Hey guys – just popping on quickly today to explain how to make sirens and liptrills for your singing warmups…
How to do a lip trill:
Press the corners of your mouth and blow on a ‘bbrrrr” sound just like yo are really cold and going ‘bbrrrrrrrrr” with sound. This is essentially a lipt trill. Focus your attention on resisting the airflow with the br sound rather than the feeling of ‘pushing air’ out.
- If you are struggling to make a lip trill then something that can really help is to sit sideways on a chair – lean back so your feet are off the ground and your core is balancing you on the chair while leaning back. Your body will be quite straight with legs extended. Now, try making the lip trill again… does it come out better?
How to do a siren:
A siren in the context of singing warm ups is holding the ‘ng’ part of the word ‘sing’ and then moving up and down pitch on that ‘ng’ sound. Your tongue will be up at the back connected to the roof of your mouth – so no air can come out of the mouth. A siren is great because it really allows us to ‘feel’ what it’s like to move through our vocal range without pushing air for higher notes for example. We moderate the cord closure and airflow as we move through the range in a great way when doing a siren.
If you place your fingers gently onto your larynx, you might feel it move up when you raise pitch – and move down when you lower pitch. Sirens and liptrills are used across the board by many coaches, and directors when warming up a cast or band.
Once you’re comfortably making your sirens and liptrills – start to extend through your vocal range and you can do them daily to really help keep your voice in good form and stretched (just like an athlete). You can use set scales or just slide up and down…
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