Lex’s Vocal Exercises

1) Body stretches: 1a) stretch hands over head; 1b) drop hands to your waist, allowing your shoulders, neck, and back to stretch; 1c) reach your hands back over your head; 1d) allow your hands to slowly fall back to your sides. 2a) lace fingers together behind your back; 2b) keep shoulders down and stretch your hands behind your back opening your chest – hold for 15-20 seconds. 3a) grab the left side of your head close to your face and stretch your neck to the left; 3b) grab the right side of your head close to your face and stretch your neck to the right.

2) Facial stretches: a) yawn; b) jaw stretch (up and down, side to side); c) pucker up (put your lips together like a kiss, relax, repeat); d) eyebrow lift; e) eye roll.

3) Breathing exercises: place hand on diaphragm (where your rib cage comes together) and practice breathing in and out slowly making sure belly goes out when taking a breath and tightens when releasing it. Make sure your shoulders and chest do not raise and drop.

4) Scales – Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do5) Rest tongue on bottom of mouth behind your teeth and feel the

vibration on the roof of your mouth…sing through a yawn6) Sirens: with proper tongue position and breath coming from your

belly, sing as a siren going from your lowest note to your highest. Make sure it is a smooth sound (glissando). When you are singing low notes the vibrations should be focused in your mouth and chest and when singing high notes it is focused more in the head (chest voice/head voice).

7) Vowels and mouth shapes:

Singing Technique

x Stretch your body and face and perform vocal exercises before practice, lessons, and performances

x Maintain a relaxed jaw, shoulders, and tonguex Proper posture: straight body, no slouching, shoulders relaxed

and dropped, jaw relaxed and dropped (sitting or standing make sure you have proper posture to avoid constricting your diaphragm)

x Tongue rests on the bottom of your mouth behind your teeth, focus vibrations on the roof of your mouth

x Keep mouth open wide by dropping your jaw and not stretching at the sides of your mouth

x Make sure breath is coming from diaphragm (belly) that makes your belly move out and in and not shallow breaths causing your chest and shoulders to move up and down

x For low notes the vibrations are focused in your mouth and chest (chest voice)

x For high notes the vibrations are focused more in your head (head voice)

x Pronunciation and Diction: a) make sure if you have a note that is held you are holding the sound on a vowel; b) make sure the ends of words are clear and crisp but not sharp; c) make sure each phrase is expressed musically – add crescendos and decrescendos to make the music move; d) practice reading through your lyrics before singing them and periodically to refresh your memory

x Have fun and sing from your heart – you have practiced really hard and done all your work so all that is left to do is listen to your music and make it beautiful