How to Use Improv Vocal Warm Ups

This article will help you warm up your vocal instrument and prepare you physically for, not only improvisation, but performing in general.

Instructions

How to Warm Up Your Voice for Improvisation

1. Find your breath. This first step will help you breathe deeply during improvisation. It involves "dropping in," or feeling your breath, in three areas of your abdomen that support your breath: your stomach, back and sides. For your back, wrap your arms around yourself like you are giving yourself a bear hug, and bend forward at the waist. You should feel your back stretch open with every long, deep breath you take. Focus on the sensation of the opening of your back. When you are ready, start a light hum on a comfortable note and rise. Let your mouth flop open and let the hum become a relaxed "ah." Point to a spot across the room and focus your sound at it like a laser, feeling your breath supported. For your sides, bend at the waist to one side, stretch the arm from that side above your head, and let in a deep, long breath. You should feel your side stretch and fill, much like your back. Repeat the hum-into-"ah" exercise with both sides. For your stomach, cross your arms in front of you and clasp your hands together. Your arms should be twisted like a pretzel. Push your arms into your stomach and bend forward at the waist. Feel the deep, long breath fill your stomach area. Proceed into the hum-into-"ah" excersize. Shake out your body.

2. Find your voice. This exercise will help you create a strong, unforced sound for the stage. Stand with one leg in front of the other, with one hand on your lower stomach (where your diaphragm is) and the other in the air. Begin circling the free hand in a wide, underhand swing, as though you were pitching a softball of air, and every time you reach the moment where you would release the pitch, you release a relaxed but focused breath. Let that breath slowly turn into a "ha." Repeat this with the other foot forward, swinging the opposite hand.

3. Exercise your "cutters and shapers." Repeat the air-toss exercise from above, but this time land an over-enunciated "Pah" on the toss. Really pay attention to the feeling that the "P' makes as it is released. Then switch to the more vocal "Bah." Move through the following consonant tosses, each time feeling where in the mouth the consonant is produced, whether or not the consonant itself has voice behind it and where each consonant lands: "Pah," "Bah," "Fah," "Vah," "Tah," "Dah," Sah," Zah," "Kah" and "Gah."

4. Lengthen your breath. Now that the enunciators, or "cutters and shapers," are warm, it is time to build a line of dialogue so you can feel how one breath can carry you through a line of text, written or improvised. This is especially helpful with improvisation, as often one does not know how long the line they are about to say might be. All the more reason to have a good, supported breath. Start by saying the line of text to yourself in your head: "To be or not to be, that is the question." Focus on a point across the room, point at it, drop in a deep breath to your front back and sides, and let the first word of the line out on an effortless, yet focused breath. It should not be forcefully loud, but energized. It should feel easy. Think of the word as a laser beam. Then, point to another spot across the room and say the first two words. Continue this, until you have built the entire sentance. It should feel as effortless and supported as though you were only uttering one syllable.

5. Connect with your team. Once you and your improvisation partners have all individually warmed your voices up, collect in a circle and start connecting with each other. A good way to do that is by playing "Zip, Zap, Zop." It is a seemingly simplistic, yet challenging exercise that will test exactly how tuned in you are to each other. The first member says "Zip," while pointing to another random member of the team in the circle. She must then, instantly and without hesitation, turn to another member (who is NOT the person that just pointed to her) and say "Zap." That next person, must in turn, do the same and say "Zop." The exercise continues for several minutes, the focus being speed and accuracy. The more you are tuned in to each other, the quicker and more reflexive each "Zip" "Zap" and "Zop" will be. Once you have mastered this, you are ready to take the stage as an improvisational team and feed off of each other in front of a live audience.

Tips & Warnings

• Throw modesty out the window. You cannot feel inhibited while doing any of these excersizes, or you won't get their full effect. Let it be a lesson in humility and trust with your fellow improvisers.