Blog 3: A Warmup for Changing Voices

When considering vocal warmup activities for adolescents, and their changing voices, sometimes the best options are normally the simplest. I chose this activity because it's small range allows students to pick an octave that's comfortable with them, and they don't have to worry about any high or low notes, just an internalization of pitch.

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This activity was something I saw working at National Music Camp of Canada, during the chorale section that the campers attended. It sounds really cool, and I think it’s great for helping you listen to yourself and anchor your own pitch against other pitches, which can be tough if you have a part that fits a more harmonic role within a choral piece. It only covers one octave, and anyone can sing it in any octave they’re comfortable in, which makes it a great warmup for any group, even groups with changing voices.

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This is a warmup activity, but it should be done after more fundamental warmups like breathing exercises, vowel exercises, etc. To model, I start by thinking of a starting pitch, normally lower but not too low within my range, and then sing up and down the chromatic scale with the lyrics “Mary had a little lamb, whose fleece was white as snow. Anywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go”, with one pitch per syllable.

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I get the students to repeat the chromatic scale with me, making sure not to move too fast. Once the students have had a couple of tries singing the scale together, I split them into two groups. I tell the students: Group 1 starts, and when Group 1 starts to descend, Group 2 begins. I cue Group 1 to begin and sing along with them before jumping to singing with Group 2 to help them keep their pitch.

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Whether or not I keep the activity going is dependent on time, but there’s always ways to build upon it. You could have Group 2 begin right as Group 1 is only halfway up the scale (right on “whose”), forcing the groups to sing a tritone apart, or you could split the students into 4 groups and do something similar.

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The following infographic is based on the article "Choral Warm-Ups for Changing Voices", written by Patrick Freer, and informed my choice of warmup activity.

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