- A vocal warm up doesn't need to employ fancy singing exercises to be super effective. Today, I'm gonna walk you through a straight forward
collection of activities perfect for the beginner singer. Especially designed and organized to prepare your voice
for excellent singing. Let's go. - [Woman] Sound check. - [Woman] Check one, check two. (cheering) - G'day, I'm Dr Dan. Welcome to Voice Essentials,
where everybody sings. Recently I've noticed
a lot of chatter online about the necessity of vocal warm up. Well, are they necessary or aren't they? We live in a fast-paced world and no one wants to be left behind, so I guess it's all too
easy to find ourselves looking for easy shortcuts. For example, what we'll be covering today when done diligently, will take between 10 to 15 minutes. Now, for some people, even 10 minutes feels like a lifetime. Especially when the
activity is a discipline. In many respects, vocal warm ups are an exercise in delayed gratification. We all wanna get straight
to the fun stuff, the songs, but for most voices singing songs without vocal warm up can mean the voice will
not be able to sing as many songs, both
short-term and long-term. A vocal warmup is all
about preparing the voice, a mechanism whose moving
parts are mostly muscle. Your muscles need to be ready for use. Cold muscles are susceptible to injury and they also don't perform as well. Muscles need heightened blood flow when placed under load and if you're a contemporary singer, you know all about vocal load. So, let's now walk through,
or in this case sing through, a collection of vocal exercises that will prepare your voice for singing longer and stronger. It is vital for me to note that you will have to adjust the
activities we'll cover today when applying them for your voice. Each of the exercises
I'll be singing through can be found on my exercise CD "Dr. Dan's Voice Essentials". Together "Voice Essentials" One and Two have over 30 activities
designed to workshop the voice. Today we'll mostly be
using tracks from CD one. Now, I'm going to stand
up as I do the exercises and I strongly encourage
you to do that also. And I'm also going to use the tracks from the exercise CD, just like you will also so you can see how the
whole thing comes together in a real world setting. So, let's do it. Okay, so let's take us through
these exercises together. I'm just going to be playing
them on a mobile device, just like I've encouraged you to do. And we're just gonna go through them. These are the raw tracks. I'm not gonna be doing
any doctoring to them. I'm literally going to work through them as I would encourage you to do also. So you'll hear the intros to the tracks. The whole thing is gonna
take around about 10 minutes. What I would encourage you to do is make sure you download the
tracks and you sing along, and organize the tracks for yourself so that you're not simply
singing along with me. Although you can do that, but it's always much better for you to sing the tracks yourself. Sing to the tracks yourself. So, let's get started. - [Recorded Instructor] Exercise eight. - To start with I'm just
gonna do the mm-ah activity. And then we'll actually repeat it and do the mm-ee. But I'm not gonna go to high. I'm gonna stay relatively confined, yeah. So, probably just an octave and a bit. So, here we go. - [Recorded Instructor] Here we go. ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ ♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ - Nice and gentle. ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ ♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ ♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ ♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ One more. ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ ♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ Now notice I'm being
relatively gentle with it. I'm not taking it to far to quickly. Let's do it again on a
changed vowel, an E vowel. This is gonna focus it in. And I'm gonna have to work a
little bit more for my balance. - Exercise eight.
- Here it comes. - [Recorded Instructor] Has been designed for us to establish forward placement. Placement's the word we give to a sense of where the voice sits
along the vocal tract. Listen carefully to this example. ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ ♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ - So here we go, mm-ee. - [Recorded Instructor] Here we go. ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ ♪ Ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee ♪ ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ ♪ Ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee ♪ ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ ♪ Ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee ♪ ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ ♪ Ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee ♪ ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ ♪ Ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee ♪ ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ ♪ Ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee ♪ Let's take this a little bit higher. ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ ♪ Ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee ♪ - [Recorded Instructor]
And now for the ladies. ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ ♪ Ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee ♪ - And that's where I'd hop off. The next exercise is a twang activity. Actually no, at first we're just gonna do a straight talk tribe on a vowel which will actually
require the voice to step, a slightly larger step. So we've gotta balance and
keep everything nice and free. Here we go. - [Recorded Instructor]
Exercise three is a triad with simultaneous concept. - We'll get to the twang in a moment. I would like to include at
least one twang activity in my warm ups which we'll do after this. ♪ Ya, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ - [Recorded Instructor] Okay guys, it's our turn to kick this one up. Here we go. ♪ Ya, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ ♪ Ya, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ ♪ Ya, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ ♪ Ya, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ ♪ Ya, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ ♪ Ya, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ - Not pushing. ♪ Ya, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ ♪ Ya, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ ♪ Ya, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ One more. ♪ Ya, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ Now let's get straight
to the twang exercise, which is going to focus the voice in. That's what I love about
including it in my warm up. It just helps me to find
that nice clear tone as a part of my vocal warm up. Here we go. (fingers snapping) ♪ Sing, nn, nn, nn, nn ♪ - [Recorded Instructor]
Okay basses, kick us off. ♪ Sing, nn, nn, nn, nn ♪ ♪ Sing, nn, nn, nn, nn ♪ ♪ Sing, nn, nn, nn, nn ♪ ♪ Sing, nn, nn, nn, nn ♪ ♪ Sing, nn, nn, nn, nn ♪ ♪ Sing, nn, nn, nn, nn ♪ ♪ Sing, nn, nn, nn, nn ♪ ♪ Sing, nn, nn, nn, nn ♪ One more. ♪ Sing, nn, nn, nn, nn ♪ Now notice I'm not really
being overly technically attentive to what I'm doing. I never switch my technical ear off but equally these warm ups are not about a technical
work out of your voice. These warm ups are about toning and getting blood flow into the muscles. So, let's now go to the next one which starts to take the voice
out over the full octave. Yeah, so it's an alternating vowel. And we're now starting to
really stretch the voice out over it's full range. - [Recorded Instructor] Okay
gentlemen, take it away. ♪ Ee, ah, ee, ah, ee, ah, ee ♪ ♪ Ee, ah, ee, ah, ee, ah, ee ♪ ♪ Ee, ah, ee, ah, ee, ah, ee ♪ ♪ Ee, ah, ee, ah, ee, ah, ee ♪ ♪ Ee, ah, ee, ah, ee, ah, ee ♪ - Up into the upper registers. ♪ Ee, ah, ee, ah, ee, ah, ee ♪ Really stretching now. ♪ Ee, ah, ee, ah, ee, ah, ee ♪ ♪ Ee, ah, ee, ah, ee, ah, ee ♪ ♪ Ee, ah, ee, ah, ee, ah, ee ♪ Now another thing to notice is that I'm not getting
hung up over perfect notes. It doesn't matter whether
my pitch is a bit, you know, how's your mother. It really is about the muscle tone so don't focus in on
accuracy and perfection. Just get the muscles working. Always remember the task at
hand is the vocal warmup. The preparation of the musculature. Your entire instrument ready for singing. Now let's do some lip bubbles. I love lip bubbles and we're gonna do them
as a nine note scale and that's gonna really start to take us even higher than what we just did. - [Recorded Instructor]
Exercise 10 is not pitch heard. - Oh, wrong track.
- Exercise 15. - Here comes the next one. - [Recorded Instructor] Is
an ascending and descending major scale with a ninth note at the top. (fingers snapping) Make sure you sing each note being careful not to slur through the phrase. And here's the example. - Brr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr ♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ I sang the wrong track. - Here we go.
- Here we go. ♪ Brr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr ♪ ♪ Brr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr ♪ ♪ Brr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr ♪ ♪ Brr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr ♪ ♪ Brr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr ♪ Feeling nice and free. ♪ Brr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr ♪ ♪ Brr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr ♪ ♪ Brr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr ♪ ♪ Brr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr ♪ Couple more. ♪ Brr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr ♪ ♪ Brr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr ♪ Excellent. Now the last track is the only track we're gonna use from CD two. In fact, this the first
time I've ever shown one of the tracks from CD
two on one of my videos. This is a siren activity. Now, sirens are fabulous, but I always encourage
people to leave them until the end of their warm up and make sure you allow
that siren to stretch the voice right out once the musculature is
agile and warm in tone and then they will do you
and your voice wonders. So, we'll just wait for
the track to come along. - [Recorded Instructor] Let's get started. ♪ Brr, rr ,rr, rr, rr, rr,
rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr ♪ - Then you do a tongue trill. If you can't do a tongue
trill, do a lip bubble. ♪ Drr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr,
rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr ♪ Hum. ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm,
mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ And here comes and NG, one more. ♪ Sing, nn, nn, nn, nn,
nn, nn, nn, nn, nn, nn ♪ So make sure if you don't own
"Voice Essentials Two" yet, make sure you get yourself a copy and download it from my website. So, by now your voice should be starting to feel rather warm. Some people will even
feel a topical warmth throughout their neck. The whole idea is to slowly
but gradually warm the voice. And you can see the tracks
that I chose did that. To start with we didn't go for range. We just slowly but
surely massaged the voice out over the complete range. I've just taken approximately
10 minutes or so to do my complete vocal warm up. Now, some of you won't
need to take as long and a few of you will need
to take a little longer. What none of you should do is skip the vocal warm up altogether. Now if you haven't already done so, I encourage you to download my exercises and transfer the tracks
onto your mobile device so you can take the
MP3s everywhere you go. Now of course, your voice is
more than just your larynx. So, allow me to suggest
that you watch this video about full body vocal warm ups that will help to prepare
your entire instrument, your whole body for singing. I'll see you again soon. I'm Dr.Dan, sing well.
