Tag Archives: Creativity

Vocal Warm-Ups or Vocal Damage

23 Friday Sep 2016

Posted by in Musicians and Singers

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I am privileged to work with many singers and music artists.  Usually, my first question to them has to be, “What are your warm-up exercises?”  About 80-90% of these people will have no planned disciplined warm-up technique.

Would a runner start into a full on sprint without stretching?  Do most athletes just start their sport without conditioning the body first?  No!  Most athletes integrate a warm up routine as a necessity before a game or competition.  Why?  It requires a physiological preparation to sustain, work at your maximum and minimize the possibility of a strain or injury.

I think if you have read this far, you are possibly getting the point I am trying to make.  Most singers start into a full-on performance mode without awakening, strengthening and preparing the voice.

I work locally with voice clinics and music professionals trying to remedy the abuse caused by singers who think they’re above vocal abuse.  A majority of the time when they are consulting with me, they have started on a difficult journey of recovering what they’ve lost.  Most of this started by simply not warming up the voice properly to allow disciplined healthy technique to ignite their brain, diaphragmatic muscles and placement.

Throughout my life I have been taught many counteractive warm-up techniques.  I tend to act like a David against the Philistines of bad vocal warm-up techniques.  Most vocal warm-ups have been inherited by choral conductors and music teachers, but they have no physiological reasoning or understanding for their purpose or lack thereof.  Remember, the voice is a physical instrument and every consonant and vowel sound carries a proclivity for helping or hurting the singer.  As a music professional, I’ve spent countless hours researching the physiology of vocal sound production and have become quite aware of the interactions of vowel and consonant sounds and their pros and cons for the singer.  It’s imperative that a warm-up allow the singer to slowly and deliberately stretch the voice in the right direction without causing injury or encouraging bad habits.

Let me put together a basic warm-up that can be expanded on, but will teach you some healthy principles of warming up the voice.

  1. Start with a lip buzz or “zzz” sound.  Do not place a defined pitch sequence to this exercise, a single moderately scaled tone is sufficient.  Make certain you are getting full breaths.  It’s also important that you aren’t just sustaining the sound, but you are also diaphragmatically pulsating the sound.  I call it belly pooching. It feels like you are making a noise in a circular motion.   This is like caffeine for the diaphragm.  In the age of computer and t.v. slouch, it’s imperative that we engage and awaken our muscles that are supporting our breath before we combine it with any pitch sequence.  Remember, no vowels!  Just buzz your lips like a bee or use the consonant “z”. It’s necessary to remind the brain and the muscles to engage properly.
  2. When starting to add a pitch sequence (five tone scale, etc.), this is where most choral directors, music teachers and singers go down the path of negative warm-up exercises. They combine warm-ups with back/guttural vowel sounds. These vowels like buh, boe, bah and boo naturally want to resonate in the throat and the singer needs to learn not make dark sounds which create more tension on the vocal cords/flanges.   Frontal/nasal Vowels like Bee and Bih and a neutral/central vowel like Bye are healthy  initial warm-up vowels because they assist in keeping your tone open and not create negative pressure on the voice.   When these vowels are combined with voiced plosive consonants like B, D, Guh or the nasal consonants M, and N.  It assists the singer in keeping away from tension, engaging the diaphragm and also feeling a healthy and forward placement.  Most people engage their placement too low  in their a speaking voice.  It’s imperative that placement for warm-ups utilize a brighter tone to offset the tendencies and pitfalls of the speaking voice. Remember, no back/guttural vowels for the initial pitched warm-up. Utilize the help of frontal/nasal vowels combined with plosive and nasal consonants  to gently stretch the voice.
  3. Start in a comfortable area of your range when warming up with pitched exercises. Starting at the ultimate lowest or higher part of your voice can engage bad habits by overworking or underworking placement and immobilizing proper breath support.  I prefer not to stretch the voice to an ultimate note incipiently, but slowly work down in the vocal range and back up to the higher range.  It is equivalent to a muscle stretch where you gently work to achieve your optimum range of motion.
  4. What I like to call “ballistic vocal stretching exercises” i.e. siren sounds, help to gently stretch and relax the voice. Glide the voice up and down in a wave like sound and motion, using frontal/nasal or central/neutral vowels and plosive consonants. Starting at the lowest pitch and quickly gliding to the highest pitch and back down. This helps to eliminate vocal tension. Males this is not just an exercise for females! Don’t be afraid of your head voice/upper range.
  5. When working through a pitched warm-up sequence make sure to utilize all of the vowel families. Start with the frontal/nasals vowels, then what I call frontal/maxillary vowels bay, beh and bah and lastly the back/guttural vowels.  By sequentially moving from the most forward placement to the back/darker vowels it helps the brain and muscles to better engage a healthy placement and secure tone.

*vowels have been simplified for understanding and do not follow IPA phonetic chart spelling.

Remember, warm-ups aren’t elective for a singer, but are necessary in keeping a healthy voice.   Get a warm-up plan or let a music instructor  help you maximize your vocal needs.  It might feel awkward at first, but you will get use to it and see, feel and hear a major difference in your performance.

For more information contact: Stephen Nix snix77@yahoo.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living With Creative Intention!

24 Tuesday Feb 2015

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We all have to admit that losing inspiration can happen on many levels. I think that’s our sensitivity always at stake.  It almost feels like it’s dependent on some idea weather pattern.  I’m a songwriter and I experience immense blocks at times.  This seems to be universal in many art forms.

Creativity is like manipulating a perfect storm using the wind generators of your mind. It’s very hard to manipulate if depression, overwork, fatigue, negative life circumstances, stress or general malaise happens.  I personally have gone weeks and even months without as much as writing down a song hook. So, I have to strategize to get, “Above the Pit.”

Here is a list of things I find helpful in my creative shakeup:

1. Give Yourself A Break. To everything there is a time and a season.  We have creative times and we may have conscious or unconscious times of gestating a new idea or concept and it’s still not mature enough to be born.  Be aware of the moments you are living. Don’t be hard on yourself, just be aware of the present moment.  Beating yourself up mentally can be more damaging and can utilize all of  the energy that is needed for breaking the barrier of the block.

2. Perfectionism Can Kill A Creative Idea.  As a songwriter, I can’t think that my initial hook and first write has to be the best.  It’s just a start!  If we constantly judge our ideas, we are stopping other ideas from emerging.   You have to begin somewhere!  Very few ideas come in complete form, but require a process of time. Practice does make perfect.

3. Procrastination Can Kill The Idea.  Ever have a moment where the idea or hook just comes to you?   For me, it’s usually at a random place, like in the middle of a restaurant in Chelsea the other day.  I immediately put the idea in the notes on my phone.  Know when those creative waves are happening and float on them no matter where you are because they may not last.  Creativity comes in waves, so be ready to ride it.

4. Listening and Watching Without Responding Can Be Your Greatest Muse.  In this social media rage it’s easy to use all of our creativity in posting a status or reading other’s status.  Just sitting and listening without trying to prove a point or engaging others conserves your creative energy to collect ideas.   I often challenge fellow writers to just exist without interacting and they will find unique lines leaping from others lip just by passively listening.  Be present, but too much interaction can be distractive to the creative spirit.

5. Don’t Fear Your Unique Perspective.   I have always been attracted to people who never “fit the mold.”  I like individuals who aren’t afraid to be themselves. I love to hear original expressions.  Deeply creative people usually see a  different view unique to themselves, which is their mental finger print to life.   Great songwriters are original.  Never fear being yourself and going at in different perspective.  We are all unique, so celebrate it!

6. Put Yourself Around Disciplined Creative Individuals.  I know a lot of creative people, but it’s not easy to find the creative disciplined person.   People who pursue excellence and detail with their art are great motivators for other creative spirits.  I have a lot of unique friends who are creative, but I can’t say it follows them into the creative process of developing.   Know the difference between a fun person and a person with a responsible level of creative discipline. Hang out with those that feed that positive energy and maybe challenge you in your pursuits.

7. Little Moments of Creativity May Be Better Than Manic Moments.  Don’t feel you have to give an entire day to a creative pursuit.  Monet’s painting, “Water Lilies” was a process of years to the finished work.  Do what you can, with the time you have. Smaller goals are much easier to achieve than larger goals.  Dividing your time up also gives a rest for a fresh and new perspective.

8. Mind Over Matter It.  Sometimes, you just have to roll up your sleeves and try!  Even when you don’t feel creative, you might surprise yourself.   They say if you will force a smile it helps to make you feel more happy.  Creativity sometimes has to be manipulated by sheer discipline and there is no other way.

9. Give Yourself Creative Field Trips To Ignite New Thinking.  I like to follow my creative spirit and plan to go to places that make me think, see things differently and breaks the monotony of the everyday.   Knowing there is a bigger world outside of your own is a great creative awakening strategy.  This trip can be local or a couple days to another place you’ve wanted to discover.   Doing field trips is an easy way to hit the reset button and to reignite the romance of what you are doing.

10. Be Prepared For That Idea.  What if you went into a business and they weren’t prepared for customers?   It wouldn’t be in operation for very long is my guess.  As creative individuals, we need to have all the necessary tools on hand to give our undivided attention to that moment.   I now have many phone apps that assist me in my songwriting.  You know what those tools are for you so keep them near at all times.

Being a songwriter/composer, I like to see parallels in many facets of the arts.  No matter what forum of art your creativity seeks, I think these rules apply to most.     You can break through that creative block!  Remember, invest in your creative nature just like you would invest in your health.   Let the ideas flow!!!!