It has come to my attention that some singers, especially singers who are trying to train their voices as professionals, seem to come up against a lot of strange attitudes from their fellow band members about warming up their voices or warming down their voices at rehearsals, performances or recording sessions. Many band members question the validity of such behavior and some, with even less regard for the needs of the voice which often is the difference between them getting a salary that week or not, go so far as to make fun of the singer doing his or her vocal exercises.

Obviously, as a voice teacher, you would expect some objection to this on my part! I spend most of my waking hours caring for the singers who are the members of my studio. You can imagine how frustrating it is to hear that while I am trying to train someone to be a professional, his or her fellow band members are giving resistance in the form of teasing and objections. I've decided to speak out on this because I feel it's necessary to enlighten not just the individual singer who is doing the hard work of training the voice (which is a long, costly and sometimes lonely and frustrating procedure) but also the other people who the singer must work with day in and day out. I can't tell you how many times I've heard these complaints in my own studio and I just feel that it would be in the best interests of all concerned to look at this in another light.

Yes, rock music is raw, primitive, natural, etc. Yes, many singers seem to do fine without training. Yes, many lead singers can even feel burdened by the constant work that training the voice involves. But on the other hand: Yes, the voice is an instrument, which is the human body. Yes, the larynx which makes the sound is made of muscles and membranes and cartilage. Yes, no matter how well you sing, you will sing better when you have pursued a course of good training. And yes, there are people in this business who are professionals who are well aware of the benefits and hard work involved in becoming a master of your craft. These people respect and encourage their lead singer. They contribute to the progress of their singer and therefore contribute to the band as a whole.

When you are a dedicated professional, it is wonderful to be surrounded by others who are supportive and understanding. It is so ridiculous to have to tolerate people who call themselves professionals, who cannot imagine what another professional may need in the way of support and encouragement. If you cannot be understanding and supportive of a singer who is vocalizing, a process that enables a singer to use his or her voice in a warmed-up state, minimizes injury and improves the vocalist's abilities and performance on stage, how can you then expect that same singer to go out and give each performance the best that they have? How can you make fun of someone in the dressing room and then turn around and complain when your lead singer's voice gives out and you have to cancel a gig? (Which, by the way, cuts into your salary and sometimes your opportunities of advancement in your chosen profession.) This kind of lack of teamwork, which I can only attribute to ignorance, simply infuriates me!

Some singers are even ignorant of the benefits of warming up and down. Many will say that they can sing without warming up, so why should they have to do all that work when everone else is just hanging out? Well, the truth is you probably have been singing without warming up for a very long time. you've made it this far, so why is it suddenly so important to do all this extra work?

In my first article, I talked about the fact that many people only turn to training after they've injured themselves; they simply limit what their natural instrument can produce. But vocalizing to a singer is much more than fixing damage or getting yourself out of a jam. Vocalizing is a tool that a singer uses to perfect the natural instrument they were born with. It is a way of preparing to work. It is a way of strengthening your voice and increasing your capabilities. It is also a way to improve your ability to communicate on stage because you have more of an instrument ot communicate with.

Most singers, by their very nature, are very sensitive human beings. The music industry, by its very nature, is a cut-throat competitive business. Put these two things together and you tell me where there is room for guitar players or bass players or drummers to make fun of a singer who is vocalizing. It is beyond my comprehension! Other musicians should realize that vocalizing is a way for a singer to master a part of their own body to get it to work finer than any machine could ever dream of doing. Maybe this might make a few of you annoyed. Hopefully, though, it will enlighten a lot more.