The Vocalist's Preparation Ritual November 2007 Article By Jimi Zimmardi
Posted by Jimi Zimmardi at December 17, 2007 10:00 AM
Jimi Zimmardi Discusses his Preparation Ritual for a Performance
The Vocalist’s Preparation Ritual
By Jimi Zimmardi
November 2007 Article for voicecouncil.com
Singers at all levels over the years from beginner to advanced levels have their preparation rituals before a performance. My own personal ritual has been a work in progress since I was a child performer. As many of you have probably experienced performances since your early years, you can probably recall those times where you went out to sing and didn’t warm up. In my opinion, that is a crucial mistake.
Planning ahead is the first step towards feeling great on stage. This is why a warm-up ritual with time for paying attention to YOU is a necessity. You must treat your warm-up time as an athlete does before a big game or competition. I think that when singers don’t leave time for themselves prior to a performance is when they are not 100 percent effective on stage. As a singer, you must leave time for yourself to prepare.
In a practice environment, it is easy to set aside time prior to practicing your songs. In a performance environment, you should get to the performance venue early to do everything necessary for yourself. You have stage setups, sound-checks, dinner breaks and costume and hair preparation and the time flies by and before you know it, a performance is minutes away and maybe you haven’t warmed up. A singer MUST be selfish prior to performance to get a warm-up in.
Since all of what we do on this planet is Physical, Mental and Spiritual, you should incorporate what you do in your warm-up ritual by covering all three of the above categories. Below you will find what is important in all categories.
The Physical Warm-up
Much of my teaching philosophy is built on the McClosky Technique which is built on relaxation. There are six muscle groups above the shoulders including the head, neck and shoulders which need to be rubbed, massaged and stretched so that they can relax during a performance. I emphasize to my students that when they learn the McClosky 6 areas of relaxation that these muscle groups that we’ve prepared in the warm-up must also be relaxed during phonation. So our warm-up to relax all of these muscle groups is also felt while you’re singing. Specifically the McClosky 6 as I like to call them are the Facial Muscles, Tongue, Extrinsic Muscles under the chin, Chewing Muscles which operate the jaw where there is a lot of tension, the larynx and the neck muscles where tension seems to develop. Anyone familiar with the McClosky 6 Areas of Relaxation will tell you how relaxed you feel after you’ve let the tension go in these muscle groups when you phonate.
When I teach McClosky 6, I always go incorporate teaching my students how to give their entire body a massage. There are ways to do it yourself with massage tools and gadgets, but I also try to encourage them to get other band or group members involved with giving each other a massage in the muscles in the shoulders, neck and upper back that you can’t reach. It also feels better when someone else rubs you and you can relax during the massage. Massage in the neck at the base of the skull is effective in relaxing those muscles, but also releases toxins that are excreted in urination. It’s always great to get a massage on the day of an important performance, but a simple 5 to 10 minute massage can be just as effective. If you do get a deep tissue massage, be sure to drink lots of water and do not drink alcohol for 2 days after the massage because of the toxins that are released.
A simple massage that you can do yourself will cover the entire body and can be done quickly in minutes. You should also focus on giving your legs a good rub if you’re going to stand for a long time. In addition, you should also stretch all of your muscles especially the legs. The stance that I teach requires a lot of work in the quads in the legs so a good rub and stretch in the quads and the hamstrings is essential. I also find that stretches where you reach up to stretch the intercostal muscles in the ribcage which are involved in getting air into the lungs makes them feel better. These muscles work hard holding the ribcage up for correct posture, so a stretches will help those muscles when you have a long night ahead of you.
The Mental and Spiritual Warm-up
Many singers after letting go physically will feel that they need to let go mentally and spiritually. Meditation, Self Hypnosis, Bio Feedback, Yoga and other methods have been used over the years to accomplish the mental relaxation. There is one common denominator in the affective methods. Deep Belly Breaths through the abdominals with a slow exhale is found in most of the affective mental relaxation methods. I also find that going out for air outside the venue is also very effective especially if the air is stale in an unventilated venue. On the day of the performance, it’s always a good idea to take a long steam shower to hydrate the folds as well.
As far as the Spiritual part of the warm-up, you can combine prayer with any of the above Mental Warm-ups.
The Physical Warm-up involving Phonation
Now that you’ve stretched and massaged yourself and have relaxed mentally, you can focus on the Physical warm-up involving phonation. Since The McClosky Technique is based on a gentle onset approach where you use a breathy H consonant approach to start the onset, I start my vocal warm-ups by using a HMMMM type of approach. This guarantees an easy onset with a breathy tone where the vocal folds will come together gently at the onset of phonation.
I usually will use the HMMMM exercises in the following patterns
1) Do Re Do and go up chromatically to the upper register
2) I add Do Re Me Re Do in the same fashion
3) I add Do Re Me Fa So Fa Me Re Do in the same fashion.
These exercises are awesome because they focus on easy onset and a lot of breathy tone. You execute these exercises with a closed mouth. Initially I try to get my students to feel a tickling vibration in the closed lips. I also tell them that this is a great way to warm up without being loud. I show the student that if they open their mouth during this exercise that they are in fact warming up the muscles in the folds effectively even though their mouth is closed. A typical execution will sound like HMMMAAHHH when they do this exercise from closed to open as they open the resonance chamber formed in their mouth.
At this point of the warm-up, I use HE ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME in a DO RE ME FA SO FA ME RE DO pattern. This focuses the student on starting the phrase with a good H consonant followed by an unchopped pattern where the scale glides nicely. I also use Lip Rolls with this scale pattern. Lip rolls are effective in consistent airstream during phonation as well as getting the student to feel their abdominals for breath support.
At this point of the warm-up, I then use a wide variety of “Glide Up” vocalize exercises where the notes go up in a scale pattern that glide up to the high notes. It gets the student hitting the high notes first in a glide up pattern that they don’t hit the high notes head on first.
At this point, I use one vocalize exercise that will then concentrate on hitting the notes directly without gliding up. This method of hitting the high notes directly without belting into the high notes on the onset is always effective.
An Overview
Leave yourself time!!!! Be selfish!!! Remember to NEVER go out without a warm-up. You will find that feeling relaxed mentally, physically and spiritually will make you a whole different singer and performer. Be sure to stay hydrated on stage by drinking water as well.