Vocal Technique and the Choral Warmup: First Steps

McCarther, an applied voice instructor, searches for ways to connect the gap between voice lessons and choir rehearsals for his graduate conducting students. In this article, the author shares that he often asks his students what exercises they use in their choir rehearsals and, as a follow-up, the purpose of using those particular warm-up exercises. For many students, it's because those are the exercises that their instructors used when they were students. McCarther shares that “it is imperative that teachers provide students with exercises that are both intentional and specific regarding their functional effect.”

The author provides a diagnostic process to help determine where to begin when listening to your ensemble or applied voice students, diagnosing the functional causes, and prescribing exercises that will influence change in the voice. The steps include listening passively and assessing the sound, using diagnostic exercises to explore symptoms, diagnosing functionality, prescribing specific and targeted vocal exercises, and reassessing. While the author finds this step-by-step process useful, instructors must be “flexible enough to the specific demands of the student in front of us.”

As a new choral director, I remember walking into my first ensemble class feeling ready to go. I had my lesson plans prepared, music picked, and, most importantly, I had my three pages of choral warmups, most of them introduced to me by my undergraduate professor. During the first few days of the class, I chose exercises that would allow me to assess my choirs and learn more about them. As I progressed through the semester and continued to teach repertoire, I noticed that I needed to find techniques and tools that would allow me to correct many of the vocal faults I heard during the rehearsal. At that point, I realized that I needed to evaluate and rethink the tools in my toolbox. Why was I using the warmups that I was using? What was their purpose? What did I want my students to gain from the exercises chosen? And most of all, did it work? Fourteen years into teaching, while I have gained more knowledge in this area, I continue to research, ask questions, attend conferences, and reach out to my colleagues to learn more. No matter where you are in your career, I encourage you to do the same. If you don’t know, don’t be afraid to find out. That is the only way our ensembles will succeed.