Getting Your Body and Voice Ready and Relaxed
“Know your voice—it’s strong, it’s sensitive, it’s resilient, and it’s you—so be good to it” ~ Kristin Linklater (renowned voice teacher)
Physical Warm-ups
- Shaking out the body, bouncing around, twisting
- Circles with hips, stationary and moving around
- Patting down the body
- Large circles with arms, wingspan and front to back
- Bending down, hanging over
- Rolling back up, one vertebrae at a time – string with crown of your head
- Rolling your neck, large and small circles
- Rolling your tongue, side to side, up and down
- Stretching out and squeezing your face
- Massaging your face and jaw
- Massaging your sinuses or shaking hands
- Shaking hands and feet
Vocal Warm-Ups
- Big Breaths, Medium Breaths, Small breaths
- Big Sighs
- Ha-Hah, no sound
- Ha-Hah, little bit of sound
- Ha-Hah, bit of sound, and mmmmm
- Ha-Hah, sound, mmmm, and opening with ahhhh
- Lip Trills (Bubble)
- Lip Trill with a note
- Lip Trills with scales
- Zoom/Shaw→ Riii (and shaking at end)
- Buh/Duh/Guh/Duh, P-T-K
- Woo-Roo/Whoa-Row (and with songs)
Articulation
Phrases:
- Eleven Benevolent Elephants
- We’re Real Rear Wheels
Tongue Twisters:
- She slit a sheet, a sheet she slit, upon a slitted sheet she sits.
- A big black bug bit a big black bear and a big black bear bled blood.
Quick Summary
- Warm up your whole body: spine, head, legs, hands, feet
- Warm up your voice starting with breath all the way through sound
- Consonants carry thought; vowels carry emotion.
To illustrate the points:
From The King’s Speech—even Prince Albert had to learn the value of warming up the body and voice!
A few more in-depth exercises from The National Theatre in London:
(You can watch all of the National’s exercises here.)
Watch these great stage actors (Kelsey Grammar, David Hyde Pierce, and John Mahoney) with excellent diction and articulation from Frasier:
Time to Practice!
- Do the physical and vocal warm-ups. Get your body ready!
- On camera this week: after warming up, shoot another video on your topic—do you notice a difference in your body or in your voice? Post to the group!
- BONUS: add a profile photo and cover image to your YouTube channel: use this template for YouTube if you like