Pick and mix

warm-ups for
your choir
Your can't-fail formula for
every choir rehearsal

totalchoirresources.com
 Pick 'n' mix warm-ups for your choir
Your can't-fail formula for every rehearsal

A warm-up session at the start of our choir rehearsals serves three important purposes. It gives
us a chance to relax and leave the stresses of our lives at the door, it gets our bodies and voices
ready to sing, and it helps to focus our concentration for the rehearsal ahead. We structure our
warm-ups using a three-part formula that hits all those targets.

1 PHYSICAL 2 VOCAL
The first part of our warm-up session Vocal warm-ups get the voice ready to sing.
focuses on gentle stretching and relaxation. Our voices are essentially muscular systems
Many of us carry tension in our necks and and they comprise many delicate parts. If we
shoulders, which can have a significant start singing full-throatedly without warming
impact on the quality of our singing.  up, we put unnecessary strain on the vocal
mechanism and we invite inflammation and
Always remind your singers to work within possibly permanent damage if we do it long-
their capabilities. You might think that it's term.
stating the obvious, but your singers may
try to copy you even if they're not easily It's also worth mentioning that while it's fine
able to.  to drink water during a rehearsal, it's more
important to drink plenty in the hours
beforehand to lubricate the soft tissues in
the vocal apparatus.
3 MUSICAL
This is the section of the warm-up session where you can help to develop your choir's
musicianship and ability to work as a team. The choir doesn't need to know that though -
they'll just be having fun!

You can tailor this part of the warm-up to focus on issues that are likely to crop up in relation
to your repertoire. One of the most effective ways to help to develop your choir is through
singing rounds together. Rounds are quick to learn, encourage independent singing and
create beautiful harmonies.

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Now we put the formula into practice. We've given you ideas for each of the three parts of
our warm-up formula. You can mix and match them, then try inventing your own.

1 PHYSICAL
Breathe in slowly through the Chew one, then two, Massage your scalp and face
nose. Blow out through the then three imaginary with your fingertips. Grin
lips like a horse ('lip pieces of gum. Swallow widely, stick your tongue out,
bubbles'). Do the same again, the gum! then finish with a big yawn.
but with a rolled 'r'. Finally,
try both together.

With softly-closed fists, gently 'pummel' your
chest (preferably with an accompanying
'Tarzan' noise!), shoulders, tummy, thighs
and anything else you can reach.
Breathe in slowly through the nose.
Sigh, louder and louder on each out-
breath. Add shoulders (hunched on the
in-breath, dropped on the out-breath,
then knees (bend them on the out-

2 VOCAL breath).

Pick a fricative consonant such as 'v' and pulse
five times on it. Start loud and get softer, or
vice versa. Work through other fricative
consonants: j (as is 'vision'), z, th (as in 'there').  Move the starting note up or down by a
Sing a descending major scale to 'ninga ninga,
ninga ninga, ninga ninga, ning ...' (breathing
halfway through). Move the starting note up
or down by a semitone and repeat. Focus on
getting plenty of tone in the 'ng' sound and
keeping the halfway breath quick and silent.
Sing an arpeggio using the pattern 1-3-
5-4-2-(7)-1. Sing the pattern twice, first
to a legato 'oo' then a staccato 'ah'.
semitone and repeat.
Hum a major scale from the tonic to the
fifth and back, using a pattern 1-2-1-3-1-
4 etc, and sliding between notes. Move
the starting note up or a down a by a
semitone and repeat.

Start on a single held note to 'ah'. Moving only your lips (not your tongue), change the vowel
sound to 'oh' then 'oo', then back again. Then start on 'ah' again and, moving only your
tongue, change the vowel sound to 'eh' then 'ee' then back again, so you end up with 'ah-oh-
oo-oh-ah' moving only your lips, then 'ah-eh-ee-eh-ah' moving only your tongue. Focus on
keeping the 'ah' space in the mouth and throat and not 'pinching' the sound when you
change vowels.

3 MUSICAL
We've created a bonus bundle of 5 simple rounds for your choir. You can download it, plus
audio demonstrations for parts 2 and 3 of our warm-ups formula, by going to:- 

totalchoirresources.com/warmupsaudio