Quick Win – KS3/4 Vocal Warm Ups

A few easy and effective vocal warm-ups for all ages:

• ABCD song – singing the letters of the alphabet in a descending scale (ABCD, EFG, HIJK, LMNOP, QRS, TUV, WXY, Z). This can be done in a single part, in 2 parts or three parts (come in after G each time/see the numbers below). You can start at a mid-range and gradually raise the starting pitch by a semitone each time. Make it even more enjoyable and musical by adjusting the dynamics or another musical element.

• Bella Signora – this is great for covering a wider pitch range fairly quickly. It is best to start fairly low to enable you to cover a large range overall. Students to sing a rising arpeggio (one note per syllable) on ‘Bel-la-sign-or’ and then fall to the tonic on ‘a’ of ‘senora’. You could use a crescendo on the way up or experiment with other dynamics too. Below is an extended example, but you can miss out the quavers and just sing a longer note on the ‘no’ and fall to the ‘ra’ at the end if you wish.

• 1, 121, 12321… – students are given a starting pitch (1), and then add a rising pitch each time. For example, in C major, C, CDC, CDEDC sung as 1, 121, 12321, finishing with 123456787654321,81. This can be done in canon, or you have some singing from 1 and some singing from 8.

Catherine Cooper

Head of Performing Arts

Kendrick School. Reading