Suggested vocal warmups for men?
  • AngelaRAngelaR
    Posts: 319
    Hi all, I am here once again to imbibe the sweet wisdom that you have been so generous with in the past.

    The next couple practices with my men's schola will be spent with the best singers missing, and I want to take that opportunity to work more on chant technique, breathing, blending the upper and lower ranges, etc. I ESPECIALLY want to focus on how to sing the smooth line of chant, with its forward motion and seeking of what is beyond. Many of my men prefer to sing in the style of a "picket fence", as our cathedral music director aptly describes it.

    Being a female, and not trained in the male voice, I am rather at a loss. I understand the female voice quite well (I am a soloist), but know there are some big discrepancies. Can anyone help? I have my notes from Dr. Nam's classes at the Colloquium this summer, but anything else would be most appreciated!
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 762
    As a soloist, you will be familiar with exercises designed to encourage the cardinal singing virtues of line, support and open throat. They work for men as well as women, and are as necessary for ensemble singing as solo.
  • rwprof
    Posts: 25
    I burned a CD of several things we sing. I sing along in the car on the way to services to warm up.
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    We did a men's vocal workshop entirely different from a women's workshop, and it was quite useful. One of the great exercises to do is to explore the low end of their range, while positioning the throat and mouth as if you were singing something higher.

    Then explore the high end of the range, changing the voice box as if you were singing quite low. This helps to give you more consistency over the entire range, and more uniformity of sound.

    Men also tend to run out of air a lot more quickly than someone singing in a higher range, so I find it good to focus on where the men need to sneak breaths differently than women might. It was also very interesting in our workshop to explore the idea that you shouldn't take a lot more air than needed to sing the next phrase - for a reason I don't fully understand, taking overdeep breaths seems to encourage you to sound poorer. Maybe someone can explain that to me.

    I have been spending a lot of attention on what I call "the growl" - where sometimes men will put a gutteral sound on the beginning of a vowel which starts a phrase. I'm not sure why we tend to do this, but often men are unaware that this is going on.

    I'll be interested to see what other advice you get here!
  • kevinfkevinf
    Posts: 1,191
    Angela,

    One must distinguish between the baritone, tenor and bass voice. The three voices have specific questions to them. All of them are around the business of the "passagio". So, one must be careful to make general assumptions about all men.

    There are some general questions and warmups. Have the lower voiced men (baritones and basses) warm up all the way to the top of their tessitura (what you think it should be, not them. They will wimp out. Years of experience).

    Be sure as you warm up the lower end of things to have them use as much air to support the lower notes. Most men are shocked at the sound when they use the requisite air available to them. Lastly, have them use broad vowels and sing softly in patterns of do-mi-sol-ti and reverse it. Keep the sound consistent over the whole pattern. Challenge them to equalize all of the pitches in terms of intensity,volume and have them pay attention to placement (where the sound is in their face).

    Beaucoup de travail, but worth it. Bonne chance.

    Carl, I would take issue with men running out of breath more than women. Having taught voice for some years, I would say the problem is about equal to the whole SATB parameter. The problem is that the lack of breath distinguishes itself in different ways with different voices. PLease correct me if you feel I am in error.
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    I guess in my personal experience, Kevin, I run out of air faster at the bottom of MY range faster than at the top. It's quite possible that each individual will see the same phenomenon, but perhaps the average is about the same. Excellent point.

    I found the same was true when I played the French Horn, by the way. The lower notes could use unbelievable amounts of air.
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,483
    Here's what I do
    1. have them stand, and teach them to breath by expanding the abdomen - show this. When they have learned this,
    2. have the breath in and sing "yo' from thier highest note to lowest, slowly going down all at the same time. Make sure thier mouths are an open 'O' Do this a number of times, This teaches to conncect between a long breath and a long tone. When they are doing this, have them using the same breath in - sing out using short music scale. Begin oh say low A and go uo by step. This will lengthen their breathing patterns and open up support for breathing.
  • mjballoumjballou
    Posts: 994
    Carl D - what's your cure for the gutteral sound? I have the same problem with some low-voiced women. My current theory is that they're starting the sound from their throats, rather than having that sense of a moving column of air starting further down.

    (I hate everything to do with talking about singing because you can't see anything - it's much easier with the harp.)
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    I tend to like to warm up the bottom range first, especially for baritones. I would start around an "A" or "G" and just do descending 5th scales. My experience is that this will give more flexibility in the lower range; if one warms up the upper range first for basses/baritones, it is harder to get the desired low notes.

    It goes without saying that you want to prohibit "bellering", especially the low notes. I think it is useful to encourage them to focus the sound "forward" near the back of their teeth. Also, good to form the outside of the mouth properly to help focus the vowels.
  • incantuincantu
    Posts: 989
    Angela and others,

    I have done my best to address some of these specific technical issues in a new thread, "Vocal technique and the choral director."
  • Patricia Cecilia
    Posts: 400
    Our schola has no 'real' tenors, only very willing baritones to "tenorize", so when we warm up I usually do this warmup for encouraging head voice production. (Mj, I'm with you--it's easier to SEE on a instrument).

    On [u] (oo), start on a do that is definitely above middle C, and sing the scale downward in half notes. Make sure the oo is quite silly and not tense. (The starting note might be as low a F or as high as Ab.) The first time, keep the head voice sound as long as you can before 'flipping over' into chest voice. The second time, you choose when to 'flip', usually as soon as it feels like you should. Do it no more than three times on three progressively lower pitches, usually by half steps.

    (The mnemonic for this sound seems to be "Peabo Bryson as Aladdin" or "the Beach Boys", depending on the age of the men. I haven't taught high school guys in a while, so I'm sure the exemplar has changed!)

    A male colleague who is also a super voice teacher taught me this one, and said to just do it, encourage as much air stability and lack of throat/neck tension as possible, and encourage the individual gentleman to fool around with it in the privacy of their own home. I've used it at chant workshops, just to explore lightening the sound, and most men are amazed. (My regular basses--who are really low basses--think this is hilarious.)
  • AngelaRAngelaR
    Posts: 319
    Wonderful help, thanks all! I'll be using a lot of this in rehearsal tomorrow night.
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    mjballou, it's been a struggle to deal with the gutteral sound. The first thing is just to make people aware that they're doing it, and to practice landing *lightly* and *accurately* on the vowel. My theory is that it's a different form of approaching the note from below, and by focusing on making an accurate beginning, things will improve.

    Making some progress, but some of the guys are still battling this. I've heard myself do it on occasion.
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