Best way to warm up on a rehearsal day

DLennox · January 2021

Hey All
I am looking for advice on how best to prepare for a fairly lengthy rehearsal where I am singing lead vox on a third of the songs and lots of harmony on the rest.
I am a bass player but have also done my share of lead vox over the years. In November I signed up for Ken's course because I want to be a better singer and figured with no gigs it was the perfect time. I love the program and do my vocal exercises every morning for an hour.
Last week my band finally got together for an afternoon rehearsal. I decided I would do a very light vocal workout in my usual morning time spot and later on the way to the rehearsal I also did a thirty minute fairly light warm up.
Two thirds of the way through the rehearsal my voice was tired and strained and I was getting back into old bad habits. Really disappointing because I have been doing the KTVA course religiously since early November.
Question is I have another rehearsal in two days and I am wondering if I should:

A - not sing at all that day until the rehearsal
B Do my full usual morning exercises and then nothing until the afternoon rehearsal
C Do nothing in the morning and a light warm up in my car on the way to the rehearsal or
D ?

Any advice from you singers out there would be greatly appreciated

Klaus_T · January 2021

you should move your singing practice to around the time that your main "show" is on (if it is regular enough to do so). i assume the closer the better. then maybe avoid the morning training, and warm up so that there is a max of about 15-20 mins between end of warmup and beginning of rehearsal/show. apparently after that it cools down again, maybe i think i even heard that 20 mins is the sweetspot. something like that anyway. and because your voice has an inner clock so to speak, that's why you do this with the same-time-every day thing

i would also go to the volume below the current one, so if on vol 1 do starters, if on vol 2 you do vol 1 etc. and light is good, as you say

Chris82 · January 2021

I would recommend doing some lip burbles for 10-20 minutes to gently warm up your voice at first and then run through the song you plan to sing a couple of times directly before the rehearsal. For me I've found that if I sing the same song 2-3 times in a row the 2nd and 3rd times tend to sound better than the first since I'm not always quite into and connecting with the song on the first go.

DLennox · January 2021

Thank you both for the feedback!
I have a one hour drive to the rehearsal so will forgo the regular morning session and try some burbles and light starter exercises and do a couple of light run throughs of the songs and leave 15-20 rest before the rehearsal
Not an option to move my morning exercise session. It's the only time I am home alone so works best. Wish I could but rehearsals times won't be consistent anyway.

sjonrokz4u · January 2021

What I’ve found works for me is going through four or five scales the cover head and chest and sing a few songs after. Starting out with an easy sing a time or two then a couple that I’m working toward at rehersal

DLennox · January 2021

Appreciate everyone's feedback! I settled on lip rolls and tongue exercise and went back to the starter exercises connecting and then full voice ( I currently do the volume one piano exercises every day) . That left enough time to sing the three songs I was going to be singing lead vocals on once each and 15 minutes rest before the rehearsal started. It seemed to work well. My voice still felt good at the end of the four hour rehearsal.

Wigs · January 2021

How you ended up doing it was what I would have suggested

Best way to warm up on a rehearsal day

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