SOLO WARM-UP

Stevie Rickard, April 2018

This warm-up takes 25 mins minimum but can easily be extended to up to 1 hour by spending more <me
on each or some of the exercises, adding in those indicated.

Aspect Exercise Instruc.ons/guidance

BODY Self in space ▪ Wriggle the toes, heels and sides of feet down against the floor, take
a moment to feel the connec<on with the floor, then walk that
connec<on around the room. Release the knees.
▪ Sta<onary again, imagine top of the head releasing up towards
ceiling, with the whole of the spine from the navel to the top of the
neck lengthening and releasing. Let the jaw release. Eye muscles
soHen. Take it round the room.
▪ Sta<onary, focus on space behind you; read it through the back;
imagine the shoulder blades releasing down the back. Sternum
soHens down and back. Take it round the room.
▪ Focus on the space either side of you; imagine you’re releasing into
that space; imagine the ears, armpits and hip sockets all releasing
away from each other. Take it round the room.
▪ Last, see if you can combine some sense of all four: down, up, behind
and side.
Body ▪ Start with fingers: vigorous piano playing on imaginary keyboard.
ar@cula@ons ▪ Add rota<ons from wrists, then elbows then whole arm, shoulders.
(add in for ▪ One-footed piano playing, add in ankle rota<ons, then gentle circles
longer with foot hanging from liHed knee, then leg swings, then hip circles
versions) and figure of 8 rota<ons; repeat with other leg.
Puppet into ▪ Start with arms stretched up, fingers alive. Shoulders somewhat
spine rolls neutral.
▪ Drop the fingers, then the wrists, then upper arms, then lower arms,
head drops to chest, then into spine roll.
▪ Keep pelvis firmly liHing away from the floor.
▪ Take a moment in full fold to check that you have really let go of the
head; have a very gentle sway or shake before you come back up.
▪ 2-3 of
Add in these 3 stretch
these.
poses for longer version:
Cat ▪ From last full fold come down to all 4s.
▪ Cat arches, leading from coccyx each <me. Draw a circle with the
coccyx, then a figure of 8, then freestyle ‘back chew’.
Sphinx ▪ Strong but gentle sphinx pull-up, from about navel level. Neck is free.
Release buZocks. (Avoid if you have back issues.)
Lord of ▪ Legs straight out in front of you, spine long. Take right leg over leH
Fishes knee, lightly hold onto right big toe with right hand. Strong side
stretch to leH, stabilising yourself with leH hand. Sit bones remain in
contact with floor. Hold for 25s+.
▪ Keep breathing! But don’t try to control the breath. Repeat other
side. (Avoid if you have back issues.)

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Adding in Picking fruit ▪ PaZerns of reaching up, reaching to the front, to the sides and
BREATH collec<ng from floor.
▪ Add a short ‘sh’ with each reach.
▪ x8, then x6, then x4, then x2, then 4x1
Breath ▪ Allow breath to seZle.
check-in ▪ Hands on abdomen and small of the back (‘self-sandwich’) – feel and
enjoy the breath moving the body; avoid any aZempt at control at
this stage.
▪ Same for ribs: backs of hands on ribs, fingers poin<ng back to armpits
(‘chicken wings’) – again feel the breath movement.
Sustained ▪ Onto all 4s.
frica@ves ▪ Lengthen the out-breath, alterna<ng between voiceless frica<ves.
No<ce ac<on of muscles of breath support. Add in some spine
undula<ons in this posi<on. Check belly releases for each new in-
breath.
▪ Come up to standing and repeat.
Side stretch ▪ Add big side stretches as you fricate, with arm up and over.
▪ Stay in one plane as far as possible, i.e. arms in line with legs, pelvis
not falling back or forward.
▪ Pat and rub stretched side.
▪ Change sides on the in-breath. Neck free, head moving up and away
with the spine.
▪ Shake it out.
Twisted ▪ Frica<ves again but with both arms liHed and hands mee<ng above
stretch head. Shoulders rela<vely neutral.
(add in for ▪ Torso twists to each side, swap sides as each in-breath drops in.
longer ▪ Allow neck to remain free as you twist; stay firmly connected to floor.
versions)
▪ Shake it out.
Adding in Neck strokes ▪ Now onto voiced frica<ves.
VOICING ▪ Gently stroke the sides and back of the neck and base of the skulls as
you start to add voice.
Elephant ▪ Move around the room, con<nuing with lengthened voiced frica<ves.
trunk ▪ Make hand-to-wall contact for each new in-breath.
▪ Imagine your arm is an elephant’s trunk and the breath is dropping
into the body unimpeded through your trunk/arm.
Adding in Graduated ▪ On an ‘ng’ consonant.
PITCH slides ▪ Start at the middle-ish of your pitch range. Slide up as liZle as you can
and back (a semitone for those who are musical). Keep repea<ng this.
▪ Very gradually increase the slide un<l you’re using the whole of your
range.
▪ If you want to keep moving with this, add a pulse forward onto front
leg, legng the arms swing.
Sirens ▪ Abandon control now – go freestyle.
▪ Hover at the top; hover at the boZom.
▪ Think releasing down physically for high parts of your range, up for
lower parts.
▪ Check-in with breath: hands on abdomen and ribs again.
▪ Try vigorous massage of the sides of the nose when you’re in higher
pitches.

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Adding in Crea<ng more space:
RESONANCE Throat ▪ Yawning, feel the throat stretch and open up.
▪ Don’t force it; the yawns can be gentle; don’t over-involve the jaw;
tongue <p can stay gently behind lower teeth.
Jaw Depending on how much <me you have, use some or all of these. From
least hands-on to most:
▪ 2-minute hang: do nothing other than imaging the jaw muscles
soHening and releasing, with space opening up between back teeth.
▪ Hot hands: rub hands together for warmth and apply to muscle.
▪ Raindrops: encourage release as fingers play against muscle.
▪ Three-pronged rake: pull outstretched 3 fingers down the muscle.
▪ Power tools: firm finger-<p press into muscle from the side, hold for
15-20s. Repeat finding different place of tension in muscle each <me.
Tongue ▪ Massage tongue root under the chin with the thumb.
(root) ▪ Slug tongue: stretching the tongue out of the mouth, hold strongly
for 15s, then let it slide back into the mouth with its own elas<c recoil
only. When it’s happily seZled (perhaps not fully in the mouth), have
a gentle bounce and let out sound.
SoR palate ▪ Out-breath and in-breath ‘k’: feel the strong separa<on of the
tongue and soH-palate with each ‘k’.
▪ Ng ah: move from an ‘ng’ sound to an ‘ah’ vowel, feel the big sound
change with the movement. Add words aHer the ‘ah’ that start with
that vowel, even if your accent will have ‘r’, e.g. Argen<na, architect,
aardvark.
Filling the space:
Face wake- ▪ Keep humming gently as you massage the face.
up ▪ Pinch the cheeks and chin, move the flesh over the cheekbones, rub
the forehead and the eyebrows, wake up the ears, gentle raindrops
around the eyes.
Ball of ▪ Start building a hum on ‘m’.
sound ▪ Lightly tease the lips forward with your hand, as if you’re easing the
hum forward to the lips. Now shape the sound into a ball just in front
of the lips. Open up your hand and open up the hum to ‘ah’. Then
move the hand further away from the face each <me, dropping the
‘ah’ into the space in front of you.
▪ Take this into the space: place each new ball of sound somewhere,
keep the hum going as you move away, reconnect with where you’ve
leH the ball then see it open as you open to ‘ah’. Try different
distances. Breathe as many <mes as you need to with each hum into
‘ah’.

Increasing body▪vibra<on:
Try different vowels too. Avoid gegng stuck on one pitch.

Pummelling ▪ Humming into vowels again.

▪ As you do that, pummel the chest with the soH part of your fist, then
the shoulders, back, the hip sockets, then the buZocks.
For a longer warm-up:

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 Mouths ▪ Create a mouth shape with your fingers.
▪ Apply it to somewhere on your body as you hum. Release the
‘mouth’ into the space as you open to a vowel sound.
Self- ▪ Humming into vowels again.
shuggling ▪ Full-on self-massage, moving any and all flesh and muscle (than you
can access with your hands) across the bones.
▪ Try this against the wall too, using the wall as a sta<c massager.
Adding in Lips and Do a bunch of all of these on their own then alterna<ng:
ARTICULATIO cheeks ▪ Big grin
N
▪ Pout
▪ Funnel
▪ Cat’s arse
▪ Elvis
▪ Fish hook
Then finish off with big face, liNle face, with sound.
ptk & bdg ▪ Each sound singly, building up speed.
▪ Then paZerns, e.g. 4 x ptk repeated, then 4 x ktp; same for voiced
bdg
Chaining ▪ Any consonants interspersed with 6 vowel sounds in a figure of 8
sequence:
dah, day, dee, day, dah, dor, do, dor, dah
▪ Double up the consonant, adding neutral vowels (schwas): dahder,
dayder etc
▪ Triple consonants: fahfefer, fayfefer etc
▪ Add a consonant cluster: glahgler, glaygler etc
▪ Mix up some clusters: brahtrer, braytrer etc
▪ Focus on final consonants: ahz, ayz etc
▪ Clusters at ends of words: ahzled, ayzled etc
Finishing off … I’m so loose! 4 x full-body shake with increasingly extravagant pitch use – ‘I’m so
loose!’, ‘I’m so free!’, ‘I’m so alive!’, ‘I’m so ready!’

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