what are scales and how do you do them?

Question

i need some vocal warm-ups and exercises and everyone said scales, but i what they are nore how to them, can someone help me out and give some vocal warm-up while your at, thanx so much for your help.

Answer 1

Scales are a closed set of notes between one or more octaves. There are many types of scales, Major, Natural Minor, Modal, Harmonic Minor, Melodic Minor, Harmonic Minor, Hungarian, Chromatic, Blues etc.

You perform a scale by singing the fundemental pitch or the root note, then proceeding to the next note that matches that fundemental pitch. In the key of C (no sharps or flats - no black keys on the piano) a one octave scale would look like this

C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C,
root Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh Eigth or Octave
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do
(In Sol - Feg the note of the scale would be sung with the above pitches)

There are many good theory sites on the web. Put the words "Music Theory" or "Vocal Scales" in any broswer and you will get more information than you will ever need.

Sol-Feg (as well as the Curnow Hand Signals) is an excellent way to do warmups. Movable Do (using the same sounds no matter what key you are in) allows you to practice songs without the words. Isolation is a valuable technique in singing

You can begin by picking a single consonant and singing all of the vowel sounds after it:

May - Meee- My -- Mohhh - Moooo -- Mah -- etc.

You can sing around the scale

1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 8 1
Do Re Do Mi Do Fa Do So Do La Do Ti Do Do Do

1 2 3 1 2 3 4 2
Do Re Mi Do Re Mi Fa Re etc.

You can also download free warmup sheets by going to your web browser and typing Choral Warmpups, Concert Choir Warmups, or Vocal Warmups.

There are many books and pamphlets for sale as well. It would also be helpful to talk to your Choir, Band, or Orchestra teacher as they deal with this subject every day.

Answer 2

OK scales are as everyone pointed out... well scales!!!

however, scales are sang to warm up and improve the voice, so there are many diverse scales for improving different things with different methods, on different vowl sounds, using the tongue, lip trills, using different noices to correct the allinment of the larinx so you can sing higher, lower, or like minnie ripperton...

I'd suggest buying a vocal warm up instructional cd
theres some examples here, you'll have to scroll down the page, to find the vocal ones but theres quite a few to choose from with mp3's some full scales some just short clips

http://cdbaby.com/style/218/all

Answer 3

To best perform warm-ups and vocal exercises, you either need to know simple scales on a piano, (such as playing the notes c,d,e,f,g,a,b,c.) These 8 notes will create an octave, giving you a full scale. You can play with the scale a little to give you a more diverse warm up. Instead of singing c,d,e,f,g,a,b,c...you could sing : c,e,g,c,g,e,c. If you don't know how to play the piano or don't know the notes, I suggest going to an education site and learning the basics of music theory.

Answer 4

C Major - C D E F G A B C and back down again.
D Major - D E Fsharp G A B Csharp D and down

etc. those are scales. Other good vocal warm ups include letting your voice rise and rise, making a huge swooping sound to as high as you can go, and back down again. Or try basic tunes, carefully pronounciating each word.

Answer 5

Scales are one of the basic structures of organised music, particularly tonal music - which you no doubt will be singing. They are, at their most basic, a sequence of eight notes. They start and finish on the same note, one octave (i.e. an interval of eight notes) apart. The notes of a single-octave scale taken together form all of the notes available for singing or playing in the particular 'key' or starting note in its most basic form. Each note in between is a tonal step above the previous at set intervals. If you're interested, the intervals between the notes in a major scale are: tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone. (In C major, CDEFGABC; but the intervals are the same whatever key you are singing in, whcih is why music in different keys sounds essentially the same at a higher or lower register; so in D major, DEF#GABC#D.)

These are some of the reasons they are good warm-up material. They familiarise your voice with the basic intervals and note relationships of modern tonal music; they also cover a range of notes and can be extended easily up and down so as to exercise a fuller range.

To cut to the chase: a notorious example of a scale can be found in Doh Re Mi from The Sound of Music. The notes of the scales are the first notes of each phrase of that song: i.e. doh, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, doh (which is the traditional way of referring to these notes regardless of the particular key, or starting note). Try singing along holding those particular words out over the other words (i.e. sing 'doh' and ignore 'a deer, a female deer'; sing 're' and ignore 'a drop of golden sun') and you will be singing a scale. You can replace the 'doh' note with any other higher or lower note you fancy to test or push your range; provided you sing the same INTERVALS you will still be singing a major scale. (You can change some of the intervals to form different types of scale, e.g. minor or modal scales - but let's not go there!) You can also sing the scales more quickly or slowly; or do two octave scales (i.e. repeat the process twice over, continually getting higher).

Answer 6

I'm sorry, but...

If you don't know scales then, perhaps, you shouldn't be warming-up in the first place! Sorry...

True:
Warm-up by singing along with Aretha Franklin. She covers most of the contemporary vocal range. If you feel experimental, try Joni Mitchell's range. Then, there is the spurious notion of a singer called Yma Sumac - range of six-to-eight octaves.

OK. Do re mi fa so la te do. Do te la so fa mi re do. Up and down, up and down. And that's the catch/problem. If one doesn't know the basic European solfa scale - one may have to invent one's own.

Good luck!

Paul

Answer 7

A scale is like - A B C D E F# G

Answer 8

Scales are where you start on a note (try middle C) and sing up to that note one octave higher (high C), then sing back down to your original note.

A few other good warm ups are to sing a five note scale (i.e. C to G back to C) singing up and down on the scale with numbers. (one, one-two-one, one-two-three-two-one, etc. then you get to eight and sing eight, eight-seven-eight, eight-seven-six-seven eight, etc) and to sing different scales on different vowel sounds.