VideoHere Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 i don't know if it's because i'm getting older or it's just the kind of voice makeup i have, but i'm starting to realize that it can take quite a while to really, thoroughly, warm up my voice. i'm going to say 45 minutes to an hour of just warmups to really get it to a place where everything falls into place. then once i sense the feeling that i am, i feel like i can sing for a long time. the harder i sing, the stronger i feel. how do you folks feel regarding your warmup time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akarawd Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 Same warmup time here too and I have the same experience you describe. Just one thing, sometimes, especially before a gig and after having talked/taught long hours, I really need to take my time and ease into it. Maybe it's the small amount of stage-fright, maybe sth else but since I feel my sound is dull and does not project the way I know it can (and feels right) it might take more than an hour. I have to stress here that in this case I don't sing hard - I just do my warm ups until the voice starts to resonate but I never push. If I have to do the 1st and 2nd song in what cvt calls non-breathy neutral then so be it. I prefer having a voice for the whole set and for my job the next day. But again, as you said, the more I sing and with time the harder, the stronger the voice gets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devaitis Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 Yes SIR Can be so looooong :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonpall Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 Raphael's point is very interesting. I also think that a lot of famous rock singers do this. Brian Johnson comes to mind, even though his voice hasn't been that great lately (but he's getting up there in age so give him some slack). I'm not 100% sold on the idea that warm up needs to be very long. Perhaps Steven Fraser or someone who REALLY has a lot of knowledge of this can chime in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srs7593 Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 i feel like some people can just sing everything without warming up :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonpall Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 I find it interesting that it can take me a bit of time to warm up my voice to be able to put rasp on my high notes without a huge effort. Perhaps the false folds or the muscles around it need to warm up before distortion can be easily produced on high notes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srs7593 Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 i need to warm up to make my false cords stop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 Sometimes, it takes me a couple of hours to actually feel warmed-up. I would do my scales for 20-30 minutes. But still my voice wouldn't sound ready after that. So I wait a bit. But it's mostly because I warm-up early in the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gno Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 My current practice is to go through my exercises at least a half hour or more before working on songs. And I take a break of at least 15min before singing songs. The break in-between was a tip from Tamplin and it seems to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akarawd Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 The break in-between was a tip from Tamplin and it seems to work. Does for me too. I still have this thing going where no warm up - and believe me I've tried everything - can match one good, sustained scream/shout in the A4-B4 area with flared nostrils. WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME... i'm not a teacher or anything, so you don't want to take my advice, but I've been performing since I was 14 and this has always been the case for me. If I do this, along with some humming or whatever, I'm warmed up for all dynamics and all levels of intensity. If I only do a "textbook" warmup, I feel like I only have loud notes and quiet notes... not the kind of dynamic flexibility I need. Interesting... rob halford does kinda the same. Sounds dangerous to me but if it works for some, it's great. I guess if you perform the scream and humming with your best technique then you do not hurt yourself because you don't just shout, on the contrary you wake up the voice and memory of your muscles just as you would with a shot of caffeine... Anybody else does that ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonpall Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 So Raphaels, CunoDante, me (sometimes), Rob Halford, Brian Johnson, Sammy Hagar and Jimmy Barnes (just to mention a few) warm up in a very similar manner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akarawd Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 Glen Hughes too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SingingRob Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 I need 45 minutes too to get really ready. Often I swallow a small amount of cayenne pepper. That helps to increase the flow of blood, and shorten my own warm up time. From time to time I rest the voice for 2-3 minutes during the warm up phase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Robert Lunte Posted August 5, 2011 Administrator Share Posted August 5, 2011 Warming up, obviously is important. You have to make sure that your doing it properly and it helps to understand WHAT you are warming up and why. Just doing lip trills and this and that, but not knowing what its doing for you or why can result in a result that could be much more productive. To warm up, we are trying to do a few things as I see it: 1). balance the sub-glottal and super-glottal threshold pressure above and below the vocal folds, in doing so, you create a more efficient phonation. 2). "lift" the voice out of "bottom-up" phonation characteristics. The voice settles over night and during the day to essentially, a throaty speech mode configuration. For singing, we need to lift the voice and get the voice to start twanging a little more, create some cricoid tilt and increase the blood flow. 3). Once you get your lip trills or resonant buzzing going, you should try to maintain your trills or buzzing through the Passaggio, or "Establish a Resonant Track". 4). You also need to calibrate your onsets and the timing of your bridging, by far, the most superior way to get this done is working on slow, controlled sirens through your Passaggio. 5). Drink warm, minty tea... It really does help a lot. Here is a tea for singers that I invented, its actually quite effective and tastey. I spent about 90 days with a tea consultant to work out this special recipes. www.singerstea.com . 6). Then just sing... something simple, not too flashy. If anyone has any questions about this, Im happy to help or show you how. Hope this helps... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devaitis Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 Do you know "Master Exploder" by Tencius D? When I don't have much time but I'm in need of an effective warm-up I sing the intro of the song "Master exploder" Is sounds like that. But Im begging you! Don't do this at home! http://www.box.net/shared/agf9qe27fshmv6khry0s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VideoHere Posted August 5, 2011 Author Share Posted August 5, 2011 well, last night was the turning point for me....i've got something medically wrong i've got to get checked out. i went back on the proton pump drug, dropped zantac 150, (not strong enough) and it's got to be allergies, reflux (or both) and/or some kind of infection. i just cannot sing without trouble with either phlegm or reflux...i'm screwed up right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SH Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 Sorry to hear that Bob. Hope you can find a good dr to help you out. Can you manage to just vocalise a bit every day to keep things moving? Like some light easy sirens or something? Everyone in my household has this terrible barking cough, lots of phlegm, blocked sinuses etc etc - I am popping pills like crazy to try and not get it. Plus extra rest, fluids etc etc. Fingers crossed - next Sunday I have a jazz vocal workshop, and I'm the masterclass subject (you get to have a one on one lesson in front of all the workshop participants) and I really want to have a voice to take along with me! Warmup - I've actually dumped the lip bubbles. I somehow got them associated with constriction. Anytime I try to do them, I feel the tension slipping in. Just another psychological problem. I warm up much freer without the lip bubbles now, and do a lot of low volume slow sirens on each vowel through the passagio. I also run through the deconstriction excersises my teacher gave me and some breathing excercises. Then I sing something pretty easy which I KNOW I use good technique for. I need to tie support back into the singing somehow - I've got a bit lazy and not enough work is being done by support muscles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akarawd Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 I also run through the deconstriction excersises my teacher gave me and some breathing excercises. Care to share these ? Could they be vowel modifications acting as a kind of "release valve" for constriction around the passagio ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 Yeah, graham bonnet likes to shout and scream to warm up too. I used to as well and I thought it worked. I had abominable technique back then, so I doubt it was a healthy way of warming up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jugulator Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 I need half an hour to get ready for singing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronws Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 Ordinarily, I'd seem smart-alecky and say I don't warm-up much but, really, as I have found value in it. I warm up with light descending sirens, starting falsetto. Then full voice but coordinating the drop in air pressure as I descend through the passaggio. I might start at A4 and slide all the way down through the passaggio. All total, maybe about 5 or 10 minutes. Then, I sing whatever I feel like. It's not a big warm-up, just checking my calibration, so to speak. Thing is, I do this warm-up now and then, through the day. It's not all hinged on just moments before wanting to sing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VideoHere Posted August 6, 2011 Author Share Posted August 6, 2011 Sorry to hear that Bob. Hope you can find a good dr to help you out. Can you manage to just vocalise a bit every day to keep things moving? Like some light easy sirens or something? Everyone in my household has this terrible barking cough, lots of phlegm, blocked sinuses etc etc - I am popping pills like crazy to try and not get it. Plus extra rest, fluids etc etc. Fingers crossed - next Sunday I have a jazz vocal workshop, and I'm the masterclass subject (you get to have a one on one lesson in front of all the workshop participants) and I really want to have a voice to take along with me! Warmup - I've actually dumped the lip bubbles. I somehow got them associated with constriction. Anytime I try to do them, I feel the tension slipping in. Just another psychological problem. I warm up much freer without the lip bubbles now, and do a lot of low volume slow sirens on each vowel through the passagio. I also run through the deconstriction excersises my teacher gave me and some breathing excercises. Then I sing something pretty easy which I KNOW I use good technique for. I need to tie support back into the singing somehow - I've got a bit lazy and not enough work is being done by support muscles. thanks for asking sh...well the doctor gave me 2 scripts, one for a 5-day z-pack (an antibiotic i learned) and one for claronex, an antihistmine. i've got my fingers crossed...and yes, i exercise the voice 6 days a week, always trying to strengthen and condition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 As with everything involved in singing, I do the following much too rarely to be of much practical use for me; anyway, Ive been trying an adaption of a speech class I took which works really well for me. The method is to speak vowels at the opposite wall in a full voice. Volume can be adapted, I do it at a reasonably strong speaking voice level, due to neighbors. So I start by saying the easiest vowel "aaaah" at a very easy pitch towards a spot on the wall in front of me and hold that vowel for a comfortable period of time, say 5 seconds. All through that, Im listening for fluctuations (mistakes like flipping over momentarily to falsetto when the folds lose their grip) and correcting them, making sure I do not do that by tensing anything in the throat and also making sure the note does not fluctuate in volume or timbre or in any other manner. The reason I do it at a spot on the wall is because that tricks me into maintaining the same volume and quality all through the note. I want to keep the note as even and clean as if I were playing the same note for 5 seconds on a violin. I move up in pitch until Im around an A, which is about as far as I can go (so far) without starting to tense the throat. I do this this through all the vowels (interestingly, I find that my schwa is the vowel that cracks easiest). I find my singing voice after this is fuller, stronger and simply well warmed up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PopVlad Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 What I have been personally experiencing lately is that to hit the high notes I don't have to "warm up" my whole range. Currently, I'm only doing warm ups to about A4/Bb4 on different volumes and different vowels. After that I'm able to hit an F5# (big deal for me), whereas not so long ago I was struggling with E5-F5. Just my 2 cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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