✨ Week 1: Understand the Warm-Up

[Day 2] I would definitely want to maintain a flexible warmup approach as I want to work across genres... I imagine this would increase my daily practice time as I would need to add additional warmups to include whatever styles I'm working on that day. To save time, maybe I can warmup/practice in one style per day, and alternate my routine that way, versus warming up and practicing in both styles during a single practice session. 🤔

Tuesday prompt: 

Regarding static vs fixed, what I typically do is a mix. I do the same general things, but will vary the specifics based on the purpose of the warmup. If I'm singing for church, my warm-up tends to be longer and more wide-ranging because I know I'll have periods of time between singing when I won't be singing! The longer warmup helps me maintain some flexibility. But if it's a regular day, I do a fairly simple and short warm-up which may or may not lead into a vocal workout, but helps me to prepare my voice for the day. My teacher encourages "playing" vocally throughout the day, so I don't necessarily spend dedicated blocks of time in practice, but live life as if I'm in a musical - bursting into song at random points in the day (doing dishes seems to be a favorite time for a song!). 

Typically, I am warming up for either practice or a lesson. I am not currently doing any performing since I have only been back to singing for the last 10 months (though I would love for that to change as some point). I try to keep my warm up to around 10 minutes which is typically all that I need (at least from my perspective). It is often a transition from working to singing so my top goals are as follows: 1. breathwork to help bring me a sense of calmness and focus 2. postural work to help get me into proper alignment after being at a desk and also because I have hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and 3. lip trill work to begin to gently engage my voice and allow for a smooth transition into some of the technical exercises I am working on. I tend to work on repertoire last. 

Wednesday:

My daily vocal demands are more speaking than singing, typically (fitness/personal training, teaching stretching classes, teaching children's gymnastics), and each type of teaching involves a different challenge! My voice teacher has offered to teach me his daily warm-up that he does upon waking to prepare him for a day of whatever the world throws his way (i.e. teaching, speaking, singing - he's active in the opera world). I think I'll take him up on that offer.

For me, I want my warm-up to (1) literally warm up my body, (2) energize/activate the breath and remind myself about support and relaxation, and (3) remind me to "sit back" in my voice rather than "lean forward" into it (I don't know how to explain that any better, but it's a specific feeling that helps me remember how to use my voice throughout all the speaking I do).

While there is some comfort in having a fixed warm up in the sense of familiarity, in general I think some level of flexibility feels better. I tried doing fixed warm ups when I first got back into singing, but each day can feel a bit different. I find this to be less true when I play piano, but for voice things like time of day, whether my allergies are acting up, how much speaking I have done  already, the weather, sleep, and even how tight I am can impact how I sing. I think the flexible routine feels better because I can address at least some of these issues. On a day when I am tight it might impact my posture and I might need some stretching or other postural exercises. If I have had a stressful day more breath work can be helpful. I might do more lip trill work or some of the Alexander technique work that incorporates some phonation that my teacher has given me if it is a day where my voice is a bit tired or if I am dealing with allergies. I think having this flexibility to pick what I need on a given day/moment is probably more ideal.

I like fixed it’s more comfortable like a pair of sweats, but it’s better to be flexible for me to meet my goals, so if I’m not feeling that well I go with tried and true, and if my health or energy is in a better place than I’m freer to experiment.

I like to begin my warmup with a cup of coffee followed by a glass of room temp water. I do some simple yoga stretches of the neck and body with focused breathing and then begin vocalizing with humming. Then lip trills and some light sirens.  I warmup the upper and lower registers separately and then end with some glissandos over the passaggio to see what’s up with  that today. 

Ideally I would like to create a fixed warmup so I am not tempted to jump into exercises right away. As a mature singer (I’m 62) who is returning to singing after many years of not singing I’m getting to know my voice as it is now slowly and hopefully lovingly. 

Thursday:

I preferred the flexible routine. It can adapt to vocal changes more easily, and I can be more free in what I choose to do depending on how my voice feels and sounds as I warm up. 

Friday:

I've chosen a flexible warm-up since the demands on my voice change from day to day and it seems to be helpful for me to have more freedom in what I choose for each day.