Video transcript
Warm-ups for your choir (secondary) - eClass 1 - Physical and breathing activities - 04. Diaphragm shhh

LIZ SCOTT: Leave your hands up here on your ribs. You're going to take a deep breath, and you are going to 'sh' Tana a happy birthday. As in, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, shh. And when it gets to the name, you're going to say Tana in a very enthusiastic voice.

OK. Here we go. After 2-- it needs to be really loud so that you are using your diaphragm. In fact, take your hands down a little bit and put them more on your waist so that you can feel that your diaphragm is working. Here we go, after 2, and 1, 2.

ALL: Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, shh.

LIZ SCOTT: Nice and loud. Really use these muscles.

ALL: Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, shh. Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh. Tana. Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, shh.

LIZ SCOTT: So musical.

[students laughing]

We're going to wake our diaphragms up. Put your hands on your waist. Check that there's muscle there, hopefully. Probably a bit of breakfast in there as well, somewhere or other. We're going to do 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas'. [shh-ing] Right. Lots and lots of diaphragm muscles. Here we go. 1 and a go.

ALL: [shh-ing]

LIZ SCOTT: Good. Do it again. I want it much louder. I want much more attack. It's a bit-- I'm hearing [lazy shh-ing]

That does nothing for my muscle.

[strong shh-ing]

It should feel like you're doing the equivalent of 20 sit-ups. If I was mean, I'd make you do 20 sit-ups instead, but I'm not that mean. Here we go. 1 and a go. Loud!

ALL: [shh-ing]

LIZ SCOTT: Good. Excellent. All right.

Let's do 'Jingle Bells' on 'shh.' So-- [shh-ing]

Right. So you got your hands on your waist. Make sure that you can feel your diaphragm muscle. Let's do it together. Super loud. After 2. And 1 and 2.

ALL: [shh-ing]

LIZ SCOTT: Louder.

ALL: [shh-ing]

LIZ SCOTT: You can do the hey.

ALL: [shh-ing]

Hey!

[shh-ing]

LIZ SCOTT: Good. Let's do it again. We've got this real--

[students laughing]

LIZ SCOTT: There's no hey at the end. We've got this real issue today of getting faster. Everything that we're doing is getting faster. And I want to stop that right now because if we go on stage and sing 'Gate Gate' and get faster, you know what's going to happen? We're going to fall over into a heap. So let's not do that. So let's do 'Jingle Bells' nice and steady. Don't-- whoever is making the silly noise, don't do that. Because it's not going to help your diaphragm at all. Sh, sh, sh. It's going to be an S-H sound. Here we go. So this is our tempo. [snapping the tempo] Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh. Don't get faster. 1, 2, breathe, go.

ALL: [shh-ing]

Hey!

[shh-ing]

LIZ SCOTT: Lovely.