Voice Warm-ups
I find the voice works best when it has a chance to loosen and ease into a lot of singing, which is not the same thing as working on singing technique. For me, warm-ups should be just that, something to warm-up with. Start simply, focusing on the easy release of breath through an open and “relaxed” throat and face. I love just letting my jaw and mouth hang open, keeping my tongue just resting behind the back of the bottom teeth, and letting out a breathy, almost hazy sound as a way to introduce phonation to the vocal folds without involving unnecessary muscle tension, or “making my voice work.” This allows you to focus on just releasing your breath evenly, and consistently, without worrying about pitch, jaw tension, tongue tension etc. Warm-ups should be about starting off feeling easy and feeling good, focusing on just accomplishing one thing, like fully releasing your face muscles.
Once your voice has a chance to make some vibrations in a really relaxed setting, then it’s time to work on technique. Technique is the foundation of making your instrument work efficiently and healthily while actually singing. This can be anything from working on vowel shapes and practicing tongue positions, to vocal range extension, to getting your breath to fully release into a properly shaped vowel and creating a larger resonant sound. The key difference from a warm-up being that your folds and various muscles are now intentionally working on creating and refining your “full sound.”
Regardless of what kind of singing you are going to do, having some understanding of how your voice will function, and how to make it work is incredibly important. The voice is a truly unique instrument in the sense that it exists as a physical part of us. There aren’t keys to press, or finger-holes to cover, it all happens from inside your body, and it really is your whole body that works together to create your singing voice. The more aware you are of the different parts of your voice you can be, the easier your singing will become.
DISCLAIMER
I am not a medical doctor. These posts are all anecdotal, based on experiences through my own learning, understanding and teaching. My musical knowledge is based primarily in the Western classical tradition, which by no means defines the only perspective to learn and understand music.
