The Octave and a Half “Gee”

The next warm up we’re going to do is closer to singing than the lip trill exercise since it is more “open”.

Sure, the lip trill is great for singing high notes without falsetto or strain, but it doesn’t sound that much like actual singing.

So let’s open things up a bit.

Unfortunately, opening our mouths to sing also means we are losing the advantage of the lower threshold required to keep the vocal folds together like we had on the lip trill.

But with a “Gee”, we’ve still got a lot of things going for us.

First, the “ee” vowel promotes stretch in the vocal folds, which allows you to sing higher.

And second, the “G” consonant brings the vocal folds together which allows us to keep our registers connected in a mix.

Just try saying “Guh Guh Guh” and you’ll see what I mean. The feeling you get when singing that glottal “G” consonant is the feeling of the vocal folds closing. This ensures an even volume.

Put it all together and you’ve got a recipe for hitting all sorts of notes in your range without falsetto.

Here’s how you do it:

1.     Begin by saying the word “Gee” as in “Geese” at a comfortable volume.

2.     While saying the word “Gee”, make sure that you are annunciating the “G” consonant.

3.     Now find a comfortable starting pitch (try C3 for guys and G3 for girls) and begin to sing the word “Gee”.

4.     Sing the following scale.