Use this exercise to warm up to on a trill or sigh.
Guiding tips for TRILLS:
- Aim for your larynx to stay in the middle without pushing it up or down as you move through your range.
- Keep your vocal folds in contact so that they vibrate together as opposed to allowing a breathy tone escape especially as you approach the higher notes of your range on the 5th.
- Also sustain a consistent volume level no matter what the pitch you are creating.
- Be aware of your tongue as you trill and try to sustain the same vowel position throughout as if sounding a relaxed 'u' sound as in the word 'bug'.
Major Scales to a Jazz Swing Beat
Use as a warm up on a Trill or singing Doo Bee
Use to affirm pitching the degrees of the scale by singing each number (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,8,7 etc) or using solfeggi (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do, re, do, ti etc)
- Sustain a consistent volume and air flow throughout, resist the temptation to use greater amounts of air to prop up the higher notes, this can lead to the vocal folds separating or strain in response to the change
- For warm ups sing from the middle of your range up and down, resist the temptation to sing for achievements sake as opposed to ease and efficiency. The main objective is to warm up not push for higher or lower notes, this can lead you to practising with possible strained or constricted notes.
- For individual issues that arise seek advise from your singing teacher.
Major 9 Arpeggios
An arpeggio is the notes of a particular chord arranged in sequence, starting from the tonic and leading up usually to the tonic one octave above. In this exercise you are singing the tonic, the major 3rd, Perfect 5th, Major 7th and the 9th notes of a Major scale.
Use this exercise to train your voice to sing the arpeggios and to become accustomed maneuvering from one interval to the other. Practise sustaining the breath throughout the sequences and also work with your range identifying how low or high your voice wishes to go on the day that you do the exercise.
- Trill your way through the exercise
- Sustain a fluid airflow and volume throughout without introducing more at the top of the range.
Ear & Pitch training:
- Sing the degree of the note for each key
- Slow down the video to clearly sing each pitch when you begin learning.
- Sing the degree before it is sounded and use the recording to clarify if you are in tune. This becomes your stepping stone to having memorised the degrees.
Additional learning opportunity:
- Identify each key then sing the note names eg:
Key is G
1st=G, 3rd=B, 5th=D, 7th=F#, 9th=A etc