Warm up exercises:

A physical warm up is a great way to start as it gets the blood flowing and increases the
air-flow. This can take the form of activities such as marching on the spot, stretching and other low-impact moves that warm up the upper body.

Good breathing starts with filling up with air so that the diaphragm is pushed down and the chest is not raised into a tight position. Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart, legs straight but knees not locked. Your head should be in a neutral balanced position with your chin not raised or lowered.

Fill up with air so that the chest stays relaxed and the air pressure is felt in the lower abdomen, your tummy should push out creating pressure on your belt. Maintain this pressure as you breath out and continue until you are empty of air, to do this you will need to push your tummy in as you exhale. When you are empty of air, relax your tummy muscles and air will flow quickly into your lungs.

Start off with some simple sighing, yawning and humming:

Sighing: Start on a pitch that is relatively high for your singing voice and then let the pitch fall rapidly. This will have the effect of stretching the muscles that control your pitch and getting them ready for singing.

Yawning: Always good to get this done at the start of a session - a good yawn will really stretch parts of your mouth and increase the flow of blood into your lungs and larynx.

Humming: Hum some scales starting at a low pitch and hum up and down an octave.

Scales are great for improving your overall tuning accuracy, listen to some of these and then sing them in your own pitch.

Basic scale: Doh Ray Me Fah So La Ti Doh
Sing the Doh Ray Me words and then try the same scale with a vowel sound such as 'AH' or 'EE'

Here are some examples recorded in C major

Back to the root: Doh Doh Ray Doh Me Doh Fah Doh So Doh La Doh Ti Doh Doh Doh
It will be a challenge to sing this with the Doh Ray Me words but you could sing numbers

One set ascending and one set decending

Up two down one: Doh Me Ray Fah Me So Fah La So Ti La Doh Ti Ray Doh
Just sing this with an AH or EE or one of the other vowel sounds

Try all of these in a key that suits you

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Steve Wankling