wtewalt Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 I tend to think of my singing schedule like a gym workout, working different parts of the voice without overtraining in any specific area. What are the different kinds of vocal training schedules/programs/routines that you use and why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chamcham Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 I like to use the vocal workout CD from Anne Peckham's "The Contemporary Singer: Elements of Vocal Technique". Anne Peckham is a faculty member at the Berklee College of Music. Best 25 dollars I've ever spent on a singing book. I do the workout 6 days a week (rest on the 7th day). On Mon/Wed/Fri, I do the Vocal Warmup + Level 1 High Voice + Advanced High Voice workouts. On Tue/Thu/Sat, I do the Vocal Warmup + Level 1 Low Voice + Advanced Low Voice workouts. I like it because over time it keeps opening up areas of my voice I wasn't aware of. It uses differents vowels,consonants, and rhythms. So it's a good all-around workout. It is 30 minutes long. When I'm done, I work on exercises from "Singing Exercises for dummies". Generally, Every week, I do 2 chapters at a time. This adds about 7-10 minutes to my workout routine. So, in total, 37 to 40 minutes of vocal exercises daily. When I'm done, my voice feels totally relaxed and flexible. Then I move right into singing songs and working on whatever homework my voice teacher gave me. For me, vocal workouts alone without practicing songs is not so good. And practicing songs without a vocal workout is even worse. So I do both. I'm sure you can find lots of people that do one or the other and they do just fine. So you just have to find what works for you. Btw, here is Anne Peckham's workout (for actual details and explanations, buy the book) Vocal Warmup (7 minutes)----------------------- Descending Fifth, Liptrill-Slide Fifth Slide + Octave Slide Liptrill + OO Five-Note Descending Pattern Major Triad pattern Five-Note Descending Pattern Skipping Thirds Pattern Descending Thirds Pattern Level 1 Workout for High/Low Voices (13 minutes)--------------------------------- Major/Minor Triplets Three Five-Note Scales Descending Intervals Nine-Note Scale Octave Arpeggio Descending Triplets Three, Five and Nine-Note Scales Single Tone Pattern Descending Sixteenth Pattern Octave Arpeggio with Turn and Descending Scale Legato-Staccato Pattern Humpty Dumpty Etude Advanced Workout for High/Low voices (10 minutes)--------------------------------- Octave Arpeggio with Added Seventh Minor Pentatonic Pattern Descending Triplets Octave Descending Minor Pentatonic Pattern Ascending Minor Pentatonic Pattern Five, Nine, Eleven Scale with Descending Arpeggio Minor Pentatonic Triplets Minor Pentatonic Pattern Minor Pattern Pentatonic Sixteenths Legato Arpeggio Interval Steps As for the actual time of day, I generally do it as soon as my roommate leaves. So it's pretty random. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chamcham Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Here is a series of videos of Michael Jackson doing vocal training over the phone in 1994 before a concert. Seth Riggs was his vocal coach. There's another thread on this forum with these lessons combined into one video, but that video was removed from Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DExMNdStZU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMMSR4Ad14g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9J3X37fF8I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vslgd37emqI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX2T67jx_lg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZVYenmqdVs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOLpjcL41-E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zris4q2WOY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtewalt Posted October 16, 2012 Author Share Posted October 16, 2012 Thanks everyone these are great answers. I've listened to the michael jackson audio before, it's pretty great. chamcham- wow that was a super long response. Thanks! I'll look in to that singing book it sounds good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chamcham Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 If you also want a book more about the technical aspects of singing, try "The Voice Book" by Kate Devore. It's 11 dollars and change on Amazon.com. The author has rehabilitated many damaged voices and has worked at many hospitals/medical centers around the country. http://www.amazon.com/The-Voice-Book-Protecting-Improving/dp/1556528299/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1350349088&sr=8-10&keywords=the+voice+book The nice thing is that they get into gory details (like physiology and what's going on with all the different muscles). Plus, most chapters have a list of recommended exercises at the end. So you're left with something concrete to work on. Here is a link to the table of contents: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1556528299/ref=sib_dp_pop_toc?ie=UTF8&p=S006#reader-link It goes far beyond singing and goes into things like speech training, preventing vocal injury and how to sing depending on the size of the room and audience. All in less than 250 pages. Books won't necessarily solve everything. Nothing will ever replace getting voice lessons. But those are the 2 books I'd recommended if I only had to choose two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtewalt Posted October 16, 2012 Author Share Posted October 16, 2012 Chamcham- Thanks a lot for the recommendation. I enjoy looking into the science of singing so that book seems like a good route for me. I've been looking into a good book to get lately as I've never had any type of lessons or anything like that and am mostly self taught. I'd say that my own personal singing schedule consists of a 5-6 day a week schedule for 45-60 min at a time. I try to warm up with lip bubbles for 2-3 minutes and then some light arpeggios starting on "ng" and working into all of the vowels. After that I tend to work in some more volume with some scales with "nays" and "mums" until my entire range feels together. After that I pretty much just move into singing working on particular phrases that give me trouble. My "schedule" right now basically changes from week to week as I learn more on this forum about what I should be doing. For instance, I just learned that I've been pushing my mixed voice up to E5 instead of moving into head voice so I've been trying to learn about and incorporate some head voice exercises. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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