They don't call it 'voicing' for nothing.

 

Patrick Bartley has a YouTube video about this exact thing - primarily he's mimicking the note he plays on sax, with his voice. I wondered if some kind of voice warm-up could help with this.

 

Yes, that’s what I was wondering. I guess a person can try it! They are always these crazy noises they make- it’s hard to do them without laughing! 🤣

 

Wandering the halls of a high school during vocal solo & ensemble or choir festival is rather 'entertaining'.
Some of those vocal instructors have some crazy pre-performance warm up routines. Facial contortions, vocalizations, body movements...
I'm of a mind that the a few of craziest parts of these warm ups are only to relieve some of the mental stress associated with the competition.
Rather akin to pre-school kids getting their sillies out.

 

Lip and tongue trills, sirens, facial-muscle stretches, head rolls- there are a lot of legitimate vocal warm-ups that will look and sound odd to an observer but they’re all actually useful things that have to do with loosening up tension stored in the tongue-root, facial muscles and body. Remember, unlike saxophonists who have the benefit of that whole brass thing on the other side of your face, the body is the entirety of instrument for a vocalist. Rather than pad-leaks or sticking keys you might have neck tension.

 

Is the full vocal warmup appropriate for wind players? I’d say no, but there are a great many aspects of vocal training that are useful. I was fortunate to train with Marjorie Lawrence when in my early 20’s. I trace my awareness of vowel shaping and air support to her. Once the skill are learned, the windplayer will adapt and incorporate them into daily playing routines. Those adapted techniques are the ones that are useful to employ in awareness and warmups.

 

Studying harmonic singing with David Hykes helped me be more flexible and accurate with voicing.

 

I’ve worked professionally on both the vocal and instrumental side. In fact, at one point, the horn sat for 20 years while I sang opera, oratorio, pro-level choral music, musical theater, etc.

I really don’t think training the voice has much to do with your performance as an instrumentalist, with these exceptions:

1) Breathing is essentially the same. You know about “low breathing.” Same idea across the board.

2) Relaxing the throat and chest while breathing. Same thing.

3) Raising the soft palate to open those head resonances. Same!

4) Vowel formation - ee, ah, aw. Often used in voicing on a woodwind.

5) Phrasing. Shaping a phrase. What I’ve learned as an instrumentalist helps me as a singer, and vice versa!

Did I forget anything?

I don’t feel that as an instrumentalist, I think much about the vocal cords and other vocal apparatus. But as a singer, I think of it all as I would a muscle - Sometimes it “wants” work, and sometimes it “wants” rest. Knowing whether to work it (and how hard) and when to rest it (and how long) comes with experience and training.

Bottom line, though - Vocalizing exercises for woodwind players to enhance pure woodwind skills? Nah. BUT learning to sing and play piano (at least a little) helps ANY musician in some way.

 

4) Vowel formation - ee, ah, aw. Often used in voicing on a woodwind.

As a vocal instructor/singer new to sax I’ve been feeling like the shapes described by woodwind people aren’t actually the same. Like especially the “ee” described seems to be a more spread concept than you would want for singing. I’m curious if as a professional in both you have experienced this?

There’s a sax voicing vowels YT video shared here recently where the instructor goes through several vowels you might use in addition to “ah” and “ee”, and among them he lists the “I” (as in “high”) vowel. Well of course for singing (and presumably just speaking in general?) there’s no such vowel. “I” is a diphthong made up of “ah” -> ”ee”. It doesn’t exist as a single oral-cavity configuration. Having no formal woodwind training, I wondered if the shapes are somehow taught differently.

 

To get the liw notes on my tenor to speak/sound well I sometimes sing the note in tune with the note. Since it's in tune there's no growl and some frequency cacellation. It seems to create the optimum throat shape for each note.

 

I feel very fortunate to have come up at a time when 'voicing' on wind instruments was not being taught on wind instruments at the school level. Many years later I learned that what I was doing naturally in order to get certain sounds/tones was being taught as 'voicing'. I then realized that to play low notes and high notes you have to do things inside similar to what singers have to do, which is why its called 'voicing'.

 

This is interesting. My flute teacher has been working with me to engage my vocal chords (while keeping the throat and oral cavity relaxed) for more resonance.

I do some new exercises like fluttering the back of the throat that help. I could see having a set of vocal warm-ups being useful.

 

I use Jeff Rolkas tenor warmup everyday (free on you tube ( as I warm up my hands and fingers with light weights. Slowly it impoved my singing. And singing has definately transfered to flute tone and air support. K

 

and I dont think of voicing as vowels. For me its where in my throat or oral cavity I feel the air pressure. Like Emmanuel Pahouds wasabe spot between the eyes K