Matthew's Journal

This is probably less than helpful because I am not pointing you at a place where there is a list of suggested warm-ups, but most of the choir directors I have sung under have used slightly different techniques. I have probably sung about 12-15 different kinds of warm-up exercises which do different things in terms of range, breathing, accuracy etc.

I have asked Ewt, who is hugely more qualified to comment what with being a msuician and a choir director, and her short answer is 'no,there is no set practice, but some people have thought about it more systematically'. She says that Nancy Telford wrote a book called something like 'Vocal Warm-Ups' covering them, and that she (Ewt) usually starts her choir off with some posturey stuff and breathing stuff bfore singing. She adds that vocal chords are a muscle so you want to warm up as much of the range of the muscle as you can, but not too quickly.

I used to sing in a choir where the director was an RCM singing teacher. Her warm ups were the most effective of all the choirs I have attended. They varied each week. They generally consisted of

- some movement - shrugs, neck rolls, wiggling hands and arms
- breathing exercises - initially not vocalised breathing in on a count, holding for a count and breathing out for a count, with the holding and out counts increasing, followed by breathing out on a count while singing a steady note
- singing exercises, such as scales or arpeggios with useful sounds eg "meh-oh" (not may-yo), "ti-ti" up and "ta-ta" down, "zing, zing-a-ring x3, zing-a-rah x5", where the start note of the scale moved up, then down, to extend the range.

She also did a warm down, singing something familiar (but new each term) which was short, fun (often a canon), not too difficult in terms of vocal range, neither pianissimo nor forte and soothing (because it was 9pm and we had study/work the next day and needed not go home on too much of a choir "high".)

Every conductor I've sung with has done something different (in several cases, nothing at all, although just beginning with singing through the hymns pretty much worked for me). I once wrote down the typical warmups used by one of them, but I've no idea if there was anything scientific in it.