Setting goals for your choir warm-ups is a great way to set your rehearsal up for success. But with limited time, it may seem impossible to fit in all the exercises you want to. The key is to multitask! With carefully-crafted exercises, we can fit most of our goals into just a couple exercises - often without the choir even noticing.
Some of your goals may include:
Shaking off the flehm
Stretching to vocal folds
Finding brightness and “center” to the tone
Creating warmth to the tone
Encouraging blend and vowel alignment
Diction and Enunciation
Lifting the soft palate
Activating breathing and support
Loosening up body, jaw, and face muscles
Creating a fun environment and breaking the ice
Getting accustomed to following the director
Working on tuning and matching pitch
For specific ideas to address each item individually, see my previous blog post. But to address most or all these goals in 4 exercises, read on!
Example Warmup Routine:
5-Down on a Hum — goals 1, 7, 9
Start and stay in a comfortable range, moving up and down. It’s important to start light and easy when singing, especially in the morning. Have singers pretend they’ve got tootsie-rolls between their back teeth and a yawn in the back of their mouths. As the exercise moves up higher, encourage choir members to chew like a cow and stretch wiggle their mouths while they hum.
Again - don’t go too high or low with these hums! The goal isn’t to push your range yet - just to gently shake off the dust, stretch your jaw, and lift that soft palate.
Descending Arpeggio on “Call me” — goals 2, 4
After making some healthy, easy sounds, move to an exercise that gives a little stretch. Encourage choir members to make the “k” sound with their jaw wide open and keep their jaw open the whole exercise (except potentially for the “m”).
Warm up a step or two higher and lower than their choir music calls for. Have singers drop out if it starts to feel too high or too low. There's no need to create tension by pushing yourself beyond what is comfortable!
5-Note Scale on “Mommy made me munch my M&M’s” — Goals 3, 6, 10
Quickly teach the exercise and sing through a couple times. Then encourage singers to sing it “neon yellow” or “like a 5-year-old” or “so bright and ugly and pointy that it could peel the paint off the wall.” You may also have choir members bounce, wiggle their arms, or flop over like a rag doll while singing. This gives them a chance to loosen up - in more than one way.
Chorale on “oo” — Goals 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12
Quickly teach voice parts if needed and sing through once or twice. Ask choir members to sing it through without breathing. Adjust the speed of the song to make this a tricky, but not impossible. Going slowly and/or varying the tempo also encourages singers to watch the director. Focus on keeping warmth and height in the “oo” by singing with a pretend ping-pong ball in their mouth.
Finally, ask the some questions as they sing: Can you hear the person on either side of you? Can you hear someone on the other side of the choir? Are you sticking out with the shape of your vowel? Your volume? Your style or vibrato? Pause on each new chord and listen for blend and tuning to settle.
IDeas for Church Choir Warm-ups can be easy
For director and accompanist print-outs for these exercises and more, click here! And let me know below if you have further ideas, questions or comments. I’d love to hear from you and hear what works for your choir!