Vocalisation is the practice of making vocal sounds, usually without singing words. It is a way for singers to warm up their voices, practice vocal techniques, and improve their overall vocal ability. Vocalisations can include scales, arpeggios, and other exercises that are designed to help singers develop control over their voices. These exercises can help singers to improve their pitch, tone, and breath control, and can also help to prevent vocal strain or injury. Vocalisation is an important part of a singer's practice routine, and is often used as a way to warm up before singing or performing.
Vocalisation is important for choral singers because it helps them to develop good vocal technique and to produce a clear, well-controlled sound. In addition, vocalisation can help singers to develop good posture, which is important for good vocal production.
This important element has multiple purposes, among which we can highlight the following:
Focuses attention
It allows the mind of the child or chorister to connect with the moment of the rehearsal, to get involved in the idea of making music together, to leave problems, pending issues and concerns outside the choir room and focus their attention on singing.
Prepare the voice to sing
When we vocalize, we condition the vocal apparatus and all the muscles involved in the singing activity, such as the tongue, cheeks, lips and of course the vocal cords, in the same way that an athlete conditions his body.
Address technical complexities
Vocalising allows us to solve the technical difficulties that we find in the various passages of the musical work, without the need to sing the complete melodies and focusing on the most complex points, such as jumps, chromaticism, very long phrasing and other melodic movements.
Listen to themselves and others
It allows choir members to appreciate the results of group singing, as well as laying the foundation for developing vocal independence and blending of voices. This is a very important point, since achieving goals such as singing for 2, 3 or even 4 voices depends on it, which translates into works of greater difficulty and beauty.
Proper breathing habits are generated
During the vocalization, correct breathing is practiced, to help build awareness of the function of the diaphragm, a muscle located below the ribs and on the organs of the digestive system. The diaphagm allows the chorister to increase their air resistance to perform the correct phrasing of the musical work, as well as maintaining the "support" that prevents the sounds from falling out of tune or the voices echoing an excess of air.
To establish the unification of vowels
Achieving verticality in the placement of the vowels, looking for what we know as the "yawn" position, is another of the tools that we develop in vocalization. This verticality allows the sound of the choir to be unified.
Ideas for Vocalisation Activities
If you need some help with fresh ideas for vocalisation, here are some of my favourite vocal exercises:
Silly faces
The cleaning tongue: moving the tongue inside the mouth, from one side to the other, as if trying to clean the teeth
Chewing: move the mouth as if we were chewing a huge piece of gum
Send kisses: make the kiss faces and send them into the air
Pop a balloon: Inflate and deflate cheeks as if pricked by a needle
Make a fish mouth
2. Trumpets (buzzing with lips)
Using any number of scale degrees, the more the better, and even without defined tuning, just releasing the lips from tension while we hold the trumpet. Double advantage, it also raises the veil of the palate.
3. Speak yawning
Talking as if we were yawning all the time.
4. The sound Ng
To activate the resonators and place the voice in the yawning position
5. Cuevitas (Little Caves)
Inside the mouth becomes a cave while we try to generate an “M”, singing two or three degrees of the scale, starting in a low register (middle C for children) and looking for vibration.
6. Sirens or Ambulances
The sound of the glissando (gliding from pitch to pitch), either starting on a low sound or starting on a high sound.
7. Descending melodic movements
Begin at the 3rd, 4th, or 5th degree of the scale descending in joint or arpeggio degrees.
This blog piece was developed by Esmeralda Jiménez Olmos, one of our I Have a Voice Choir Masters that is currently looking after our program at Hogar Para Niños Morelia.
Find out more about our program here.