• warm-ups are all about techniques and positioning that you are supposed to take forward to the next exercise/song.

• humming – fill entire jaw area (nice circular motion)…. don’t want a tense sound, drop jaw a bit.

• use your pincers (use one hand) for vowel placement…. fangs for ‘e’, first molars for ‘ah’ (jaw has to move (open) on octave drop in Sylvia’s exercise – can’t maintain rigidity, or sound will fall back in throat).

• if you constantly switch positions on your sound – that’s when the inconsistency comes into effect (it’s like shifting gears in a car on the highway, when you don’t need to)….even on large drops, you cannot change positions on where the sound is going – keep it in the same space

• ie… sylvia’s exercise on ‘eyes’… roll lips forward – don’t chew through it

• use same position for ‘love’ as you did for exercise on ‘ah’ (needs to be bright) – use pincers (fill both jaws with sound) – don’t allow the sound to drop to the back of the throat (sounds like you’re switching gears in a truck or going thru puberty!) … should be warm air out front all the time!

We Wanna Say Hello

• on hello’s – fill jaw with sound, don’t try and push it out

• pincers on bottom – air should be filling bottom jaw too

• keep chins back (from sticking out)

• build last hello in intro

• roll the ‘o’ on hello (hello-oo) (don’t chew it – finish the diphthong)

• almost singing ‘hellah’… make sure it’s a pure “o” (when the throat becomes engaged, the sound comes out as ‘hellah’ – if you trust your jaws and trust your placement, it rings like crazy… if you try to oversing from your throat – it will die out the sound

Goody Goody

• don’t oversing/punch the pitch – sing it from the diaphragm first (you don’t dazzle them with volume – you dazzle them with ring) (no Muscle at all – lift and air is the key!)…. also – do not put an ‘H” in front of the ‘ah’ – stomachize it don’t vocalize it.

• “AH” throughout intro….”ah’ll shahuout hoorahayee” (the up move has tilted the vowel back on ‘hooray’ – flick your thumb forward on the ‘ray’ to keep the sound forward…

• there’s not really an ‘R’ in hooray – explode the ‘A’ and not the R (in hooray) (use the flick to simulate the ‘R’ sound instead of singing it)

• you must sing ‘ray’ of ‘hooray’ through the lips and not the throat

• roll the sound through the ‘oo’ of “hallelu-uia”

• put “E” into “hallelu-u-eeya”

• the “u-u” of “halleluia” is a 7^th chord – leads need to sit on the 2^nd note move (‘u’) and baris’ need to come out on the ‘ia’ (baritone is in the spotlight of the resolution of the chord – leads back off on the ‘ia’)… the ‘ia’ is a 1-5 in bass/baritone (normally is the lead – but this time leads need to back off)… basses do not back off!

• leads need to be higher on ‘ya’ (now I see right through ya) – it’s a 3^rd  - keep it high! LIFT!

• baritone over lead on ‘ya’ (now I see right through ya) – leads need to sing more bass-like, bari’s get out of the way and lift

• “goody goody” – extend out the ‘ee’ (pulse to end) – keep sound in the fang space (lips are cushioning the ‘e’ sound – sing pouty)

• put more “oo” sound in every “goody” – it’s tending to come out too much “uh”…..

• tripthong – “so you met”…. “so you” should be “so-ee-you” (ensures sound in the middle of so and you)

• MORE peanut butter singing through verses “so you met someone who set you back on your heels…” (it’s been too choppy)

• “he-els” – leads keep the sound in the same position – when the note drops, you tend to drop the sound to the back of your throat – keep it forward and lifted!

• the entire chorus tends to close down the sound through “so you gave her your heart to, just as I gave mine to you” (don’t try and quartet breath it – SNEAK!), you’re cutting off the last you instead of carrying through

• “pieces” – sound from 2 front teeth to fangs (not fangs to bottom of throat – watch the width!)

• “and now! how do you do”… take out the “D” on the “AND”

• basses – sing “wow do you do” on the echo of ‘how do you do” (don’t be afraid of the ‘w’ sound as long as you don’t ‘wuh’ it)

• “singing the blues all ni-ight” – Leads are downshifting again – keep it in the same space! (lift – use your pincers)

• “ya lie awake ‘just singing…” – back in throat pushing sound – put air in both jaws and keep sound lifted and forward

• LEADS need to sing with more technique instead of straight emotion (act like singers and not merely performers – don’t perform, but not at the expense of the singing technique – it gets shouty and inconsistent) -  SING SMART!

• everyone has to start working the techniques at home and chorus to program it!

• on echos of “ya goody goody” harmony parts don’t need to put the “y” in – it’s more of a lip snarl

• make sure you’re singing “dyn-a-MITE”… it comes out like “mut” (keep on the ‘ah’ – don’t move the sound!)

• (key change) Leads – don’t back off on the hold of “you” and now don’t hold “you” across…. sing a syncopated “I hope you” (similar to as writ).. everyone comes in on “lie awake”….

• Leads – plow through with excitement the “I hope you lie awake…..” don’t back up until you get to “sing-in the blues all night”

• “sing-in the blues all night” – Leads back off (you’re on the same note on this phrase!) – it’s all about the baris here – baritone prom/tenor chords.  NEED MORE BARI! – be more DIVA-EY (down & dirty).

• also sing “SEE-ing” not “sing’in”… more ‘ee’

• remember and trust your technique through “all night”  “all right”  “sight” – keep on the ‘ah’ and don’t move the sound around!

• you can’t change the space between “you” and “ya” - “goody goody for you… ya goody goody” (stay in same space of “you” (roll the sound forward)

• voice the ‘B’ in the ‘bye, bye, bye’s’….keep the sound going through the ‘bye’s’ – keep the lips off the teeth (kissy pouty)

• baritone breath is taken out before echo of “run and hide” and “run and hide” has to be ripped!

• “should’ve (formerly should have) is now “should’a”

• don’t oversing at the tag

• (try new tag)

Irish Lullaby

• there was a lot of “UH” in this song – it should be/needs to be sung “AW” (AH)… (ie lullahby, ahyee, rahl, nahowe, lahve, sawng, hawnts, dahie)

• pitch “ah” – from your diaphragm not your throat (lift it!)…. onset the pitch not attack

• keep on ‘ah’ on ‘Ireland’ in intro…. ah..reland

• leads – don’t try and quartet breath the intro – SNEAK breathe

• intro – leads – more bass like on “I love” – more presence (dark ‘ah’ on “I”)

• sing ‘heart’ with more ‘oo’ (ie. heaoort) – softens the ‘r’  (too much “R” is coming through and not enough sound)… leads – make sure you stay on the ‘ah’ of ‘heart’ and don’t kill it

• make sure all ‘ō’ words are definitely ‘ō’ (ie. , over, ago, tones, low)

• keep ‘over-in’ in the same space

• “in” – not matching the ‘ih’ vowel – sing it in the “e” position (put a bit of ‘e’ in it) – don’t spread to the ‘e’ – round to it (shape)

• put more flavour of the ‘e’ in “Kilarney” – Keilarny – it will ring more

• lift the end of all “LI”’s (too-rah-loo-rah-li-i)

• make sure stay on the ‘ah’ and place in the molars on “too-ra-loo-ra-loo-rahl”  too much “L” comes through at times and sounds like “UHL” and should be “AWL”

• “that’s an i-rish lullaby” – sing “that’s an i-ri-shlullaby”

• (key change)… tank up so that “music” is solid (and Ruth can still hold I-rish slightly)

• bass have more open sound on ‘ih’ of “music”

• make sure you sing “SAWNG” (I can hear that song) (bass/baritone – lock octave on “oh”)

• love – should be “lawve”

• strong should be sung “STRAWNG”

• no longer hold “of” (mem’ries of) – hold “’ries” instead

• “melody” – not MEL-O-DY – should be “Melluhdy”

• “I’ll sing”…. don’t just sing the notes (leads particularly) – sing it with meaning

• “die” – leads – don’t try and quartet breath this one either, and back off a bit so when harmony parts finish, everyone can build together

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