Thursday, July 29, 2010

Basic Singing Tips - Warm Up

The basic singing is made up of simple concepts. Each of these concepts takes some time to understand, implement and master. Furthermore, each singer brings with him a different set of abilities and attitudes, which when added to his training, independent research, personal style, and preference of music, affect his performance as well as the enjoyment of his audience.

In the years I have spent learning about music, I been fortunate to be around different styles of music, different ways of singing, and different ideas about how sound should be produced. Sometimes information learned through one teacher contradicted information learned through other teachers and through my own reading, so I was left with the same problem as all those who have multiple sources of information are: Reconciling conflicting views.

The benefits of warming up your voice cannot be overstated. It’s one of the most important singing tips your can ever get. Even someone who has been performing on stage for years will notice a difference if they warm up properly before stepping up before the crowd. Read on to hear our story.

It was about 45 minutes before show time. We just finished getting our outfits and hair adjusted just the way we wanted. It’s usually pretty quiet in the green room as the artists go through our lyrics and try to imagine the show ahead going great.

Ever since I started working on really improving my voice a few years ago I have always warmed up before I sing. This time instead of doing it all by myself, I decided to suggest to a couple of the other members of the group that we should do a warm up together. They replied, “No Problem.” I thought they must be humouring me.

We started off doing some light humming, making sure we didn’t reach too high. Then it was the multi-purposed “lip-rolls” or “lip bubbles” to a simple scale that started low, climbed up and octive and came back down again. Since they were new to the “lip-rolls” I went over the basics with them;

* Relax your lips.
* Pinch your cheeks as to make your lips loose.
* Add a deep “uh” sound.
* Keep your airflow even.