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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
Build your voice up--and bring the house down! Some people are born with naturally beautiful voices, but even the best can get better by applying training that can make a performance truly soar. Singing Exercises For Dummies shows you how to do just that. Following the drills and exercises found both in the book and online examples, you'll be able to refine your technique; develop consistency, power, and endurance; and increase your vocal range so you can achieve a voice that stands out from (and always wows) the crowd! Professional singing coach and respected performer Pamelia S. Phillips is your friendly tutor and guide, starting you out with warm-ups and instructions on correct posture before leading you melodically through the intricacies of scales, chords, rhythm, pitch, tone, and much, much more. * Advance your technique and control * Work out your range * Harmonize with others * Practice like a pro Whether you're studying under a tutor or are working to your own plan, Singing Exercises For Dummies will have you quickly scaling up the ladder to vocal perfection--and even more! P.S. If you think this book seems familiar, you''re probably right. The Dummies team updated the cover and design to give the book a fresh feel, but the content is the same as the previous release of Singing Exercises For Dummies (9781118281086). The book you see here should'n't be considered a new or updated product. But if you''re in the mood to learn something new, check out some of our other books. We''re always writing about new topics!
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Singing Exercises For Dummies®
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
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Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020939432
ISBN 978-1-119-70104-0 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-70103-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-70105-7 (ebk)
Singing Exercises For Dummies®
To view this book's Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Singing Exercises For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.
Table of Contents
Cover
Introduction
About This Book
Conventions Used in This Book
What You’re Not to Read
Foolish Assumptions
How This Book Is Organized
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1: Preparing Your Body for Practicing
Chapter 1: Warming Up for Singing
Preparing Your Instrument: Stretching Out from Head to Toe
Opening and Positioning the Lower Body
Positioning the Upper Body for Easy Movement
Putting It All Together with a Vocal Warm-Up
Chapter 2: Practicing Breathing Exercises
Moving the Breathing Muscles for Singing
Take It In: Shaping Inhalation
Let It Out: Controlling Exhalation
Singing Practice Exercises with Long and Short Phrases
Songs for Extending Breath Control
Chapter 3: Shaping the Tongue and Lips for Vowels
Coordinating the Tongue and Lips for Back Vowels
Positioning the Tongue for Front Vowels
Alternating between Front and Back Vowels
Presenting the Middle Vowel, Uh
Singing Combination Vowels
Songs for Singing Vowels Precisely
Chapter 4: Articulating Consonants Accurately
Touching on the Tip Consonants
Arching Back for Soft Palate Consonants
Working on Lip Consonants
Consonant Combos: Moving the Lips and Tongue
Songs for Singing Various Consonants
Part 2: Making Your Music Magical with Variety
Chapter 5: Singing Precise Intervals for Musical Accuracy
Recognizing the Most Common Intervals
Hearing the Small Intervals
Finding Perfect Intervals
Comparing the Larger Intervals
Discovering Chromatics
Working on Scales
Practice Piece: “Singing All the Intervals”
Songs for Practicing Large Intervals
Chapter 6: You’ve Got Rhythm: Conquering Rhythmic Notation and Tempo
Rhythm Basics: Notes and Rests
Exploring Advanced Rhythms
Managing Rhythm at Any Tempo
Songs for Working on Rhythm
Chapter 7: Adding Diversity with Dynamics, Articulation Marks, and More
Singing Dynamically
Articulating What’s Written
Practice Piece: “I Sing Out!”
Improvising to Give Songs Your Own Unique Stamp
Songs for Improving Your Musical Diversity
Part 3: Working Out Your Range
Chapter 8: Checking Out Chest Voice
Getting Familiar with Chest Voice
Practice Piece: “Finding My Chest Voice”
Songs That Work Out Your Chest Voice
Chapter 9: Soaring into Head Voice and Falsetto
Figuring Out Falsetto
Discovering Your Head Voice
Positioning Your Larynx for Fuller Head Voice Sounds
Developing Your Head Voice Range
Practice Piece: “A Bejeweled Love Song”
Chapter 10: Mixing Up Your Sound with Middle Voice
Discovering Your Middle Voice
Combining Registers with Mix
Exploring Your Mix with a Few Practice Pieces
Chapter 11: Coordinating Register Transitions
Moving Smoothly between Registers
Leaping to and from Falsetto
Refining Your Smooth Transitions
Practice Piece: “Marching Forth”
Songs That Require Register Transitions
Part 4: Advancing Your Singing Technique
Chapter 12: Developing Your Vocal Tone
Touching on Tone Basics
Creating Echoing Tone with Resonance
Varying Tone with Vibrato
Practice Piece: “Changing Tone”
Songs for Developing Your Tone
Chapter 13: Expanding Your Vocal Agility
Exploring the Art of the Quick Breath
Howdy, Neighbor! Working on Stepwise Motion
Mastering Thirds
Taking Musical Leaps with Larger Intervals
Practice Piece: “A Joyful Noise”
Songs for Flaunting Your Agility
Chapter 14: Belting It Out with Exercises from Beginner to Advanced
Getting Started with Belting Basics
Resonating All the Way to the Back Row
Chatting It Up
Developing Stamina for Belting
Comparing Belt and Mix
Belting Your Face Off
Testing Out Your Belt Sounds with Practice Pieces
Cooling Down Your Voice after Belting
Songs for Beginner Belters Looking to Try Out Their Technique
Songs for Advanced Belters Looking for a Challenge
Part 5: The Part of Tens
Chapter 15: Ten Tips for Practicing Like a Pro
Set Aside Time to Focus on Singing
Plan What to Practice
Use the Exercises in This Book
Record Your Practice Sessions
Track Your Progress
Cool Down after Practicing
Know When to Rest
Get to Know Your Song and Your Story
Prepare for the Performance
Find Help from a Voice Teacher
Chapter 16: Ten Questions Singers Ask Frequently
What Style of Music Is Right for My Voice?
When Is a Song out of My Range?
Am I Tone Deaf or Just Singing Out of Tune?
How Do I Blend with Other Singers?
How Do I Blend My Voice with Instruments?
What’s the Best Way to Develop Vocal Endurance?
How Can I Maintain Proper Singing Posture While Playing an Instrument?
When (And What) Should I Eat before a Performance?
How Do I Get Over Stage Fright?
What Do I Have to Do to Keep My Voice Healthy?
Appendix: About the Website
Listening to the Audio Tracks
Customer Care
About the Author
Connect with Dummies
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 5
FIGURE 5-1: Use a keyboard to help identify intervals.
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
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Introduction
Singing is an amazing sport that can provide you with hours of entertainment. But developing your singing skills takes time and practice. This book is here to help you expand your singing technique with exercises specifically designed to address the most common aspects of singing. These exercises provide a great practice routine for you to use every day or when you need to brush up on a skill. Whether you want to sing just for fun or you have dreams of breaking out as a singing sensation, Singing Exercises For Dummies is for you.
About This Book
Whether you sing pop music or you’re auditioning for the local chorus, Singing Exercises For Dummies has what you need to refine your singing technique. The exercises in these pages, which range from easy to pretty hard, cover the most common topics in singing and are designed for any type of singer singing any style of music. They’re also the same type of exercises that you may expect to sing during a voice lesson or in a singing class. If you can’t afford to pay for lessons on a regular basis, this book can help you continue to refine your technique on your own at home.
In addition to exercises, Chapters 5 through 14 also feature practice pieces — short songs I’ve written to help you practice applying a specific singing technique. They all have accompanying audio tracks and a singer who demonstrates the correct sounds for you so you know the sound that goes with the text that you read in the chapter. You will find these tracks on the book’s website at www.dummies.com/go/singingexercisesfd. The combination of exercises and practice pieces provides a variety of ways to practice your technique.
The audio tracks are demonstrations of the music figures you see in the chapters. Some of the tracks have only the piano playing the figure for you so that you can make the sounds on your own; the text in the chapter lets you know which tracks you won’t hear a singer on.
I’ve organized the material so that you don’t have to read the book from cover to cover. Instead, you can review the table of contents to find the technique you want or need to work on most and head straight to that section. For example, if you have trouble transitioning between different vocal registers, you can proceed directly to Chapter 11 for help. Or you can work through all the practice exercises for a complete vocal workout that builds on itself.
Conventions Used in This Book
I use common singing terms throughout this book, but I define them for you in case you haven’t seen them before. You can also expect to see the following conventions:
Key signatures:
Each figure includes a key signature so you know exactly where to sing that particular pattern. Don’t worry if you don’t know key signatures; for those patterns with audio tracks, you can still follow along with the piano and/or singer.
Pattern repetitions:
Most figures in the book show all the repetitions of the patterns, but some larger figures show only the ascending or descending versions of the patterns. Rest assured that you can hear all the repetitions on the audio tracks.
Phonetic spellings for vowels:
The English alphabet has five vowels —
A, E, I, O,
and
U
— but each of those vowels may make more than one sound based on how they’re combined with other vowels or consonants in a word. I use the phonetic spellings of the various vowel sounds to help you understand exactly which vowel sound you’re supposed to make. (
Note:
The sound the letter
a
makes in the word
cat
is different from the
a
in the word
father
. When you see this
a,
know that the vowel sound you’re going for is like the
a
in
cat.
)
Practice exercises and other figures:
Some of the figures in this book help you practice a particular exercise, and some of them provide basic singing information or practice for you. A black box with a track number tells you which exercises have an accompanying audio track. If you don’t see a black track box, you know that example is a figure that’s explained in the chapter but doesn’t have audio.
Note:
A lot of the time, music is written in treble clef for guys even though they sing the notes an octave lower. Guys, when you see the music written in treble clef, just know that you sing it down an octave unless instructed otherwise. In some exercises in the book, I ask you to sing the music as written — not down an octave.
Singers on the tracks:
Many of the exercises have accompanying audio tracks where a singer demonstrates the sounds of the patterns for you. I include both male and female singers, as well as different voice types. The text accompanying each exercise tells you whether you hear a singer or you get to practice the figure on your own.
Song lists:
At the end of most of the chapters in this book, I include a list of songs that you can use to help you practice the different techniques covered in the rest of the chapter. If a song’s text is gender specific or if it’s for a role that’s gender specific, I mention that gender. Otherwise, I list
either.
You can work on any song you like, but you may want to note the gender-specific information if you want to perform the song. To help you learn a song, I recommend you get the sheet music first so you can practice singing along with the notation without hearing a recording. You can find sheet music at your local music store or online.
What You’re Not to Read
Throughout the text, I include helpful tips for performing each exercise, but if you’re in a hurry and you just want to get to singing, feel free to perform the exercises along with the audio tracks. You can always go back to the tips later.
Foolish Assumptions
I made the following assumptions about you when writing this book:
You really like singing and want some help with developing your technique.
You have some prior knowledge about singing — whether from singing in a choir, taking lessons, or reading my book
Singing For Dummies
(Wiley) — and you want to take your skills to the next level.
You sing all kinds of music and don’t limit yourself to just one style (such as classical, country, pop, or gospel).
You’ll use the audio tracks for a long time, which is why the exercises range from really easy to pretty hard. That way, they can keep you challenged now and later.
How This Book Is Organized
This book is organized into five parts, each of which contains specific topics about singing. Each chapter in the part contains details about how to develop that part of your singing technique with exercises that correspond to the explanation.
Part 1: Preparing Your Body for Practicing
Practicing singing is like practicing any other sport because you need to warm up your body and voice. After all, your singing voice will last longer during your practice session and won’t tire out as easily if you take the time to warm up beforehand. Chapter 1 is all about knowing what to do when you warm up.
Chapter 2 helps you explore breathing so you can develop the physical coordination you need to manage any phrase in your song. It lists all the places that move when you breathe and explains how to control all those shifting muscles. The rest of the part is about vowels and consonants. Chapter 3 guides you on shaping vowels, and Chapter 4 helps you practice the proper articulation for consonants.
Part 2: Making Your Music Magical with Variety
Musical variety is what makes a song memorable. This part helps you discover several musical elements that can make your song sound great every time you sing it. Chapter 5 tells you all about the most common intervals you find in songs. Knowing how to recognize intervals and sing them allows you to get your new song ready fast.
Chapter 6 helps you explore the most common rhythms seen in songs. The notation on the pages of classical music is exactly what you’re supposed to sing. The rhythms in contemporary radio songs are often just suggestions because contemporary singers don’t always sing what’s on the page. However, if you don’t know what’s written on the page, you won’t know how to change the rhythm to make it sound the way you want it to sound.
Chapter 7 describes the elements you can use to make your songs unique. In it, you explore dynamics and discover what you need to do physically to sing softly or loudly. You also find out about the symbols that you see above the notes that tell you how to sing the notes — short or long, detached or connected — or even when to stop singing. This chapter also helps you work on improvisational techniques.
Part 3: Working Out Your Range
The chapters in this part work out the various areas of your singing voice from top to bottom. Chapter 8 explores your chest voice — the lowest part of your singing voice. Chapter 9 moves way up the scale and explores your head voice — the high part of your singing voice. Chapter 10 moves to the middle area of your voice to help you work on your mix. (Mix is a word that you hear a lot in singing, and it can be used in a lot of different ways; Chapter 10 tells you what it means to mix and how to do it.)
Last but not least, Chapter 11 helps you figure out how to move between registers. When singers say they cracked when they tried to sing the high note, they’re really saying they didn’t know how to handle the register transition. This chapter helps you practice moving between registers so you can smooth out the transitions.
Part 4: Advancing Your Singing Technique
Advancing your singing technique requires that you know not only the basics of singing but also how to finesse your tone. You make a unique sound when you sing, but you can always decide to change your tone, and Chapter 12 tells you how. Chapter 13 gets you moving fast with patterns for agility. Agility in singing is the ability to sing a phrase that has a lot of notes that move quickly. You need a combination of skill and courage to sing the notes quickly, and this chapter is full of exercises that get you on your way. Chapter 14 is all about belting — singing with really forward resonance and a mixture of some head voice and chest voice. You want to know how to belt well so your voice stays healthy.
Part 5: The Part of Tens
One of the hallmarks of a For Dummies book is the Part of Tens, and this book is no exception. Chapter 15 has you covered if you want to develop your practice routine from the first session when you try out the song to the performance. Chapter 16 is full of answers to those questions you just don’t know whom to ask (like “What shouldn’t I eat before a performance?”).
This part also houses a helpful appendix that tells you all about the various audio tracks found on this book’s website. If you can’t remember which track had the exercise for making a smooth crescendo, for example, turn to the appendix to find out quickly. When you flip to the chapter you need (in this case, Chapter 7), just look for the black box that tells you which track goes with which exercise.
Icons Used in This Book
The three icons you see in the left-hand margin throughout the book are as follows:
This icon is to remind you of the fundamental concepts of singing.
This icon highlights particularly helpful advice about singing the exercises.
This icon reminds you about what not to do and warns you about potential problems.
Where to Go from Here
If you’re wondering where to head first, you can always start with Chapter 1 and explore the chapters in order. Or you can move around and explore sections that interest you now. If you go that route, feel free to group exercises together to create your own practice routine to suit your interests.
The exercises on the audio tracks are played at the tempo that’s best for practicing. After you know the exercise, you can sing it without the audio tracks at any tempo that you find interesting or challenging. Save any exercises that you find too challenging for later, or break them into parts and work on only the easiest parts now. You can always sing along with the first portion of the track and then rewind and start over. As your skill develops, you may find that those harder exercises get more comfortable. If an exercise isn’t in the right key for you, feel free to explore the exercise to get all the notes and then sing in the key that suits you best.
This book contains a lot of information and a lot of options for structuring your practice sessions. Don’t be afraid to dive right in, and enjoy exploring your technique!
Part 1
Preparing Your Body for Practicing
IN THIS PART …
This part has information to help you develop your warm-up and get your body ready for practicing. You may be tempted to just rush through your warm-up, but I’m telling you now, “Don’t!” After all, the warm-up can make a big difference in your practice session when you know how to use it. Start by physically preparing your body with stretching and positioning. Then focus on mastering the physical coordination necessary for proper breathing while singing. Take your time working through the chapter on breathing to make sure you know exactly what to do for any phrase.
Shaping your tongue and lips for vowels and consonants is something you do every day whether you’re singing or not. However, you have to be more precise with your lip and tongue movements in singing if you want your audience to understand you. So be sure to review the chapters on vowels and consonants because they contain lots of exercises to help you practice making just the right shapes and sounds.
Chapter 1
Warming Up for Singing
IN THIS CHAPTER
Defining a warm-up routine
Stretching and balancing the lower and upper body for singing
Warming up the body and voice with a sample warm-up
The sequence of every practice session you do as a singer includes a warm-up (both physical and vocal), your vocal exercises, and then the application of the skills you work on during your vocal exercises to your songs. Warming up the body before you warm up the voice helps get the muscles flexible so your warm-up takes less time. If you warm up your body first, that early morning practice session becomes much more productive because you can get to your vocal exercises more quickly.
In this chapter, you explore the steps of a warm-up for singers. You find out how to warm up your body, stretch your muscles, and maintain good balance by releasing tension. Each section has you warm up a different part of the body with one or more stretches and balance exercises. Then at the end of the chapter, I give you a vocal warm-up that both prepares your voice and lets you take stock of your body.
After your vocal warm-up, you’re ready to start working on the practice exercises in this book that help you develop technique. You can look through the table of contents to find a topic that interests you and dive right in, or you can move on to Chapter 2 to work on breath control and then explore the rest of the chapters in order. You may want to take a quick look at Chapter 15, which can help you set up productive practices, before you start exploring other chapters.
Preparing Your Instrument: Stretching Out from Head to Toe
Warming up and stretching your body before a vocal warm-up helps you feel like your body is flexible and open from head to toe. Feeling open means that you feel as if you have a lot of space inside your body that you can open for sound to resonate. Although your body is full of muscles, organs, and tissues, the stretching and releasing of tension that you do during your physical warm-up can make you feel like you’re creating an open area between the organs.
Remember whatever physical sensation you feel after you stretch so that you can create that same opening every time you start your warm-up. After you get your body warm, you want to maintain the feeling of flexible movement throughout your practice session.
Don’t feel like you have to follow every part of this chapter word for word during your warm-up. You know your body better than anyone, so use the information I present here as a guide for structuring the warm-up that best suits you. For example, you can use your yoga routine or your cardio workout at the gym to get your body warm and your blood pumping. Even your power walk around the neighborhood can get your body quickly warmed up and ready to stretch. Then you can use the stretching sequence in this chapter to help you stretch just the right muscles to get flexible for singing.
Make notes of any stretches in the chapter that may be more than your body can handle. Here are some ways to modify the stretches to work for your body:
If standing for long periods of time isn’t comfortable for you, feel free to modify the stretches and do them seated in a chair. Practicing your singing in a chair can help you really focus on the movement and not worry about holding up your whole body.
Lower-back problems or balance problems may prevent you from comfortably leaning over or stretching. When an exercise calls for stretching, feel free to alter the movement to get the stretch that feels good for your body. Start with a limited amount of movement and gradually add more as you explore what’s comfortable and safe for your body.
Opening and Positioning the Lower Body
To create the most efficient movement in your body for singing, you need to line up all the parts of your body and evenly distribute your weight, starting at your feet and moving all the way up to your head. When you do so, no one muscle has to work harder than necessary for singing. As you work through the lower-body stretches and balance exercises in the following sections, notice how the stretch affects the weight distribution throughout your body. It’s easy to forget all about your legs and feet when you sing since they’re so far away from your mouth. However, taking the time to balance your weight on your legs and feet gets you better prepared for singing by increasing flexibility in your torso.
If you’re getting ready to sing in a performance, do your practice sessions in the shoes you plan to wear at the performance. Guys, even the slight heel on your dress shoes may change your alignment. Ladies, wearing high heels changes your balance quite a bit. Hence, I don’t recommend wearing stilettos for any performance because they offer such little support on the tiny heels. Choose heels that are more solid for better support and remember that you need to keep your feet flexible inside your shoes. If your feet lock, you may lock muscles all the way up your back.
Connecting your feet to the floor
Three points on the bottom of each foot help you balance your weight to keep the muscles throughout your body flexible. You need to know where these three points are so you can balance when you practice singing and stay balanced when you perform on the stage.
Stretch
While standing or sitting, lift your toes up and then curl your toes down to stretch the muscles in your feet and toes.
Balance
To balance the right way on your feet, you need to distribute your weight evenly on three points of the feet: the heel, the point under the little toe, and the point under the big toe. To help you find the right points, take a few minutes to work through the following steps, which can help you identify the right (and wrong) sensations to feel when balancing on your feet for singing. I recommend that you do this sequence without shoes so you can really feel the connection between your feet and the floor.
Rock slightly forward so that you’re balancing your weight on the balls of your feet.
As you lean forward, you should feel a tightening sensation along the back of your body. You don’t want to feel this sensation when singing.
Lean back so that you’re balancing more on the heels of your feet.
Leaning back creates tension in the front of the body. You don’t want to feel this tension when singing.
Lean on the outsides of your feet (from the heels to the little toes).
As you lean on the outside of each foot, notice that you feel most of the weight in your heel at the back of the foot and at a point underneath your little toe. Leaning on the outsides of your feet tightens the muscles along the outsides of your legs.
Lean on the insides of your feet (from the heels to the big toes).
As you lean on the inside of each foot, you should feel most of the weight in your heel at the back of the foot and at a large point under your big toe. Leaning on the insides of your feet tightens the muscles on the insides of your legs.
The points you identified in Steps 3 and 4 (the heel and the points under the big and little toes) are the points you want to balance on when singing. You can roll your feet around on the floor to feel these three points even more distinctly. Just follow these steps:
With both feet flat on the floor, gently press each heel to the floor.
Roll to the point under your little toe and press that point to the floor.
Roll to the point under your big toe and press that point to the floor.
Rolling through these three points helps you figure out where the middle of your foot is and how you need to situate your feet to make sure you’re spreading out the balance equally. Work through these three steps several times until you can feel the sense of balance. After you know what that balance feels like, you can roll through the three points at the beginning of each warm-up just to remind yourself to balance on the three points.
Balancing equally on the three points of the foot is a lot like using a tripod for a camera. Forming a tripod helps you feel grounded or connected to the floor. To make sure you’re making a solid tripod, lift your toes while you’re standing with the rest of your feet flat on the floor. You’re more aware of the three points of your feet when your toes are lifted. Keep in mind that the toes are there to help you balance, but they shouldn’t be tight. After you feel the points, find the same sensation of balance with your toes released.
To release any tension in the feet and reconnect with the floor, take a breath and release into your feet. Imagine that you have a mouth on the bottom of each foot that opens when you inhale; that’s what the release into your feet should feel like. It also feels as if the feet were spreading out and then reconnecting with the floor.
Balancing on the ankles and knees
The ankles and knees are pretty far away from the mouth, but how you balance at both of these places helps you keep muscles flexible in your torso. Use the visuals I mention in the following sections to help you explore and remember the sensations you should feel when positioning your ankles and knees.
Stretch
To stretch the ankles, sit in a chair with one foot lifted off the floor. Draw an imaginary circle with your toes and gradually allow the circle to grow larger and then smaller. Reverse the direction of the circle. Repeat with the other foot.
To stretch the knees, bend your knees to warm up the joints. Bend them in a way that’s comfortable for you. Don’t worry if you can bend your knees only slightly. As long as you bend or move them enough to warm up the joints, you’re good to go. Another way to warm up your knees is to sit in a chair and move your feet to touch underneath the chair and stretch the muscles around the knees.
Balance
To position your ankles for maximum balance, stand or sit in a chair with your feet well balanced on the floor. Your heels are behind your ankles, and each ankle should feel like a camera on a tripod, the tripod being the three points on the bottom of the foot (the heel, the point under the big toe, and the point under the little toe).
Balancing the knees requires that you keep your knees straight but not locked. Bending your knees makes you shorter, and locking your knees tenses up the muscles around the knees. To feel the locking sensation, push your knees back. Now release the muscles in your thighs and feel your knees move forward just enough to release but not bend. That’s where you want to be when singing.
To make sure you’re getting the right balance of weight in your knees, imagine that your knees are lengthening or opening. This lengthening sensation is the opposite of what it feels like to sink into the knees or feel heavy in the knees.
Distributing weight in the legs and hips
Singers often forget about their legs when they sing. But you need to focus on both your legs and your hips during your stretching and warm-up to remind yourself to keep your hips balanced and your legs flexible. Note: Women often sink into their hips because their hips are wider than their shoulders. But when they sink into their hips, they end up slouching and allowing the chest to fall and the hips to push forward. If you have this problem, pay close attention to the following sections, which help you lift up out of your hips so that you can evenly balance weight throughout your torso.
Stretch
To stretch out your legs, lean on your left leg and stretch the right leg out to the side to stretch the inside of the leg. Do the same thing with the other leg. For a slightly different stretch, squat on one leg while keeping the other leg out to the side. The leg that’s out to your side can be balancing on either the heel or the inside of the foot. You can try one stretch and then the other to feel which one helps you stretch the most.
While standing, make small circles with your hips. Pretend to hula hoop very slowly. As you continue the circles, allow the circles to grow larger. Reverse the direction of the circles and repeat. Then sit in a chair and rock your pelvis forward and backward several times. Finally, lift your left hip while keeping your right hip on the chair; then do the same thing with your right hip.
Balance
You need to distribute your weight evenly on both legs. You don’t want to lean on just one leg because the opposite side of the body will tense from the unequal distribution, and that tension will affect your singing. Also, if you don’t balance your hips and instead move your buttocks forward, you’ll feel the muscles along your sides tighten. Tightening along your sides tightens your ribs and affects your breathing.
To help you achieve the right balance in your legs and hips, inhale and visualize your legs opening from the hips all the way down into your feet. If that visual doesn’t work for you, imagine that your legs and hips are a shock absorber or bed spring that lengthens on the inhalation. The lengthening helps you evenly distribute the weight in your legs and hips instead of pressing down through the legs and sinking into the hips. Just placing your awareness on your legs helps you release tension and lengthen.
How you position your feet affects the amount of balance you achieve in your legs. So be sure to stand with your feet parallel and about hip-width apart; doing so allows you to feel the muscles in your legs engaged but not tense. If you stand with your toes pointed out, you tense muscles on the outsides of your legs. Likewise, if you stand with your toes pointed in, you tense muscles on the insides of your legs.
If you know one of your legs is longer than the other, try standing with the longer leg slightly in front of the shorter leg. You may find that this position helps you balance your weight more evenly because the legs feel like they’re the same length.
Positioning the Upper Body for Easy Movement
How you position the parts of your upper body matters a lot when you’re singing. Holding your arms tightly at your sides directly affects your back alignment and your ability to breathe successfully during your song. How you balance your head affects the muscles in your neck that you use for singing. This section helps you stretch and position the torso and upper limbs. As you work on balancing your upper body, make sure you stay connected to your legs and feet to achieve better alignment throughout your entire body.
Lengthening your spine
The spine is made up of 33 vertebrae, which divide up into sections of the spine: 7 vertebrae in the cervical spine (neck), 12 in the thoracic area (the chest), 5 in the lumbar area (lower back), 5 that are fused together in the sacrum (pelvis), and 4 in the tailbone. The discs between the vertebrae are like cushions that keep the vertebrae from rubbing against each other. With this many vertebrae, several muscle groups function together to move the spine. You need to stretch all the muscles that move the spine before you sing because the ribs are attached to the spine and you want the ribs and the spine to be flexible so you can develop good breath coordination for singing.
Stretch
Stand upright or sit upright in a chair. Raise your arms over your head and reach high to the sky with your right hand; then reach high with your left hand. On each side, feel the stretch all through your back and ribs and down into your hips.
Now lean to the right and lift the left arm over your head. Stretch as far as you comfortably can to the right to stretch the ribs on your left side. Inhale and then stretch a little bit farther as you exhale. Repeat the same leaning stretch on the left side.
While standing or sitting, lean back enough to feel a stretch in your abdomen. Note: If you have back problems, you may be more comfortable rocking your pelvis forward to stretch the abs.
Balance
Your spine curves naturally at your lower back and in your neck. You want to maintain this natural curve as you sing because it helps you stay balanced. On the inhalation, visualize your spine lengthening and the discs between the vertebrae expanding. Feel your head move toward the ceiling and your tailbone move toward the floor on the inhalation. You should experience a feeling of buoyancy, not pressing down.
Releasing the shoulders
Stretching the muscles around the shoulders helps you feel the right position of the shoulders, as well as the relationship between the shoulders and the arms. Your shoulders sit on top of your rib cage with the collarbone, or clavicle, connecting the shoulders to the arms. Feel along the collarbone from your neck out to your shoulder. At the end of the collarbone, you can feel the top portion of the shoulder blade as well as the edge of the bone of the arm. Knowing how to position your shoulders and arms helps you keep all the muscles that you need for singing flexible and ready to move.
Stretch
While standing, raise your right arm over your head so that your fingers point toward the ceiling. Then make forward circles to the side of your body; your arm points to the ceiling, then in front of you, then down to the floor, then straight behind you, and finally, back to the ceiling. Then reverse the direction of the circles. When you get the hang of making the circles with one arm, try making the same circles with your other arm at the same time, only make the circles in the opposite direction. Twist your torso to correspond with the movement of both arms circling at the same time in opposite directions. If swinging the arms in opposite directions is too complicated, start by moving one arm at a time and then try moving both arms in the same direction and then in opposite directions.
Lift your right arm and place it across your chest with your left hand at your right elbow. Use your left hand to gently grasp your right elbow and bring it closer to your body. Take a breath; as you exhale, bring your right arm closer to your body to stretch the right shoulder. Repeat this stretch with your left arm across your chest.
Place both arms behind you and grasp your hands. After connecting your hands, lift your hands higher to stretch your shoulders. Reach only as far as you can comfortably go. If you can’t comfortably stretch both arms behind you, stand in a doorway with both arms out to your sides. Allow your arms to touch the walls on the side of the doorway as your body moves a little farther through the doorway. Take one step forward to see what stretching your shoulders feels like. If you can take one step comfortably, take one more step for a little more stretch of the muscles. Just be mindful of what your body can handle; you don’t want to force the muscles to stretch too far.
Balance
To find just the right position of balance for the shoulders, move your shoulders up and then drop them down. Press them down and then release them. Doing so can help you figure out how far up or down your resting position needs to be (it should be in the middle). Move your shoulders forward and then release them. Then move your shoulders back and release them. Doing so can help you determine how far forward or back your resting position needs to be. Note that it shouldn’t be fully forward or back; it should be in between.
Why is finding a balanced resting position for your shoulders so important when singing? It’s all about the breath. With each inhalation, the shoulder blades release down and out. If your shoulders hunch or round forward, your chest is partly collapsed, making the release and opening of the torso for the breath more difficult. If your shoulders thrust back too far, you can feel the muscles around the shoulder blades tighten. Roll your shoulders forward and then back to find the center; that’s where you want to be when you sing.
Balancing the head and neck
The balancing of your head directly affects the muscles in your neck, and because the main vocal muscles you use when singing are in your neck, you need to take some time in every warm-up to stretch and balance your head. Your head is designed to balance on the end of your spine. The specific shape at the end of the spine allows the head to balance perfectly so that it can move in any direction. Stretch your neck muscles to release them and then explore what balancing the head feels like. Also, take some time to stretch the tongue and jaw so that they’re ready to sing when you are.
Stretch
While standing or sitting, drop your head toward your chest. Take a breath; as you exhale, drop your head a little farther toward your chest. Move your head slightly to the left to stretch the muscles in your neck at an angle. Take another breath; as you exhale, drop your head a little more to the left. Move your head slightly to the right of center. Take a breath; as you exhale, drop your head a little farther to the right.
Lift your head and look left as if you were looking over your left shoulder. Turn your head slowly so that you don’t stretch the muscles too quickly. Take a breath; as you exhale, turn your head to look over your right shoulder. These stretches are great because they increase the flexibility of your neck muscles and warm them up so they’re ready to help balance your head, which weighs about the same as a bowling ball. No wonder you need your neck muscles to be strong and flexible!
To stretch your tongue, stick your tongue forward and out of your mouth. Feel the stretch from the tip of the tongue all the way to the back of the tongue, which curves down your throat. If your tongue won’t stick out of your mouth, then place the tip of your tongue against your bottom front teeth and roll the tongue forward. To stretch the jaw, close your mouth and open your jaw by opening your back teeth. You want your jaw to drop by opening the space by your ear, not by pushing down your chin. Opening the space by the ear helps keep the space in the back of the mouth and throat open. Find out more about dropping the jaw in Chapter 12.
Balance
Move your head forward in front of your body and then back behind your body. Where you want to balance your head is right in between too far forward and too far back. After you get your head in the right forward/back position, focus on balancing it on the curve of your cervical spine without letting it press down into your neck. Your head should feel buoyant as if it were made of helium; it shouldn’t feel like it’s pressing down into your neck and shoulders.
Managing the arms and hands
When you sing, your arms probably hang down at your sides most of the time and then gesture when you want to emphasize something important. As you warm up, you want to eliminate any tension you feel in your arms and hands so the tension can’t spread to your back or any other area in your body.
Stretch
Stretch your right arm out to your side and point your fingers to your right. Draw circles in the air as if you were drawing circles on the wall on your right side. Switch to the other hand and repeat the stretch. When you’re comfortable making circles, try drawing figure eights in the air with your right hand. Allow the whole hand to move to make large figure eights in the air instead of just drawing small figure eights by pointing your fingers. Draw the figure eights with the opposite hand.
Balance
While standing or sitting, allow your arms to hang at your sides. Notice the effect this position has on the muscles in your arms and hands. You should feel a sensation of suspension, not one of pressing down or feeling heavy.
Because you may want to gesture during your songs, you need to be aware of how you move your arms and hands as you sing. If you move your arms out to your sides, you have to engage the muscles in your back, which is okay as long as you don’t tighten or grip the back muscles in the process.
At no point when you’re singing should you tighten the muscles in your back or anywhere else in your torso; if you do, you’ll impair your ability to breathe smoothly and deeply.
Intentionally tighten the muscles at your elbows. As you tighten these muscles, notice that you also tighten the muscles across your back. As you release the elbow muscles, you release the tension in your back. Although you may not think the elbows are connected to the back, any tension in your elbows affects your ability to release the back and ribs for breathing.
Intentionally tighten the muscles in your hands. As you tighten these muscles, notice that you tighten all the way up your arms and into your lower back. Release this tension and notice the open sensation you feel in your torso. That’s the open feeling you want when singing.
When you gesture during a song, be sure to notice how you shape your hand during the gesture. Tightening the muscles in the hands as you sustain a gesture can cause you to tighten across your back. Feel free to move your hands as you sing, but focus on keeping the muscles flexible rather than squeezing or locking them.
Putting It All Together with a Vocal Warm-Up
After your body is warm, you’re ready to warm up your voice. The exercise in this section, featured on Track 1, allows you the chance to sing a short phrase that gradually moves up the scale. It doesn’t go very high, but it goes high enough to get the voice going before you go back down the scale. I use this sequence every time I warm up.
Notice that the pattern in this exercise includes the word hum; this word indicates that you should hum the pattern rather than sing it. Humming sounds like you’re sustaining the sound of an M consonant. Humming is a great way to gently warm up the voice.
