If you are reading this as a result of my recent YouTube series entitled “Weekly Warm-Up” then a massive thank you and I hope you found them useful. If you’ve stumbled upon this, then welcome! You’ll find this helpful alongside the videos when you get round to watching them…
There are some general overarching warm-ups and technique work that I used in all the videos that I want to explain in a little more detail.
Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract (SOVT) Exercises
I used a couple of SOVT exercises in the YouTube videos for a variety of reasons.
First up was straw work. Using the straw in singing is a wonderful thing: It can be used as a warm-up but also for technical work. In the videos, I am using it as the former in order to get my vocal folds and vocal tract to be more mobile and pliable for the rest of my warp-up and song choices.
Then we have the “ng” sound. This is an unnerving vocal exercise because there is nothing to hide behind: no vowel or consonant, just vocal fold adduction. As a result, the first few times you use this SOVT exercise, it will likely feel unstable, pitchy and generally ruin your self-esteem. Boss. The exercise is to encourage medial vocal fold closure and control the amount of air moving through the vocal folds. The descending major/minor scale uses smaller intervals and encourages consistent vocal fold closure through my critical bridge.
Vowel work
The “ooo” is rounded with some breath sneaking through which after the SOVT exercises ensures that my vocal tract doesn’t gather too much tension. This vowel sound also allows me to stretch out into the higher areas of my range now that my voice is warmer.
The “orr” and “ahh” sounds in later weeks (as I had built some vocal stamina) allows more pressure to build in my vocal tract in order to work with thick fold and belted sounds. These are harder because the voice can tire quickly, which is why I waited till later weeks to attempt them. Keeping the vowel shape consistent throughout the scale is key to gaining strength and consistency throughout the more dicey areas of the voice, in this case, the critical bridge.
I used pitch glides to release some tension but also to improve the accuracy of hitting higher notes in an abstract nature i.e. without the melody or scale ascending first.
Vowel/Consonant combo
These should be paired in accordance with what you need at that moment. I wanted vocal fold closure but without tension initially, so I coupled two aspirates (f and w) with an “ee” sound which did the job. As the weeks progressed, I used more neutral consonants (m and n) to challenge vocal fold closure.
In the latter weeks, I used heavier consonants and more open and bright vowels to work on thick fold and belt, without the need to shout or use too much volume. Have a sizeable gob is useful at times, but a needs to be reigned in when it comes to the nuances of vocal technique.
