Friday, August 22, 2014

Warming up


Warming up

As part of my singing lessons, I have been taught warm up exercises.   One starts with me making a sound rather like an older person snoring lightly while he or she naps.  From there I am supposed to sound like a old hand-cranked siren getting ramped up, heading up into my “head voice.” I then reverse direction and drop my voice into the, “Luke, I am your father” range.

Another warm up sounds like a cat food commercial.  Do you remember the food, “Cats ask for by name?”  Meow and Mee-ow up and down the scale.  I watch myself in a mirror making vowel sounds.  My coach talks about the physical aspects of singing, which is surprisingly helpful.  Surprising to me anyway.  For me whole lot of learning to sing is learning and practicing the physical requirements. 

Then there is the activity in which a single breath powers five descending but discrete consonants followed by a sustained note.  Sometimes it does and other times it does not.

At the moment I am trying to voice the vowels ah to i (as in it) to e (as in bee) moving only my tongue.  I can more nearly successful when I start with the e and then move to i and finally ah. I haven’t achieved more than an occasional success but I am tired of sticking my tongue out at my reflection in the mirror. 

6 comments:

  1. Warren, I think it's wonderful that you're taking singing lessons. I've never had singing lessons although I love to sin. However, I find I'm not doing it as much anymore. My voice has lost its range. Maybe practice would help that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gloria -- great typo in your comment! I never knew singing lessons and sinning were so closely linked. :)

    ~ Jim

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, Gloria, you devil you! I never knew you loved to sin!

    Do you find you sin more as you sing less?

    Warren, your lessons sound intriguing. Perhaps at some point I should look into them. I was told as a child that I was tone deaf, and never had any evidence to the contrary, so I have pretty much decided to enjoy listening, but not try to sing. (I did make sure my children had music lessons; one loves to sing, occasionally doing so with a blues or gospel group, and the other has displayed no interest as an adult.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think it would be so fun to "learn" how to sing. I did choir as a kid but have since let my voice go as an adult. Now I sound horrible, even when humming along to the radio.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Warren, it's wonderful that you are taking lessons and practicing at home. I "sing" in the car with the windows rolled up so as not to scare other drivers and cause accidents. Maybe I should consider lessons.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Luckily for my kids, I'd rather dance than sing. Well, scratch that, the dancing embarrasses them too.
    And Gloria - best typo ever!

    ReplyDelete