Hi
How do you warm up before an exam? Do you run through a few vocal exercises, do you hum, sing bits of your pieces? How long do you take? I find often I am only warmed up after an hour's singing, not very practical when you are sitting an exam :-)

Any tips/thoughts/suggestions...

Thanks!

Hi Lafrog

Why isn't it practical to sing for an hour before the exam? You don't have to do that at the exam premises - do the bulk of it at home first.

Both the exams I've done so far have been preceded by a full hour's lesson (mainly spent singing anything but my exam pieces), followed by the drive to the exam room and a quick sing-through in the warm-up room there just to ensure that everything's working properly (including the accompanist )

This has worked for me, the lesson has left me relaxed and with my throat all properly warmed up and ready, which is one less thing to worry about on the day.

Cheers

Katyjay

i run through exercises....bascially vocal exercises... get few top notes... then nothing else...(this includes going to the loo)... then sit calmly and wait for my exam....

I personally start humming like 30 mins b4 exam then gentle warm ups scales stretch to high notes and do mayb half hour worth of warming up then just wait around goin omg exam!!

personally, before my exams, I wouldn't want to do too much, I would simply warm the voice up and keep it ticking over..don't tire yourself out!

What I find really helpful is sirening up and down and doing lip trills. If you lip trill through your songs, you'll find it gets the voice really connected. It takes any facial tension away and sets up good breath energy. So lip trilll through a bit, then add the words.

You dont need to do too much. Just relax and ENJOY!

Lip trill? What's that?

Just what I was going to ask!

Far as I know it's when you let air out of your lips letting them vibrate loosely in a pppprrrrrrr kind of sound (not b as you cant say b without making a noise!) and sing notes at the same time - ie you are not articulating words or shaping your mouth in any way and your tongue stays out of the way, so everything stays very loose, but your "voice box" is actually doing the work (if you put no sound to it, it just sounds like a horse blowing!)

I find it hard to sustain through a whole song though!!!but very useful when you have those pesky notes you feel you can't hit - it's a good way of finding out actually you can, then it's all about finding out how you get there singing normally :-)

Lol they're really fun, I tried them out after reading this post and now can't stop doing them!!!

(don't confuse them with lip trills on brass instruments though... they're completely different... and much harder on brass instruments lol!!)

pppprrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....


lol

Hi!

Yep you're right about lip trills! It's like the noise a horse makes when it blows out noisily, just add the notes to it!