There was a big long post here quite a while back about how to properly "moisten" your mouth and throat prior to singing. OK, actually it was on another website, I'll copy it here. I've been using it right before singing, often well I'm setting up my equipment, etc. and it helps noticably. clears out the dryness and chunks of snot and whatot.
Otherwise, I typically try to sing intervals, usually just a I-III-IV, and I'll work my way up a scale from my lowest singable tone to highest. In reality I do this more so by myself in the car, etc., than actually right before practice or a show. Here the essay on warming up from "Studioviols" Gross, but effective:
To warm up :
Fill a medium sized glass with room temperature water.
Take a very small sip of water. Hold the water in your mouth. Relax your tongue somewhat so the water rests in the middle of your tongue. You will begin to salivate, and with practice, (with the water method), you will salivate A LOT ... and get cheek and jaw muscle tingle ... which is very good ... feels good.
So with all this saliva oozing from your membranes, in response not only to the water, but to the 'actions' your mouth and tongue and cheeks and related muscles are making to 'hold' the water ... you are prepping the entire singing machine ... with lubrication.
I tol ya it was like foreplay didn't I ?
So, hold this water there, in the middle of your tongue, gently relax your head and everything in there, flatten your tongue somewhat, and theres a lot of stuff in your head, muscles, philosophies, tensions ... etc ...
Relax, let the water do it's work. Breath gently, evenly and rythmically, deeply, slowly. At least 5 breath cycles.
Let the mouth cavity fall open slightly, keeping the lips gently closed ... OOPS ... ya swallowed the water didn't ya !
Well get some more and start from the top.
---------------
So you're back here again ...
The initial saliva you build up is very important, this second batch, if you swallowed the water already, is much thinner, and less effective. Don't get in the habit of swallowing the first batch and then starting over. We want that first batch.
But that's cool let's proceed wether you have the first, or the second batch.
So your mouth is now slightly open inside, lips held together gently ... with the water and saliva resting on your tongue, about the middle ...
It's important to take only a tiny sip of the water, it's just a catalyst, what we are after ... is the saliva.
Start breathing gently in through your nose, relax the neck, there will be a tendancy to bring tension in the neck now, in response to what is becoming a very foreign feeling, along with a strong compulsion to swallow this shit ... but don't ... swallow the spit shit ... this stuff is your friend.
Breath slow ... slow ... slow gentle breaths with your uvula, your soft palette relaxed. We want the back of the throat open. Because every time you change from inhale to exhale, a strong current of air swirls in your mouth cavity ... over and around the water, and becomes very, very moist.
The air in your mouth cavity, along with the water and spit is very warm, and very, very moist. We want to spread this air all around in your sinuses, and that is why we are breathing SLowly, and at a steady rate with a relaxed mouth. Do not breath through the open mouth, keep the mouth closed, and create a cavity in the mouth, with the back of the throat open.
You can sigh gently if you wish, that may help you relax ... sighing is a vocalization that can prepare you for the tiny gruntings, which works us up to gargling ... all very gently.
We want that moist warm air getting up into and around the sinuses.
By now, you got a lot of stuff in your mouth.
We are going to gently, very gently, garge with the stuff, getting even more stuff to join the pool party.
Sure ... this is gross, but grow up ... your voice is going to be clean as a whistle, yet still be protected with a nice EVEN layer of saliva, slightly thinned out ... and this is optimal.
We are going to begin gently blasting the flim off your vocal chords.
Tilt the head back just enough to let the 'pool' flow back into the back of the throat, then tilt the head forward and level again.
After relaxing and taking a few calm, measure breaths ... clear your throat very, very, very, very gently. Almost like a tiny grunt, like a grunt of affirmation ... like the grunt you make when your spouse or significant other elbows you and sweetly says "I'm ready ... " but you are intent on going to sleep ... you know the kind.
So after this first grunt ... you may choke a bit and spew all the spit and water -
- - - ALL OVER EVERYTHING - - -
! this is why it is important !
NOT TO DO THIS OVER YOUR RECORDING CONSOLE !
When you get used to the 'water method' you can be stupid enough to do this over your recording console and you will learn your lesson even then.
I still spew sometimes, as I might cough when loosening the first layer of crusty moist flim that is on the vocal chords ... it's a natural reaction to cough. When your mouth is filled with a pool of spit and water, it comes out in a lovely plume of spewage ... beware electronic equiptment ... and it's really nasty to clean up also ... ok boys ?
No, don't do this in the shower ... overkill, you lose the good coating, you wash everything away with hot clorinated water.
So, you are grunting, and look kind of like a human fish right now ... but nobody really knows how whacked you are for continuing to read this.
<SV adjusts his tin hat>
You want long time intervals inbetween these tiny, gentle grunts.
Do NOT clear your throat harshly, that is very bad, that causes the vocal chords to tighten and slam about, it SHOCKS THEM. You want to save all that if you are going to be screaming, and you certainly want them supple if you are going to be crooning.
So ... we begin to really gargle now after a few series of tiny grunts, and you can 'pitch' your grunts ... some grunts should be baritone, some very high, you can grunt a scale or somesuch ...
i.e. "uh huh", "uh oh", "ah ha" ... etc ...
So grunting is over now, we are ready to gargle.
WHAT ! You swallowed the stuff ! Well, at least you didn't spit it out ...
DON'T SPIT THIS OUT !
You will eventually swallow this, and that's what we are working towards, but we want to optimally moisten all the singing and resonance cavities FIRST ... and lube them up with an equally viscous sheet of ... ewwwww ... stuff .
BTW, this is good for your digestion.
So tilt the head back and forth, get the feel of all this stuff rolling back into your throat, and how long it takes to all get back there.
Tilt your head back only just enough to get the pool back there and make a tiny, real gargle. You may need to practice grunting first, and gargle in later water method sessions.
If you don't know how to gargle, find an old person with dentures, you'll be there one day don't worry.
So start to gargle, start low. Gargling is a form of vocalization, and you want to get those vocal chords moving in a fairly aggressive manner, but at the same time gently ...
When you gargle, that is unstructured vocalization, crazy unmatched overtones ... etc ...
We want to pop and snap the vocal chords all over their ... lengths ... so to speak, not just at a few precise tuned points. We wanna knock all that crap, that flim, off into the pool. So you can enjoy holding that, and visualizing all that stuff in your mouth.
Don't spew mate ...
As an indian boy, (as a right of passage), in the heat of the Arizona desert, you would be expected to run a mile or so with that in your mouth, and come back without having swallowed it ... so you can do this.
Start gargling, and gargle gently, always gently, don't want to shock the chords. Gargle a GLISSANDO, if you don't know what that is, google the gargling glissando.
Sliding up and down the scale, glissando gargling with saliva, isn't that nice.
Swallow, wince.
Take another tiny sip of water and repeat.
DO NOT keep drinking the water, you will thin everything out, and that will negate all the work you have done.
The water is there only to initiate the saliva response, and you will be doing this exercise after your initial vocal warm up which follows this first repitition of this exercise. Somewhere within your vocal session, you may need to repeat the saliva gargle glissandos again.
TOP NOTCH opera singers and session singers use the gargle glissando saliva methods, especially in dry climates and dry studios. You can learn to do this quite discreetly, people may think you are having trouble swallowing your prozac or something ... I dunno' ... ta hell with 'em ... yer gonna sound fabulous darling.
NOTES *
You can do this with whiskey or scotch, the differences should be obvious. But you will become hoarse or raspy much quicker. This would be the saliva SOLVENT method. If you RALPH using this method, the chunks would obviously negate any benifit as they might impede the smooth and free movement of the vocal chords.
You can do this with a bit of lime peel, or even a few drops ... just a few drops ... of lime juice in your room temperature water. IMHO, lime is the best for a more caustic saliva glissando gargle and grunting mixture ...
You can do this with lemon peel, or a few drops of lemon juice ... this is quite the solvent, very acidic and can give your voice a very quick and short lasting tambre change to do some backup vocals, or layering.
You can move up to jalapeno slices in your water ... but beware ... the more acidic your solution, the quicker your voice will hoarsen ... singing HARD with jalapeno, will cause you to lose your voice quite rapidly.
Relatively, jalapeno is much, much stronger than whiskey ... believe it or not.
Soft singing with the jalapeno water method can be quite clean if you've a bit of fuzz in your voice at low levels.
Finally ... Habanero ... but that is not within the scope of this article
Cheers,
SV
