Before doing strenuous exercise at the gym, or even before playing a sport, stretching and warming up is necessary. It is a way to prepare your muscles so that they get loose and will not cramp up as you start to perform. As you probably have noticed, warming up is also important before you begin to sing. You can’t just force the vocal cords to work immediately without warming them up. While the vocal cords are not actually muscle, but a set of membranes, they still perform at their best when they are nice and flexible.
Here are our instructions on how to warm up your voice before singing to produce a rich sound and prevent hoarseness of voice.
• Start with inhaling and exhaling. Singing not only involves your voice box but your lungs as well, since when you sing you use a lot of air. Expanding the lungs fully by inhaling and exhaling a few times will make the air come out of your mouth better and you will have an easier time when producing notes. Inhaling and exhaling deeply will also exercise your diaphragm, which is located right under the lungs. This is the place where singers usually get their air when belting out a tune.
• Hum softly for a few minutes before you begin singing. While humming keep your mouth closed. Focus on humming the melody to the song you are about to sing. This helps the muscles in the voice box to vibrate, preparing it for the big performance. It also helps you to get your voice in key.
• Exercise your jaw and facial muscles. Perhaps the best way to exercise these muscles prior to a concert is by reciting or singing tongue twisters. Use exaggerated facial expressions as you recite such classics as “Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers” or “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” Aside from being able to exercise your facial muscles, reciting tongue twisters will also make your diction of the words better and clearer.
• Work on your scales. This is one of the basic warm-ups that many singers hate to do because it can be a bit boring, but its vital if you want your voice to sound at its best. It can be more fun if you have a well-tuned piano or another instrument you can play with your hands as you sing. Work on your low and high scales so that the entire range of your voice can be loosened up. Working on your scales will also help you stay in key as you sing.
photo credit: mahalie
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