 So, my name is Erica Merritt and today we're going to go over some great singing exercises to get your voice warmed up and ready to go, okay? Before we start, though, we're going to do a sintering exercise that I like to do or a mindfulness exercise that I like to do, just kind of focus ourself on singing and also to get rid of any nervousness or anxiousness that comes along with singing, okay? So we're going to be again, excuse me, again, with closing your eyes, taking a deep breath, let it out, good, deep breath in, let it out, deep breath in and out, again, deep breath in and out, good. Let's roll our shoulders backwards, good. Now, can you do them side to side like this, good. Can you move your head side to side like this, your neck, rather, using your neck and your head? It's a little more difficult. Can you move your head to the right or to your left and up again, and the other side, and up again, to your left, to your right, and now we're going to make half circles. I'm rotating our head and our neck around, like this, starting from the side, going all the way up, a few down the way around to the other side, and back around to the other side. Do it again, and again, good. All right, let's not feel better. Okay, when talking about vocal exercises, I want you to understand that we need to make sure that our posture is up straight and that our diaphragm is not folded over like this, but sitting up straight or standing up straight, okay, whichever you prefer. I prefer to sit up and sing in vocal exercise because it works better for me, but you're more than welcome to stand, okay? The first exercise that we're going to do is, or all the exercises that we're going to do consist of a call and response method, where I will say it or call it, and you will respond by repeating what I said or saying, okay? The first one is called ni-ne-na-no-nu. Ni-ne-na-no-nu. Your turn. Ni-ne-na-no-nu. Try it again. Ni-ne-na-no-nu. All right, those are the sounds we're going to say that are incorporated with this vocal exercise. Notice that I'm going to start from a lower range, go to a middle range, and then to a higher range. Everybody's range is different, so you can start where you want or where you like when you're doing these exercises on your own, but for right now, you'll repeat after me and start where I start and end where I end, okay? So we're going to start at a lower range. Ready? All right. Ni-ne-na-nu. Make sure that you're taking a deep breath as we do this, putting air through your nose and into your diaphragm so that you have a lot of air to support these exercises, okay? We're going to try it again, and you only can take one breath, okay? In between. Here we go. Do these. Make sure that you're breathing through your nose, putting air into that diaphragm, having an imaginary rubber band around your waist here that expands and you put air into it. That's when you know that you're putting air into your diaphragm and then utilizing that diaphragm to support these wonderful notes, okay? Good. Now, notice that sometimes it can get a little difficult getting to those higher notes. One little trick I like to do is to make a siren sound that kind of warms you up from your lowest to your highest range and prepares you for things like this. And it sounds like this. Woo! Right? Just like an ambulance or a fire engine, right? Woo! Woo! Right? I want to do that with you seven times in a row. So it will sound like this. Woo! Woo! Woo! We'll do it together eight times in a row. Are you ready? Read those notes, okay? All right. We're going to try another voice exercise and it's called, there's some ooze, okay? We're going to do lots of different ooze sounds, okay? Ooze. Let's try it again. A little squiggly. I like to make my hand motion so that you can kind of know what direction we're going, okay? Ooze. Don't worry if you sound kind of, I don't know, all over the place. I do too sometimes, but it's really just figuring out how to warm up your voice and getting those sounds out so that when you sing, it's almost like you are digging a tunnel, right, to your voice, right? And there's all this stuff. As you exercise your voice, you are clearing a path, right? Clearing a path that you can now utilize as you're singing. Sometimes there's lots of stuff there and you have to clear it out and that's what we're doing when we're exercising our voice and warming up those muscles, okay? All right. We're going to do one more voice activity and then we're going to do a song, a warm up song that I like to sing. The activity is going to be another sound and just repeat after me. All right. Na na. The song is this helps you kind of get in the mood to sing other songs that you wish to sing, but this is called Monday Morning. Sometimes, you know, you wake up on Monday morning like, oh, it's Monday and you just want to get to Friday. This song is about getting through Friday and just staying on task and getting through it and doing the best you can and being able to celebrate when it's Friday, okay? I'm going to say the words to the song and then we'll sing it together. Monday morning seems so boring. I wish it were Friday again. Let's get to it. We can do it. And soon the weekend begins and it will be Friday. Yes, it will be Friday. It will be Friday again. So you're going to follow those moves if you like. I like to make a little bit of moves with my singing. Sometimes it helps me remember the words and you're going to follow me. I'm going to call and you're going to respond. You ready? Call and respond method. All right. You ready? Monday seems so rich. It were Friday again. Well, let's get to and it will be Friday. Yes, it will be Friday. Exercises that get you all warmed up and ready to go.