Speaking of Voice: “My Go-To Warm-Up” by Jean Applonie

MY GO-TO WARM UP by Jean Applonie (Brigham Young University Women’s Chorus)

 

The Brigham Young University Women’s Chorus works hard to connect their tone to their breath.  Almost daily we do an exercise that guarantees the pressurization of airflow–lip trills or buzzing (if a singer cannot do a lip trill)

 

Trill the lips or buzz on zzzz the following pitches:

1.  s–f–m–r–d——s——-d (trilling down the scale, then sirening or sliding the voice up to “so” and back down to “doh;” I like to start with ee 

    trill———-ee—ah—-—-        then add one of the following vowels on the “so” at the top eh, ay, ah, or oh)

 

2.  d—–s——-d———d’————-d (lip trill or buzz sirening or gliding up and down from d–s–d, then open to a vowel or two on the d—d’—d)

    trill———-ee————————-      the d’ refers to high “doh”; also, be sure that the singers are supporting the gliding pitches as well as the

    or buzz–or ee——–ay————-       bottom and top pitches; that’s where the need for consistent and continuous breath connection or support​

                  or ee——–ah————-       comes from)

                  or ee——–oh————-

 

These are the two variations I use the most.  You can also listen for and coach singers toward forward placement of the ay, ah, and oh vowels by starting from the already forward ee vowel.

 

(“My Go-To Warm-Up” features a favorite warm-up used by those choirs who have been selected to perform during the 2015 ACDA National Conference.)