10 Fun & Easy Warm-ups for your Choir At Total Choir Resources, we know that it’s a tough job to plan engaging warm-up sessions for your choir, week in, week out. With our choirs, we always try to keep the focus on fun, fast-moving exercises that keep everyone thinking as well as warming-up and developing their voices. Remember that when you’re working with singers of mixed abilities, particularly those who are inexperienced, you’ll probably want to avoid a lot of talking. Your choir is there to sing, not hear a lecture, so lean towards demonstrating rather than explaining. Remind your singers to work within their capabilities and to challenge themselves gently, never straining their voices.
1 This exercise helps everyone to relax, while at the same 5me working on pitch and intervals. Divide the choir into three sec5ons (vocal parts or randomly). Ask one part to hum a fairly low star5ng note. Ask the second part to hum a major (or minor) third above, and the final part to sing a fiCh, forming a triad. Now ask everyone to take a deep breath and hum the triad for as long as they can. Swap around who’s singing the first, third and fiCh notes. You can also experiment with dynamics during the long note and even add in a fourth note, such as a major 2nd or 6th.
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And … relax 2 Ask everyone to stand with good posture and relaxed shoulders. Choose a note for everyone to hum. Ask them to place the sound at the front of the mouth so that their lips buzz. OCen, singers will push the sound forward, tensing the neck, which is counterproduc5ve. To avoid this ask them to relax the neck imagining it was made of jelly. The hum should then sound much more relaxed.
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Mix it up 4 Mix up the choir into four groups using the same method as in exercise no. 3. Give each group two numbers between 1 and 8, ensuring that each number is only used once. Sing the numbers up and down a major scale (‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc’), then ask the singers to only sing their numbers, so group 1 might only sing ‘3’ and ‘6’. Together, the four groups should make a whole scale. When the choir has got the hang of it, swap the numbers around and sing the scale faster.
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3 This is a great way to mix up voices if you have limited space in your rehearsal venue and don’t want to physically move everyone. Choose a simple round such as Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Get everyone to sing through it, then divide the choir into four parts. The easiest way to do this in a large group is by birthday eg January to March are group 1, AprilJune are group 2 etc. Sing the round again in these mixed parts.
Explore your range Ask your singers to imagine they’re geXng on a rollercoaster. Using a ‘hoo’ sound, start at a low point in your range and make a slow, upward siren noise to mimic the rollercoaster climbing the first hill. When you get to the top, let go and swoop down and around the track, incorpora5ng some loops. You can indicate the route to the choir with your hand and improvise where the ups, downs and loops will come. Remind your singers that ranges vary so their own rollercoaster ride will be unique.
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5 Choose a series of sounds such as ‘la, leh, lee, loh, loo’. Ask your singers to run up a five-note scale, then hold the final note and gently slide back to the star5ng note. At the end of each slide, move up a semitone to work through to the top of the choir’s range (don’t forget to allow lower voices to drop out when they need to) Vary the sounds and work down to the bo]om (allowing upper voices to drop out when they need to).
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Stay flexible 7 Choose a simple song or nursery rhyme with a reasonably wide range of notes (at least an octave). Ask the choir to sing it repeatedly to your conduc5ng, star5ng slowly and speeding up. Play around with the tempo, some5mes accelera5ng, some5mes pulling back, and move the whole thing up a semitone each 5me.
Choose a star5ng note and run up and down a five-note scale (using any vowel and consonant combina5on). Then run up and down the scale twice in one breath. Then three 5mes. If your choir finds this easy, vary the scale from five notes a full octave, or add an arpeggio on the end.
Show your support
10 Ask your singers to stand with good posture and relaxed shoulders. Demonstrate a short ‘sip’ in-breath, expanding the abdomen quickly, and a long out-breath, bringing the abdomen back in. Choose a note which is good for all ranges and ask your choir to take a quick in-breath then hum the chosen note on a long out-breath. Now choose a singer to give you a word, which can be absolutely anything (polite!). Ask your singers to take another in-breath and on the out-breath sing the chosen word repeatedly. Do this a few 5mes, asking a different singer for a different word each 5me.
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9 As space is oCen limited in rehearsal rooms, ask your singers to turn to the side. Take a deep in-breath while slowly raising the arms to the side at shoulder height. Then ask them to make a ‘hiss’ sound on the outbreath while lowering their arms. Repeat this a few 5mes. Remind singers to focus on crea5ng as much space as they can in the ribcage and abdominal area. This is a great breathing exercise and feels good. We’re oCen guilty of hunching, especially when siXng in rehearsals. Remind your singers to work within they physical capabili5es.
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