of automatically crescending in volume when you do a scale going up. many people do and this can lead to breaks and bad notes. and do a gliss on a single note. gliss up and down. varyring the intensity and octave. do some starting low and go as high as you can while remaining relaxed of course, and without straining. then do some going down. oh, a gliss is where you go up or down in pitch, with one smoothe sweep, like half of a siren. And practice it while trying to maintain the same volume. you can also start off by gargling with sound and gargling scales. it reads like a lot but all of this shouldnt take you more than a few minutes. and your warm up should vary in time depending on your current condition, yesterdays work, todays work load and its time. and tomorrow's. warm up longer for a shorter gig and vice versa. if i had a twenty minute gig i would be doing what i consider warming up for an hour. you will have to find out the time you need. you can also sing songs by just using a single vowel. dont do any hard songs of course. be sure to sing from the gut support, and not your throat. and be sure to warm down. do glisses from your highest falsetto down to your lowest chest voice. do each vowel. and then end your vocal day/gig with normal push on eeee'.s do about two minutes worth. low to high, then high to low. always end with high to low glisses. then sing eees at a normal pitch. eees help your cords realign, thus helping them to heal and cut down on protective mucus.
hope this helps. check out some of my other posts around this forum.

and what exactly do you mean, youre going to be backing up or what? and vocal training on your own or with a teacher? nonetheless, nothing worse than a bad vocal regardless of the purpose. so warmup good.

Pisstory · 12-04-2004, 01:49 PM

What about some-one like me, I cant hear notes and and couldn't sing a note an octave higher or lower (i can go high or low but i woudn't know if it is an octave)

neiltrett · 01-03-2005, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pisstory

What about some-one like me, I cant hear notes and and couldn't sing a note an octave higher or lower (i can go high or low but i woudn't know if it is an octave)

if you play guitar,bass,piano,whatever,try singing the same note as the you play on the instrument.make sure your guitar is tuned to standard pitch,though,or the sung note will be sharp or flat.this kind of practice will also improve your ear at the same time,so is good for that too...

neiltrett · 01-03-2005, 11:32 AM

hey merk!you have very good advice on vocal warm ups.silvers singing 101 was really good too...

Killswitch_Kid · 02-23-2006, 03:18 PM

To Merkaba:

I didn't understand half of what you suggested. What kind of advice can you give someone on warmups who's never had lessons?

Anything would be awesome.

Merkaba · 02-23-2006, 10:27 PM

will reply later, I have to get to work. If anything, just sing some of your favorite songs with less force and no rasp. If you can start off by dropping it a full octave. Start off in chest voice. Then if you can, sing it in normal voice or mix it up and hit some notes in light falsetto while staying in harmony, and make your own trills and additions and ad libs and backgrounds while staying in a lighter voice and crossing over to low or high falsetto stuff. Do falsetto last.

Trigger_003 · 02-23-2006, 11:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merk

... and what exactly do you mean, youre going to be backing up or what? and vocal training on your own or with a teacher? nonetheless, nothing worse than a bad vocal regardless of the purpose. so warmup good.

Intervals. For pitch recognition purposes.

Puzzle: It probably doesn't matter so much if all you're doing is singing a couple of intervals for an exam or something, but hey, it's just as good to warm up for them anyway. Particularly if you're doing a lot of them for developing something like relative pitch.
Anyway, as Merk said, check out some of his other posts as well; he's done a pretty vast range of posts detailing various exercises. Most of them are listed in http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219911 which has just been bumped recently but you might've missed it otherwise.

Hodl pu · 02-26-2006, 06:59 PM

while your band tunes their instruments, i guess you can sing the same note as them. Yeah, try that I guess

scrowler · 04-14-2006, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hodl pu

while your band tunes their instruments, i guess you can sing the same note as them. Yeah, try that I guess

i would've thought that may mess up one's relative pitch, if they sing notes that may be slightly flat or sharp..

Merkaba · 04-14-2006, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scrowler

i would've thought that may mess up one's relative pitch, if they sing notes that may be slightly flat or sharp..

I would disregard that post youre looking at.

Florgan · 05-21-2006, 09:14 PM

Try to simply sing scales in varying intervals, progressively widening (ie. start with thirds, move to fourths, fifths, and so forth.)
What I mean is, for the C major scale, one would sing in ascending and descending intervals -- thus, in thirds, C E D F E G F B G A C.
As the intervals increase you would naturally span two or three octaves.

VERY IMPORTANT FOR VOCAL SAFETY: Keep your pressure stable; higher doesn't mean louder or stronger. Forced vocals not only sound like a squirrely bowel movement, they can irreparably dent your pipes. This means singing not from the throat, but from much deeper or higher in the body. This means counter-intuitively concentrating the resonating point in your lower back, sides, cheekbones, and cranium. (Some pitches make my elbows vibrate.)

knightingale87 · 07-19-2007, 06:04 AM

dear master merkaba..

i've been reading all of ur posts on how to scream/vocal tips and its damn gd. obviously u know everything. but the problem is.. i cant understand sum part of it coz i'm an ameture so i wonder, master (wahaha!!), if u cud post vid with an example of how/what to do. dat wud be perfect. what do u think eh?

08-07-2004, 10:18 PM	#1
Puzzle elzzup. Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Earth metro Posts: 6,547	Vocal warmups I've recently started voice training, not for singing or screaming, but just for being able to sing intervals, and I was wondering if there are any warmups I should be ding to prevent damage to my voice. thanks -ay

08-08-2004, 12:23 AM	#4
Merkaba Play-Dough and Rug Hair! Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: With Digger the Dermatophyte Posts: 3,964	go through all of your vowels. ay, ee, I, ooh, uu, and ahhh do them all at various levels and octaves. keep it in chest or head for a while. it helps warm up the edges of the cords, which is what you use in falsetto. after a few minutes move your way up to falsetto. even if you dont use it, you want to go to falsetto in your warm up. if youre going to be singing professionally. of course dont do anything with alot of push while youre warming up. or at least until youre fully warmed. alot of push is part of my warmup but i do it at the end. and do scales with each vowel, do one or two legato, i think thats what its called, you connect together without a pause in between. then do one or two staccato. which is with a pause in between. then do vowels starting with H's. hay, hee, hah, hi, ho, hu. and do crescendos and decresndos in volume. you can do that with one note. dont get into the habit of automatically crescending in volume when you do a scale going up. many people do and this can lead to breaks and bad notes. and do a gliss on a single note. gliss up and down. varyring the intensity and octave. do some starting low and go as high as you can while remaining relaxed of course, and without straining. then do some going down. oh, a gliss is where you go up or down in pitch, with one smoothe sweep, like half of a siren. And practice it while trying to maintain the same volume. you can also start off by gargling with sound and gargling scales. it reads like a lot but all of this shouldnt take you more than a few minutes. and your warm up should vary in time depending on your current condition, yesterdays work, todays work load and its time. and tomorrow's. warm up longer for a shorter gig and vice versa. if i had a twenty minute gig i would be doing what i consider warming up for an hour. you will have to find out the time you need. you can also sing songs by just using a single vowel. dont do any hard songs of course. be sure to sing from the gut support, and not your throat. and be sure to warm down. do glisses from your highest falsetto down to your lowest chest voice. do each vowel. and then end your vocal day/gig with normal push on eeee'.s do about two minutes worth. low to high, then high to low. always end with high to low glisses. then sing eees at a normal pitch. eees help your cords realign, thus helping them to heal and cut down on protective mucus. hope this helps. check out some of my other posts around this forum. and what exactly do you mean, youre going to be backing up or what? and vocal training on your own or with a teacher? nonetheless, nothing worse than a bad vocal regardless of the purpose. so warmup good. Last edited by Merkaba; 10-03-2004 at 10:55 PM.

07-19-2007, 06:04 AM	#15
knightingale87 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 1	Si-fu dear master merkaba.. i've been reading all of ur posts on how to scream/vocal tips and its damn gd. obviously u know everything. but the problem is.. i cant understand sum part of it coz i'm an ameture so i wonder, master (wahaha!!), if u cud post vid with an example of how/what to do. dat wud be perfect. what do u think eh?

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08-07-2004, 10:40 PM	#2
shadedlife myspace.com/shagramusic Join Date: May 2004 Location: Toronto Posts: 442	scales

08-07-2004, 10:57 PM	#3
Puzzle elzzup. Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Earth metro Posts: 6,547	I'm working o those, I meant simpler things should they exist

12-04-2004, 01:49 PM	#5
Pisstory Registered User Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: London Posts: 87	What about some-one like me, I cant hear notes and and couldn't sing a note an octave higher or lower (i can go high or low but i woudn't know if it is an octave)

01-03-2005, 11:32 AM	#7
neiltrett shaggy dawg Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: quebec canada Posts: 122	hey merk!you have very good advice on vocal warm ups.silvers singing 101 was really good too...

02-23-2006, 03:18 PM	#8
Killswitch_Kid Ipid Incarnate Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: New Hampshire Posts: 18	To Merkaba: I didn't understand half of what you suggested. What kind of advice can you give someone on warmups who's never had lessons? Anything would be awesome.

02-23-2006, 10:27 PM	#9
Merkaba Play-Dough and Rug Hair! Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: With Digger the Dermatophyte Posts: 3,964	will reply later, I have to get to work. If anything, just sing some of your favorite songs with less force and no rasp. If you can start off by dropping it a full octave. Start off in chest voice. Then if you can, sing it in normal voice or mix it up and hit some notes in light falsetto while staying in harmony, and make your own trills and additions and ad libs and backgrounds while staying in a lighter voice and crossing over to low or high falsetto stuff. Do falsetto last.

02-26-2006, 06:59 PM	#11
Hodl pu Looooonnnggggggg Things Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 273	while your band tunes their instruments, i guess you can sing the same note as them. Yeah, try that I guess

05-21-2006, 09:14 PM	#14
Florgan Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 9	Try to simply sing scales in varying intervals, progressively widening (ie. start with thirds, move to fourths, fifths, and so forth.) What I mean is, for the C major scale, one would sing in ascending and descending intervals -- thus, in thirds, C E D F E G F B G A C. As the intervals increase you would naturally span two or three octaves. VERY IMPORTANT FOR VOCAL SAFETY: Keep your pressure stable; higher doesn't mean louder or stronger. Forced vocals not only sound like a squirrely bowel movement, they can irreparably dent your pipes. This means singing not from the throat, but from much deeper or higher in the body. This means counter-intuitively concentrating the resonating point in your lower back, sides, cheekbones, and cranium. (Some pitches make my elbows vibrate.)