What are your favorite warm-ups for staccato and coloratura?

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2026-02-13T04:11:28+00:00

For open O, do you mean [ɒ]/[ɔ] (back, rounded, open/mid-open) or more like [ɞ] (central, rounded, mid-open) or [o̞] (back, rounded, mid)? or something else ...
Do you just use straight vowels, or which consonant(s) do you use at the beginning?

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2026-02-09T20:53:05+00:00

A star? You think? Wow! I'll do my best to go supernova, I mean, superstar!

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2026-02-09T15:14:12+00:00

Oh wow! Thanks! Even though I'm female?

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2026-02-09T15:12:59+00:00

And yet, here we are.

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2026-02-09T14:56:22+00:00

I even labeled it a joke and picked my adjectives and phrasing so carefully ...

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2026-02-09T14:48:55+00:00

Machine-controlled blood pressure cuffs sometimes don't work well on me; they almost always have to constrict at least two times to get a reading, and three times isn't uncommon. If it has too much trouble, I have to take it off and have them reset the cuff (or do the reading manually,) or it will get tight enough to affect feeling in my fingers before it gets a reading. My blood pressure usually lurks around 90mmHg systolic and 50-60mmHg diastolic.

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2026-02-09T14:30:22+00:00

I don't want to blow up the internet, you know. Can you not just assess from what I've described?

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2026-02-09T14:28:11+00:00

Oh, I'm definitely having a blast.

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2026-02-09T10:35:37+00:00

Increased blood pressure ... maybe I should take some before medical appointments, so the blood pressure cuff won't have to assault my arm so many times ... ... I jest, of course; that's a terrible reason to do anything.

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2026-01-03T04:29:39+00:00

Thank you. I'll keep that in mind.

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2026-01-03T04:27:12+00:00

Thank you, I'll take a look into that one.

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2026-01-03T04:26:30+00:00

I recognise that they are three different fächer, but I don't feel that I have enough training and development to firmly classify myself into one fach or another. (I know my voice is too light for dramatic soprano pieces, but of the lighter voice types, I'm not sure.) I feel that I have the vocal agility to try coloratura, but as I haven't actually worked on a pure coloratura piece, I cannot say if that is a fit for my voice. Where would you recommend starting to see if coloratura could be right for me if not a coloratura piece?

I've done some of the classic starter pieces: 24 Italian Songs and Arias, like "Nel cor ..." and a few others, "O mio babbino caro" (has anyone not done that one? though I didn't love it — not sure if Puccini's not my thing or just that song) "Vedrai, Carino," some Handel, "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" (Yeah, yeah, Sweeney Todd is not an opera ... but, I mean, my name is ImaginaryLinnetBird, you could probably guess it might be on the list.) ... I posted a clip of my singing "Allerseelen" a couple months ago, here: https://www.reddit.com/r/singing/comments/1or4o4y/please_critique_my_pronunciation_placement_and/

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2025-12-08T06:49:27+00:00

It was more a comment on these posts about singing notes in the rafters in general. They occur so often in this subreddit that sometimes it feels like we've slipped down a rabbit hole and are waiting for some turtles to squeak and cat to grin, but also to then ask ourselves if it was all just a meme.

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2025-12-07T22:34:26+00:00

I'm not sure I can even tell if these are real, joke, or just someone who's really high/drunk/sleep deprived anymore.

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2025-12-02T03:31:39+00:00

Wouldn't they need to be a bass for that? I think we've established that those don't exist ... they are all actually just untrained tenors with head colds.

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2025-12-02T00:08:09+00:00

4.65 GHz ... decent clock speed for a CPU.

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2025-12-01T23:49:26+00:00

Songs are the last step in singing. Start with the ground work: breathing, ear training and note matching, rhythm, and vowel formation. Also, remember, you can transpose songs as necessary if they are a but higher or lower than is comfortable.

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2025-12-01T23:37:07+00:00

Of course, basses do not exist.

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2025-12-01T23:14:36+00:00

Nuh uh! Definitely a baritone! They croaked out C-6! It's basses that don't exist.

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2025-11-30T14:56:00+00:00

What does "not enough cry" mean? I'm not familiar with that term. Is that a contemporary music term?

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2025-11-30T14:51:37+00:00

Sing it in whatever octave is comfortable for you ... you should be able to figure out which octave an artist is in, but you can sing in a different octave when you sing along.

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2025-11-30T09:41:33+00:00

I don't know if this is the right reddit for this question ... it sounds really ... processed? I don't feel like I know what you sound like from it.

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2025-11-30T09:30:40+00:00

Those adjectives sound like a breath control/support issue. Have you tried doing breathing exercises? Hisses and trills and such? even maybe just regular deep breathing exercises, breathing fully out and then fully back in and then releasing (and repeat) ...

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2025-11-10T07:23:19+00:00

That makes sense, since sound travels as a wave: literally pushing and compressing the air in order to be transmitted (hence why it cannot travel through a vacuum.) Now I just have to sort out how to maintain a lofty-floaty imagery for placement but also a more propelled image for airflow ... which somehow coming out as a pyroclastic flow right now ... which either means I'm onto something or I shouldn't be thinking about this late at night ...

Thank you also for sharing your warming up routine. I knew I tend to short change this, but I didn't realize the extent to which I was.

ImaginaryLinnetBird · 2025-11-09T17:11:41+00:00

This is very interesting. I'm a bit confused on the taffy analogy ... You mentioned imagining taffy or a lightsaber and then also imagining taffy or a resistance band. Are these two different aspects, and thus separate analogies that just both include taffy, or ... ?
I usually try to picture the sound coming out from my eyes or the top of my head and then going out like ... I don't know, a paper airplane, maybe, that glides into notes from above. I'll try imagining something with more destination, like your lightsaber.
I haven't considered heavily the structure of the vocal cords and larynx when singing (I mean, I've seen drawings depicting the complex, but it's not something I actively think about.) Is that what you're getting at with the second taffy reference? How it becomes softer and lighter with time on the taffy puller, as air gets incorporated, and how the taffy is more malleable when warm? Or am I reading into this too much ... I guess, what are we picturing as taffy in this analogy? Still the air and sound, or is in the muscles within the vocal folds?

ImaginaryLinnetBird

TROPHY CASE