Warm Ups and Workouts: Monday 7th October 2013: Session Four

Monday 7th October 2013

Session Four

As always, we made sure our posture was correct which is something that I think all of us are used to and comes naturally without our singing teacher having to go through every key point of posture each lesson. 

We then began the warm up exercises. From our previous sessions we had learnt many different warm ups. 

Today we performed the following warm up exercises: 

• Sirening
• Number Scales
• "Mr. Rabbit" 
• Jaw Relaxation - "Ya, ya, ya, ya, yaaa"
• Opera No's

I have really found that from practising these warm ups in the sessions and outside I have improved and developed singing skills, such as:

• Correct Posture and Alignment
• Relaxed Body
• Breath Control
• Clarity and Diction
• Concentration
• Pitching
• Jaw and Mouth Engagement 
• Characterisation
• Confidence
• Memory 

Some I have made bigger improvements compared to others but I am noticing that my singing skills have developed through these past four sessions. I know the more I perform these exercise the better I will become and will then help me further and develop myself as a performer. With the help of our singing teacher I have knowledge of the correct posture and focusing on the different and important aspects needed to sing. 

After we warmed up our voices we went onto another Calling and Responding exercise. 

Sirening

Sirening is something I have learnt to really find useful when warming up the voice. I am now able to do the Lip Trill without pushing my cheeks back which I am very happy with! With my practise of controlling my breath I have gained a technique of breath control which doesn't just help me with this exercise but all of the exercises we do. 

I also realised that Sirening helps with knowing the difference between the "head voice" and the chest "voice". Performing the Sirening exercise is much easier by having that transition from both voices. Before I didn't really know what they were, but I have gained knowledge and understanding from this exercise. 

Number Scales

I have always found this exercise fun as it's upbeat. By performing this exercise I have developed my pitching skills and also my clarity and diction. Before, when I sung the numbers they were rushed and my accuracy was poor, as I familarised myself with this exercise I can perform it confidently even though it's fast pace. 

I also like how simple this exercise is, you can do it independently without relying on a piano to exercise with the concentration on diction. Diction is especially useful when performing Musical Theatre which is something I have a interest in.

"Mr. Rabbit"

I have found that the actions come naturally with this song through practise. This is a useful observation as in a dance number associating the words of the song with the dance move will allow a more accurate performance of the dance and the song overall. 

By doing slightly silly exercises like this I have gained a lot of confidence because any inhibition I use to have is now gone and I'm comfortable with performing exercises like this whether it's independently or in a group. 

I think learning short songs has been exercising my memory too which is useful because to learn songs accurately and efficiently you want to possess a good memory. 

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

Although this exercise was only introduced to us last week, I have still found it really helpful. I have a habit of tensing everything due to my slight lack of confidence (which has improved vastly with this proved). Relaxing the jaw is important to perform notes smoothly but it also slowly warm ups the voice without being to harsh and sudden. 

Opera No's

This exercise really helped me to think about characterisation when singing, as an actor this should come natural to me but placing that focus and awareness allows me to include simple gestures which have a great impact on the performance making it more interesting to watch.

Calling and Response

We developed the Calling and Response exercise from last week by instead of doing it in a big group we were split into pairs. 

Our singing teacher gave us some details to pay attention to:

• Volume
• Pitch
• Pace
• Tone 
• Timing
• Note Length

In order to distinct we need to really be accurate and these factors will help us perform with accuracy and attention to detail. 

The task was, in our pairs, to each sing a line to your partner that they will repeat and then your partner sing a line to you and you repeat. This was a chance to practise for the assessment next week. We had some time to go through it in our partners and then we all performed it to each other in class. Alison wrote notes down on what we could do to improve. 

Lea sung a line from "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac for me to copy: 

"I took my love, I took it down."

I sung a line from "For Good" by Wicked for Lea to copy: 

"Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes the sun."

Our feedback from our singing teacher was positive but we needed to sing more of the song to copy if we wanted to distinct. 

I liked that this time we were in partners because we could help each other and listen closely to that person and concentrate on them to give them feedback as an individual. 

I didn't know Lea's song so that was quite challenging for me to repeat but this challenge was good chance to see if my practising songs outside of lesson had paid off. I felt like I was successful with repeating the line as I focused on what our singing teacher had given us. 

I still think Calling and Response is something I need to focus on and improve as it's an important singing skill to have and it's also part of our grading critera. 

In conclusion, I thought this was a really productive session, especially as we have our singing assessment for this project next week. 

I was happy that I have familarised myself with the exercises we have to learnt as I am now fully confidence and I know my skills as a performer are developing. I find it really interesting how just having the knowledge of warming up can really benefit a performer and develop their skills and knowledge. 

I am going to continue work on the Calling and Response exercise outside of class with help from some of my class mates in preparation for next week's assessment.

My aim is to be able to walk into the assessment feeling knowledgeable and confident by going over everything we have learnt in this project.