Warm-up tips
LIVE MUSIC 4: Breathing and body warm-up
a) Improving breathing exercise: Pinwheel exercise
You have also studied how important breathing is to keep oxygen in your blood and, of course, to produce a correct sound. This exercise will make you see what happens when your breathing is not deep enough. You have to take in a deep breath, and blow on the pinwheel to make it spin. Check how long it keeps spinning. Running out of air means the pinwheel will go slowly and if that happened while playing an instrument, it would mean going flat on a note. It is useful to do this exercises with a classmate.
b) Voice articulation warm-up. In unit 3 you had some exercises to start warming up your voice. Here you have some exercises with consonants.
S-sound. This exercise makes the diaphragm work and releases tension in the breathing mechanism that produces voice.
R-sound. This exercise is a tongue trill that helps relax the tongue while exhaling air. It is possible to practise different pitches while performing it.
Mum-sound. This exercise helps keep the larynx neutral and moves the resonance from the throat to the lips.
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c) Body warm-up Body warm-up is essential to loosen up muscles, joints and the whole body |
| Shoulder rolls |
| Knee circles |
so that you can prevent the risk of injury. It is also useful to raise your heart rate and blood flow, and consequently, the oxygen in your muscles. At the end of the training or dancing session, it is important to have some cool down time to smoothly reduce body temperature.Vocal warm-up videos by Lorena Varela (CC BY-NC-SA). Body warm-up videos by Teresa Suárez (CC BY-NC-SA)
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Neck side bends, back and forward bend and neck rotation
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| Long arm circles |
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Vertical jumps and jumping jack with no arms
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