A Great And Quiet Vocal Workout

Exercise number 1: Boots and Cats

This is a soft palate exercise which improves tone.

The soft palate is the squidgy bit at the back of the roof of your mouth, which stops coffee from going up your nose. In singing, the position of the soft palate has a significant effect on the sound, creating unwanted nasality which undermines the beauty of your tone.

The soft palate is lazy and may fatigue quickly. Repetition of this exercise will help.

‘Boots and Cats’ are the fundamentals of introductory beatboxing, however here we are using this phrase to strengthen the soft palate lifters.

• Firstly, this is completely unvoiced, so you should hear nothing but the consonants. We’re looking for a big strong K at the beginning of the word ‘cats’.
• Boots n Cats, Boots n Cats Cats x 4
• Kit Kat, Kit Kit Kat x4
• Boots n Cats, Boots click your fingers, (or clap) Cats

To challenge our musicality at the same time, this exercise is in 5/4, so there are 5 beats in the bar.

Exercise number 2: Hum Jam

It’s very easy to hum badly. Try to create a cavity inside your mouth while you’re humming. Give the sound as much support as you would if singing in full voice. This will sound rich and full.

Try any of the harmony parts at your pleasure.

If you’re lazy with the humming it will sound thin and expressionless. If your tongue is taking up the whole space inside your oral cavity, you need to separate your teeth, drop your jaw a bit and create more space.

A good hum will become an ‘ah’ sound when you part your lips. If you have the privacy, you can do this exercise on an open oo, ah, yeah, no, oh oh – whatever tickles your fancy. Bear in mind this will be louder.

Exercise number 3: Buzz Buzz

This is a call and response exercise on a closed ‘Z’ sound. Let me demonstrate the phrase first, and you repeat after me.

Using a Z sound creates ‘back pressure’ which is a build up of air pressure above the vocal cords. This is a fantastic exercise for stabilising the voice and getting rid of unwanted wobbliness. It’s also great as an all round exercise, developing support muscles, breath control, aural skills and musicality.

Exercise number 4: Melodic Sirens

Sirens are a top exercise for getting quick and effective workouts. The drawbacks are that they are very loud and a bit antisocial if you’re not in the company of singers! They can also feel quite a musical.

Sliding between notes in a musical manner is used in singing and instrumental playing. Done well this can be very beautiful. Done badly, well…

My main observation about the unbridled sliding between notes, is that usually it’s because the singer is either unaware that they are doing it, or not sure of what the notes are. Regular suspects are long runs of notes and tricky intervals (big or awkward jumps between two notes). I used to have a coach who called this ‘fishing for notes’ – ‘I think it’s around here somewhere….’

A good slide is conscious and controlled. You’ll know which notes you are sliding between, and how quickly. Like a dance, you will arrive at the correct place at the intended time.

This exercise uses the F minor pentatonic scale. This is a 5 note scale, the 6th note in this exercise being the octave.

1. F (the ‘first degree of the scale’ or ‘the 1’)
2. Ab (the ‘second degree’, or ‘the 2’ etc…)
3. Bb
4. C
5. Eb
6. F

• Firstly we familiarise ourselves with the F minor pentatonic scale, using the exercising sound ‘n’. Singing an ‘n’ follows the same principle as humming. You may feel the resonance a little further forward in your face.
• Once we’re confident with the scale, we’ll do three sirens between
  • the 1 and the 2
  • the 1 and the 3
  • the 1 and the 4
  • then we’ll finish that section with one more run up and down the whole scale.
• Then we’ll complete 3 more sirens between
  • the 1 and the 4
  • the 1 and the 5
  • the 1 and the octave
  • another repetition of the scale
  • then we’ll repeat this section of larger sirens

• The final section incorporates sirens into the scale. We are singing the scale up and down again, but this time you have two beats to complete the below sirens and then complete the rest of the scale at the usual time.
  • the 1 and the 4
  • the 1 and the 5
  • the 1 and the octave
  • the 1 and the octave
  • the we’ll repeat this section to finish.

If you have the space and the privacy you can use any open sound, or nonsense words instead of the ‘n’ sound. This will be louder.

Exercise number 5: Tongue twisting and palate lifter.

Tongue twisters are great for articulation practice. This ultimately helps us to be understood better by making the words clearer.

I have chosen to focus on a hard ‘K’ sound to work into the soft palate again.

You can whisper or speak these words quietly, focusing on keeping a good strong K sound, or you can sing quietly using your ‘indoor voice’.

• Can you catch a Korfball on the coastline of Corfu? Because the canny Korfball team are catching up with you. Can you catch a Korfball on the coastline of Corfu? Because the canny Korfball team are catching up, catching up with you.
• Each repetition speeds up by at least 10 beats per minute.

Exercise number 6: Eternal Flame

You will need a candle with a good flame about 6 inches from your mouth. Tea lights generally are too small. Most people find it easiest to find good height by siting with the candle stabilised at the right height so you are not singing over the top of it. Make sure you are lifting from the chest and maintaining a good singing posture as you set the height of your candle.

We’re aiming for the air that leaves your mouth to be in a direct line to your candle flame.

You’ll need to be able to lean forward and backward a few inches each way comfortably without upsetting your candle.

Please use your common sense and don’t set the house on fire.

Children may need adult supervision to do this exercise.

• This exercise is very controlled and naturally quiet, so you can use an open ‘Ah’ sound.
• You can swap this for any other exercising sound you feel comfortable with.

This is a cord closure exercise, training the vocal cords to release as little air as possible when you sing. This is called ‘efficient cord closure’. You will find that some parts of your range are more efficient than others.

Do not strain at any time.

When we have achieved efficient cord closure, your singing will not disturb the candle flame very much, if at all. You’ll be able to get within an inch or so of the flame without the candle reacting at all.

• Start by sitting with good singing posture about 6 inches away from your candle.
• To test that you’re in the correct position, we’ll just let out one puff of air. You should see the candle flicker, but it should stay alight. If it doesn’t flicker, you need to adjust your position.

1. Exhale to prepare, aiming your our breath away from the candle.
2. Inhale comfortably without lifting the shoulders
3. Sing ‘Ah’ quietly, without disturbing the flame.
4. Hold the note as long as you feel comfortable to. You shouldn’t feel like you’re holding your breath, and you should not be straining your voice.
5. We’ll repeat that with a different pitch each time.

If you’re tone is very breathy, it will make the candle flicker. We’re looking for little or no movement from the flame.

On the repeat we are going to move in towards the candle and retreat back to our starting position over 8 bars. We’ll take a breath after 4 bars.

1. Exhale to prepare.
2. Inhale and sing ‘ah’ on the low note.
3. Edge closer to the flame so by the 4th bar you are within an inch or so of the candle.
4. Breathe, and ‘ah’ again on the same note.
5. Edge back to where you started over the course of 4 bars.
6. We’ll repeat this over the same four pitches.

It’s interesting to note which notes are easier to keep the flame steady, where you are achieving efficient cord closure, and where it is more difficult to achieve efficient cord closure.

Exercise number 7: The Scales of the Blowfish

‘Blowfish’ is another of the group of sounds that creates back pressure. This is great for your voice but again, not loud. It is however quite daft, and you may wish to find some privacy if you have note already done so.

‘Blowfish’ is what it sounds like. You should feel your cheeks puff out to the side, filled with air. Purse your lips, so the smallest, slightly buzzy sound is released. If you feel like a lemon, you’re on the right track.

• Listen to the patterns sung a repeat them.

Exercise numbers 8, 9 and 10: Your Choice of Jam

Taking any of the following sounds, just give yourself freedom to improvise over these two tracks with no vocals or instruction on them. (blank track 2, track 4 and track 5)

You can rotate between these sounds at your leisure.

• Jjj
• Zzz
• Vvv
• Blowfish
• Hum
• Nnn
• Ng

If you have the space and the privacy, you can of course use open vowel sounds, or nonsense words as you like. For example:-

• Ah
• Eh (for egg)
• Ee
• Oh
• Oo
• Yeah yeah
• No No
• Oh no
• Woah yeah
• etc…

Well done for a great workout!

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