Even before I start doing conventional arpeggios and scales, I warm up by doing glissandos from low to high and from high to low (G3*, swooping slowly on the vowel /a/ up to about a G5). I like to slim it right down as I go up.
Think of the vocal triangle pictured on the front of the book, The Voice of the Mind by Herbert Caesari [A triangle colored dark at the bottom and then lightening in color as it fades to no color at the top]. As the darkness lightens and fades away to nothing, it represents the degree of vocal muscle that a singer would use from the bottom to the top of the range. [Caesari was a great singing teacher who taught my first teacher, Frederic Cox, a tenor. In the beginning of the book there is an introductory lesson by Gigli, which is fascinating.]
The glissandos free the voice. I do a lot of them. I take the voice up and then glide around on different notes. They should be sung effortlessly with energy and sweep—no tension. The glissando helps to reach proper support. The image of the vocal triangle can also help to find the slimmer position as you get higher. I personally find them very useful and very freeing when I take them up to that tiny little head voice.
Use glissandos when you want to really relax your voice if it is really feeling tight after singing something which has been very demanding.
I also take the glissando on an /u/ vowel down [start on A4] changing to the vowel /a/ [to A3] and back and back up to /u/. I never use any pressure and really let it relax. It sort of anchors the larynx in a way. Every voice, even a high soprano, shouldn’t neglect the lower chesty tones. What happens when a voice starts to get high and tight is that the bottom and the middle starts to go.
In fact, I gave a voice lesson to a singer the other day who had a voice like a laser beam, a huge voice. But she couldn’t sing an A3! That means she couldn’t sing Ariadne, for example, which her voice would be perfect for! A lot of the low notes are neglected in singers. In the book Great Singers on Singing, there were a few singers who when asked about it said, “I don’t sing in chest voice. It is dangerous.” This is utter rubbish! The chest voice can be very useful. Chesting high is dangerous, but not low.
After I do glissandos, I coordinate them with arpeggios. They are very interesting. When you do scales, you can sort of fudge it a bit. But with arpeggios, you‘ve got to hit the note cleanly.
Start with glissando and then arpeggios. Example: glissando from C4 up a 10th and down on the vowel /a/, then an arpeggio on those same notes [C4, E4, G4, C5, E5, C5, G4, E4, C4].
Passaggio
I work a lot around the passaggio, because my voice needs that. If you have a brilliant high top that is in a nice slim position, then maybe you might not need to do it so much. Heavier voices take more time, because they really have to slim down around the passaggio. You have to really prepare it before you go up to the top, otherwise you take too much weight. It is where you change gears.
When I was in New York, I went to Brooke Lieb for Alexander work. I would urge all your readers to consider Alexander Technique very seriously. It puts your entire body and mind in a very centered place. She helped me tremendously as I prepared for the difficult role I was singing at the Met. For singers who are experiencing any type of vocal trouble, I’d suggest Alexander work.
Messa Di Voce
Messa di voce for a high-pressured voice is the most difficult thing. The only exercise I do now for it is the long note. Start on an /u/ on F4. Sing /u/-/o/-/a/-/o/-/u/, changing vowels very slowly, starting piano crescendo to a forte and then decrescendo back to a piano. I spend a lot of time on this every day. I do this on every note in the chromatic scale up to an F5.
Coloratura
Another factor in a singer’s voice is coloratura. Even if one hasn’t got a coloratura voice, I recommend doing something with coloratura in it every day.
High Notes
Many singers practice and practice on their high notes to improve them. This is the wrong approach. If you are having a problem with a high A or B or C, it’s not those notes that have the weakness, it is the problem with the slimming down of the notes getting to those notes; it’s the passaggio. There is too much weight being carried up through the passaggio. One time I was singing with a famous tenor who had to sing an aria with five huge B flats. To warm up, he would just hammer those B flats over and over again. I felt like rushing into his dressing room to ask him to save something for the performance. By the time he got onstage, he was working very hard for them, and in my opinion they were not completely in the right place. I don’t sing much before a performance, and certainly I wouldn’t do that before I go onstage. I might do a few gentle glissandos before a performance. I work on a daily basis to do the exercises around the passaggio.
Sing on an /u/-/i/-/u/-/i/-/u/ from D5 to E5, and then an octave down with not too much pressure. Keep it in an un-pressured position. Don’t sing it like a full-voiced opera singer but rather pure.
Breathing
Keep the breath low, not pulled up. Don’t breathe too much or work hard at inhalation.
The Larynx
I’ve always gone for an open-throated, Italianate sound. When you yawn, your larynx goes down. I never drop it consciously unless I feel like I’m getting overtired. I use the chest exercise, which lowers your larynx. I never do it while I’m singing a role or an aria. I never try to cover the tone.
The Jaw
Your jaw should be like a ventriloquist’s jaw.
Support
Support is the voice riding freely on the breath. When you sing a glissando, that is exactly what you are doing. As you sweep up and down, you are activating your diaphragm. The movable diaphram reacts to the needs of the voice.
The glissando exercise helps to get the voice into the body. I also work quite a bit with movement, having singers bend over and expel air. When they start to come up, they inhale, and as soon as they are in an upright position they start to sing. That’s a good way to get their support. A lot of people tend to breathe too high.
*G3 is the G below middle C. C4 is middle C. Numbers for each octave change on the C’s.
