(bright upbeat music)
- Hi, my name is Erica Merritt.
I'm a local singer and songwriter, and today I'm here
to talk to you about singing.
We will cover how to prepare before singing
or how to prepare to sing.
We will go through body and facial exercises, as well
as addressing nervousness and anxiousness
that comes along with singing.
Singing can be so rewarding, it's one of the most
rewarding things I've ever done.
I usually feel about 10 times better after I sing.
So, before doing so, I like to center myself
so that I can just focus on singing.
The first thing I like to do something called a body check
or centering exercise.
I'm going to name various parts of your body,
and as I name them, I want you to check-in with them.
Often times people say, how are you?
And you think about it.
This time, I want you to feel about it,
I'm gonna ask you how your body parts are feeling today.
Alright, as I'm doing this, I want you to make sure
that you're taking deep breaths in and out,
as we check through various parts of our body, alright?
Alright, let's get started.
Beginning with, and I'm inviting you to close your eyes.
If you can keep them open, if you like, I'm gonna close
mine, not ignoring you.
Alright, close your eyes.
(inhales deeply and exhales)
Alright, let's check-in with the bottom of our feet.
Moving to our heels.
(exhales)
Ankles,
our shins, which is between our ankle and our knee,
that area, check-in.
How about our knees?
(exhales softly)
What are your knees feeling like?
If they're sore, try to relax them,
if they're tense, try to relax them.
Let's move to our thighs.
How are those thighs feeling?
And your hips,
and your pelvic area,
pelvic area is between your hips.
I'm leaning forward, sometimes it helps to isolate
the pelvic area.
Alright,
let's go to our stomach.
(exhales softly)
Above your stomach is your diaphragm.
Your chest.
Your shoulders.
your neck,
your chin, how's your chin feeling?
If it's tightened, let's loosen it up.
Oh, your jaw that's connected to your chin,
let's go to your jaw.
Your nose, deep breath through your nose (inhales deeply).
How about your forehead?
The back of your head.
Back of your neck,
behind your shoulders, your shoulder blades
up and down your spine,
the middle of your back.
Your lower lumbar, which is the lower back,
your bottom,
behind your thighs, back of your legs,
behind your knees,
your calves,
your achilles, (inhales deeply) which is right
below your calves,
and again your heels.
Now let's go to the bottom of your feet.
Let's pretend that there're roots pulling the bottom
of your feet downwards
and rooted into the ground.
At the same time, we are going to pretend that there're
roots growing out from the top of our head
and pulling us straight into the sky.
So we're being pulled both ways downwards
and upwards at the same time.
Now, I'd like you to think of everything that you wanna
offer this world and offer your family
and your friends, breath it in and I mean as far as
gratitude, joy, love, those types of things,
let's breathe it in (inhales deeply)
and let's let it out (exhales loudly).
Open your eyes, if they're not already open
and that's it, we're centered.
The second thing we're gonna focus on,
is how to prepare your face.
When we sing, we use our face, yes?
Well, there are lots of tiny muscles on our face,
and just like any other thing or any other muscle
that we use, we'd like to warm them up.
The first exercise I'd like to take you through is called
the Lip Trill.
It's kinda like making motorboat sounds, right?
(lip bubbles)
Silly, right?
Sometimes it's easier to use your hands on your face
like this, push your cheeks up and do it like this.
(lips bubbles)
Alright, we're gonna do that five times in a row
and when we do it, we're gonna go up and down like this
with our voice.
(bubbling of lips)
Okay, let's do that five times.
First time, here we go.
I won't use my hands and my cheeks,
but if it's easier to do this, let's do it.
I'm a pro at this, so I won't use my hands.
Alright, here we go.
One, take a deep breath, and let's begin.
(bubbling of lips)
One,
(bubbling of lips)
two,
(bubbling of lips)
three,
(bubbling of lips)
four, last time
(bubbling of lips)
five.
If you notice a little tickle above your lip, that's normal.
My lip is tickling right now.
Alright, the next thing we're going to focus on
is something I like to call the yawning exercise.
The yawning exercise allows you to relax your jaw
and supports, relaxing the whole pallet in the back
of your throat.
Okay, let's try it.
You're gonna basically act like you're yawning.
(yawns loudly)
Let's do it again.
(yawns loudly)
Let's go a few more times.
(yawns loudly)
I hope I don't fall asleep, let's try it two more times.
(yawns loudly)
Last time,
(yawns loudly)
Great, the next exercise I'd like to walk you through
is called Lemon Face or Sour Face and Smiley Face.
This is really good for exercising all the muscles
in your face.
Who knows what it feels like or what it looks like
when you taste the lemon?
It's, like, kinda funny, right?
So, we're going to go from Lemon Face,
to Smiley Face, okay?
We're gonna do that five times in a row.
Let me see your Lemon Face.
What does it look like when he tastes a lemon?
Alright, Lemon Face,
hold it (giggles),
Smiley Face.
Lemon Face,
Smiley Face,
Lemon Face,
Smiley Face.
Two more times, Lemon Face,
Smiley Face.
Lemon Face,
Smiley Face.
Very good, how many feel muscles in your face
being stretched just a little bit?
I know I do. Very good.
Now that our face is all warmed up,
we are going to do a little bit of singing.
Now, before we do that, I wanna talk about
the feeling of nervousness and anxiousness
that are associated with singing.
I want you to know that, when you're singing,
it should show, okay?
Act like there's no one else in the world or no one else
in the room, and just give it what you got, okay?
We're gonna use a call and response method
where I will call something out or sing something out
and you'll repeat It.
When it's your turn, I'll point at you, okay?
I'll start first, excuse me,
and then I'll point at you and you'll do the exact
same thing that I did, okay?
Alright, here we go.
Now that our face and our mind is all warmed up,
we should be geared up and ready to try
a little bit of singing.
This exercise is gonna incorporate our yawn,
or our jaw, and now that it's relaxed, it should be nice
and loose and ready to do this activity, alright?
We're gonna use a call and response method.
I'm gonna sing something to you,
and then I'm gonna throw it to you ,
and you're gonna sing it back.
When I am singing, I'll point to myself,
and when it's your turn, I'll go like this,
and that symbolizes that it's your turn, alright?
Here we go one, two, ready, and
♪ Nah-nah-nah-nah nah nah ♪
♪ I love to sing! ♪
(claps softly)
very good.
♪ Nah-nah-nah-nah nah nah ♪
♪ I love to sing! ♪
♪ Nah-nah-nah-nah nah nah ♪
♪ I love to sing! ♪
Very good.
♪ Nah-nah-nah-nah nah nah ♪
♪ I love to sing! ♪
Very good! It wasn't so bad, right?
And we're relaxed and we've done our first exercise.
Thank you so much for singing with me today.
My name is Erica Merritt, and this lesson is called
Preparing To Sing.
(bright upbeat music playing)