Warm-up Script

Breathing/ Posture INHALE> lift arms to sides and stretch overhead EXHALE>release arms back down to mountain pose. Your feet are firmly planted in the ground, like an old tree whose roots have been growing for hundreds or years. INHALE> Your breath is energy, rising up from the earth through your trunk EXHALE> and releasing out through the top of your head. *on the next exhale, release arms towards the floor hinge from the hips and let your torso fall down into ragdoll. Stay here for a couple breaths. Your knees should be bent. As you inhale, notice any tensions your upper body might be holding and on your exhale release a little further into the pose. Your entire upper body feels like meat hanging off the bones. INHALE>as you inhale your way out of this pose, imagine that each vertebrae is aligning above your tailbone, starting from the lowest bone, one by one. The last vertebrae is in your head. Gently let the weight of your head roll around, finding its balance point with the rest of the spine. The spine is not forced into a straight line but rather is upright and healthily balanced. *draw spine on board Shoulders: Up-down-middle, forth-back-middle. Singing Posture: Your body is comfortably aligned but to sing healthily and to the best of your ability, it helps to make some slight adjustments. Your feet are still firmly rooted in the ground. As you inhale and feel your belly expand, imagine a shelf is being placed under your ribcage when its at its highest natural position. Your head is balanced without overusing any neck muscles. There are three strings attaching a helium balloon to the top vertebrae in your head and your two shoulders, helping you to stay tall as your muscles relax. As you inhale silently your throat feels open and your shoulders stay heavy. Breathing/ Posture/ Phonation: Ascending then descending a fifth, another fifth, then a ninth. He he he he, he he he he, hay hay hay hay, hay hay hay hay, haw haw haw haw, haw haw haw haw, haw haw haw haw, haw haw haw haw, haaaaw. Each syllable should be hard work for the abdomen, necessitating a belly breath full of air support. Set a slow pace. *start on D major and ascend by semitones. Breathing/Posture/Articulation: INHALE>set pace and audiate pitch EXHALE>Descending a fifth. Ooee ooee ooee ooee oooo. Exaggerate each vowel change. *start on D major and descend by semitones. Breathing/ Posture/ Range stretching: Say mhmmm! As if agreeing with your friend on the telephone, descending to the bottom of your range then ascending to the top. Inhale and exhale on your own time, staggered breathing when needed. The point is to feel your entire range on your own time, not to listen to the group or to complete the activity quickly. Change to uhhhuhh!, gradually opening to a full a vowel. Use rising hand gestures while pitch descends and lowering hand gestures while pitch ascends. This helps promote a healthy tone (i.e. demotes “pushing”). Breathing/ Posture/ Resonance/ Listening: Stand in a semicircle with basses at the center. No piano. One base chooses a pitch. The other bases listen carefully and join the pitch to add volume. After listening carefully and first audiating fifth above, the sopranos join. Then altos very softly add the major third. If tuning is off, start over. Sopranos change pitch rising one semi-tone, then return. Altos lower one semitone. Sopranos lower one semitone. Bases lower one semitone. Always allow time to listen in between changes.