Voice Lab

Singers get a bad wrap for the neurotic behaviour and routines surrounding the voice, but almost anyone with a voice is a little vocally neurotic. Whether we are about to sing with intention or about to speak up in class, we all perform some collection of preparatory sounds, movements, and thoughts. These preparations usually reflect our lack of trust in what our voice might produce and the caution we feel before we vulnerably release it into the ether and expose it to the judgement of a listener. 

To usher in my two new podcasts in a single episode, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about why we warm up the voice. We all test the waters before we use our voice - some of us more compulsively or consciously than others. When it comes to using the voice as an instrument, we want to prepare it before we dive into anything vocally demanding or anything that will be judged by our own ears or others’. Most singers do this through the warm-up - but what exactly constitutes warming up and what do we get out of it?