How to Do a Vocal Warm Up
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- Category: English: Creative Writing
- Date Submitted: 03/31/2014 09:53 AM
- Pages: 4
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How to do a vocal warm-up
An actor's most important tool is his voice. To be at its best, it needs to be warmed up before meeting the demands stage performance makes. Here's how.
Difficulty Level: average Time Required: Ten minutes
Here's How:
1. Stand with hands by sides, legs slightly apart, head held so that you are looking slightly above eye-level
2. Give every muscle in your face a thorough work-out, twisting and stretching
3. Focus your attention on each part of the body, starting at the feet. Look for muscular tension and, where you find it, consciously relax the muscles
4. Breathe deeply, in through the nose and out through the mouth, taking the air as far down the body as you can, until you feel very relaxed. Feel the air pushing your diaphragm out
5. On the next five breaths, say each long vowel sound in turn, exaggerating the lip shape and stretching out the sound for the full exhalation
6. Repeat the short vowel sounds in rapid succession, then preface them by "b", then by "c", then "d", and so on through the alphabet
7. Yawn, then hum lightly for two minutes
8. Fix your eyes on the horizon and hum. Start off at a high pitch and lower the pitch as you go on. Try to direct your voice towards the point you're looking at
9. Hum, and as you do so, move your voice around - in the front of your mouth, in the back, in your nose, in your throat, in your chest
10. Run through the entire pitch range of your voice from top to bottom, simply using "Ha". Do this two or three times, then try to jump from the bottom to the top
11. Try a series of arpeggios (Do Mi So Do So Mi Do), beginning at the bottom of your range, and starting a tone higher for each repetition
12. Try some tongue-twisters. The important thing is getting the words right, even if you only say them very slowly
13. Repeat the lines "O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent to set against me for your merriment!" expressing a...
An actor's most important tool is his voice. To be at its best, it needs to be warmed up before meeting the demands stage performance makes. Here's how.
Difficulty Level: average Time Required: Ten minutes
Here's How:
1. Stand with hands by sides, legs slightly apart, head held so that you are looking slightly above eye-level
2. Give every muscle in your face a thorough work-out, twisting and stretching
3. Focus your attention on each part of the body, starting at the feet. Look for muscular tension and, where you find it, consciously relax the muscles
4. Breathe deeply, in through the nose and out through the mouth, taking the air as far down the body as you can, until you feel very relaxed. Feel the air pushing your diaphragm out
5. On the next five breaths, say each long vowel sound in turn, exaggerating the lip shape and stretching out the sound for the full exhalation
6. Repeat the short vowel sounds in rapid succession, then preface them by "b", then by "c", then "d", and so on through the alphabet
7. Yawn, then hum lightly for two minutes
8. Fix your eyes on the horizon and hum. Start off at a high pitch and lower the pitch as you go on. Try to direct your voice towards the point you're looking at
9. Hum, and as you do so, move your voice around - in the front of your mouth, in the back, in your nose, in your throat, in your chest
10. Run through the entire pitch range of your voice from top to bottom, simply using "Ha". Do this two or three times, then try to jump from the bottom to the top
11. Try a series of arpeggios (Do Mi So Do So Mi Do), beginning at the bottom of your range, and starting a tone higher for each repetition
12. Try some tongue-twisters. The important thing is getting the words right, even if you only say them very slowly
13. Repeat the lines "O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent to set against me for your merriment!" expressing a...