Video transcript
The Arts Unit @home Art Bites – Solo vocal workshop – 1. Warm-ups

[music playing]

CHARMAINE GIBBS: Hi there. Do you love singing? Well, this is for anyone who loves to have a sing. My name's Charmaine. I'm going to guide you through a 15-minute workshop. We're going to do a little bit of warming up and then we're going to do just parts of two different songs. We'll get into the songs in a moment. But let's just find our space. Find our comfortable space. OK?

Now it's really important to just shake out the shoulders a little bit, and really think about how you're standing. I always say to my students to stand as though they're on a clock face, and to have your feet pointed at 10:00 and 2:00. So you can try that it doesn't have to be that for you today. But just give it a go and feel where is comfortable for you.

Alright, so let's start. It's important for us to stretch our vocal folds. They're are muscle like any other muscle in the body, ok, and a really lovely fun stretch to do is one called 'The Siren'. Let's think the word sing, and we're going to use the N-G part of sing. So we're going to go (SINGING) 'sing'.

Let's do that again together. Ready? 3, 2, 1 (SINGING) 'sing'.

Oh I must say too. Make sure you've got with you some water. That's really important and please feel free to have a sip of water anytime, OK. Either a glass or water bottle, whatever's good for you, OK. Just so it's there nice and close with you.

Alright, let's go into the singing part of our warm-up now. Alright, so we're going to do what I call slur exercises. We're going to do this on the letter 'I' but it's going to sound like E, as in the word igloo, and it's going to be just (SINGING) 'E E E E E E E E E'.

Let's do that together (SINGING) 'E E E E E E E E E'. 'E E E E E E E E E'. 'E E E E E E E E E'. 'E E E E E E E E E'. 'E E E E E E E E E'. 'E E E E E E E E E'. 'E E E E E E E E E'. 'E E E E E E E E E'. 'E E E E E E E E E'.

Check back in with that first posture (SINGING) 'E E E E E E E E E'. 'E E E E E E E E E'. One more 'E E E E E E E E E'.

Fantastic well done. OK now we're going to go to some different vowels. We're going to use the battle of 'U', but we're going to pronounce it like ooh, and then we're going to couple it with the vowel of 'O' but as an off, orange. So it's going to sound like (SINGING) 'Ooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh'.

OK? Let's do that together (SINGING) 'Ooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh'. 'Ooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh'. 'Ooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh'. 'Ooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh'. 'Ooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh'. 'Ooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh'. 'Ooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh'. 'Ooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh'. 'Ooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh'. 'Ooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh'. 'Ooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh'. 'Ooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh'.

Let's go one more (SINGING) 'Ooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh'.

Good. Good. Good. Well done. Now you might have noticed there's almost two different sounds in my voice. There's what we call a 'chest voice' and then there's what we call a 'head voice'. And the head voice is the lighter, but also can actually-- I say that, but it can also be very full and rich depending on what style you're singing. And then there's the chest voice.

Definitely you want to use both. You don't want to push the chest voice up too high because we end up straining, and you don't want to bring the head voice in too early because you can end up actually straining doing that too. So make sure that you know everything's OK that you're trying and let yourself go through those different voices. Voice types, I guess. Voice areas.

So let's try one last go. Let's do 'E', so eh for egg, going with 'A', ah for art. Alright, and we're going to do this a little bit faster as we're going because this actually starts to get our muscle working a bit quicker. It's what we call vocal agility. So we're going to do (SINGING) 'Eh-eh-eh-eh-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah'.

Let's go (SINGING) 'Eh-eh-eh-eh-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah'. 'Eh-eh-eh-eh-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah'. 'Eh-eh-eh-eh-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah'. 'Eh-eh-eh-eh-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah'. 'Eh-eh-eh-eh-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah'. 'Eh-eh-eh-eh-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah'. 'Eh-eh-eh-eh-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah'. 'Eh-eh-eh-eh-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah'. 'Eh-eh-eh-eh-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah'. 'Eh-eh-eh-eh-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah'.

There's those two voices (SINGING) 'Eh-eh-eh-eh-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah'. 'Eh-eh-eh-eh-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah'. 'Eh-eh-eh-eh-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah'.

Well done. Fantastic. Let's get back to 'The Siren' exercise just to give the voice one last stretch before we go into our song work. Ready? So we're going to do 3, 2, 1, and sing. 3, 2, 1 (SINGING) 'sing'.

OK. Fantastic. We're going to start our first song. Almost there. From the musee-- musee? That's a new word. A movie musical called 'The Princess and the Frog'. Now I think this is a very appropriate title at the moment because we're all hoping we're almost there in getting through this really tough time that everyone's facing at the moment. So let me have a sing for you and I'll show you, and then I really want you to join with me.

[music - 'Almost There']

(SINGING) That's just gonna have to wait a while. Ain't got time for messin' around and it's not my style. This old town can slow you down, people taking the easy way. But I know exactly where I'm going. I'm gettin' closer n closer every day.

And I'm almost there. I'm almost there. People down here think I'm crazy but I don't care. Trials and tribulations, I've had my share. There ain't nothin' gonna stop me now 'cause I'm almost there.

OK. Fantastic. I'm sure some of you even actually know that song. So what we're going to do is we're just going to spend a couple of minutes talking about the different areas of the song.

Now you can hear the beginning starts a little bit more softer or what I would call whimsical.

And you might have noticed it's a funny lyric to come in on that first, (SINGING) that's just gonna have to wait awhile. Because this character at first says a piece of dialogue. She goes, mama, I ain't got time for dancing. And please feel free to say that at the very beginning. And then we go into the (SINGING) and that's just gonna have to wait awhile. Ain't got time for messin' around and it's not my style.

Yeah? Can we do that section? All that first section and I want you to sit back as though you're sitting back in a comfy lounge chair. Yeah? And we're just going to-- as I would say to my students, we're going to be a bit chilled with this bit, OK, before we ramp it up. We don't want to show our audience everything we've got straight away.

OK. So let's do this first bit. We'll do it without the music at the moment. OK. And we're going to do.

(SINGING) That's just gonna have to wait awhile. Ain't got time for messin' around and it's not my style. This old town can slow you down, people taking the easy way.

And then this next section is what I would call our 'joining moment'. This is when we're going to change into really ramping it up and going for it. Let's try it with the track again. Now just one time through, and just going from the beginning to the end of that 'Almost There' section.

[music - 'Almost There']

(SINGING) That's just gonna have to wait awhile. Ain't got time for messin' around, and it's not my style. This old town can slow you down, people taking the easy way. Now our joining moment. (SINGING) But I know exactly where I'm going. I'm gettin' closer n closer every day.

And I'm almost there. I'm almost there. People down here think I'm crazy but I don't care. Trials and tribulations, I've had my share. There ain't nothin' gonna stop me now 'cause I'm almost there.

OK. How did we go? I bet you guys were amazing. Alright, let's do it one more time before we move on to our second song. This time we're going to go from the start to the end, and then we're going to go come back to our halfway point, alright, and do the 'Almost There' section. Let's do this together.

[music - 'Almost There']

(SINGING) That's just gonna have to wait awhile. Ain't got time for messin' around, and it's not my style. This old town can slow you down, people taking the easy way. But I know exactly where I'm going. I'm gettin' closer n closer every day.

And I'm almost there. Let me hear you. (SINGING) I'm almost there. People down think I'm crazy but I don't care. Trials and tribulations, I've had my share. There ain't nothin' gonna stop me now 'cause I'm almost there. Here we go.

(SINGING) I'm almost there. Let's go. I'm almost there. People down here think I'm crazy but I don't care. Trials and tribulations, I've had my share. There ain't nothing gonna stop me now 'cause I'm almost there. Hang on with me.

Well done. Well done. Well done. OK. Now we're just got to spend a few minutes on our next one called 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough.' I reckon a lot of you are going to know this one. And I think at the moment, we really need to be reminded that we need to be there for people, and we hope people are going to be there for us as well.

Now because I think a lot of you are going to know this, can you sing along straightaway with me? But then I'll go back and have a chat with you about the song. This is good. It gives us a little bit of dance time at the beginning. Some people say I shouldn't dance but I don't let that stop me.

[music - 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough']

(SINGING) Listen babe. Ain't no mountain high, ain't no valley low, ain't no river wide enough, baby. If you need me, call me, no matter where you are, no matter how far. Don't worry, baby. I'll be there in a hurry don't have to worry. Don't have to worry.

Cause baby there ain't no mountain high enough. Ain't no valley low enough. Ain't no river wide enough to keep me from getting to you, babe.

Remember the day I set you free. I told you, you could always count on me darling. From that day on, I made a vow. I'll be there when you want me some way somehow.

Cause baby there ain't no mountain high enough. Ain't no valley low enough. Ain't no river wide enough to keep me from getting to you babe.

Alright, now I don't know if any of you noticed, but I did actually get the words wrong a little bit there. But you know what? As performers, we've just got to keep going if we make a mistake. So the only reason I'm telling you, is because I think that's such an important thing to be reminded of. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have let you in on that little bit there.

So what we're going to do is we're going to do this again. Now every song, it's important to remember, is a story. Yeah? You might have heard of the lovely quote, music is what feelings sound like. So it's really important that we think of this story. So let's think of a friend or a family member that we would really want them to know that we will be there for them. Yeah? And in turn, we hope that someone might be singing this for us too.

Alright,

so again, this is a little bit different to 'Almost There' because it builds, well it actually builds immediately. Yeah? There's hardly any time before it. You know what? We're going to finish off with this one. We're going to do it twice through. So come with me.

And you know what? It's always important to have a trusty brush microphone. I think it's important that we grab that, alright, for that second time through. I'm going to be looking forward to hearing about all this with all of you. Let's go.

[music - 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough']

You see that dancing there? Even if someone says stop, don't listen to them.

(SINGING) Listen, baby. Ain't no mountain high, ain't no valley low, ain't no river wide enough, baby. If you need me, call me, no matter where you are, no matter how far. Don't worry, baby. Just call my name. I'll be there in a hurry. You don't have to worry.

Cause baby there ain't no mountain high enough. Ain't no valley low enough. Ain't no river wide enough to keep me from getting to you, babe.

Remember the day I set you free. I told you you could always count on me, darling. From that day on, I made a vow. I'll be there when you want me some way somehow.

Cause baby there ain't no mountain high enough. Ain't no valley low enough. Ain't no river wide enough to keep me from getting to you, babe.

OK. Let's grab our trusty mics. Here we go. Every good singer sang into their hair brush.

(SINGING) Listen, baby. Ain't no mountain high, ain't no valley low, ain't no river wide enough, baby. If you need me, call me, no matter where you are, no matter how far. Don't worry, baby. Just call my name. I'll be there in a hurry. You don't have to worry.

Cause baby there ain't no mountain high enough. Ain't no valley low enough. Ain't no river wide enough to keep me from getting to you, babe.

Remember the day I set you free. I told you you could always count on me, darling. From that day on, I made a vow. I'll be there when you want me some way somehow. Let me hear you.

Baby there ain't no mountain high enough. Ain't no valley low enough. Ain't no river wide enough to keep me from getting to you, babe.

Well done, everyone. Thank you so much. It's been so great. I've had so much fun singing with you today. I hope you really enjoyed that. I'm actually a little bit out of breath after that.

OK. Make sure every time you get that hairbrush, every time you get that hair comb, have a great sing.

Have a wonderful day, everyone. It's been great being with you today. Bye.