Choral Warm-Up                                                                                      

Physical

Physically warming up before you sing is very important to get your entire body ready and relieve any tension.

Stand up and flop over from your hips like a rag doll. Let your head and arms hang down. Take a deep breath in and while breathing out sink down further. Make sure your knees are slightly bent and not locked. Take another deep breath in and sink down further while you breathe out. Slowly roll up. Roll your shoulders once you reach the top and shake out any tension you might have.

Breathing

It is important to include breathing exercises in your warm-up to make sure that your singers know how to properly breathe because it is the foundation to producing sound.

Breathe in for 3 and out for 6 for each exercise. The first time, exhale normally, then the second time exhale on a ‘shhh’ and then the last time exhale on a ‘ssss’ and release your breath until you run out of air.

Resonance

Resonance exercises help improve and project the choirs’ sound. On an open hum sing major 2nds starting on the note A and move up chromatically.

Make sure to create space by imagining marshmallows between your back teeth which helps lower your jaw and keeping your tongue low in your mouth with the tip behind your lower bottom teeth to help raise your soft palate while humming.

Flexibility

Singers need to work on flexibility exercises to strengthen their voice. This will allow them to expand their range in a healthy way.

Starting on the note C, slide up a 5^th and then back down singing ‘ee’ and move up chromatically. There is also movement incorporated with this exercise. Put one foot slightly forward. When sliding up to the 5^th shift your weight to your front foot and then shift your weight to your back foot while sliding down the 5^th. Make sure that you are singing every note in between the 5^th.

Diction

Exercises for diction help relieve any tension in the articulators (mouth, teeth, tongue, etc).

For diction, sing ‘ma’, ‘me’, ‘mi’, ‘mo’, ‘mu’ on a descending 5 note scale starting on the note G. Change the consonant throughout the exercise. Reinforce to really pronounce the consonants!