Category: Singing and Vocals

The Best Vocal Warm-Ups and Exercises For Singers

No matter your level of singing ability, it’s always wise to warm up and exercise your vocal cords before performing – either live or for a good ole’ vocal studio session. Doing so will strengthen that awesome voice of yours, improve breath control, and reduce the chance for injury to your vox cords!

Vocal warm-ups and exercises are simple to do, and they can help your voice sound and perform its best. Professional singers use these techniques to keep their voices healthy and ready to sing at their highest level consistently.

Vocal Warm-Up 1 – Breathing Exercises

Breathing exercises are an excellent way to warm up your vocal cords and help expand the range of your voice. Furthermore, they can improve breath control – something many singers struggle with.

In addition to breathing, it’s also important to stretch and relax your body prior to recording a big song or performance. This will enable your vocal cords to become more relaxed before the big day and also make it easier for you to regulate your breathing throughout the piece.

For example, try this simple breathing exercise called spinal cord breathing: Inhale from your base of tailbone up towards your crown of head. Repeat this three times. For an even greater challenge, try breathing exercises called “speed bumps.” This involves heavy bursts of air instead of small, separated puffs – it may feel like running over speed bumps in a car!

This exercise is an effective way to warm up both the upper and lower registers of your voice, as well as connect them. You can do this in various ways, including unvoiced or voiced, and it also serves to practice pentascales or arpeggios.

Hum with your lips closed around a straw to focus all of your attention on taking deep breaths. This helps keep the body and face still as you exhale, improving breath support and expanding lung capacity.

Another useful vocal warm-up exercise is the tongue trill. This may be difficult for some singers, so start by trying it unvoiced or using a lower pitch. Gradually increase your pitch as you progress, gradually expanding your range.

Vocal Warm-Up Exercise 2: Straw Phonation

Straw phonation is an excellent vocal warm-up for singers, as it helps to release tension in the voice and realign its box. Furthermore, it improves vocal tone and vibrato.

It’s one of the semi-occluded vocal tract exercises (SOVT exercises). Through exercises like lip trills, tongue trills, cup bubbles and straw phonation the lips are closed around a narrow tube to create semi-occlusion – or partial closure of the mouth.

When air or sound comes up from your lungs, some of it may reflect off of the lips and then return toward your vocal folds, creating “back pressure.” This helps the vocal folds align in a more balanced position and can help them coordinate around transition points in your voice.

A study published in the Journal of Voice found that straw phonation improved voice self-assessment and reduced jitter and shimmer associated with vowels (e, i, o, u). They also discovered it made vocalization easier.

Straw phonation can also enhance your breath power, particularly between 2000 and 4000 Hz. The back pressure from breathing makes a noticeable difference in how loud and piercing your voice sounds.

Straw phonation can be used in your vocal warm-ups, cool-downs or even between songs during a performance – it’s an effective way to bring balance and maintain long-term vocal health wherever life takes you! Give it a try today – you’ll be amazed at how quickly it helps! Plus, it’s so simple to incorporate into your routine!

Vocal Warm-Up Exercise #3 – Lip Buzz

Emily Hastings has an eclectic taste in music, with favorites including Metallica, Guns n’ Roses and Black Label Society. But her favorite band has to be Pink Floyd; she has covers of their songs on her YouTube channel as well as occasional acoustic gigs at local coffee shops.
Lip buzzing is an effective vocal warm-up for singers to improve breath control and develop the diaphragm. It also helps them develop coordination of lips and facial muscles. Many professional singers utilize this technique, such as Celine Dion and Tori Kelly.

Start by humming a simple tune in intervals, starting from the low end of your range and working up towards higher notes. Additionally, you can hum minor pentascales, arpeggios and octaves to expand your range and become comfortable with pitch changes.

To make this exercise effective, it is essential to achieve the optimal balance between air pressure and lip resistance. If there is too much air pressure, your lips won’t vibrate; on the other hand, if there isn’t enough, they may buzz sporadically.

It is essential to keep your mouth open when performing this exercise so that the lips can produce a steady sound. Without doing so, your lips may slur and vibrate randomly.

The lip buzz can be an effective way to warm up your voice before beginning a trumpet practice session. It is simple and takes minimal time.

Another key advantage of vocal warming up is that it creates negative air pressure to your vocal folds, known as “back pressure”, which helps protect them from strain. This is essential in increasing vocal range and keeping the voice healthy.

This vocal exercise can be done from home or while taking a shower. It’s especially useful for singers who need to warm up and relax their voice before performing or attending studio sessions. For best results, practice this vocal warm-up at least 10 – 20 minutes daily.

Vocal Warm-Up Exercise #4: The Siren

The Siren Exercise is an effective way to expand your vocal range and strengthen its cords. It also trains you how to smoothly transition from note to note without cracking your voice. Furthermore, this technique will strengthen facial muscles so that you can hold more air pressure with less effort.

For this exercise, start by making an “ooh” sound and gradually increase your voice until you can comfortably reach the highest note without taking a breath break. Repeat this process several times until your range is seamless between notes without straining your vocal chords.

Siren exercises are recommended, as they help unify your vocal range and condition it to hit any problematic notes with ease. This is especially beneficial for singers with difficulty reaching high notes since it teaches them how to work equally across all notes in their range. It’s also an excellent ear training tool, as you can sing this as a solfege – useful for sight-reading and recognizing any scale’s pitch. While mastering it takes some effort and practice, the rewards will be immense in the end! Another advantage of the Siren Exercise is that it helps strengthen your diaphragm. During this vocal warm-up, breathe in deeply through your nose and then exhale slowly through your mouth. This will strengthen and improve breath control – essential for singing well.

Vocal Warm-Up #5: The Sighing Exercise

Singers can use a variety of exercises to warm up their voice. These range from stretching the vocal cords and increasing stamina, to prepping breath support for high notes and developing proper breathing techniques.

One of the best vocal warm-ups for beginners is the sighing exercise, which is simple to perform and has a relaxing effect on the body. Studies have demonstrated that this exercise can reduce anxiety levels, enhance moods, activate parasympathetic nervous system to relax you physically.

Before beginning this exercise, take a deep breath through your nose and exhale with your mouth open in an exhaling sigh-like motion. Doing so helps relieve tension and stress in the throat, jaw, and soft palate before singing.

You can use this technique to loosen up your throat and facial muscles before your next vocal lesson or performance. You may also practice it before going to bed in order to alleviate a sore throat and clenched jaw at night.

Another effective way to relax your vocal cords is by sipping hot tea with honey. This will increase blood flow to the larynx and warm up your chest voice so you can sing with more power and precision. In addition to humming, you can also use yawns and sighs as vocal warm-ups to help expand your range. These relaxed movements will build air support and resonance so you can hit higher notes with a smooth, balanced tone.

Maintaining the health of your voice is a top priority for singers, so it’s essential to avoid certain foods and drinks that could irritate vocal cords. Dairy products like ice cream and milk are particularly detrimental; dairy tends to produce more mucus than other foods and can clog airways with phlegm when you have a cold or cough.