Vocal warm-up Begin by making a few sighing yawns,
Stretching out the back of your throat,
Letting the tissues stretch and relax.
And now bring your awareness to the front of your mouth,
To the space between your front teeth and your lips,
And create a tangible vibration,
Feeling the vibration in this space and in the mask of your face,
Your cheeks,
Your nose,
Your teeth.
If you're having trouble finding this,
It can help to make a chewing motion with your teeth.
Like you're eating the sound.
And now to bring the two parts,
The back and the front together,
We're going to tone on ma and starting at a low note,
Going to a higher note and find our way back down to that original note.
We're going to explore our range and just notice how softly you can sing here,
How light,
And keep in mind,
Keeping your eyes,
Your gaze forward and the sound coming out in front of you.
Ma,
Nice and soft,
Nice and gentle.
Ma,
Letting yourself go at your own pace,
Your own breath capacity,
Ensuring that you can make it from the bottom all the way up to the top and back down.
Feeling into that support that's needed from your pelvic floor and your lower abdomen as you get down to the end of your breath and feeling that engagement and that support as you lift up,
Imagining this parachute holding you and taking one more breath and sounding.
And then a sigh,
Shaking it out and letting that part of the practice fall away.
And to finish our warm-up today,
We are going to tone on the notes D and A.
So,
If you can,
Closing down your eyes,
Letting yourself come into full awareness of the sounds you can hear,
This drone tone in your ears,
Listening and beginning to feel what your voice might want to sing for,
Sing to.
And using the tone sound of O,
An open O sound,
We will begin.
Inhaling,
Finding your strong,
Steady breath,
Supporting a strong,
Steady,
Yet gentle sound.
Noticing if you play around with your lips,
The spacing of your molars,
How might the sound coming from you be more optimally expressed.
Once more,
Sending this one into any place in your body that you can feel the sound.
Any part of your body that needs a little shake up and or support.
Closing the practice now with an inhale and a sigh,
Giving yourself a squeeze or a smile.
Thank you for practicing.
