Vocal Music Advice

I’ve drunk honey water to loosen my voice and I’ve done sirens but I can’t seem to feel like it’s working.    Give me some ideas please?

Answer: Warming up the voice is like any other warm-up exercise before a vigorous workout. I am stunned to occasionally hear a high-ranking gifted singer who then becomes a voice teacher that disputes this fact.  (Fortunately, they are a VERY small minority.)  If you are a sprinter or a distance runner, so that you don’t injure muscles, you warm up with preliminary exercises.  This conditions the body and the muscles for what is to follow and protects you from debilitating self-injury.  The principle is no different for vigorous use of the vocal cords — singing.  So, your question is an excellent one.  You start slow and add intensity bit by bit until you’re ready to do the “real thing” (sing your songs).  You need to set aside anywhere from 10-20 minutes for this before you sing every day.  There are a few singers—a very few singers—who do not personally feel the need to warm up (one of my teachers was like that, but he had the good sense not to espouse “no warm-ups are necessary”).

1.  You’re going to begin vocalizing (singing) where it is easy in your range – usually comfortably low – but not to the extreme.  Pick your beginning note and ascend three steps and descend again while singing on EEEE [i] and AY [e] using this pattern 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1.  Every time you descend down to your beginning note, change the vowel.  Also alternate between ooo [u] and eee [i].  Like this

1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1
E——–AY——–E——–AY

Every time you repeat this small figure, raise the first note a half  step – so that as you repeat you are singing higher and higher.  Continue to do this until you begin to feel tension and strain, or, the notes don’t come, then turn the corner and descend by step until you are singing your lowest comfortable notes.  Be sure that your jaw is loose and open and the sound you make is as clear as possible.

2.  You’re going to do this kind of thing again, but this time the musical figure will go up 5 steps and return down again.  (1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1) Alternate the OO [u] and EE [i] vowels in this figure.

1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1
oo——E——oo——E——oo

Always begin comfortably low.  (We’re all different, so, for example, if you’re a tenor and your teacher is a bass, your comfortably low starting note is going to be a good bit higher than his would be.)  Each figure should be sung with as clear tone as you can make, one note connected to the next smoothly, don’t separate them.  Again, work your way up the range step by step and back down again.

3.  A third exercise might be this one: Sing the phrase “Oh how I love– to sing” on the arpeggio 1 3 5 8 5 3 1.  This spans an entire octave.

1——3—5—–8—-5—3—–1.
Oh    how     I      love_   to   sing.  (“love” has two notes)

Always begin comfortably low.  Sing clearly maintaining a loose open jaw, connecting each word and note smoothly.  Each initial repetition should be a half step higher than the previous one, until you reach your upper range limits, at which time you need to head back down by half-steps until you reach your lowest comfortable notes.

4.  This can then be followed by more vocal exercises that require flexibility, larger range and power.  But in this way – using your voice first with short-range phrases ascending and descending in your range, then with wider range phrases you “warm up” your voice.  After about 15 minutes of doing this, you should feel more ready to do some normal energetic singing.

What I’ve described is fairly standard.  Once you begin studying with a voice teacher, s/he may devise specific exercises that are particularly suited to you.  Until then, work through this, and if you have further questions, don’t be afraid to ask.

Best wishes.