Description:
Because head voice might be new for you, our warmup will stay in a low, comfortable chest voice range first. First, sing on a hum on a low A. Then try to move the back of your tongue up and down internally. Make sure you aren’t doing this randomly and instead you are trying to get in sync with your natural resonance.
For our lowest singers, we recommend placing a hand on your chest to feel for extra vibration here. This is a great trick to make sure that your chest and ribcage is open and relaxed, which will give you an extra boost of lower warmer resonance. If it feels a little stuck, then move your chest around a bit as you do this.
let’s open up to a Yah sound like this again on a low A. Try to only use the back heel of your tongue and not move your jaw. You will notice your tongue moves up and down in the back. Use this stretch as a way to gain tongue mobility to prepare for our next exercise (one more time). The tongue often acts as a barrier to our head voice register if it is tight and overly engaged. So focus on keeping it loose and flexible as we sing. Also as a lower singer be careful not to press too hard into these notes. Instead try to keep this exercise open and breathy. For this next warm up we use the sound Weyahh on a simple pattern. Let’s give it a try!
For our lowest singers, we recommend placing a hand on your chest to feel for extra vibration here. This is a great trick to make sure that your chest and ribcage is open and relaxed, which will give you an extra boost of lower warmer resonance. If it feels a little stuck, then move your chest around a bit as you do this.
let’s open up to a Yah sound like this again on a low A. Try to only use the back heel of your tongue and not move your jaw. You will notice your tongue moves up and down in the back. Use this stretch as a way to gain tongue mobility to prepare for our next exercise (one more time). The tongue often acts as a barrier to our head voice register if it is tight and overly engaged. So focus on keeping it loose and flexible as we sing. Also as a lower singer be careful not to press too hard into these notes. Instead try to keep this exercise open and breathy. For this next warm up we use the sound Weyahh on a simple pattern. Let’s give it a try!
Exercise: Tongue release Weyahh (3,2,1) Low A
Now that we got the tongue moving and loose, let’s try to keep it soft and still.
This next exercise sounds very similar, but the motion of our tongue is the complete opposite. Try saying the vowels Ay to Oh and notice how only the lips need to move to create the change from one vowel to the next. Now trying singing WeyOh on the same pattern as our last warm-up. You can check to see if your tongue is tight and locked in place by placing your thumb under your chin. Try to let your tongue gently drape over the tip of your teeth. It’s also especially important as a lower singer to make sure the tongue isn’t pulling back and down into the throat too much. If this is happening to you a lot, then I recommend that you try placing an almond on your tongue while you sing this next exercise. Of course don’t place this too far back and be careful not to choke as your tongue may want to pull back or form a spoon shape in your mouth as you form the Oh vowel in particular. Also try looking in a mirror to see what your tongue and jaw are doing. You may notice a lot of resonance in your sound as you continue to relax these muscles.
This next exercise sounds very similar, but the motion of our tongue is the complete opposite. Try saying the vowels Ay to Oh and notice how only the lips need to move to create the change from one vowel to the next. Now trying singing WeyOh on the same pattern as our last warm-up. You can check to see if your tongue is tight and locked in place by placing your thumb under your chin. Try to let your tongue gently drape over the tip of your teeth. It’s also especially important as a lower singer to make sure the tongue isn’t pulling back and down into the throat too much. If this is happening to you a lot, then I recommend that you try placing an almond on your tongue while you sing this next exercise. Of course don’t place this too far back and be careful not to choke as your tongue may want to pull back or form a spoon shape in your mouth as you form the Oh vowel in particular. Also try looking in a mirror to see what your tongue and jaw are doing. You may notice a lot of resonance in your sound as you continue to relax these muscles.
Exercise: WeyOhh (3,2,1) Low A
Lessons:
- 1: Welcome
-
2:
Warmup
-
3:
Finding Head Voice Function
-
4:
More Embellishment
-
5:
Incorporating Head Voice
-
6:
Conclusion
Instructor: Abram Poliakoff
Abram Poliakoff is a singer, guitarist, pianist, teacher, conductor, and composer. He received a Bachelors of Music in Vocal Arts from USC’s Thornton School of Music and has been teaching music for 8 years. He is currently both the Associate Artistic Director and a tenor in the L.A. Choral Lab, which recently released its first studio album Sonic Visions in the fall of 2019. Abram teaches and performs a wide range of genres including Classical, Jazz, Folk and Popular music in the Los Angeles area. He has also sung with the San Francisco Opera and Pocket Opera in the Bay Area. His teaching mission is to help his students utilize vocal technique to find their authentic and healthy voice while maximizing genre flexibility and a naturalness of expression.