Intermediate Warm-up Series Introduction
If you’ve been following along with the blog, you know we’ve worked our way through a ten step Basic Warm-up Series. Today begins the next series, a set of ten steps that, taken individually will increase your knowledge of your voice’s capabilities. As a group, they move a little bit further forward toward greater vocal awareness. Each of the exercises can be used in place of another step in the Basic series, and at the end of each post I’ll tell you which exercise you could replace in the basic series. Of course, once the Intermediate Series is done, you can use it on its own as a complete warm-up sequence.
The Ten Steps of the Series are as follows:
- Introduction (this post)
- Sustaining Breath
- Dabs of Sound
- Exploring Lower Range
- Jaw Swinging
- Small Tongue Rolls
- Soft Palate Lifting
- Lip Isolations
- Chest Resonance
- Articulation of FFFricatives
- Jawless Text
- Conclusion
As a bonus, I’m adding a second post today, as this post really just spells out where we’re going next: I’m sure you want something new to do today, not just read! The bonus is a post on one of the most commonly done physical exercises used in voice work, the spinal roll, or “Roll-Down.”
This entire series is available for download in an audio format from the Intermediate Warm-up Series Playlist page.
Eric Armstrong is the voiceguy. Eric is a dialect, voice, speech and text coach based in Toronto, Canada, where he normally teaches full-time at York University’s Dept. of Theatre. Eric has been teaching voice for the actor full-time since 1994, and has taught in Canada and the US, at the University of Windsor, Brandeis University, Roosevelt University, Canada's National Voice Intensive and York University. He has worked for nationally and internationally recognized companies such as Crow’s Theatre, Volcano, SoulPepper, & Canadian Stage in Toronto, and The Court Theatre and Steppenwolf in Chicago. Eric holds a BFA from Concordia University (Montreal) in Theatre Performance, and an MFA from York University (Toronto) in Acting. His mentors were David Smukler (York, Canada’s National Voice Intensive) and Andrew Wade (Royal Shakespeare Company). He has also studied at the Drama Studio, London, and Il Stage Internazzionale di Commedia dell’Arte in Reggio Emilia, Italy. He’s a long time member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association, where he has served on the board, as a conference planner, photo editor for the Voice and Speech Review, Founding Director of Technology and Internet Services, and has written numerous peer-reviewed articles, essays and reviews for the VASTA Newsletter, the VASTA Voice, and The Voice and Speech Review.