Warmup

Once again before you begin a lesson, you should warm up your voice. Remember the comparison to an athlete warming up the muscles he or she would use in a particular sport. For a singer not to warm up the muscles he or she will use is to ask for trouble!

Exercise #1. Start with a gentle hum movng up and down the first three notes of a major scale starting on middle C. Do the same thing starting one half-step higher. Repeat the pattern moving up by half steps (chromatically) for about an octave. Listen to the audio example, sing along with it, and then use the accompaniment and try the exercise yourself. Listen

Exercise #2. Still as a warmup, do the same exercise on the syllable "noh." Repeat the pattern starting around middle C and moving up chromatically each time for about an octave. Listen

Exercise #3. Let's add the lip trill as an excellent warmup. (You will remember the lip trill from Lesson One.) Starting on middle C, let's lip trill up and down a fifth sliding (glissando) both ways. You can move up chromatically as far as it is comfortable for you, and then return chromatically to middle C. Listen

*Simple exercises like these will serve to warm up the voice. I recommend that you do these for 10 - 15 minutes. Be sure to breathe properly between each repetition of an exercise.


The Lesson

Exercise #4. Now let us move on to another exercise. We are going to start on the fifth note (dominant) of the scale and step down through the notes of the major scale to the first note (tonic) of the scale. I want you to sing using a very forward placed "Yah" on each note of the descending scale. Once again, listen to the example and use the accompaniment for this exercise. Be sure to think the sound very forward. Do this for about an octave starting on the G above middle C. Listen
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