CREATIVITY VOICE STUDIO

  VOCAL WARM-UPS

  

* stretch and yawn; do whatever you do to help yourself to feel deeply relaxed...

* take a deep breath (from the diaghpragm) and on the exhale say and extended hhhhhmmmmm
     repeat X 10 allowing the lungs to release all of the air.  Collapse your abdomen as you exhale.
* Do a hum-slide up and down your vocal range with "hhhhhmmmmmmmm."

* feel different parts of mouth and nasal area or "Mask/Mid-Range" vibrate with the different sounds:

             MMMM MMMMMMMMMM...                 ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...

                            EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...               NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN...

                 VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV...       Mum Mum Mum Mum Mum Mum Mum Mum Mum

* open your mouth , eyes, and face as wide as you can on the last syllable of:

Mumula Mumula Mumula Mumula Mumula Mumula Mumula Mumula

SILLY PHRASES

* each phrase features different difficult consonant combinations.
Start slow, over-articulating and then increase speed

Red letter, yellow letter~

Good blood, bad blood~

Eleven benevolent elephants~

Teaching ghosts to sing~

The big, black-backed bumblebee~

A critical cricket critic~

Selfish shellfish~

Really rural~

Unique New York~

The tip of the tongue, the lips, the teeth~

To titillate your tastebuds, we've got these tasty tidbits~

COGNATES

* Feel a pulse in your diaphram with the following sounds

unvoiced: PUH PUH PUH PUH PUH PUH PUH PUH

VOICED: BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH

unvoiced: TUH TUH TUH TUH TUH TUH TUH TUH

VOICED: DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH

unvoiced: KUH KUH KUH KUH KUH KUH KUH KUH

VOICED: GUH GUH GUH GUH GUH GUH GUH GUH

TONGUE TWISTER!

* This long tongue twister contains many buzz sounds and difficult
consonant combinations. It is possible to say all in one breath if you
use diaphramatic breathing and carefully control the volume of air
expelled. Articulate every sound!

What a to-do to die today at a minute or two to two,

a thing distinctly hard to say but harder still to do.

for they'll beat a tattoo at a quarter to two:

a rat-ta tat-tat ta tat-tat ta to-to.

and the dragon will come when he hears the drum

at a minute or two to two today, at a minute or two to two

The Secret to Vocal Health & Happiness - Singing Scales

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Barbara_E._Lewis]Barbara E. Lewis

           

Working on scales is an important part of learning how to control your voice. Many singers have told me that they do not believe in singing scales as a warm up to a rehearsal session or even before a performance.

Often, it is with a bit of embarrassment that a singer will admit - "I never thought that doing scales was important for me. I just sing and warm up as I go. Vocal warm ups and exercises - that's really more for classical singers, isn't it?"  No, that is not true. Vocal exercises are for everyone.

If you want to keep your voice in good shape, extend your range, learn how to manage your breath better, find more colors in your voice, have easier access to a variety of emotions or centre yourself before a rehearsal... find some scales that you like to sing and work on them daily.

What is a Singing Scale?

Scales are a series of notes that go up or down in pitch and have a distinctive, regular pattern to them. If you sing Mary Had A Little Lamb using just those first four words and you repeat them at different pitch levels (going higher and going lower), you will have an elementary type of singing scale. Mind you, most scales are not so melodious.

What scales should You sing?

Perhaps the easiest way to discover scales that work for your particular voice is to take a few lessons with a teacher who likes to work with singers like you. That is, find a respected teacher who knows and enjoys the music you sing and ask her/him to give you some appropriate scales for your voice and your current singing ability.

It is of no value for you to be singing scales that are beyond your means at this point. Having said that, I also believe that even the simplest of scales can be a benefit to the most advanced singers.

However, if you cannot or do not want to find a singing teacher, you can also consider buying one of the many pre-recorded CDs (or DVDs) created by singing teachers. While you will not get individualized scales and exercises, you can work at your own pace using the exercises on the tapes.

Scales for Everyone - and Scales for Certain Problems

Some scale patterns work for all of my students because they exercise the whole voice in ways that everyone needs, no matter their ability, age or song style. But there are also many scales that can help a singer with specific problems - such as singing high notes or finding a vibrato or learning how to keeping his/her breath steady.

Daily Vocal Exercises Have a Hidden Benefit

Overall, singing scales is an important part of learning about your voice, developing your voice and keeping your voice in good shape. But there is another less obvious benefit to these exercises.

I believe that when you sing them daily, you are learning how to maintain a precise and somewhat mysterious physical and mental co-ordination that creates an inner balance, that can keep you on stage and performing even when you are not in good health or when other singing conditions are not optimal.

To hear a short audio sample of singing scales, an advanced scale that helps vocalists learn how to manage faster moving notes, and learn about a [http://www.singing-tips-with-barbara-lewis.com/singing-scales.html]hidden benefit of doing daily vocal exercises, please go to [http://www.singing-tips-with-barbara-lewis.com/singing-scales.html]http://www.singing-tips-with-barbara-lewis.com/singing-scales.html.  

Barbara Lewis been a singer, songwriter and vocal coach for over 25 years. She has produced and/or co-produced several of my own original-music CDs as well as two television-quality music videos which play regularly on Bravo TV and Classical Arts Showcase.  She currently manages a teaching web site called, "Singing-Tips-With-Barbara-Lewis.com."

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Secret-to-Vocal-Health-and-Happiness---S
inging-Scales&id=3538397] The Secret to Vocal Health & Happiness - Singing Scales

TherapeuticVoiceWork encompasses many notions about vocalizing, singing and therapeutic methods for treatment and improving the voice. There are many areas of study with respect to voice therapy and several physiological and neurological voice disorders. However, there are psychological components effecting voice production and they are the focus of this article. Itis helpful to have a basic understanding of how sound is produced bythe vocal chords and other parts of the voice and helpful to have alittle knowledge about various physical disorders and treatments.

Vocal Hygiene

All voice rehabilitation should include the elimination of vocally abusivebehaviors such as throat clearing, habitual yelling or screaming,habitual breath holding, or glottal attack. Inhaled irritants such astobacco and toxic chemicals should be avoided. Gastroesophageal reflux,or chronic heartburn should be controlled. Itis important to not allow yourself to become dehydrated and you shouldfollow proper levels of fluid intake. Medications with drying potentialshould be minimized to optimize laryngeal hydration.

Five Main Categories of Voice Therapy:

Symptomatic voice therapy addresses the identification and elimination of vocallyabusive behaviors through facilitating approaches. These techniques facilitate a target or a more optimal vocal response by the patient.  Examples include auditory feedback, head positioning, laryngeal massage, and relaxation. Disorders of misuse or abuse benefit from this treatment philosophy. Psychogenicvoice therapy addresses the underlying emotional and psychosocialissues that are causing the dysphonia. People suffering from conversion dysphonia would benefit from this approach. Etiological voice therapy focuses on recognition and elimination of the cause(s) of the voice disorder(s). Muscle tension dysphonia may benefit from this approach. Physiologicvoice therapy, a type of biofeedback, involves the use of acoustic and aerodynamic analysis to direct the patient's vocal function back to objectively normative physiologic voice function.

Physiologic voice therapy may be useful on a patient with falsetto. Two alternate classifications of voice therapy techniques -

Direct and Indirect;
Direct techniques focus on voice production and include techniques such as the yawn-sigh method, optimal pitch establishment, and laryngealmanipulation. Indirect techniques focus on reducing the etiologic factor that cause the voice problem and include auditory training and patient education. Through a meta analysis, comprehensive voice therapy was effective in improving vocal performance in adults with Functional Dysphonia.