| Warming up and cooling down before and after | | | | All well trained singers develop their own distinctive |
| singing is crucial in preserving a healthy singing voice. | | | | warming up routines best suited to their own |
| If you don't warm up and cool down your voice, you | | | | personal requirements. The routines may vary with |
| risk damaging your vocal cords and sometimes | | | | changes in physical, mental and also emotional state. |
| permanently so. | | | | Most good singers begin by warming up their body |
| All athletes know that an effective warm up is | | | | first with light physical exercises. This is done to |
| essential for optimal athletic performance. But you | | | | reduce the muscular tension so that the singing voice |
| say, singers are not athletes, so why should singers | | | | will not sound strained or tensed. Furthermore, light |
| warm up their singing voices? | | | | exercises helps to stimulate deep breathing which is |
| Singers who are dinner guests are often asked to | | | | essential for good voice support. |
| perform impromptu entertainment by their host after | | | | It is vital to start vocalizing in your comfortable vocal |
| the dinner to entertain other guests. The wise singer | | | | range so as not to strain your vocal cords when it is |
| will politely decline the request rather than singing raw | | | | cold. You can then gradually move on to the higher |
| which is further complicated by a bloated tummy. | | | | and lower extreme notes. Some recent biomechanical |
| A proper warming up before a singing performance | | | | research have shown that singing at the extremity |
| lets the singer to get in touch with the singer's inner | | | | of both the higher and lower notes of the vocal |
| self physically and psychologically since self | | | | range can strain the laryngeal muscles, and can result |
| awareness is the foundation of good vocal | | | | harmful patterns of muscle tension. It goes on to say |
| techniques. | | | | that thus it is good common sense to avoid the |
| All good singers know that there is a co-ordination of | | | | extreme pitches whether they are high or low notes |
| many muscles parts and therefore warming up | | | | until your voice is warmed up appropriately. Most |
| before singing should be an unhurried and a leisurely | | | | singer's warm up is devoted to the goals of obtaining |
| self-exploration that allows enough time for the | | | | a beautiful voice timbre through the use of various |
| loosening and coordination of the muscles that assist | | | | vocal exercises. |
| voice production. Warming up your voice should be | | | | After a singing session, the singer should cool down |
| an enjoyable experience because as you warm up, | | | | the voice with exercises that soothe the vocal cords |
| your voice begins to sound better, effortless and a | | | | such as soft descending scales on the "oo" or the |
| sense singing freely is felt. | | | | "ee" vowel. If the singer does not cool down after a |
| Unfortunately, most of the time, the singer is | | | | sing session, the vocal tension will stay and the vocal |
| warming up while rushing to a rehearsal or as a last | | | | cords remain tensed and this will lead to further voice |
| minute preparation before taking the stage. The | | | | complications. So, to maintain and preserve a healthy |
| pressure of a hurried warming up may cause physical | | | | singing voice, adequate warm up and cool down is a |
| and mental tension and as such, the warming up may | | | | must in any singer's inventory. |
| prove to be ineffective or worse, counter-productive. | | | | |