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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