The Choral Warm-Up: Method, Procedures, and Core Vocal Exercises

2005, GIA Publications, Inc.

This text by James Jordan summarizes his 25 years of experience teaching and reinforcing healthy vocal technique for choirs at all levels of development. The book is a comprehensive guide to the teaching of vocal technique through the choral warm-up that he has presented to thousands of choral directors in workshops across the country. Philosophy, teaching procedures, and specific exercises are presented in the text. Among the topics included are: alignment (using Alexander Technique and Body Mapping principles), use of the sigh for diagnosing vocal problems, breathing, inhalation, exhalation, support, resonance, vowel colors, leaps, range extension, crescendo/decrescendo, martellato, staccato, procedures for teaching diction plus general diction guidelines, teaching and reinforcing rhythm and consistent tempo, and strategies for good intonation. This is a comprehensive vocal guide for choral directors. Accompaniment CD included.

The Choral Warm-Up is designed to: help conductors plan and implement efficient choral warm-ups, build healthy voices within the choral rehearsal, provide vocalises that have accompaniments complete with modulations upward and downward, and categorize vocalises according to specific vocal objectives.

James Jordan, Senior Conductor and Conductor of The Westminster Williamson Voices as well as the Westminster Chapel Choir for more than a decade, both at the Westminster Choir College of Rider University, is recognized as one of the nation’s preeminent conductors, writers, and innovators in choral teaching.