Warm-ups
Warm-ups are an important part of maintaining vocal health. There are all kinds of good reasons to make them count, regardless if you have 5 or 20 minutes available. Besides from getting the body and voice itself ready, the warm-ups strengthen your concentration and brings you into the present moment.
If you are the director or member of a choir or vocal group, a warm-up program consisting of fun and engaging exercises can help unite the singers’ focus in a mutual musical conscience; a conscience that preferably becomes the foundation of the entire rehearsal.
10 easy vocal warm-ups that will get you ready to perform
THE BODY
Exercise 1: Start stretch
Stretch your entire body thoroughly, like after a good night’s sleep. Grab one wrist with the opposite hand and stretch the arm high over your head, then switch arms. Make big and small grimaces and stretch out the tongue.
Exercise 2: Grounding
Pretend like you are skiing, flexing your knees and arms in a continuous motion. Every time the “ski poles” hit the ground, bend your knees extra and exhale through the mouth. Breathe in when you lift the “ski poles” from the ground again. Start the exercise slowly (uphill) and accelerate slowly. The exercise is over when the tempo is too high for you to catch up.
BREATHING & BREATH SUPPORT
Exercise 3: Breathing through a straw
Bit your mouth as if you were drinking from a straw or bite your lower lip to create resistance. Suck in air through this imaginary straw and feel support muscles working. Place your hands on your sides by the diaphragm and feel how the air intake causes your hands to be pushed out. (For a bigger effect, try sucking in air through your fist.)
Exercise 4: Short and long
Do this exercise using different tempos. Sustain the last syllable until you run out of air. Then let go of your support muscles, relax the belly, and your lungs will automatically fill up with air.
Exercise 5: Yah-yah double canon
Sing this exercises with momentum and using different vowels. Also try singing on “brrr”. You can either sing rubato or with a steady tempo. Imagine that the descending fifth is actually ascending – it strengthens the intonation.
WAKING UP THE VOICE
Exercise 6: Rollercoaster
Sing glissandos on syllables like “boo,” “veeh,” “hmm,” and “yah.” Also stick out your tongue and do glissandos with no particular vowel. Remember to support each breath and open your throat!
Exercise 7: Waking up in minor
Sing legato and phrase the exercise as if it were a “real” song. Tie each phrase together with just one initial attack, or stress each note. If you like, transpose up in half-steps.
RANGE
Exercise 8: The fifth and the octave
Exercises A and B can be done separately or combined. If you combine them, do the same vowel all the way. Perhaps change to different consonants and vowels. It is not necessary to accompany the exercise – the chords are indicative. Transpose up in half-steps.
Exercise 9: Pop craziness - higher range
Sing the phrases in a “pop style” with many glissandos/scoops between the notes. You can leave out the accompaniment if you want, but it helps create a nice atmosphere. Transpose up in half-steps.
SING A SONG
Exercise 10: It is important that a warm-up program also contains “real music” and not just constructed exercises. There are many songs familiar to the most of us that are especially suitable for this purpose, and you can pick one that you enjoy. Here are a couple of our favorites …
For solo warm-ups: Scarborough Fair
Sing the melody on “ah,” “eeh,” “ooh,” or “oh,” (or add consonants: “yah,” “veeh,” “coo,” and “moh”) and perhaps eventually with the actual lyrics of the song (by heart). Sing effortlessly and with momentum. Be sure to support the voice extra, open up on the high notes, and intonate accurately without doing scoops or glissandos. Breathe only a few times during the songs so that you engage the support muscles. Sing with both accompaniment and without, and perhaps transpose up or down.
For group warm-ups: Baby baby!
Sing with a brassy and powerful timbre/sound. If you are warming up with others, perhaps begin with singing in unison. Articulate and emphasize the words – especially the vowels in “baby”. Transpose up in half-steps (keeping the brassy sound in the high range).