Every singer must have a proper and relaxing posture. Have your students must stand up straight, keep their chin and head level, and point their toes forward with their weight on their heels and soles. These adjustments guarantee that the students are focused on singing with full energy. Once their posture is corrected, students will be able to achieve abdominal breathing that occurs during natural pauses. In order to increase breath control and support, many singers place a hand on their stomach to ensure expansion as they fill their stomach from top to bottom with a slow, deep breath. Singers should keep their shoulders down and not suck in their stomach.
When singing as a group it is easy for lyrics to be lost in translation. Diction exercises ensure clarity and accurate pronunciation. Singing "I really love to sing," " do re me fa so la te do," or various phrases that rhyme up the scale while steadily increasing the pace helps singers warm up their vocals and focus on the articulation of words.
Robert Shaw, an accomplished choral conductor who has been honored by several organizations including the National Association of Composers and Conductors, says that warm-ups are more than vocalization and should be a time for singers to concentrate on tuning themselves, blending, and their overall tone. Exercises include singing through open and closed vowels in unison and on a single, moderately low pitch. As members of the chorus lower their pitch together they are focusing on vowel unification and tuning. Once students are able to understand singing in unison and blending their sound, more advanced exercises, such as moderately speeding up the tempo or singing "mi-me-ma-mo-moo" on a neutral syllable helps them develop dynamic phrasing for upbeat chorus styles such as legato or staccato. These warm-up exercises develop different techniques and help the chorus grow.