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Vocal Warm up

I might, if I have the time for it, do some checkup on some of the harder songs I know there is on the setlist. It's just for the sake of technical repetition, not warming up, so I might do that some hours before the gig. Frankly, I think warming up is a bit a waste of time as long as you feel your voice is working normally.

On a gig, I don't mind that much (anymore) what songs I start with. On a recent gig I started with Chris Cornell's "You know my name", as the party had a 007-theme. It did no harm to my voice to start with that (the high distorted notes in the end included), and I don't think I embarrassed myself too much either when singing that song. I had no problems at all singing it, but I did transpose it one step down to make it a little easier and more suitable for my voice. The loud high A's with loads of distortion still requires a lot of energy to do correctly. Hold it back, and you'll damage your voice very easily. That is the case whether you have warmed up or not..

To me, there's no drawback with warming up, but no real advantage either, unless it's early in the morning when the voice hasn't "opened up" yet completely.
 
I carry a copy of the Stones' album Goat's Head Soup in the car, and I sing along with it on the way to the gig. Or sometimes I sing the national anthem a few times. Other times, incessant cursing at my fellow motorists provides all the warmup I need!
 

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