Quick Vocal Warmup Tips That Work On Froggy Days
At last week's gig... Thank goodness for vocal warmup that works!
Today I'll be doing a quick post for allergy sufferers needing to sing soon, from my personal experience last week.
With a 45 minute full band gig to do and heavy frogs on sluggish vocal cords typical of my voice during season changes, this is what worked:
- I warmed up slowly and for a long time with exercises as well as some head voice work with a few of the 24 Italian songs (you could do any other head voice songs you know)
- Did I say head voice work? Incredibly important. I played around with head voice for quite a while, never letting it be breathy but very light, just vibrating vocal cord edges at first. Then I carefully increased head voice volume as phlegm dissipated, and came up with more upper register vocal exercises that felt good.
- I started challenging my voice on certain parts of range… passagio mix, higher head… teasing but absolutely not pushing it. I remembered that pushing my warmup was what sabotaged my voice and prolonged the ‘getting voice into shape’ that I’ve experienced before.
- I drank water water water.. more water and pineapple juice, drinking noticably more all day
- And lastly.. I was very careful not to push my speaking voice. I had to teach vocal lessons all week and I really felt red flags in my throat when I talked. But I just pulled my words from the upper part of my mask, careful to use extremely efficient breath pressure so as minimize my vocal cords' work. By the end of the day my voice was absolutely fine. After three days the helium effect was gone, too!
- The gig went very well... The John and Judy Rodman band got a standing ovation at the end and my de-frogged voice felt even better than when I started!
I bounced these observations around with my friend Salem Jones of rock band One Soul Thrust, and she added that hot tea with organic virgin coconut oil worked for her. I'll be adding that to my arsenal.
For more tips, you can get a 5 page document on vocal health by subscribing to my newletter. And of course, by reading this blog:)
What about you in the real, practical world of phlegm and vocal performance? Lemme know what works for you… I’m ahhhhhllllways learning.
Labels: John and Judy Rodman, Judy Rodman, One Soul Thrust, phlegm, pineapple juice, singing with frogs, vocal warmup that works
posted by Judy Rodman
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10:42 PM
3 Comments :
At October 13, 2015 at 11:08 PM ,
Anonymous said...
Hi Judy, whenever i attempt to sing acapella i often find myself ending on a key half a step up from the original key i started on. What can i do to stop my singing from going so consistently sharp?
At October 19, 2015 at 7:36 PM ,
Judy Rodman said...
Singing consistently sharp when acapella is usually caused by some counterproductive degree of pushing. Better breath support/control balance can probably help you a ton.
Power, Path and Performance techniques for breath teach you to pull instead of push for power. If you're interested in more information, let me know. Best wishes!
At October 19, 2015 at 7:37 PM ,
Judy Rodman said...
Singing consistently sharp when acapella is usually caused by some counterproductive degree of pushing. Better breath support/control balance can probably help you a ton.
Power, Path and Performance techniques for breath teach you to pull instead of push for power. If you're interested in more information, let me know. Best wishes!
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