Warming up and cooling down

Much like the weather today I have been getting hot, sticky and wet. Gosh that does sound very rude,but it's really innocent! I've been working on the songs for the NCH gig and in the course of doing so have been warming up my voice and working up a sweat.
For those that might be interested in what a singer does to warm up, it involves lots of breathing exercises, followed by lots of facial and vocal exercises, all designed to work different parts of the singing machine and essentially to make one look ridiculous... see pictures below for evidence.

Its great having a chance to run through the songs on my own because while listening back I can assess how the arrangement's are sounding as well how my vocal line is going to be placed. It's often very easy to miss things in a rehearsal that come screaming at you from the recordings. So as well as working on the vocal lines today I've been doing a good bit of note taking which I hope will come in handy when the full band meet again on Tuesday.

Oh before I forget I must tell you, while taking a break today I got a phone call from the very nice people at the National Concert Hall to let me know that the piano they have for us is a Grand Steinway... Judith (our piano player) will be VERY pleased!
They also wanted us to know that ticket sales are going very well, sweet!!!! So if you'd like to book your ticket, log on to www.nch.ie or phone the box office on 01 4170000