Quoting Anne-Louise Klaus
> Every so often I have a student who would, I think, be > happier with the warm-ups if more of the exercises had > words. Any suggestions? > Anne-Louise: One of my 12-year old students and I accidentally invented the following exercise (would you like a banana). Spanning a downward glide of a perfect fifth: (all spoken on the same starting note) "would you like a ba-na (then, gliding on the a and landing on the fifth lower and finishing the final syllable)-na I have him spit it out clearly, rapid-fire a la Gilbert and Sullivan, pronouncing banana with British-style [a]. (The exercise progresses successively by half-step.) He not only finds it fun, but useful! Only problem--too much giggling can, as he discovered, "gunk up the voice!" for what it's worth: I once had a choral conductor in college who used the following warm-up exercise on a 1-3-5-8-5-3-1 scheme, with the words (don't cringe): "how shall I hit him today." For a bunch of college juniors, we all found it amusing. For a teen or pre-teen, I'd find a more peaceful text! Improvise. Good luck. --Erica
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