Limber Up

Stand up tall and straight.  Imagine there is a string at the top of your head pulling your whole body up straight and tall. 

When you sing, you want all the muscles in your neck, shoulders and upper body to be relaxed - totally relaxed.  Stress and tension will create a pinched-sounding tone because you will be squeezing the muscles in your throat and forcing the sound through it.

Look in the mirror and consciously relax all the muscles in your upper body: face, neck, shoulders, chest. 

Roll your head by dropping it forward, to the side, to the back, to the other side and repeat.  We are relaxing the muscles and gently stretching them.

Lift your shoulders up as high as you can and push down as low as you can.  Repeat several times.  Again, we are limbering muscles and getting them to relax.

The rib cage - I like to have my students do isolation exercises with their rib cage so they are aware of what it is.  Your rib cage should be held upright - as if you are standing at attention.  It should never drop down or be caved in as you are singing.  It is the place that holds the air that you use to create your sound.

So, lift your rib cage up and out, then to the side, to the back, the other side and then back to normal position.  Do this several times also. 

After this little limbering session, we're ready to start!

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