Vocalists: Setting Ourselves Up For Success
Many times as vocalists, we come on a Sunday morning for soundcheck five minutes before, grab a mic, and just start singing. Then c-r-o-a-k! That dreaded morning voice... We’ve all been there, right?
In today’s blog, we’re conversing with Awaken Generation’s Vocal Mentor, Gideon Lim, to see how we can overcome this – and other – issues, and set ourselves up for success as vocalists!
AwakenGen Team: Hey Gid, have you encountered this ‘morning voice’ issue, and what’s the best way to overcome it?
Gideon: I’ve never croaked before in my life (hawhawhaw, kidding). It’s more common than you think. No shame! But it is easily remedied with vocal warm-ups.
Like before any physical exercise, warming up increases your heart rate and blood circulation to your muscles to activate them, making them ready for exertion, and minimising the chance of injury. Vocal warm-ups are essentially preparing the muscles used in singing, so they can do their job well and lower the risk of injury!
AGT: So is there one best set of warm-up exercises I should do?
Gid: Warm-ups are specific to different applications and needs. Unfortunately, there’s really no one-size-fits-all warm-up.
Firstly, I’d want to identify the type of resonance I’ll be engaging. For example, singing the bridge of ‘Oceans’ might require a sweet and light head resonance first, that slowly lowers to a mixed resonance. Being aware of this is the first key to identifying targeted exercises to use.
AGT: Doesn’t that require you to be very conscious or aware of how to activate those resonant spaces in our bodies as we sing?
Gid: Absolutely. We spend a good first portion of the year in the Vocal Stream learning to be aware of, isolate, and engage each type of resonance. We also cover exercises that you can use to activate and strengthen each type of resonance.
Coming back to ‘Oceans’, I’d firstly start with an exercise to stimulate the head voice:
HEAD VOICE ACTIVATION EXERCISE
Activate your head voice by using it exclusively. Talk or read something in your head voice. Once comfortable, start singing up and down the scale in your head voice. All the while, pay attention to keep it light and minimise the depth of tone in your voice.
Next, you can vocalise the melody from ‘Oceans’ purely in head voice - instead of singing “Spirit, lead me where my trust is without borders”, just sing the melody with a continuous ‘A’ vowel sound. Ensure again that the vocalisation stays firmly in head voice, and does not sound weighty.
AGT: And what about the mixed voice resonance that you talked about?
Gid: Once I get my head voice fairly comfortable, I’ll then go into a second exercise:
HEAD-TO-MIXED VOICE TRANSITION
To warm up this transition, try singing an “A” vowel – on one note only – slowly moving from head voice to mixed voice. Do it as slow as you can. You may discover a point in which there is either a sudden break or flip in resonance, or your voice just can’t seem to sustain the note.
Once you have found that break point, sing that note, slide 5 notes up and back down (e.g. C3 - G3 and down). Let it break if you have to, but go very slow. This will slowly add strength to your break and give you a smoother transition from head to mixed resonance.
(Chest resonance exercises are not as essential for this situation. In fact, too much misplaced emphasis on the chest voice may result in a weightier tone than desired. The key again is to be sure of the type of resonance you will use.)
These are just two examples of targeted, specific warm-ups. Remember that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. It’s about finding the warm-ups that will target your control over each song or resonance.
AGT: Wow, thanks for going through these two exercises. There’s really so much that we can do to steward our gift as a vocalist. It’s really not just about showing up to soundcheck, still catching our breath, and then just going for it.
Gid: Yeah. Often as vocalists, we think we don’t need to set up any instruments, but our voice is an instrument too. The difference is that it’s built into our bodies, so we need to steward it differently from, say, a guitarist takes care of his or her guitar.
It might also be beneficial to do some light exercises like jumping jacks or skipping rope for a short while to get the heart rate up (running for the bus also works in a pinch, but that’s not really as intentional). In the morning, your voice box – like all other muscle groups in your body – is waterlogged so some quick exercises will help with clearing that up.
While the voice may be our primary instrument, the readiness of the whole body, for the duration of a 30-45 minute set (sometimes 60 minutes and beyond) is also as important as preparing the vocal cords. Taking care of our bodies is just as critical (but that’s another blog for another time).
AGT: Any final words to our readers?
Gid: Keep practising, and never give up. The best singers are always always always practicing, and it’s all part of a continuous process of setting yourself up for success!
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