sing

“I never did consider myself a singer, I just let people watch me feel music and how it comes through me. Singing is just one way of getting it out of me.”

~ Erykah Badu

We’ve been listening to music and exploring new genres but now it is time to BECOME the music. It is one thing to be a passive participant. It is quite another to turn your body into the creative outlet.

Easiest way to jump in that frying pan? SING.

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Listen to your favorite songs all day and start by humming along with the melody. If you don’t like to hum, then whistle. If you can’t whistle (and I’m a person who can’t whistle) then drum the beat on the table. Find a way to physically express the music beyond listening.

Here are a couple of voice warm ups you can do:

1. Sing “Me–Minny-Minny-Minny-May-Mah-Moooooooo” on a single note. Move up one note and sing the phrase again. Sing up and down the scales, note by note to push beyond your comfort range. Nice and easy. Lots of breath.

2. Blow air through your lips and let them flap like a horse. Now, hum from the top note of your range and let the sound slide down the scales as if a pebble falling from a cliff. Do this fast. Don’t linger on a single note. Now, combine the lip flapping and the scale sliding. Got it? Reverse it and flap and slide up. Combine and flap and slide up and down.

Once you are warmed up, put on your absolute fave and sing along, ALOUD. Uncomfortable? Sing in the shower. Sing in the car.

Just sing.

Suggestions for Songs to Sing Along:

Take Me With You – Prince
You Are My Sunshine – Norman Blake
Tide Is High – Blondie
Love Is A Battlefield – Pat Benatar
Wash Me Clean – k.d. lang
Coward of the County – Kenny Rogers
Into The Mystic – Van Morrison
Four Women – Nina Simone
We Will Rock You – Queen
All of Me – Louis Armstrong
Besame Mucho – standard
Arms of a Woman – Amos Lee