Basic Warm up Exercises
As Music students, we often wonder why we are unable to sing with ease at the start of the class or when we start practicing at home. But after a while, say 15-20 mins of singing, our voice settles down and we are comfortable singing, right? This is mainly because our voice is not warmed up. Here, I will be sharing some basic warm up exercises that may help you sing comfortably.
- Sa-Pa-Sa:
This is a very familiar exercise for all the music students, since we are taught this on the first day of our music class. But most often we are in a hurry so we don't really pay attention to this exercise. To begin with, switch on your tanpura and listen to the beautiful sound of the tanpura sruthi and close your eyes and travel with the tanpura. Slowly start singing Sa. Rest on Sa for about 10-20 seconds. Internalize the Aadhara Shadja and sing it for as long as you want to. Move on to Pa and repeat the same process. Then land on the higher - Sa. Repeat the same process for the descending scale as well. This one exercise may take about 10-12 mins. It is very important that you spend time and do this warm up properly since this has a huge impact not only on your voice but also your mind, since it calms your mind and helps you focus more throughout the class/practice session.
- Lower - Pa:
This add on may not be familiar to some of you. This is nothing but resting on lower panchama to warm up your voice. Every voice is unique and there is no good or bad voice. Some of us maybe comfortable singing the upper octaves while some of us are comfortable singing the lower octaves. Both are equally tough. Its very key to be able to train your voice to sing both registers with ease because as a singer, you are expected to sing both upper and lower octaves comfortably. Most of the songs that you learn will travel the entire length of 2-3 octaves. So being able to sing the lower octave is as important as singing the upper octave.
- The second and the third speed:
Now, we all know that as singers, we are expected to sing both slow and fast phrases. So this exercise, singing the Sa-Pa-Sa on the second and third speed is the first step towards singing speeds. Although we don't sing S-P-S with the talam, there is a hidden tempo that we subconsciously follow while we sing S-P-S. To that speed, sing the second speed and third speed. Here, please note that while you are singing the second and the third speed, your Pa and higher Sa should be in pitch. Generally we are in a hurry when we are asked to sing speeds. So more focus has to be on the pitching since its very easy to go off pitch. My guru usually says,"There is no slightly when it comes to pitching. It has to be on or off pitch" So the landing on Pa and Sa has to be really accurate. We need to work on reaching that level of perfection that when we sing Sa-Pa-Sa , we should not be able to hear two different sounds. Our pitching has to be so accurate that it has to blend in so well with the tanpura and we hear only ONE voice.
