Importance of Vocal Warm-Ups before You Get Started
A warm vocal up is a series of exercise meant to prepare the voice for singing, narration, speeches, etc. The more you tone the vocal cords, the more versatile and flexible you are. In other words, if you get behind the microphone feeling relaxed and ready to take the task, your voice over is going to reflect that too.
There are five types of warm vocal ups that are explained below
- Stretch your Body – Voiceover is finally a job of the whole body and not just the throat. It is important to understand that we need to warm up completely before getting in the voiceover booth. Side stretches are great to expand the rib cages and making your lungs feel full of air. We need to take a deep breath and raise our arms up. Exhale and slightly lean to the left, lengthening in your side body. Hold it there for just a couple of seconds before you inhale to center, and then exhale over to the right.
- Humming and Lip trills – To loosen the facial muscles, a light and gentle humming are necessary, and it also creates space for the resonant sound. Lip trills and flutters will also help loosen facial muscles and get your vocal chords warmed-up. Even better, if you try them in the shower.
- Descending on Nasal Consonants – This helps in opening up the passage and making our voice quality sound better when recording. There are uber of ways this can be done. Take the English word onion for example. It’s quite nasal, particularly the second syllable – the ‘gn’ sound. Take that ‘gn’ sound and lovingly stretch it, slide it, and descend glissando style. Another way of doing this is by picking any word that ends in a Z, like buzz or fuzz. Linger on the Z to get resonating.
- Tongue Twisters – This helps in perfect pronunciation and enunciations. 5 Classic Tongue Twister Exercises -Unique New York, Unique New York, Unique New York…. (repeat and speed up as necessary), A big black bug bit a big black bear, She sells seashells by the sea shore, Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
- Yawns – awning helps to drop or jaws and regulates the oxygen as well as extends or palate. It also relaxes your throat muscles, vocal cords, and thus the tone drops. And the lower your voice is, the better it sounds.
