You know that gorgeous feeling when you sing and everything is working? You are physically healthy, emotionally stable, got plenty of sleep the whole week before, the air quality is good, the humidity is perfect, and every note just feels like Heaven!
It is the best feeling ever!
I have been performing for 37 years, since I played Gretel in The Sound of Music at age five. I can count the performances where I had that "everything is perfect" condition on my fingers. They are so rare that each one still sticks in my mind.
Imagine: If you are performing in theater, performances occur at the end of a long and exhausting rehearsal process. Travel or stress may interfere with the perfect night's sleep. Where I live and teach, the days when the air quality is good are few and far between. And colds and allergies certainly don't respect our performance schedule!
So what if you *have* to perform under less than perfect conditions? Since this question is coming up among my students often lately, I thought I'd post my long performance warm up that can generally get a voice from "gunky" to "ready" in the course of 45 minutes to an hour. Back to sight-singing in a couple of days. :)
IMPORTANT! There are conditions that can't be warmed up out of. There is a difference between allergy/cold gunk interfering with production or a tired voice needing an extra TLC warm-up and serious conditions where swelling creates potential for long term damage. Know your voice, be careful, and see a vocal coach or an otolaryngologist if you are unsure. If it hurts to sing, STOP. If you start a slow warm up and don't hear/feel gradual but steady improvement, STOP.
1) Before beginning, drink plenty of water and have a good stretch. Continue to drink and stretch during the entire process.
2) Long up and down quiet "sirens" on an "ng" hum. (Like the end of "sing") Depending on how bad the day is, there may be big gaps in these sirens. Don't push, just let the gaps happen. Eventually the gaps will lessen and disappear. Be patient, don't succumb to the temptation to do it louder to get through the gaps. Easy, relaxed. This bit of the process can take a long time, even up to 15 minutes.
3) Once all the gaps are gone, start a mid-range descending five note scale on one "Ya." (Sol fa mi re do) This is not "good vocal production." Don't try to have good pressurized breath or sing very forward. It is quiet and easy, moving air through your vocal folds. Move down through your comfortable range and back to mids.
4) Now do a long top-down siren (on "ah" for men and "oo" for women and trebles). There will probably be some small gaps or "rough patches." In the range of these rough patches or gaps, do a three-note ascending and descending scale on a "lip trill." (do-re-mi-re-do) A lip trill is the sound that people often make when imitating a horse snort, if you are unfamiliar! If you cannot achieve the three note scale on a lip trill, use a voice "th" as a substitute. (And then plan to put some effort into your breath connection! This is a tattle-tale exercise!) Move the three note scale around in the ranges that were rough until they are clear, and then repeat the process! If there is a lot of mucus, it will move around and create new rough places as it loosens and relocates! Nasty! What were you thinking choosing your body as your instrument???
5) Now you can do your regular warm-up!
I recommend focusing on exercises that bring your voice into forward placement.
Some examples here:
Female Warm-Up
Brief Tenor Warm-Up
Kid Warm Up
During your performance, remember three things-- It is tempting to try to compensate by pushing -- fight that temptation! Second, sing more forward than usual. Third, don't be a "breath hero" -- a voice under pressure requires more air for production -- plan ahead to breathe more often.
Feel free to ask any questions in the comments!
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