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a) Singing with straws. Encourage your choir to bring it be in the warm-ups, note-learning, or fine-tuning of
a straw to every rehearsal or keep a box of dispos- a piece.
able straws in your rehearsal space. Singers can Once the energy starts to go down, posture drops,
sing through straws with or without water. Intro- singers become mentally disengaged, and the director
duce the bubble-blowing exercise, where one plac- may become desperate, all of which leads to bad vo-
es the straw in 1-2 inches of water and blows bub- calization. If you recognize the energy needs a boost,
bles using mindful breathing and a consistent flow give a short break, tell a story that connects the choir
of air on the exhale. Then add vocalizing, while to the work, or do a physical “re-boot” that gets the
blowing bubbles, on a simple and short melodic blood flowing such as stretching or marching in place,
exercise. This is a terrific way to wake up sleepy rubbing hands together or shaking out extremities, and
vocal folds and train a healthy vocal onset! 1 breathing exercises.

b) Start vocal warm-ups in the middle of the range,
using a closed vowel on a limited-range descend- Conclusion
ing scale. For example: The benefits of running a vocally efficient rehears-
al go beyond saving the voice of the director—they
• 5-4-3-2-1 on [lu]. Work from the middle of the also lead to saving the voices of the singers, running a
range down, and then back to the middle and up. time-efficient rehearsal, and keeping the mental ener-
Eventually work in larger intervals and range, gy of the choir and director engaged. A choir director
but not until the “easiest” part of the voice has who cares about their own voice will demonstrate to
been sufficiently warmed-up. Do not warm up the singers how to care for their own voices, creating an
the extremity of a range until the voice is com- environment of teamwork, as well as recognition of the
fortable in the middle range. A sprinter would be individual voices that make an ensemble. With these
likely to pull a muscle if taking off from the start- tools in mind, a director should not be afraid, for the
ing blocks at 100 percent with no incremental sake of the voice, to conduct, teach, or sing for years
warm-up, and it is the same for our vocal folds! on end!

c) Rather than starting vocalises on a vowel, start Elena Bird Zolnick, DMA, is the director of sacred
them with a consonant, voiced or unvoiced, that music at the Saint Paul Seminary and director of the
precedes the singing with ample breath: Liturgical Choir at the University of St. Thomas in St.
Paul, MN. She sang professionally for a decade and is
• [fju] still an active performer. zolnick@stthomas.edu

• [zo-i-o-i-o]
• [hUng] moving from the [U] to the [ng] quick- NOTES
ly like a hum, but with the tongue raised to the
palate 1 Jeremy N. Manternach, Lynn Maxfield, Matthew Schlo-
neger, “On the Voice: Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract Ex-
10) Assure that your choir members are enjoy- ercises in the Choral Rehearsal: What’s the Deal with
ing themselves and that rehearsal is fulfilling! the Straw?” Choral Journal vol. 60, no. 4 (November
A rehearsal that drags mentally will drag vocally—both 2019): 47-56.
for the director and the singers. Some rehearsals will be
more enjoyable than others, but the choir should always
be able to recognize a sense of purpose in what the en-
semble is trying to achieve. Each stage in rehearsal must
be recognized as a step toward the final goal, whether

CHORAL JOURNAL September 2025 Volume 66 Number 2 41