Page 11 - Voice for Life Songbook 1

Range and flexibility
After some initial vocal exercises you can move on to activities that require greater stamina and agility. These can include scales and arpeggios of an octave range or more, and exercises with fast semiquaver runs or long phrases that demand good breath control.
You could also try using tongue-twisters with your singers. Using one of the following examples, or making up your own, ask your singers to sing a simple melodic pattern such as a descending scale, with the tongue twister on each note of the scale:
􏰀 ‘Redlorry,yellowlorry’ 􏰀 ‘Gin and tonic’
􏰀 ‘Merry men’
At this stage in the warm-up you may also like to include a short warm-up song or canon (examples of which can be found in this anthology). Songs with actions are particularly helpful as they get the singers moving.
Additional warm-up activities that relate to the songs in this book can be found in the ‘Preparation’ section of the training notes that accompany each piece.While these relate to specific aspects of each song they may also be used as part of a general warm up.
More extensive guidance on warming up and exercising the voice may be found in the Voice for Life Choir Trainer’s Book.
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