Karaoke Forums

are you always supposed to warm up before singing ?  Even if it's older soft ballad stuff you plan on attempting ?

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

i think this sums it up pretty well.....

http://www.articlesbase.com/music-artic ... 75027.html

Always warm up. I do a fifteen-minute warmup every time I sing.

It is very important to get the breath going -- without it you will always be struggling. And you can't get it going if your muscles aren't loose.

Steven,
I am not an expert but do have many more years of singing experience than I like to admit to. The answer to your question is yes, but its not always possible in the real world. In a studio setting it is always possible. What I have done in the studio is run through the song a few times as a warm up because i know I am going to screw it up anyway. I could do scales or motorboat ect but would rather use the song as a warmup as long as it doesnt test my upper range. As far as singing live I would use the sound check to make sure my voice had no unexpected kinks in it but that was too long before showtime to serve as a warmup. I might go backstage or outside and do a few simple warmups but more times than not I didnt. I always picked a couple of songs to start the night that didnt strain my voice. I sing mostly country so there is not a lot of high energy, screaming vocals involved. I have been called to the bandstand to sing a song with the band many times and there is no time to warm up. What do you do? You have to know your limits and pick the right song. Some might disagree but in a karaoke setting it not always possible to warm up. I dont do karaoke very often but have never warmed up before being called up except maybe singing along as others sing. The type of song you are singing makes a huge difference. I know what I feel comfortable doing cold without a warmup and with no chance of straining my voice. That comes with singing four hours a night for many years. My final thought: Warming up is the right thing to do when possible but when you cant know your limitations....Phil

I do some warmups in the car on the way to the karaoke place.

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I love being a mom!

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glow=yellow][scroll][shadow=red] Correction..."LIZ" says..  :whistle: You just can't go wrong with TomTom onboard !![/shadow] [/scroll][shadow=gold][/shadow][shadow=cyan][/shadow][/shadow]

I warm up and practice as a matter of course every day. (I am lucky -- I have a complete karaoke setup in my office, with privacy to use it!) I may or may not sing that night, but once warmed up during the day humming a few bars sub voce is enough to get me going again.

Most weeks I take one day off to rest my voice.

I have a warmup CD for the car. It takes only 15 minutes, 10 minutes if I abbreviate it. Then I try to sing one warmup song that is in the middle of my range. After that, I am pretty much ready. If I can warm up standing up, to get the breath going better, it is better yet.

If it seems you don't have time to warm up and are completely cold, but you have a couple of minutes, hum some scales sub voce and it will help. But I avoid that at all costs, and haven't had to do it for a long, long, time.

Thanks all..

Yeah Milo,  I was doing something crazy today,  After talking to Billy I decided I too wanted to sing with a very strong timbre.. So I tried to do that semi-yawning thing (after hearing the notes I hit at the very end of a Jimmy buffet song (naturally a song I shouldn't even be attempting),  I decided yep, I want all my notes to sound like the cadence of the song) so I tried to get the sharp timber and during a song felt a crack at the back of the jaw where the mandible and cranium meet.  (Something like that).. Usually I have a tendency to not know my limitations until I injure myself but I suppose this might be the best way to try to ease into a timbre rather than "just doing it" straining myself to get some edge



I'm starting to really get impatient to do this.... So I figured I could feign confidence by yelling the notes  LOL

I just want my friggin pharynx shaped so I can sing like Billy !!! .
Seriously, my patients are running out, this is tougher than learning algebra..  This is harder than I thought it would be, and taking a longer time than I thought given the daily hours I've been putting into it.. (although doing it wrong, but still.. GRRRR)



Thanks Phil.  Since the majority of what I do is "mellow", I usually just try to find a mellow 60's or 70's ballad that I can do as a warmup,  I suppose establishing a basic singing range would be a better idea so I can warmup within that general area, yet I try to shoot well out've my baritone range into the tenor range..So I dunno..  I'm going to need to slow things down,  it just never ocurred to me I could hurt myself trying to learn to sing, but I'm realizing at my age, not to assume ANY aspect of my physical being is impervious to injury, so probably best I make sure if I'm going to warmup trying to sing softer ballads, I do ENOUGH of them before attempting to push myself

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

i think there may be a surgical procedure for that, not sure....  


if you want i'll send you some links orrrrrr i can send you the warm-ups i use along with some vocal exercises...i think you'll hear a big difference if you try this...

there are a few really good video series you can get for vocal training...have you thot about that?

I'm REALLY REALLY getting impatient.....  Starting to make demands of myself.. I forget how I can beat myself up but this has reminded me !  I'm trying to transform myself into my favorite singers, despite physical limitations..  I need a vocal coach at this point but if an instructor starts me singing bach and hannon warmup exercizes I'm going to switch to spoons, or limberjack, maybe something less harmful where only teeth are at stake like jaw-harp..   Seems I listen to Billy do his rendition of a song I tried, and after listening, I approach my computer with the mindset "OK, so that's what I need to do".. problem is when I play it back.. It doesn't work

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

actually the warm-up exercises i do are kinda fun....

i promise you...if you put in a little time and effort on the basic building blocks you'll hear a big difference....

i keep telling myself i'm gonna stop playing around and do that myself....i have no discipline whatsoever....nada....

This is the problem !  I have tremendous discipline,  I sit down at the computer and sing Croce,  and within two hours I'm belting "The Guess Who" stuff  I don't mind redoing a song 6-10 times,  problem is the songs I'm redoing are songs few that sing will touch..   I want it, and I want it now   ,  I figure if in a few years something will just "click"; and like other stuff that's clicked in time, I'll say in retrospect, "I should've thought of that in 2008"... I want to save time and do it NOW !

Nope, I have NO discipline, and NO patience.. I thought I'd at least have some patients..  Only thing fun will be cloning everybody I want to !! so THERE...

OK, sorry, I HAD to throw a hissy fit !!  (This was about as far as a got golfing beforeI got thrown off the local courses)

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

steven when did you turn 78?  


i'll talk to you more later....i have a killer headache and i need to get to bed....

Later milo,  I have a sore throat and a headache..  Guess it's time to attempt brian adams, and rod stewart..

Heck,  todays accomplishments,  I stuck to songs roughly within my singing register, and cut reverb WAY back.. So shouldn't I reap some rewards for making sacrifices like being an honest 9++++++  ?  I only have 100 songs posted,  otherwise I should be a "10"

Nah, seriously, I need to do this honestly,  it's TOUGH, unlike anything else musical I've ever tried to fight with to get it to work.  Almost like golf there are paradoxes.. for instance... I'm trying to fight my voice and push it other places, I'm doing everything but working with it and doing things the natural way..  I'm confused

One of two of the croce songs were in the baritone range, and I think they worked somewhat, problem is I don't like croce songs

I want to sing like andy williams and all his brothers too !!!

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Hey, I'm dumb and I like to sing. Can I join in this conversation?

You are improving by leaps and bounds Steven. It sounds like you are becoming more comfortable with your own voice and that is very good.

Try a vocal coach for at least a few weeks. If he/she has a different plan than yours you can always get another, they ARE contract labor. Warming up first is very important and a coach can help you with that. I urge you to do this before you gain too many bad habits. Proper breathing is a must for maintaining notes.

I look at it this way, I only have to be serious long enough to get through the warm-ups. After that, I relax a little and enjoy singing.

Chuck, A vocal coach IS without a doubt necessary at this point, and I'm looking.. Not easy to find a person around my current location (since I'm out've the music loop these days in real life) who sings classic rock ballad.  I'll find someone..

Fortuneately I've had the luck of having friends that have dared to be honest, and tell me what does and does not work.. and that is worth more than money can buy..Reason being,  (similar to the hissy fit I threw last night) we ALL get impatient at times and want to be more than we are.. These are the times we are prone to believe fluff comments, and are vulnerable to believing we've become "good" even tho "good" is a long haul off..It's going to be tough work; What is my reality is that not too long ago, I thought doing this at all was an impossibility, but, It'd be SO much easier if I clicked on a backing and a red flag came up that read,

"WTF, or you nuts Kappy ?  Don't even think about trying this song" !!!!

There's A LOT of temptation out there WAY over my head

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Personally I think it'd be interesting to have two "Showcases"

"Karaoke Showcase" (Just for fun)

and

"Singers Showcase*"  (those submitting to this category are willing to "Face the music", or can submit listen only. Keep it real here.)

Of course all would be free to sub in either category..

Anyway, back to the topic.. YEP,  Singing is tough to learn, I guess the nice thing abut warmups is that I can be walking outside, or doing something else while I'm warming up singing, I don't need to perch myself at a piano, or instrument to do them.. I can do them before I'm near the microphone..

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".