(funk music)
- Hello, my name is Erica Merritt
and today we're going to go over
some great singing exercises to get your voice warmed up
and ready to go, okay.
Before we start though,
we're going to do a centering exercise that I like to do,
or a mindfulness exercise that I like to do,
just kinda focus ourselves on singing,
and also to get rid of any nervousness or anxiousness
that comes along with singing, okay.
So we're gonna begin,
excuse me, begin with closing your eyes,
taking a deep breath,
(breathes in)
let it out.
(breathes out)
Good, deep breath in
(breathes in)
let it out.
(breathes out)
Deep breath in
(breathes in)
and out.
(breathes out)
Again, deep breath in
(breathes in)
and out.
(breathes out)
Good. Let's roll our shoulders backwards, good.
Let's roll our shoulders forward, good.
Now can you do them side to side like this, good.
Can you move your head side to side like this
your neck rather,
using your neck and your head
a little more difficult.
Can you move your head to the right or to your left
and up again
and the other side
and up again.
To your left,
to your right.
And now we're gonna make half circles
and rotating our head and our neck around like this,
starting from the side and going all way up,
excuse me all the way around to the other side
and back around to the other side.
Do it again and again.
Good, alright, doesn't that feel better?
Okay, when talking about vocal exercises,
I want you to understand
that we need to make sure that our posture is up straight,
and that our diaphragm is not folded over like this
but sitting up straight or standing up straight,
okay, whichever you prefer.
I prefer to sit up and sing and vocal exercise
because it works better for me,
but you're more than welcome to stand, okay.
The first exercise that we're going to do
is, or all the exercises that we're going to do,
consist of a call and response method,
where I will say it or call it
and you will respond by repeating
what I said or saying, okay.
The first one is called
Nee nay nah noh nuu,
nee nay nah noh nuu.
Your turn
nee nay nah noh nuu.
Try it again.
nee nay nah noh nuu.
Alright, those are the sounds we're going to say
or that are incorporated with this vocal exercise.
Notice that I'm going to start from a lower range,
go to a middle range, and then to a higher range.
Everybody's range is different
so you can start where you want or where you like
when you're doing these exercises on your own.
But for right now,
you'll repeat after me
and start where I start and end where I end, okay?
So we're gonna start at a lower range,
are you ready? Alright.
♪ Nee nay nah noh nuu ♪
♪ Nee nay nah noh nah noh nuu ♪
Good, now make sure that you're taking a deep breath
as we do this, putting air through your nose
and into your diaphragm so that you have lots of air
to support these exercises, okay?
We're going to try it again.
And you only can take one breath in between.
Here we go. (takes a deep breathe)
♪ Nee nay nah noh nah noh nuu ♪
♪ Nah noh ♪
♪ Nah noh nuu ♪
Your turn.
♪ Nah noh nuu ♪
All right, you notice that you need lots of air to do this.
So make sure that you're breathing through your nose,
putting air into that diaphragm,
having an imaginary rubber band around your waist here
that expands when you put air into it.
That's when you know
that you're putting air into your diaphragm.
And then utilizing that diaphragm
to support these wonderful notes, okay.
(takes a deep breathe)
♪ Nee nay nah noh nah noh nuu ♪
♪ Nah noh ♪
♪ Nah noh nuu ♪
Your turn, ready again.
Good, now notice that sometimes
it can get a little difficult getting to those higher notes.
One little trick I like to do
is to make a siren sound that kind of warms you up
from your lowest to highest range
and prepares you for things like this.
And it sounds like this.
Wee woo
Right? Just like a ambulance or a fire engine, right?
Wee woo
Right? I want to do that with you seven times in a row.
So it'll sound like this.
Wee woo wee woo wee woo wee woo
wee woo wee woo wee woo wee woo!
Well that was eight times, okay.
So we'll do it together eight times in a row.
Are you ready?
Ready and
wee woo wee woo wee woo wee woo
wee woo wee woo wee woo wee woo!
Good, let's try it again.
Wee woo wee woo wee woo wee woo
wee woo wee woo wee woo wee woo!
Good, now as we get higher, to a higher range,
it'll be a little bit easier to hit those notes, okay?
Alright, we're gonna try another voice exercise
and it's called there's some ooh's.
Okay, we're going to do lots of different ooh sounds okay?
♪ Ooh ooh ooh ♪
Try it again.
♪ Ooh ooh ooh ♪
It's kind of like making a little squiggly.
I like to make my hand motion
so that you can know what direction we're going, okay?
♪ Ooh ooh ooh ♪
Good, now don't worry if you sound, kind of, I don't know,
all over the place.
I do too sometimes but it's really just figuring out
how to warm up your voice and getting those sounds out
so that when you sing,
it's almost like you are digging a tunnel, right?
Through your voice, right?
And there's all this stuff,
as you exercise your voice, you are clearing a path, right?
Clearing a path that you can now utilize as you're singing.
Sometimes it's a lot of stuff
that you have to clear out.
And that's what we're doing when we're exercising our voice,
and warming up those muscles.
Okay, alright.
We're going to do one more voice activity,
and then we're going to do a song,
a warm up song that I like to sing.
The activity is going to be, "I Never Found"
and just repeat after me, all right.
♪ Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah ♪
♪ Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah noh noh ♪
♪ Nah noh ♪
♪ Nah nah noh ♪
♪ Nah nah nah nah noh ♪
♪ Say nah ♪
♪ Nah ♪
We're gonna go up
♪ Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah ♪
♪ Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah noh noh ♪
♪ Nah noh ♪
♪ Nah nah noh ♪
♪ Nah nah nah nah nah ♪
♪ Nah ♪
Taking it up.
♪ Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah ♪
♪ Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah noh noh ♪
Good.
♪ Nah noh ♪
♪ Nah nah noh ♪
♪ Nah nah nah noh ♪
♪ Nah ♪
Good those are some of my favorite warm up exercises.
Now I want to do a warm up song with you, okay?
This song just helps you kind of get in the mood
to sing other songs that you wish to sing
but this is called "Monday Morning."
Sometimes you know you wake up on Monday morning
like oh, it's Monday and you just want to get to Friday.
This song is about getting through Friday
and just staying on task and getting through it
and doing the best you can
and being able to celebrate when it's Friday, okay?
I'm gonna say the words to the song,
and then we'll sing it together.
Monday morning
seems so boring.
I wish it were Friday again.
Let's get to it,
we can do it!
And soon, the weekend begins.
And it will be Friday
yes it will be Friday
it will be Friday again!
Alright.
So you're gonna follow those moves if you like.
I like to make a little bit of moves with my singing
sometimes it helps me remember the words
and you're gonna follow me.
I'm gonna call and you're gonna respond.
Are you ready? Call and respond method.
Alright, you ready?
♪ Monday morning ♪
♪ Seems so boring ♪
♪ I wish it were Friday again again ♪
♪ Well let's get to it ♪
♪ We can do it ♪
♪ And soon the weekend begins again ♪
♪ And it will be Friday ♪
♪ Yes it will be Friday ♪
♪ It will be Friday ♪
♪ Again ♪
Let's do it again.
♪ Monday morning ♪
♪ Seems so boring ♪
♪ I wish I wish ♪
♪ I wish it were Friday again again ♪
♪ Well let's get to it ♪
♪ We can do it ♪
♪ Let's get to it ♪
♪ We can do it ♪
♪ And soon the weekend begins again ♪
♪ And it will be Friday ♪
♪ Yes it will be Friday. ♪
♪ It will be Friday again ♪
we're gonna take it up
♪ Monday morning ♪
♪ Seems so boring ♪
♪ I Wish I wish ♪
♪ I wish I wish ♪
♪ I wish it were Friday again again ♪
♪ Well let's get to it ♪
♪ We can do it ♪
♪ Let's get to it ♪
♪ We can do it ♪
♪ And soon the weekend begins again ♪
♪ And it will be Friday ♪
♪ Yes it will be Friday ♪
♪ It will be Friday again ♪
We're gonna draw together
♪ Monday morning ♪
♪ Seems so boring ♪
♪ I wish it were Friday again again ♪
♪ Well let's get to it ♪
♪ We can do it ♪
♪ And soon the weekend begins again ♪
♪ And it will be Friday ♪
♪ Yes it will be Friday ♪
♪ It will be Friday again ♪
Alright, thank you so much
for warming up your voice with me.
Again, this is Erica Merritt
taking you through some wonderful vocal exercises
to get you all warmed up and ready to go, alright.
(funk music)