Posture

• Move head up and down and then side to side
• Stand with your back against a wall and make sure your head and heels touch the wall.  Your head should feel like it is being held up by a string just like a puppet.
• Shoulders should be slightly back and your rib cage should be lifted.
• Arms should dangle freely at the sides, knees should be bent and your feet should be slightly apart, less than the width of the shoulders.  

Body Warm-up

• Touch the sky to stretch out arms
• Put each arm in front of you and shake each arm separately.
• Roll each shoulder in a circle.  Shrug your shoulders, hold the position for 3 seconds and then release.
• Right ear touches right shoulder.  Left ear touches left shoulder.  Make a yes-no motion with your head.
• Act surprised, drop your jaw and say mah, mah, mah.

Breathing Exercises

• Lay on your back and place a book on your belly. Take a deep breathe in through your mouth and nose at the same time.  Don't raise your shoulders.  Your ribcage and belly should expand and fill with air and the book should move up when you breathe in and down when you breathe out.  
• Sip the air through an imaginary straw and expand your waist.  Release the air slowly and make a hissing sound. Yawn, open the back of the throat and relax the voice.
• Raise your arms above your head, sigh on the vowel ah and lower your arms at the same time.  Sigh with a higher voice each time.
• Say k-k-k-k, ss-ss-ss-ss, p-p-p-p, zz-zz-zz-zz.  

Resonance

• Siren - Imitate the sound of a siren.  Soft and loud.  High and low.  Long and short.  Go up, come down and then do both.  
• Rollercoaster - Pretend your on a rollercoaster and you are falling.  Say "aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
• Toss a ball - Toss a ball to yourself or to a friend.  Have your voice follow the ups and downs of the ball. 

Tone Production

• Hum - Do Re Do, Do Mi Do, Do Fa Do, Do Sol Do, Do Fa Do, Do Mi Do, Do Re Do
• Legato (Connected and Smooth) Do Mi Sol Fa Re Ti Do on "oo".  Staccato (Short) Do Mi Sol Fa Re Ti Do on "ah"
  
• Sing "ninga" on a descending major scale Do Ti La Sol Fa Mi Re Do. Breathe quickly and quietly after Sol and before Fa.
• Sing "ng"-"ee"     "ng"-"eh"     "ng"-"oo"      "ng"-"oh"      "ng"-"ah"
• Sing "ah-oh-oo-oh-ah" Only moving the lips.  Sing "ah-eh-ee-eh-ah" Only moving the tongue.

Diction

• Unvoiced consonants - use the consonants p, t, and k using rhythm patterns of songs.
• Tongue Twisters - "Many mumbling mice are making merry music in the moonlight, mighty nice" "Mama made me mash my M and M's" "Whether the weather is cold, whether the weather is hot, we'll be together whatever the weather, whether we like it or not"
• Watch out for diphthongs (a vowel that actually is a combination of two vowel sounds) - The first vowel sound should be held for the longest and the last/closing vowel sound should be very quick.
  
• I   diphthong (example: I, like, night, my, etc) = ah - ee
  Ay  diphthong (example: stay, play, fey, etc) = eh - ee
  Oy  diphthong (example: joy, boy, boil, etc) = aw- ee
  Ow diphthong (example: how, now, cloud, found, etc) = aw-oo
  
• Beware of words that end with an r or l consonant like: are, hair, mall, fill.  You should barely sing those consonant sounds when they are at the end of a word.