Question for October 4-10, 2010

[Amby Leigh]

From Geekums... do you ever do vocal warm ups before recording? If so, what are they?

[Jordan]

I usually like to sing along with some of my favorite songs for a little while before I start recording. It's a fun way to warm up, in my opinion.

[Sh3rl0ck]

It depends on the day. Sometimes I do warm-ups and then other days I just skip right to recording.

The technique I do, is actually an acting technique I learned from a drama teacher awhile back, that can be used for warming up your vocal chords for acting and/or singing. And basically all it is, is you standing or sitting up straight and pushing your chest forward which helps open your diaphragm. And all you do while your in this position is (it's gonna sound silly explaining) but you repeat the sound 'HA' over and over again and it pushes air up through your diaphragm and warms your lungs up... I also do a mouth exercise that helps unlock my jaw a little bit and thats just moving it around and making funny faces whilst I say "the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth" over and over again... ^^ :::::

[Cydonia]

As stupid as I look with one in my mouth, I put a cork in my mouth and say some tongue twisters. It helps your muscles ease out and relax so you can enunciate your words a lot better.

[TriPredRavage]

I've fallen out of the habbit of doing them, but I really should pick it back up. I usually would do some scales, trying to get my voice to hit my lowest and highest pitches. I would also do diction exercises pronouncing each vowel sound starting with each letter of the alphabet.

e.g. A-E-I-O-OO, Bay-Bee-bai-Bo-Boo, Cay-Cee-Cai-Co-Coo, etc...

[Sukisho]

Most of the time I don't, but sometimes I will take a bit of time if my voice doesn't sound quite right to me and sing a few things to warm it up.

[S h u d o - R a n m a r u]

I usually don't, but sometimes I'll do some fail singing before just for fun which doubles as a warm up. xD

[Ovarku]

I don't always warm up before recording, but when I do, i'm doing all the tricks.

Stay vocal, my friends...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MFm6qAHaGUE/TFXLroTPGGI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/Y3gj4ATRNko/s1600/most_interesting_man.jpg

[Monotori]

On a really off day, I'll just start ranting about life, changing up my emotions during the monologue, and get the mic out. On really good days, I'll do things they taught in high school: slow scales, tongue twisters, slow breathing, stretches (full-body physical as well as vocal). On a normal day I'll sing along to some music, then for a particular character I'll read their description in-character, maybe improvise a reaction to said description, then start.

... I should really warm up more often, though. I used to also bring an apple along when mouth noises came to be a problem and some honey-water, but now with my puppy it gets too hectic (since he stays in the kitchen).

[Y. Chang]

Definitely. I'll sing some stuff and then do some Jones warmups.

[paraparamore23]

I don't generally use vocal warmups for acting, since I'm working on my natural voice for the time being.

For singing, I do extremely thorough warm-ups to work on pitch training and maintaining my range, which consist of scales in various vowels and solfege (Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do)

If I'm in a group, we'll sing a scale in either thirds, fifths, octaves, fourths, sixths, or ninths.
If not, then skips around the scale using solfege.

I'm very dynamic in warmups -- I'm always stretching.

I've got some fun warmups for those of you with good music theory knowledge -- let me know if you'd like some.

[Geekums]

My question? Hurray! lol

I usually say random phrases starting from my regular voice, then I work my way to an extreme low and then to the extreme high, hitting all of the other pitches in between.
"Diction is done with the tip of the tongue and the teeth" is an overused phrase, I hear, but I really think it helps a lot :). I usually also eat a green apple before and during a recording, as well!

[Brooke Leeann]

I usually like to sing along with some of my favorite songs for a little while before I start recording. It's a fun way to warm up, in my opinion.
I do the exact same thing, usually with Paramore or some random anime songs.

[Notebookface]

I tend to not do warm ups when it comes to radio drama. Sometimes I will plow through the first few pages of my lines to get the lead out.

But when I record voiceover for radio commercials, I'll do at least three runs through the script, just to fix any odd grammar mistakes the copy writer made.

[xApplicationRainbow]

I usually record in the afternoon. I find my voice to be it's best during that time. Or eat an apple!

[JCx]

I usually record in the afternoon. I find my voice to be it's best during that time.

Heh, same here. My voice tends to be quite screwy in the mornings (but the upside is that since my throat is so relaxed really deep voices are so much easier to do and it's friggin' fun pretending to be bad-ass xD)

I usually stretch out and loosen my mouth muscles and voice by speaking lots of gibberish like in Bruce Almighty where Steve Carrel is on-air getting controlled by Jim Carrey and basically super-enunciating random phrases while surfing through my entire vocal range. I just start to "let loose" because of all that and it really helps me get prepped for a nice session ^o^
Since I only get "sessions" on the weekends, I hafta make them count~

[xSeo]

I record myself saying the vowels, and gradually repeat them faster and faster. I've no clue if this actually helps, but it sure feels like it does to me, lol.

[MissAck]

Not really, actually. I know I probably should, but I usually just talk to myself, mimic funny little sounds in the clip or mock a few characters before I record the actual lines, and that's just out of habit and fun.

[McTricky]

When, I'm recording at home, I usually don't. Though when I recorded in the studio on Wednesday, I made a habit of talking a lot. To my self, noting things, talking whenever between lines, just so my voice warms up.

[Tomoyo Ichijouji]

I do this often actually! For every character, I record some test line to make sure I've 'tuned in' to their voice properly; for easier voices once is enough but for the less intuitive ones I sorta warm up with a few more until I think I've gotten comfortable with it. Then I'm all set after that, and if at any other point if I find my lines seeming to deflate, I do that again until I think I'm back on track.

[WannabeUtau]

Well, it depends on if you consider reading the lines I have to say a few times before I record each one warm-ups. XD But otherwise, I don't