[_maranatha]

Thread to generate discussion:

How long do you spend warming up? What kind of things do you do as part of your warm up? What importance do you think warm ups have?

[Caitlin05]

When I'm practicing my guitar and singing along, I usually dont warm up because I'm not singing as strong as I would in a solo or choir setting. I sing in my church choir and we usually do around 10 minutes of warm ups that start with sustaining pitches on "ah" for 8 beats then moving up the scale, we repeat this with the word "zing" and sustain the pitch on the "ng". This helps me a lot in finding the correct placement for my resonance in head voice. Those are the two staple warmups we do. If I'm practicing or warming up for a solo I dont really do 'warm ups', I just dont start off singing in my full voice. I'll usually sing through a song once before putting my full vocal strength behind it.
I think warm ups are very important. The times I've tried singing without warming up first have ended up not sounding as well as they could, or I strained my voice.

[Ax]

I always warm up before I start belting out tunes... I use different techniques though. If I have a piano I warm up with scales and arpeggios... If I do not I warm up by singing along with singers who's music lies within my range... usually Eddie Veddar (I guess he IS in fact good for something).

[HooBassist]

I have "The Zen of Screaming" warm ups that came with the dvd. They take about 15 minutes and work wonders. I recommend them to everyone I know that sings.