Vocal Exercises: Tuesday 9th September 2014: Warm Up (Physically)

Tuesday 9th September 2014

Warm Up (Physically)

Although it may not be too obvious, warming up physically is an important first step when preparing yourself for singing and not just performing vocal warm ups. Warming up your body can help you relax and feel more prepared to sing whether that be in class or for a performance. 

Everything does come down to personal preference on what works for YOU. I aim to loosen up my muscles and get rid of any tension during my physical warm up. We want the blood flowing round the body and allocating yourself a set number of physical warm ups will help you to prepare for any type of performance. 

If you're in a position where you're full of tension because you're performing for the first time or at an audition, a physical warm up will help you release tension and then your voice won't sound shaky or scared... You want to sing to the best of your ability and release tension in able to do so! 

My Physical Warm Up:

• Rolling the head four times from left to right, stretch out the neck and then repeat:
• This helps me to level my head and release any tension which I may have in my head and/or neck. Repeating the exercise allows me to ensure that I am relaxed and warms up my body slowly but effectively. 
• Stretching my arms in front of me and then stretching them over my head and then bringing them down to my sides:
• Again, I feel like I have a lot of tension in my arms and to sing confidently I want my arms to feel loose and move freely if needed. 
• I then roll my head down to the floor, touch the floor and roll back up, bringing my head up last:
• This warms up my body but also prepares my body to be more stacked and have a strong stable posture when singing. Posture is important in singing and performing this exercise helps that! 
• A few hip rotations to the sides and back:
• Just to stretch out my hips and further release any tension I may hold but also to keep a stacked and stable posture. 
• Stretching out the legs by bending the knees and holding the ankles:
• When I get nervous my legs shake, I want to appear confident so releasing tension from my legs allows me to look strong and confident! 
• Ankle rotations: 
• Just to ensure that I am keeping a stable body. 
• A WHOLE BODY WIGGLE!!! 
• Builds up my energy and is a little bit of a silly-fun thing to do to release any evil tension that may be lurking. 

After performing my body warm up I then warm up my facial muscles...

• Massaging the cheeks with four fingers on each side:
• This stretches my cheeks and slowly warms them up, enabling more movement to occur but also relaxes the face.
• Massaging the rest of the face with four fingers on each side whilst jogging:
• This really helps keep the energy up and gets the blood running through the body whilst developing the massaging warm up. You want your whole face to relax and be ready to stretch and move when you sing! 
• Sticking your tongue out and rotating it:
• Although, a little bit embarrassing, it really helps to stretch our your tongue for more articulated pronunciation of words. The tongue is a muscle and needs to be stretched as you could strain it if it is not warmed up properly. 
• Various exaggerated expressions (e.g. happy, sad, shocked):
• A fun and rather silly way of using all the muscles in your face and warming them up. 
• Chewing invisible gum: 
• This is quite an intense work out in your mouth so I save this for last to slowly and gradually warm up without starting too intense. The mouth and tongue are stretched into all kinds of positions which is great as you're covering everything!

I hope you enjoyed this post on warming up physically as part of preparing to sing. I think warming up your body can be easily forgotten about but it helps to release so much tension which is incredibly important in a class or performance because it allows you to perform at your full potential. 

Good Luck, 

Somer x

Next we will look at warming up the voice