My most hated vocal exercise

[xiphias]

Obviously, in rehearsal, we do vocal warmup exercises.

I've decided that the one I hate most is "picolo mini."

See, you sing:
Picolo mini picolo mini
Picolo mini pico-
Lo mini picolo mini picolo mini picolo mini pi-
Colo mini picolo mini picolo mini picolo mini

Faster than humanly possible.

It's a diction exercise.

Comments

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

The lips the tip of the tongue on the teeth, [half step up] the lips the tip of the tongue on the teeth, [half step up] the lips the tip of the tongue on the teeth,[half step up] the lips the tip of the tongue on the teeth etc.

uu ee uu aah aah ting tang walla walla bing bang uu ee uu aa aa ting tang walla walla bing bang!

[rosefox]

Mommy made me mash my M&Ms! Say what?
(C D E F G F E D C, C C# and repeat)

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Ooh! I like it!
I flop open my big mouth and it helps me to sing!

hm. don't have a keyboard handy...
I think...
1 3 5 3 1 4 6 4 1 3 5 3 1

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Well, you can skip that one, if you like. We'll be doing other diction exercises. :)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't skipping the exercise that is difficult kind of destroy the point of having the exercise?

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Yes and no. Overall, I want people to do exercises that are a bit outside their normal comfort zone, because that's how singers become better singers. And I've no patience with the kind of singer that shows up and goes "I don't do warmups." But when someone gives an exercise a fair try and determines that it's just plain not helping them, or is actively uncomfortable, it's OK with me if they want to sit that one out.

"Piccolo mini" is designed as a diction exercise, an exercise in breath control (how much of it can you do without having to skip notes to breathe?), and a way to get the cast's energy up. But there are other exercises that do most of that stuff. :)

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

This begs the question: what about people whose voices are fairly constantly in warm-up state? I'm not talking about for the diction exercises, just vocal warm-ups.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

This gets tricky. Generally, if it's someone who clearly is already warmed up, or someone who's notified me that they prefer to do their warmups before arriving at rehearsal, that's fine. If they're a ringer or obvious professional, I'm going to leave it entirely up to them. And, really, I can't force anyone who genuinely doesn't want to do anything.

However, this being amateur theater, we do get people who really need warmups but who (even though they are adults) are sufficiently immature to complain, "If so-and-so doesn't have to do warmups, how come I have to do them?" Exempting a person from a single exercise generally doesn't present a problem, but if someone told me they weren't going to participate in any warmups at all, I'd ask them to be discreet about it--rather than sitting there eating their dinner and chatting on their cellphone, which is what our most recent "I'm too cool for warmups" participants habitually did.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Generally, that means that their ACTUAL range could be a bit wider than what they're usually singing, or that they could sing a bit stronger or something. You can usually sing stuff that's right in the middle of your range, and not using great deals of breath support, fairly easily without warmup. It's getting BETTER that requires warmup.

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

I saw you last night, but you were already engrossed in warmups. And I got the hell out of there quickly to get home safely before the Sox won. :)

[navrins]

We have yet to do it really fast.

(Okay, well, I'm a patter singer; my idea of fast may differ from that of normal humans.)

You also get better with practice, which is why we do it.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

This one really DOES get easier with familiarity (like most complex neuromuscular tasks). I actually enjoy it.

[fallenkalina.livejournal.com]

thats just evil. Evil and Wrong. I don't miss that part of choir anymore.

[sarianna.livejournal.com]

I loved diction exercises in drama. Heh.

[mitchellf.livejournal.com]

Call my family strange (not like we haven't heard that one before), but my mother used to sing that one with us on long car trips--it was right up there as a family favorite with "Kkk-Katy" (aka "The Stuttering Song), "Ahab the Arab" and "Chickery-chick." We actually had a bunch of those type of songs on an 8-track tape entitled "Silly Songs" which we listened to while on long trips.

"Chickery-chick, ch-la, ch-la, checkelaromi in a banana-ka, bolika-walika, can't you see? Chickery-chick is me!"

I just loved those when I was little. ;-)