When to do vocal warm ups
Professional Vocal Warmup 1 - "Opening Up The Voice"
hi I'm Eric arsenal and welcome to your
a approach daily vocal warmup I'm gonna
make this intro very quick yes I am a
professional vocal coach slash vocal
health consultant you've seen my clients
and televised vocal competitions
you've seen them in lead roles on
Broadway and they're signed to a
plethora of major record labels and now
I want to share with you some of the
exact same techniques that I use with my
professional clients this vocal warmup
consists of four videos and every single
video will have annotations on the side
one of these sides with intro
coordination and conditioning intro is
just me telling you the basic idea what
we're working on as well as the benefits
of whatever the exercise or technique is
for nations about how to actually do it
as well as common pitfalls that mini
vocalists encounter and ways to
troubleshoot and fix those issues and
coordination is the exercise itself
that's when you're ready to just get
right to it
especially after a few days of practice
you know what you want to do that's just
what you go to you just want to you know
condition your voice of course this
video has the additional welcome part to
it and after today you never have to
watch it again my advice to you is that
while it is tempting to go right to the
conditioning part then know that you
might be one of those who think well I
know how to do it watch at least for the
first week watch the coordination part
every single day I want to make this
very clear it's not enough to just go
through the motions your form and
technique is everything you would do
much more good for your voice by doing
five minutes of quality practice than 30
minutes of rushed hurried hurry
um half way practice you know what I
mean so pay attention to it form is
everything final thoughts for this
welcome number one do this every day it
is daily yeah
you want to go through the whole thing
every day effectively before I get any
emails about it number two this is good
for any genre any either sex it doesn't
matter if you sing rock music doesn't
matter if you sing gospel music vocal
warm-ups and vocal technique doesn't
necessarily work that way so it doesn't
matter if you guys I want to sing scream
oh I want to sing blues still do the
same thing this is about making your
voice healthy reliable and that's pretty
much that but uh and making it more
powerful so keep that in mind so without
further ado let's go on to the actual
lesson part of the video oh and I almost
forgot if you're interested in taking
one on one lesson to myself or one of my
associate coaches go to a approached
comm for skype lessons or in-person
lessons or find out when I'll be in your
city or country with my book workshop
tours okay that's it
[Music]
we're gonna start with a body warmup and
I know that some vocalists that will
seem strange because your vocal cords
are here your diaphragms around here but
the rest of your body muscles affect
your vocal cords in your diaphragm
immensely we've all experienced the
tight throat we hate it we we know what
it feels like to not have this helping
us we hate that we know about tension in
the shoulders we've got to release up
here and engage down here and this video
is going to help you to do that
the body warm-up reduces strain it
improves fullness in the upper range
making belting a lot easier and it helps
to eliminate vocal fatigue one more
special note don't let the simplicity of
these exercises fool you they are really
easy to do they're really easy to give
but before you just brush them off as
being too simple or too silly try them
once if you're in the privacy of your
home nobody even has to know the worst
case scenario you'll waste 5-10 minutes
of your life and I'm sorry because you
don't get it back but the truth is it
works I promise you so do this stuff and
then sing a little song that you've sung
a billion times before and notice how
different it feels as well as how much
better it sounds it works don't be
fooled by the weirdness welcome it
welcome the weirdness it's yours use it
we're gonna release some body tension
starting with the throat okay so what I
want you to do is yawn yes
I know it can be hard to yawn on command
but I want you to try you've been
yawning all your life you know how to do
this and you have the ability to trigger
it it's just an ability that you may not
have made use of because you may not
have had to but I want you to try it now
and as you yawn I want you to pay
attention to the inside of your throat
because you can keep you on and as I
talk just yawn and pay attention that's
stretching feeling it's not the throat
notice how your airway and your throats
mixtures completely releases this is not
the way I want you to sing but just as a
warm-up exercise you can really release
a lot of tension up here and it can also
help to release diaphragm of it so I
want you to get this yarn and allow the
throat space to just open up use it a
few more times if you want if you want
to pause the video you can not we can
just keep going the other thing is yes
we want this to be relaxed but we want
this to engage when I say this I mean
the lower abdominal muscles well low
chest low abdominal muscles your sides
your back ribcage muscles we want to
feel it down here we don't want this to
squeeze and tightened up but we do want
this to reflexively do it it's not
something I want you to force to happen
is something I want you to allow to
happen so for that I wanted it to a
gentle a chisel chancel call so we're
gonna coffee at leas if we're clearing
our throats like
and I want you to be aware of what
happens that is muscular region you
should feel some little contractions
super gentle now not so gentle with
where you can't feel it but just enough
again you feel it
we just reminding your body this is what
I want and so what I want you to do now
that we're moving on to some light
gentle lip rolls I want you to focus on
letting the throats face stay relaxed
and allowing the body to work so throat
is relaxed and the body gets to work a
little bit we don't need this if you
relax the shoulders if you relax the
neck
this will join in so let's start let's
make some sound with it so what we're
gonna do is a lip roll in case you're
not familiar
instead of ah we do we're now actually
gonna even do any skills right now we're
just gonna take a breath let it come out
lip roll try it just just where it's
comfortable no particular note you don't
to match mine oh just a comfortable
within your speaking voice range good
now we're gonna work on teaching our
bodies to make the sound without
engaging the neck so you're gonna feel
stupid in case you're new to these
videos let me just say a lot of the
stuff you're gonna do is stupid at least
this house for us how it makes you look
but it works and when we're done you're
gonna be like oh that's amazing and so
just just be stupid with me for now
you'll reap the benefits I promise so I
want you to shake your head from side to
side like you're saying no I tell my
clients just think like you're in a
shampoo commercial be like we got
botanicals and stuff in your hair and if
your hair is this bouncy it's that
gentle shake it's not stiff this gentle
and I want you to lip roll with this I
want comfortable
and see if you feel these muscles
jumping in just a little bit if it'll be
more subtle than the COFF but you might
feel gentle contractions around the
abdomen the sides in the back I don't
want you to force it but you allow it to
happen good now let's play with the
range a little bit we're gonna go from
head voice down to chest voice
so from this voice down to this voice so
instead of ah we're gonna go try that
really gentle way to wake up your range
but I want you to add the head turn
thing no it's like the petrous head rub
your stomach thing
but distract those neck muscles and one
more time okay good
you'll also get used to me randomly
singing stuff um it happens and it's
contagious anyway let's move on so you
could do that longer if you want again
if it feels good then you could do more
it feels good well I get sued for using
that a little bit over there Tony Tony
Tony song I hope not um anyway so the
next thing we're gonna go to is going
from chest voice it's a head voice so
coin from the bottom voice up into the
top and this is normally where the
stress and the pressure comes where
people want to start to squeeze so I got
a little cure for that we're gonna hunch
our shoulders really high I know it
looks crazy and they're just gonna let
them flop and this is gonna simply
disengage those muscles these muscles
that want to try to stop you when you're
going up because everything is connected
if you start to tense here it's gonna
cause a chain reaction of tension it's
just going to stop everything so we're
gonna lift lift and then so just from
bottom to the top from chest voice up
it's ahead boys
it's like going uh-huh but we're doing
it with a lip roll just try that with me
while I'm talking so shoulders up and
you should feel like this is nothing
your voice moves in your upper
body does not so when you lift up
tighten up you know really good tight
and then just release completely
this let them plop so I'm not doing this
I'm not making them come down
no I'm tight and tight and tightening
and then I just let go I feel that plop
don't do this too much I don't want you
to dislocate your shoulders but just
let's do it one more time reach reach is
that simple that simple make sure
nobody's in front of you because if
stuff gets on it's embarrassing okay so
let's try that again lift lift lift good
last one hip sockets your pelvic floor
has more to do with your singing that a
lot of singers are aware of and a lot of
voice teachers give credit for we tend
to think of the diaphragm is being like
a stomach thing and the muscles of your
abdomen do help control the diaphragm
the muscle of your torso will help with
the diaphragm a lot and helps to
stabilize it and control it for singing
um and the pelvic floor is a part of
that torso muscle family that helps your
diaphragm to do what it has to do so if
we're tight in the hip sockets or in the
knees it again causes the chain reaction
of tightness so a simple solution is
we're just gonna do a slight Bend so the
same we did the shoulder drop and then
going up we're gonna you're gonna kneel
down so body goes down voice goes up
almost like being in a ballet class
only I might not be that graceful so
let's do it again again starting from
down and working our way on up that's
all we're doing alright even if you're
sounds weak even if your voice sounds
like you're starting down here and then
that's okay just keep practicing it make
sure you don't squeeze this alright so
again alright now we're gonna go from
head voice to chest voice so we're gonna
start up here and then work our way down
here but we're still gonna bend down why
because I don't want you to think of
reaching up for high notes because it's
a surefire way to clinch muscles
let me brace ourselves behind us when we
tighten up and then
participation then we just we tighten up
that's exactly we do I said it wrong we
tighten up in anticipation I don't want
you doing that I want you to think of
releasing let's just so sink to the
floor for the high notes Oh
let your voice go down with your body
and again it doesn't have to be that
strong oh that's fine but with the lip
roll oh why do I like adding lip rolls
engages the diaphragm in a wonderful way
and balances the pressure between the
diaphragm the vocal cords it really
teaches them to work together
harmoniously very easily any of these
exercises that we did feel free to do
longer if you go to this video again
just continue to do the particular
exercise or release maneuver while I'm
talking it's that simple if you want to
spend longer on any of these feel free
they're very gentle very easy to do um
they teach your body very foundational
things don't overlook the power of a
yawn don't let the simplicity fool you a
yawn is powerful a gentle cough to be
aware of these muscles is powerful lip
rolling and doing these weird movements
powerful sing the song that you always
sing like when I'm when you're done with
this video sing as long as you always
sing something that you're familiar with
something that you know how you sound
and you know how it normally feels and
watch how different it sounds and feels
just after doing this you might be
surprised and after you do that then
I'll see you in the next video
