Warming up your voice before singing can be highly beneficial to:
- Prevent Vocal Strain: Gently prepares your voice for singing, reducing the risk of strain or injury.
- Improve Vocal Range and Flexibility: Gradually expands your vocal range and helps you navigate smoothly through different registers.
- Enhance Vocal Clarity and Tone: Focuses on producing a clear, non-breathy, unconstricted tone, improving the resonance and overall quality of your voice.
- Boost Vocal Stamina: Prepares your voice for extended use, helping to reduce vocal fatigue.
- Promote Mental Focus: Helps you transition into a performance-ready mindset, enhancing concentration.
- Connect Voice and Body: Many warm-up exercises integrate voice and body, which protects your voice and increases stamina.
Need I say more?
It only needs to take 5-7 minutes typically. Don’t over do it!
Below I’ve included some common warm up exercises. A thorough vocal warm-up typically includes a variety of exercises to engage the breath, release tension, and prepare the voice for performance.
Popular Vocal Warm-Up Exercises
Connecting with the breath:
Lie on your back with one hand placed on your abdomen. As you inhale, feel the expansion of your belly. Exhale on a “shh” sound. Notice how the abdominal muscles gently contract. This is the very basis of the movement we feel when we sing.
Co-ordinating Voice and Breath:
Stand upright with your hand on your navel. Produce a sustained “vvv” sound, gently revving it like a motorboat. This exercise engages your abdominal muscles and helps you develop breath support while vocalising.
Physical Stretches:
Releasing bodily tension is crucial for optimal vocal performance. Tension in the neck, shoulders, or torso can affect the voice. Try the following gentle stretches:
- Neck Stretch: Tilt your head to the side, allowing your ear to move towards your shoulder. Let go in this position for 30 seconds, feeling the stretch along the opposite side of your neck. Repeat on the other side, keeping the movement gentle.
- Shoulder Rolls: Slowly roll your shoulders backwards in a circular motion for 30 seconds to release tension in the upper body. Then, reverse the direction and roll your shoulders forwards for another 30 seconds.
- Torso Stretch: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Gently fold forward at the hips, allowing your arms and head to hang towards the floor. Take a few deep breaths in this relaxed position, then slowly roll back up to standing, vertebra by vertebra.
SOVT (Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract) Exercises
SOVT exercises are an essential tool for warming up the voice, reducing strain on the vocal folds, and promoting efficient vocal fold vibration. They work by partially closing off the vocal tract, which creates back pressure that supports the vocal folds. Below are several key SOVT exercises:
- Bubbles: Press your lips together gently and blow air through them to produce a vibrating “brrr” sound, like a motorboat. Now add pitch. Glide smoothly up and down your vocal range while maintaining consistent airflow. This is excellent for warming up the voice without strain.
- Raspberries: Similar to bubbles, but with your tongue resting out on your bottom lip. This playful gesture creates a spluttering sound and helps relax the mouth, throat, and facial muscles. Raspberries are a fun, effective way to promote breath control and smooth vocal fold vibration.
- Tongue Trills: Roll your tongue by vibrating it against the roof of your mouth to produce a “rrrr” sound. Glide through different pitches in your vocal range, keeping the sound steady. Tongue trills help to engage the breath and vocal folds while promoting vocal agility.
- Straw Phonation: Vocalise through a straw submerged in water. The gentle resistance created by the bubbles helps regulate airflow, improves vocal fold efficiency and breath control. I have more information on this exercise here.
- Humming: With your lips closed, hum gently on a comfortable pitch. Focus on feeling the vibrations in your lips, nose, and face. Glide up and down your range, paying attention to resonance and airflow.
- “Ng” Sound (Nasals): Vocalise using the “ng” sound as found at the end of the word “sing.” This promotes resonance and smooth vocal fold vibration, helping with forward placement and enhancing tone quality. Perform sirens by gliding up and down your vocal range on the “ng” sound. This exercise stretches the vocal folds and allows you to explore your full vocal range in a relaxed, controlled manner.
These exercises are particularly effective for vocal warm-ups, rehabilitation, and general vocal improvement. They promote healthy vocal fold vibration, reduce tension, and balance airflow.
Regular Vocal Check-Ins
Even on days when you don’t plan to sing, regularly checking in with your voice can be beneficial. Simple siren and straw exercises can help maintain a healthy connection to your voice.
Additional Warm-Up Techniques
- Resonance based exercises: You may wish to add in additional resonance based exercises if you have time. Things like ‘The Alien’, which helps you find the most resonant vocal tract shape for improved vocal ease, consistency, projection, and tonal quality. I can show you this exercise to help you achieve a powerful, clear, and less strained voice.
- Scale-Based Exercises: Gradually progress to singing scales within a comfortable range. Practise all the vowel sounds. Make sure of lots of different scales and modes to ensure you don’t get bored! E.g. Major, minor (natural, harmonic, and melodic minor scales), pentatonics, Blues, Experiment with modes like Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian to enrich your understanding of musical scales. Each mode has a unique sound and character, offering diverse opportunities for vocal exploration.
- Waking Up the Articulators: Use tongue twisters or repetitive phrases to exercise your articulators (lips, tongue, and jaw). This helps improve clarity and precision in your singing.
Such as: “Red lorry, yellow lorry.” “She sells seashells by the seashore.” “Unique New York, unique New York.” “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” Repeat this phrase multiple times, gradually increasing speed. Focus on enunciating each word clearly. This one challenges your tongue’s agility; practice it slowly before attempting to speed up. - Messa di voce: a great exercise for controlling dynamics and working breath support.
At a comfortable pitch sustaining a note on the sound ‘air’. Begin singing the note at a very soft volume. Ensure that your pitch is steady and the tone is clear. Slowly increase the volume of your voice from soft to loud (forte) over a few seconds. As you do this, focus on maintaining even breath control, steady pitch, and a smooth transition in volume. Once you’ve reached the loudest point, hold the note briefly, ensuring the sound remains stable and supported. Then slowly reduce the volume from loud back to soft, mirroring the crescendo, again maintaining control over your breath, tone, and pitch. Return to the initial soft volume, making sure the sound fades smoothly without cutting off abruptly.
Mix it up
I recommend that my clients warm up with a mix of lighter, thinner tones and progress gradually to thicker, fuller sounds, including mixed and “calling” voice. This approach encourages balanced vocal development and flexibility, ensuring the voice remains versatile and healthy.
My Beautiful Clients
Expressive Voice clients are invited to upload their warm ups and daily voice improvisations and share these with me via our shared client portal.
Vocal Cool Downs
The vocal cool downs mirror the early warm-up exerises. Incorporating lower larynx sounds can also be beneficial in relaxing the voice, especially if much of your singing has been high in pitch.
A Tailored Approach to Vocal Exercises
Regular vocal warm-ups and cool-downs under the guidance of a professional vocal coach or singing teacher, are essential for maintaining vocal health and enhancing your singing abilities. Each exercise is designed to support and develop your unique voice, ensuring long-term vocal health and enjoyment.
If you’d like guidance from an experienced vocal coach on warming up safely and building a healthy, expressive voice, you’re welcome to reach out — I’d love to support your journey.
