5  Choral Sound and Warm-Ups

In this warming-up exercise the singers are divided into two groups. In turn these groups sing a number of notes. The melody of the exercise is like this:

A long time ago I learned the Dutch canon Als de zwaan zingt (“If the swan is singing”). This canon is very well suited for warming-up. Inspired by this, I created a warming-up exercise which can be used in several ways. The melody is like this:

In this warming-up exercise each sentence is starting in unison and at the end of the sentence the voices diverge to a harmony.

The basic melody of the exercise is the following:

For improving the counting of singers, I developed clapping exercises. These canons are meant to do without sheet music. The singers will learn to internally visualise the different beats of the bar.

For my female vocal group, I wrote a three-part warming-up exercise. At first, all voices are singing the melody in unison once. Next, you may sing the exercise in three parts. The lower voice is singing the exact notes from the melody, but a fourth lowered. The high voices are singing in harmony with the melody a third above:

In this warm-up exercise the choir is singing a melody in major, next in minor and finally in major again:

Most warm-ups I think of have two layers at most. But this time I have an exercise with three layers, in which the two upper voices imitate each other:

Lately I heard the lovely Canon in D by Pachelbel again. Because the chords are repeating, the music can easily be made into a warm-up for multiple voices. Here is my attempt to create a swinging Pachelbel. The canon now is in G:

This exercise for singing in canon is built up of seconds and sixths. The warm-up looks like the exercise form my book ‘Harmoninic warm-ups’, but it is just a little different: