Working with young performers of all talent levels and all experience levels all mixed together often can turn into an imbalanced production. It was my intent with every show to help all students by leveling playing field. A very obvious indicator to who is “good” and who is inexperienced is their speaking voice. In the disguise of a logical vocal warm up, we created big changes.
After some light physical movement to just loosen up the body, we always did the following vocal warm up.
- Have everyone lie down on the floor
- Tell them to put one hand on their belly button to help their mind remember that we breathe from the diaphragm
- I would lead them into breathing in for 4 slow’ish counts
- Instruct them “While breathing out, use all your breath to say ‘one by one they marched away’ “
- Me: “Breathe in…2…3…4…”
- All: “one by one they marched away”
- Me: “Breathe in…2…3…4…”
- All: “one by one and two by two they marched away”
- Me: “Breathe in…2…3…4…”
- All: “one by one and two by two and three by three they marched away”
- Keep going, adding a new number each round. The idea is to use all the breath to complete the marching phrase
This teaches a number of things:
Lying on the floor is impossible (or harder at least) to breath incorrectly. On the floor, we naturally breath with the soft tissue that is easily moved, meaning the diaphragm, and are less likely to lift our shoulders to get a deep breath. When we stand or sit, anyone who has not trained their body to deep breathe properly, will lift up their chest to take a deep breath, which is performative, we “act” like we’re breathing but we’re not actually filling the whole diaphragm up.
Breath support is strengthened by forcing them to use all their breath on the shorter phrases as well as the longer phrases. There is a disconnect with most new performers with how much breath is useful for even single lines or sentences.
Vocal projection is improved by this practice. When it becomes second nature to support the words coming out of their mouths, they naturally start to speak louder and clearer.
Vocal quality is improved, meaning, that annoying thing people do these days by just vibrating their voice without using any air… don’t get me started… starts to disappear, and a truer sound is inevitable.
Confidence increases with this group vocal activity which seems silly at first, but soon becomes a competition to see who can out last the rest and how many rounds we can go. Nobody has to speak alone so the shy kid grows in skill and confidence.