Warm Ups and Workouts: Monday 30th September 2013: Session Three

Monday 30th September 2013 

Session Three

I find that I am now correcting my posture and alignment for singing automatically and I don't need to be reminded. This natural realisation of posture is great as my body and brain is getting used to what is the correct way to sing. 

We began our warm ups, many of them we have previously done, such as:

• Sirening (with Lip Trills)
• Sounds
• Number Scales

We also were introduced to new exercises, such as:

• Arpeggios
• Jaw Relaxation - "Ya, ya, ya, ya, yaaa"
• Opera No's
• Singing and Responding

Sirening

I have been practising Sirening with Lip Trills outside of class to improve my breath control as it's an important aspect of singing. I found that this session I was able to complete two complete Lip Trills without taking a breath in between. Practising had paid off and my breath control is getting better which I have extremely happy about. 

Number Scales

I had previously worked on my diction when performing the Number Scales and worked on learning the exercise with the development too. I have found that practising the Sirening outside of class to develop my breath control has benefited this exercise too. 

My Number Scales are now much clearly to listen to and I'm not straining my voice. 

I think it's great that the more I practise important aspects of singing the easier some of the exercises become and more beneficial. 

Arpreggios

This was one of the new exercises we were introduced to in this session. We were given simple sounds like "mm" and "nm" to go up and down the scale with.

This exercise had focus on tensing the diaphragm enable to hit the top and bottom notes along with breathing correctly with control to elongate the sounds.

I really enjoyed this exercise and I knew it was really helping me to warm up my voice in preparation for singing. I find it really useful to know simple exercises like this can really prepare you voice for a performance. Again, my work outside of class really helped me to control my breathing which is something I may have struggled with when performing this project. 

Jaw Relaxation - "Ya, ya, ya, ya, yaaa"

The next new exercise we were introduced was one which relaxed and stretched the jaw and mouth by singing a sound and then elongating it. The jaw and mouth had to be wide to really get the sound out.

The simple sound was:

"Ya, ya, ya, ya, yaaa"

The more you opened your mouth the better the sound sounded as it was clear. We then went on to sing each "ya" individually in a circle whilst everyone else gently hummed to the same tune. 

I find it quite easy to grasp the sound as it was just repeated. There was slightly issue with my pitch but as we repeated and rehearsed it, it soon become much easier. When it came to singing it individually  part-by-part it was slightly more difficult because you had to listen to the pitch in detail. As everyone was humming to the tune I find it far more easier to really grasp then the "Happy Birthday" version as it was short and quick, whereas, this was far more relaxed and smooth. 

Relaxing the jaw is important to a singer because the bigger the mouth is the more sound can come out, but this needs to be controlled at the same time. You want to stretch the jaw before so it's easy for you to sing a note smoothly. 

I think I'm becoming more comfortable with singing with the group as I wasn't so worried on what people thought - just that I was pitching the "ya" correctly. 

Opera No's

The next exercise had a focus on characterisation the same as "The Month Song". 

This time we had to sing: 

"No, no, no, no, nooo,

No, no, no, no, nooo,

No, no, no, no, nooo, 

No, no, no, no, nooo, 

No."

We were put into partners and had to sing this to each other, using whatever context we wanted, in the form of opera. We were told it had to be a dramatic performance - loud and confident! As it was a short sounds and then an elongated sound we had to keep up our diction and pitch even though we were performing. 

We then performed them to each other and watched each other's performances. 

I found this really fun because it was something different and performing with a partner we could explore the relationship through singing and perform that, like a duet-type performance. To add to the characterisation my partner and I added gestures and explored our facial expression and body language so it was performance-worthy.

It was slightly hard to concentrate on two things at once, therefore I think the singing suffered slightly due to this. Next time I need to equally concentrate on both parts of the performance and be more relaxed. I also noticed that this was the case in other people's performances too, not just mine. As I'm someone who is interested in acting, this exercise was really interesting and fun to perform. I hope we get to perform more exercises like this so I can build up my confidence even more.

Singing and Responding

We went onto singing the first part of The Lion King's "Can You Feel The Love Tonight". 

We sung:

"There's a calm surrender to the rush of day,

When the heart of the rolling world can be turned away."

We learnt this by our singing teacher playing a line and then us repeating it, she would then correct us on parts and then allow us to repeat it the correct way. I knew this song therefore, the words or the pitching wasn't a struggle for me. I did have to watch I didn't go too fast as our singing teacher was going through it slowly for us. 

It did take a while for everyone to be on the same pitch and also to come in on the same time. Many people relied too heavily on the others around them when coming in and missed the first word. This showed me what to avoid doing when learning a song and, when it's needed, how the skill or being independent is significant to a singer. 

The exercise allowed us to develop our listening skills, the more precise you listen the more accurate the performance is. It soon became easier as we went through it several times.

In conclusion, this session was extremely useful but also really fun. Even though I wouldn't say I'm really talented at singing, as I'm more into acting, the exercise and songs we do are fun and I am gaining more confidence in the lessons. Confidence is half the battle and I really hope to develop my skills as, for example my breath control, I've focused on and improved. 

I enjoyed performing the Opera No's today because it was based on characterisation and using body language and facial expression to portray the relationship between two characters in a performance is really useful to me as an actor. Doing exercises where there's a focus in performance allows me to be more confident and I am feeling more confident in singing in front of people and as a performer. 

Last week, I practised my breath control and this week it really helped me and I could hear an improvement.  I think this weeks focus should be listening to songs outside of lessons and seeing if I can repeat them with accuracy to develop my Singing and Responding as I knew the song this week already. 

My aim this week is to be able to accurately repeat a song which I may not know well to challenge myself more.

Warm Ups and Workouts: Monday 23rd September 2013: Session Two

Monday 23rd September 2013

Session Two 

Similar to last week, we started by assuring that our posture and alignment was correct for singing. Although I remembered most of the key points to focus on when executing the correct posture I did need to be reminded on some of the parts. Going through correct posture each week means I should start executing the correct posture and alignment correctly.

We began our vocal warm ups, many of them we had previously done last week.

These vocal warm ups include:

• Sirening (added a development)
• "Happy Birthday"
• Sounds
• "Mr. Rabbit"
• Number Scale (added a development)
• Jamaican Lullaby - "Janine Mama" (added a development)

We also learn new vocal warm ups, such as:

• "Somewhere Over The Rainbow"
• "The Month Song"
• "The Little Green Frog"

After we had warmed up we began to work on harmony work with the song "What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor".

Sirening

We added Lip Trills to the Sirening exercises to develop it further and for the exercise to become slightly more challenging. A Lip Trill is where you push your breath forward towards the lips and they vibrate together. You then add tone to the breath whilst the lips are vibrating.

To complete the Lip Trills, I had to hold my cheeks so that my lips could trill. I found pitching easy but breath control needed a lot of focus on to complete the exercise. Between each siren I found myself taking huge breaths, this showed me that I have poor control over my breath and this is something I have to work on to improve.

Developing an exercise is a great way to keep it fresh and to strengthen singing skills. I know now I have to focus on breath control so I can execute this exercise stronger and longer.

"Happy Birthday"

We sung "Happy Birthday" again, which focused on our ability to pitch and to listen to others. Again we sung each word individually.

I found my pitching had slightly improved because I was listening with more detail compared to last week’s session.

"Somewhere Over The Rainbow"

We sung:

"Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high,

There’s a land that I’ve heard of once in a lullaby."

We sung this song in the same way as "Happy Birthday". We went through it as a class a few times and then stood in a circle and each sung a word individually.

I preferred singing this song compared to "Happy Birthday". I think this is because I was familiar with singing the song in the correct pitch; therefore, it was easier for me to listen and pitch the next word. If I wasn’t familiar with the song then I think I would have found it much more difficult as there’s a higher range of pitches in this version.

I’m starting to feel more confident with singing and I’m trying to really go for the exercises even when we have to do work individually and I go wrong in front of everyone. Being able to carefully listen and then accurately find the correct pitch will be a really useful skill in the future!

Number Scale

We added the development onto the Number Scales by adding counting down from eight.

The exercise now was performed like this:

1.

1, 2, 1.

1, 2, 3, 2, 1.

1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

8.

8. 7, 8.

8, 7, 6, 7, 8.

8, 7, 6, 5, 6, 7, 8.

8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

I had been practicing the original number scales from last week so I was fairly confident with the pitching and this made my diction more precise.

As we developed the exercise this week I was really happy that I had managed to practice outside so I could then focus on the development and not what we had learned previously.

The development to this exercise is a far more increased pitch, and being a low singer, I slightly struggled with this and had to use my head voice instead of my chest voice. Again I am going to practice this development so I can familiarize myself with it.

Jamaican Lullaby – "Janine Mama"

We had sung "Janine Mama" last week in-a-round and this session we were split into smaller groups.

It was increasingly hard to keep your own pitch going when there are so many other different pitches around you. I found myself slipping in and out of various pitches. Once we had going through this a few times I found it far easier to isolate myself and sing without slipping into other people’s pitches.

I found this exercise useful as when it comes to harmony work, as a singer you have to be confident and maintain your own part and not slip into other people’s parts to get the distinctive sound.

The words this week was much easier to remember because I had made sure to go through them outside of class. A lack of confidence when it comes to the actual words of a song or exercise can disenable the person to really execute the exercise properly.  To ensure I was getting the most out of these exercises I made sure to practice the words and this really helped me.

"The Month Song"

We learnt a new exercise where we sung each month of the year as so:

"January, February, March, April, May, June, July,

August, September, October, November, December...

January, February, March, April, May, June, July."

We sung this again and again but then we had to sing it and act posh. This meant sitting on the edge of our seats and performing stereotypical characteristics of someone who is posh would do. We then had to jump up on the month we were born, so for me that was June.

As an actor in training, I found adding characteristics to the song was really enjoyable and added energy to the exercise. I thought it was really useful to know that changing certain parts of your singing can totally change how the exercise is performed to make it more interesting.

A simple action like jumping up when the month we were born in was actually quite difficult. Suddenly, there was a pressure added and the characteristics dropped because I was concentrating on something else. I’m hoping by becoming more confident in singing that actions and gestures won’t be so difficult.

I didn’t have any problems with pitching but I feel like I lost my diction as the pace of the exercise increased, this is something I’m going to work on to improve.

"The Little Green Frog"

Next we learnt another little song:

"Mm-m, went the little green frog one day,

Mm-m, went the little green frog,

Mm-m, went the little green frog one day,

And the frog went mm-m, ahh.

But we know frogs go sha-lal-ala,

Sha-lal-ala,

Sha-lal-ala,

We know frogs go sha-lal-ala,

They don’t go mm-m, ahh

And we know frogs go PING in the microwave,

PING in the microwave,

PING in the microwave,

We know frogs go PING in the microwave,

They don’t go mm-m, ahh."

With this song we added in actions and movements such as poking out our tongue after "mm-m", clapping before "sha-lal-ala" and opening our hands when singing "PING".

This was the longest song we had learn so far, most of what we were doing was just a chorus or a line. This already presented the exercise to be fairly more challenging compared to the others.

Keeping the pace of this song was fairly challenging as you were doing actions, whilst singing a lengthy song and also having to stick your tongue out – which is harder than you would think!

This song was quite similar to "Mr. Rabbit" and I thoroughly enjoyed it because it was fun and slightly silly! The sooner I got use to the words – which didn’t take too long, showing my memory is improving slowly – I was really enthusiastic when singing it.

We practiced the song several times as a class which helped me to familiarise myself with the movements. The exercise was a slight tongue twister as sticking your tongue out had to be a fast pace movement or all diction would go. When we sung it a final time I was confident and really enthusiastic! This type of warm up really suits me because it’s fun but needs focus.

I am going to go through this outside of class to really work on adding actions to songs as this will help me when performing songs as characters.

‘What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor’

We then went onto sing:

"What shall we do with the drunken sailor,

What shall we do with the drunken sailor,

What shall we do with the drunken sailor,

Ear-ly in the morning.

Hooray and up she rises,

Hooray and up she rises,

Hooray and up she rises,

Ear-ly in the morning."

We began by singing this as a class; most of the class knew this song so it wasn’t hard to grasp the words. We were then split into three groups to create the harmony.

These groups were:

• Bass
• Alto (me)
• Sopranos

The boys sung bass whilst the girls sung were altos and sopranos. The altos were the lower singers and the sopranos the higher. I was an alto as I have a lower voice.

The boys were bass as their voices were low with a deep pitch and a loud volume.

The soprano girls had higher voices and consisted of most of the girls in our class.

The altos didn’t consist of as many girls as the sopranos and were the girls who have the lower voices. I have a low voice so I was in this group. The altos weren’t as deep as the bass.

The bass group had to sing:

Hooray and up she rises,

Hooray and up she rises,

Hooray and up she rises,

Ear-ly in the morning.

Throughout the song they would only sing hooray in a deep and low pitch. They then joined in with "Ear-ly in the morning" missing the and up she rises.

The altos sang the same as the bass but a slightly higher pitch, the sopranos sand the whole song at an even higher pitch.

As a class this took a long time to really get used to even though it was just a short part of the song. Our lecturer had to go through the separate parts for the groups. When we had finally rehearsed it a few times it sounded really creepy and had a menacing atmosphere to it. I thought it sounded really different and created something different.

All the other things we had down were very upbeat and happy so to hear and perform something contrasting was a great experience.

I couldn’t believe how using harmonies can really create an energetic and atmospheric performance. Harmonies are something I really would like to work on more and have as a skill to use.

In conclusion, as a class, all these warm ups were improved from last week. As we knew what we were doing there were more confidence and with the confidence the exercises were much stronger. Developing the exercises kept them fresh and worked and developed other singing skills.

There are now many singing exercises and warm ups that I think I could really use to help me before a performance.

I was very happy that I had practised Number Scales outside of class because I imagine I would have found the development difficult if I didn’t.

Last session I mentioned working on my breathing and I think that’s something I really need to work on as it came up today as something that needs work when performing the Sirening exercise. I need to be able to control my breath easily and efficiently. Practising the Sirening and Lip Trill exercise should help me with this.

I have now familiarised myself with the exercises so my aim is to focus on Sirening and Lip Trills so I can perform them without taking too many breaths.

Warm Ups and Workouts: Monday 16th September 2013: Session One

Monday 16^th September 2013

Session One

This session is the first workshop of our project “Warm Ups and Workouts”. 

Before we started our warm ups we were given information about correct posture whilst standing. The following is what to focus on to ensure correct standing and posture:

• Weight balanced - If the weight is balanced the performance will look relaxed. By balancing the weight equally your posture will be upright. 
• Shoulders relaxed - The more relaxed the shoulders are the more relaxed the body is. If you have tension in your shoulders then this can cause strain whilst performing, making you look like you're uncomfortable. If the shoulders aren't relaxed there will be strain on the spine and the chest won't be able to be held high. 
• Open chest - An open chest allows more control over breathing which is an essential part to singing. 
• Hands by your sides - The focus should be on your singing so if gestures/actions aren't needed then the hands should be relaxed at the sides. 
• Knees relaxed - Tightening or locking your knees can make your body tense and affect your breathing so every part of your body should be relaxed. 
• Feet in parallel - You should be standing with your feet in parallel slightly apart, grounded on the floor with the toes opined forward. This will help when containing a strong posture. 

Knowing how to stand is important when ensuring the best position to control breathing and performing confidently. I’m going to make sure to remember these simple positioning points.

Breathing

The first exercise was a simple breathing exercise. We placed our hands on our stomach and took some deep breaths in and out. When we breath in our stomachs should expand and the reduce when we breath out. Our lecturer could see if we were breathing correctly as a common mistake is the stomach reducing when breathing in, as people tend to tense it. Breathing needs to be controlled and relaxed.

Many of us brought our shoulders up when we breathed in. This created tension in our body, which needs to be avoided; so remembering to relax the shoulders when breathing is something everyone needs to ensure they do.

I find it interesting how breathing is such a significant factor of singing. I tend to take breathing for gradate as it comes naturally – there’s not much thought to it. Knowing that a strong control of breathing can improve singing is something I need to take into account so I can improve my singing skills during this unit. Preventing the struggle of breath is important when increasing confidence if you’re not a confident singer, like myself.

Vocal Warm Ups

Sirening

We began to warm our vocal chords with sirening. Sirening is where you take a sound and increase and decrease the pitch. We used the sound of an "n" and then developed it with the sound of "ng".

This is a visual representation of what the noise sounded like:

nnnnNNNNNNnnnnNNNNNNNnnnnnn

The sound reminded me of an emergency service siren. I tried to visualise this when performing the sound to really help me increase the pitch. This was quite a simple exercise but allowed us to warm the vocal chords gradually by familiarising them with different pitches. This will then prevent straining. The exercise focused on using the breath to really elongate the sound as long as possible.

I think as someone who wants to develop their singing skills as much as possible, sirening will be perfect when controlling breath and developing the skill of holding a note.

Sounds

The last exercise focused on elongating the sound by controlling the breathing. This exercise focused on using short amounts on breath. We created the sounds of "pft", "sh" and "tf" by making sure we contract our stomach muscles and using our breathing to create a powerful and strong but snappy sound.

There was far more concentration needed for this exercise compared to the last one. It was helpful to learn how to push the air and contract the muscles to really create a sharp noise efficiently.  

Number Scale

In this exercise we counted up to eight by adding another number one each time.

For example:

1.

1, 2, 1.

1, 2, 3, 2, 1.

1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

The pitch increased as we went up the numbers and then decreased as we went down. I find this exercise needed a lot of concentration, as diction was vital otherwise the numbers were not clear due to the fast pace of it.

I found this exercise the hardest as once I stumbled on one of the numbers I then couldn’t catch up and my confidence in performing the exercise increased. Many of my classmates were extremely confident when performing the exercise and had a clear diction and this really helped with their pitching on the numbers.

Unlike sirening, this needs a sharper and quicker change of diction instead of a smooth one. Both skills are needed in singing so to improve my pitch I will ensure to use these exercises.

Once our voices were warm, we could develop into singing without any worries of straining our voices.

"Happy Birthday"

We sung:

"Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear you,

Happy Birthday to you."

We started by going through the song altogether as a class and then we stood in a circle at first and sung each word individually. This involved strongly and carefully listening to the last word so your pitch was on cue.

I was slightly embarrassed during this exercise, as I didn’t want to sing in front of everyone. My pitching was really off and it didn’t sound right so my confidence really lacked. Obviously this exercise needed a strong concentration but as I was too focused on being embarrassed I couldn’t keep this concentration up and my part wasn’t in-tune or on-time.

As this was a song everyone knew very well the words wasn’t an issue it was the pitching. I think I need to improve my confidence skills and become comfortable with singing in front of people so that the exercise actually works. This exercise could be really useful to help with listening skills, which is something useful when developing our aural skills.

Jamaican Lullaby – "Janine Mama"

We sung:

"Janine Mama, Janine Mama, Janine Mama, Ohh, Janine Mama

Janine Mama, Janine Mama, Janine Mama, Ohh, Janine Mama

Ya tu suzika

Hey ya tumina

Ya tu ya mama

Nay ya mama

Tumina suzkia"

This was very different to the song we sung in the last exercise because no one knew it and wasn’t familiar to it. Our lecturer went through the song with us a few times and then we separated into two groups. One group started singing and the other group started singing. This is called singing-in-a-round. Focus and concentration was extremely important in this exercise.

As I wasn’t familiar with the song I didn’t exactly know what I was singing. This made my performance have a lack of confidence. The rhythm of the song was really beautiful which allowed me to think about my characterization and how I could portray this song as an actor.

Singing-in-a-round was new to me but I loved the sound it created! Other than the difficulty with lack of familiarization of the song, individual concentration was important. I had to resist not singing what the other group was singing as I was listening to them. As we performed the song in-a-round a few times I was far more familiar to my part and the sound altogether was really beautiful and natural. This showed me the more practice the easier it starts to become.

"Mr. Rabbit"

We sung:

"Mr Rabbit, Mr Rabbit your ears are mighty long,

Yes, my Lord, they've been put on wrong,

Every little soul must shine, shine, shine.

Every little soul must shine, shine, shine."

We went through the song a few times, which again was new to me. We were then given actions to do whilst performing the song. After going through the song with the actions, and then the actions without the song, we sung it in-a-round in four different groups.

I think adding actions to songs are really important to get used to multi-tasking as performers (dancers, especially) need to be able to sing and dance at the same time. This type of multi-tasking is difficult but will become gradually easier the more you do it. Although these actions weren’t difficult, focusing on two things at once can be confusing.

When we were told to do the actions without singing it, I was lost, as I had associated the actions with the words of the song. I had to sing the song in my head to confirm the timings so that the actions were accurate.

I realized the more I practiced the easier it became. When we sung it in-a-round it was very difficult to concentrate on what I was singing as there were so many others around me singing something else. I’m sure exercises like this will allow me to become more independent in my singing, a skill needed for harmony work.

I thought this was a great session to start with and I already have ideas one where I need to improve so I can develop my skills further.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this first session and I’m excited to learn more warm-ups and exercises, which will develop my singing skills, and I can then use these skills and apply it to a song.

I enjoyed singing "Mr. Rabbit" the most as once I had grasped the words and the actions I thought it was fun and I was quite enthusiastic towards it. I hope we learn more exercises, which feature short silly songs because it’s a great way to relax and warm-up before getting ready to sing!

I think I need to improve my diction and my use of breath. I’m going to perform the Number Scale exercise out of class so I familiarize myself with it.

This week’s aim is to familiarize myself with all the exercises so I can perform them with more confidence next week.