V.O.ga with Kimberly (with Adriene)
Holy Monday, Batfriends! What a week we have ahead of us! Let's get to it!
We all know about vocal warm-ups, right? Scales? Arpeggios? SOVT exercises? But what do you do to warm-up the REST of your instrument? That's right. I'm talkin' about your bod, squad!
For the longest time, I was warming up my voice daily, sometimes in excess of 30 minutes per day, but I still didn't feel like I was really fully on-voice in the booth. And after long sessions, my body would ACHE, either from being hunched over the computer - narrating in a seated position, or with creaking knees and cankles from standing all day.
Enter Yoga with Adriene.
We all know her, we all love her. I've just completed her annual 30-day yoga challenge for January, and it was such a fantastic way to kick off the year. If you've not tried it, I can't recommend it enough.
But that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to recommend two YWA videos that have changed my VO game. After parsing through so many of her short and gentle practices, I have found that these two videos have become instrumental to my daily voiceover practice and critical to my physical health in the booth. Over time, I've added vocal exercises to them to make them all-in-one warm-up/cool-down situations, and voilá: V.O.ga!
(I'll pause for a moment to allow you to stop chuckling at that terrifically terrible pun before continuing on.)
Pre-record Warm-up: Throat Chakra Yoga
This quick and gentle 20-minute practice opens up all the muscles related to vocal production: neck, jaw, shoulders, plus front, back, and lower torso too. It has been a godsend to open up all the things I need to (and some I never considered needing to) before I settle in to record, and it gives me a good little chuckle too (you'll know it when you hear it.)
Post-record Cool-down: Yoga for Writers
is practice is a woooooonderful way to wrap up a long day in the booth. It's a series of stretching and restorative poses that erases all the tension you've built up throughout the day, and clears your head in preparation for a good night's sleep, critical for tomorrow's long day in the booth.
Do you have favorite YWA video? I'd love to hear it! Share it in the comments below!
Until next week,
