Vocal How to Warm up your Voice

Body Tactics
Keep good posture. In order to have the best air flow and therefore the best sound, you need to have
good posture. This goes for when you're both sitting and standing. Imagine a line at the top of your
head, through your back, holding you up.
If youre standing, keep your feet flat on the floor, shoulder width apart. Balance equally on both legs.
Keep your head up and shoulders back. Every part of your body should be in the same line.
If youre sitting, follow the same recommendations you would for standing, but also keep your back off
the chair sitting toward the edge of your seat.
Breathe deep. Most people have a bad habit of only using the top of their lungs. Doing this though
doesn't employ the diaphragm and doesn't let you use your full power.
If you are tense at all while breathing, it will resound in the muscles of your vocal folds. Breathe
normally, but be conscious of keeping your shoulders low and your chest relaxed. Concentrate on
breathing lower staying loose throughout your core. If you need to, place a hand on your stomach to
remind yourself that that's the part that should be moving up and down -- not your chest and shoulders.
Hold an "s" sound (like a hiss) when you exhale to control the amount of air that you can expel.

Release your jaw. Any tension at all will keep you from your best sound. Your jaw is the instrument your
voice comes out of -- you have to take care of it, too.
Massage your checks with the heel of each hand. Push in and down right below your cheekbone and
rotate in a clockwise motion. Your jaw should open without you even thinking about it and be forced to
relax. Do this several times.

Drink warm liquids. Ice cold water will just clam up your vocal folds, very literally. It's also best to avoid
caffeine and nicotine, too. All these things constrict your throat and keep you from sounding your best.

Warm teas or room temperature water are your best bets. You definitely want your vocal cords to stay
lubed up, but you don't want to freeze or scorch them! If you do choose tea, make sure it's not scalding
hot.

Before You Sing

Do scales. You wouldn't run 5 miles out of the gate, so don't expect your voice box to be able to go up
and down 3 octaves either. Doing scales slowly warms up your voice, extending it to its top and bottom
ranges. And it's pretty easy to do, even alone.

If you are breathing right and holding yourself correctly, it'll be easier to hit those notes in your high
register. Be patient, though, and work gradually. You'll actually hurt your voice if you start off too low or
too high, forcing it to do things it really doesn't want to do.
Work on lip and tongue trills. Another common method to warming up apart from scales are trills. They
relax the lip and tongue, engage breathing, and eliminate tension.

For lip trills, simply create a raspberry sound by loosely placing your lips together. Experiment with
different consonant sounds, like "h" and "b." Go slowly up and down your range, but don't do anything
that's uncomfortable or hard to maintain.
For tongue trills, think of the Spanish "r." Place your tongue behind your upper teeth and exhale
strongly. Hold the sound and air steady, varying the pitch while trilling. Again, dont do anything your
voice doesn't want you to do. You'll know.

Add in sirens and kazoos. Some of the more fun warm ups are sirens and kazoos. When you do your
siren (which should start low and go high), use your arm and toss it in a circular motion, going up and
down with the pitch.

Kazoos focus of the sound and stretch the vocal folds in a healthy, controlled way. Just pretend like
you're sucking in spaghetti -- it's as simple as that. On an exhale, make the woo sound; it'll come out
like a buzz. Holding the sound steady, go up and down to the extremities of your range. Do this several
times.

Hum. Humming actually helps cool a voice down, too, which is an oft-forgotten, though important,
technique. It warms up your voice without straining your voice like singing can.

Release your jaw and relax your shoulders. Inhale normally and exhale on a "hum." Go from high to low,
like a sighing half-siren. If you feel a tickling around your nose and lips, good job.

Scales

The Major Scale is made up of 8 notes, with 7 basic notes and the 8th note being a repeat of the 1st
note, but in a higher octave. In solfege notation, the major scale looks like this:
1 (Doh) 2 (Re) 3 (Mi) 4 (Fa) 5 (Sol) 6 (La) 7 (Ti) 1 (High Doh)



Now, Minor Scales are also made up of 8 notes, just like Major Scales, but when we notate the solfege
for these scales, we usually begin with a 6 (La) note instead of a 1 (Doh) note for major scales. Here is
the solfege for a Natural Minor Progression:
6 (Low La) 7 (Low Ti) 1 (Doh) 2 (Re) 3 (Mi) 4 (Fa) 5 (Sol) 6 (La)



Arpeggios are extremely useful vocal exercises for singers, as they train our pitching ability as well as
our ability to sing musical intervals, and also to make pitch jumps when we sing. They are also a great
scale to sing for those who wish to train their pitch and listening ability.

Arpeggiatic Progressions are actually created by using selected chord notes from the various major and
minor scales, to create these arpeggiatic scales in Major and Minor Keys respectively.

The 1st 3 notes of these arpeggiatic scales are usually made up of a Major 3rd and a Perfect 5th interval
for Major keys, and a Minor 3rd and Perfect 5th Interval for Minor Keys.

Here is what a Major Arpeggiatic progression looks like in solfege notation:
1 (Doh), 3 (Mi), 5 (Sol), 1 (High Doh)
Here is what a Minor Arpeggiatic progression would look like in solfege notation (if we were to write it
in such a way as to avoid writing sharps or flats):
6 (Low la), 1 (Doh), 3 (Mi), 6 (La)



A Humable Vocal Warm-Up
Always kick off a practice session by warming up your voice for 10 to 20 minutes. Select a vocal exercise
that starts in the part of your voice thats easy to sing. Sing the warm-up exercise softly at first and then
gradually increase your volume.
Heres an exercise you can use to get your voice warmed up and ready to practice. It starts lower in your
voice and gradually moves up the scale. The exercise lists the word hum because humming(singing a
note with your teeth open and your lips closed) is a great way to warm up the voice. Feel free to use this
exercise and move higher or lower in your range to help warm up your entire voice.
Even if you dont read music, you can use this exercise as a warm-up because the pattern in the figure
sounds like the first three notes of the chorus in Do-Re-Mi, the song the children sing with Maria
in The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Using the song as a guide, think of
the notes in the pattern as using the syllables do-re-mi-re-do.

How to Develop Breath Control with the Help of a Familiar Song
Singers work on breath control controlling the flow of air as they sing so they can manage singing
short and long phrases in songs. Practice controlling your breathing by first singing shorter phrases and
then gradually working your way up to longer phrases.
An easy way to work on breath control is to sing through a familiar song, such as Amazing Grace, while
focusing on controlling your breath. Use the following figure to remind yourself of the melody and the
lyrics of Amazing Grace and then follow the steps to work on breath control.

1. Sing through the two lines in the figure, paying attention to where you take a breath.
Most likely, you sing the words Amazing grace and then take a breath before singing the words how
sweet the sound.
2. Sing the two lines again and pay attention to how you move your body when you inhale
before and after the phrase Amazing grace.
When you inhale, you want your ribs, sides, abdominal muscles, and back to expand. As you sing, you
want those same muscles that just expanded on the inhalation to gradually move back to their normal
resting position. Allowing the muscles to collapse too quickly moves the air out too quickly and doesnt
leave you with enough breath to sing the whole phrase.
3. Sing Amazing grace! How sweet the sound before you take a breath.
You may need several tries before you can comfortably make it through all these words on one breath,
and you may need to practice for several days before you can sing the first two lines in one
breath. Remember: You dont want your body to be tight or to push to continue singing. If you feel your
body tighten as you try a longer phrase, take a breath and try the phrase again.

A Vocal Resonance Exercise
When you sing, your voice echoes, creating vibrations throughout your head and chest. This echoing of
tone is called resonance. Knowing how to change the resonance of your singing voice allows you to
make a variety of sounds as you sing. Use the following steps and the accompanying figure to help you
practice controlling your vocal resonance:
1. Sing the first measure in the figure, sustaining the sound of the mmm as if you were humming
and then moving into the ee vowel.
Notice the buzzing or vibrating sensation you feel on your lips. This vibrating sensation is from the
vibrations of resonance of your singing voice. The ee vowel in this measure is the vowel sound in the
word me. As you sing from the mmm to the ee, try to keep the vibrations happening in the same place.
You may need to practice singing this measure a few times to keep the vibrations in the same place. The
apostrophes above the figure are breath marks, indicating when you should take a breath.
2. Try singing the second measure, which moves from mmm to ah.
The ah vowel is the sound in the first syllable of the word father. As you sing from the mmm to
theah, try to keep the vibrations in the same place (around your lips). You may feel the vibrations on
the ah in the back of your mouth compared to the front of your mouth, which is likely where you felt
them in Step 1 on the ee vowel.
Tip: Record yourself singing through the first and second measures and then listen to the resonance. Pay
attention to the change of resonance you hear from the mmm to the vowels.
3. Practice singing the third measure by starting right on the ee vowel and moving to
the ah vowel.
Notice whether you can find the same kind of vibrations of resonance that you found when you moved
from the mmm to the vowels in Steps 1 and 2.

Exercises for vocal health
1. Glides Through a Straw

Blow air through a small stirring straw while phonating glides up and down through your range. The
backpressure created by the resistance of the straw presses down on the vocal cords and helps decrease
puffiness, a major source of vocal trouble.

2. Lip Trills

This is a variation of the straw exercise. Gently blow air through closed lips, keeping them relaxed, and
sing an uh vowel underneath. Your lips should start to trill. The resistance of the bubbling lips helps
maintain cord closure, an important element of good singing.

3. Creaky Doors

This is a great exercise to help build the coordination needed to maintain proper cord closure. Make a
little edgy sound, like a creaky door or a rusty gate opening. Do a scale on this sound using very little air.
The idea is to not let the sound get breathy or squeezed.

4. Ngs

Make the ng sound from the word hung. This sound is produced with the tongue and soft palate
together. This again provides backpressure, while also making the transition between the lower and
upper registers (chest voice and head voice) easier.

5. Nasty Nays

This is done using the word nay on a bratty or Wicked Witchtype sound. This exercise also assists in
cord closure, while the exaggerated sound makes it easier to ascend into the upper register without
cracking or flipping.

6. Hooty Gees

This is the opposite of the previous exercise, and it's quite useful for a singer experiencing excess
tension. Using a dopey cartoon voice (think Yogi Bear), say the word gee. You should feel your larynx
drop. The g consonant should also help with cord closure due to the backpressure it creates, so you can
experience accessing the upper register with a stable larynx and closed cords. This coordination is
extremely important in good, healthy singing. Once this exercise is comfortable, you can drop the dopey
imposition and sing on a more natural sound.

7. Coo Coos

This exercise is great for working the upper register. The coo can be made to sound hooty, like an owl,
for extra ease in working high notes.

8. Aahs

This is very useful for singers who are weak or breathy in their lower register. The sound is on
theaah of cat and can be exaggerated by sticking the tongue out slightly. Do this in your lower register in
a five-tone scale (12345 to 54321 of the major scale). Use very little air, as you don't want any
breathiness in the sound.

9. Googs and Mums

These are best used once the voice is experiencing proper cord closure and ease of production. The
word goog (the vowel sounds like the oo in good) has both a hard consonant for cord closure and a
vowel that will help stabilize the larynx. Be sure to maintain the vowel in the upper register, as vowel
widening (gaag) can cause tension. The vowel and consonant of mum provide a bit less help than goog,
making this a slightly more advanced exercise.

10. Ooh-Oh-Uh-Ahs

Going from a more closed or narrow vowel to a wider one on a sustain is a great way to balance
resonance. The more closed vowel will help you get into your upper register. Gradually open to the
wider vowel while keeping the resonance in the same place. If the tone gets shouty or strained, go back
to the narrow vowel to get the voice balanced again.