Singing: More Than Just A Voice
James Hetfield, who has been the lead singer of Metallica, has something in common with professional opera singers. Despite the screaming, yelling and guttural noises he can make in some of Metallica's hardest songs, James Hetfield has to warm up his voice to prevent damage to his vocal chords. It may seem a bit strange, but in the Metallica movie "Some Kind of Monster," Hetfield mused about learning warm up his voice and how he wished he had learned these techniques earlier in his career.
Singers warm up their vocal chords for the same reasons that athletes warm up their bodies: they need to stay loose and free to prevent injury. Singing for performance is not as natural an act for the voice as talking is. Specific notes must be hit hard and soft at a varied pitch in order to perform successfully. If particular songs require more emphasis, the body must be prepared to support it.
Diction
By running some sort of musical scales, a singer is warming up his vocal chords by preparing it to hit certain notes. He is also "warming up" his ears to make sure the notes he intends to sing are the notes that are coming out. By running scales from low to high to low again, a singer is effectively practicing his voice. This is like a basketball player shooting from many different distances before a game, just to ensure his body is prepared to shoot at any given point on the floor.
Some singers will even warm up by practicing their diction with certain notes they plan to sing in the performance. It isn't too strange to hear a singer repeating the letter "E" in the key of E over and over for 5 minutes straight. Not only is he practicing this note, he's stretching his face to get used to the note. So it is not only the voice that needs warming up; it is the singer's body that needs a workout as well.
Breathing
That is why breath exercises are as important as scales when singers warm up. Long notes will require singers to support with a lot of breath. Yet a singer must also be able to breathe in as he sings those notes out. One way to do it is to exercise the diaphragm, which sits around the same area as the intestines. Some singers warm up their diaphragm by pushing their stomach in and out as they breathe. They may make short, heavy breaths as if sneezing an "achoo" to extend their diaphragm.
So the next time you watch any kind of a professional singer, remember that the voices you hear didn't just come out shooting. Those singers warmed up for your ears to enjoy.
