Do you know how to warm up your body before singing? Stretching your body will help release tension, allowing you to sing with ease.
(Updated 22nd December 2022)
Why warm up your body before singing?
Did you know that your vocal folds are about the size of your pinky fingernail? Crazy right?
SO SMALL, yet we ask them to work all day while we are speaking and then we ask it to work some more when we want to sing.
In every day life, when we want to lift heavy objects, it’s smart to not “use our back like a crane” as we have bigger muscles in the form of our glutes (butt) and quads (thighs) close by to assist in the hard work.
The lower back muscles are small and get overworked, (just like our vocal folds), so we should bring in those stronger supporting muscles to carry and balance some of the workload by bending from the knee and using the butt and thighs to help with the heavy lifting.
But first, release the tension!
The trouble with engaging muscles in support of singing is that the surrounding tissues (neck, shoulders and back) are usually FULL of tension from our everyday activities like sitting for too long and from continually using and looking at devices.
Before we can engage them, let’s release any tension in those areas!
“In life and singing, tension is enemy number one.”
In this video below, I take you through what I do every morning and what I encourage all of my coaching clients to do at the start of their day, before gigs, practices or rehearsals and definitely before we kick off our sessions.
When should your stretch?
It’s a great daily ritual to start your day with after waking.
Enlivening the muscles and tissues helps with overall flexibility and keeping tension at bay. It’s also super relaxing and a chance for us to take a moment and check in with ourselves.
Once you’ve done your Singers Stretches, move onto your vocal Siren to wake up your voice.
You can do these two exercises as often as you like to check in with your body and your voice to prepare it for speaking or singing plus for some focused relaxation time.
Do you stretch before singing already? Have I missed any critical stretches that you do? Comment below to let me know.
I’d love you to try these Singers Stretches every day for a week and let me know what you think!
Happy Stretching!
Cherie
