Vocal Warm ups: Importance and a list of warm ups

The Hangout Archive
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Hey there!! Most of you might not know this, but I’m a vocalist. I sing in the concert choir at my school and I’m a member of our show choir. Through all of this, I’ve learned that warm ups are very important for a good vocal performance.

Why are vocal warm ups so important?

  1. Warming up works the muscles
    Your vocal chords are muscles and because we do a lot of talking during the day, they’re constantly being worked. By warming up, you’re giving those muscles a chance to relax and it reduces your risk of injury.
  2. It trains your voice
    A good vocal warm up will focus on things that are important to singing, like pitch, breathing, and diction. Warm ups are a way for singers to practice the technique that is needed for singing.
  3. Warming up helps preserve your voice
    Warming up is the simplest way to keep your voice healthy and make sure that you’ll be able to sing for years to come.
    (source: Grace Music School)

Good vocal warm ups

  1. Yawn-sigh technique
    This one is fairly simple. Yawn (take in air) with your mouth closed and then exhale through your nose. This helps relax your voice and improves your range.
  2. Humming warm ups
    Humming doesn’t put a lot of strain on your vocal chords, making it a great warm up. Put the tip of your tongue behind your bottom front teeth and hum up and down the major scale with your mouth closed.
  3. Lip/tongue trills
    Lip trills are fairly simple. The goal is to make a motorboat-esque sound by vibrating your lips while you blow air through your nose and mouth. Pitch can also be added. Tongue trills are when you curl your tongue and roll your r’s as you go through your range from low to high.
  4. Two octave pitch slide
    For this one, make an ‘eee’ or ‘ohh’ sound and gradually glide through the chromatic notes of a two-octave range, gliding up and down. This will transition from your chest voice to your head voice.
  5. Vocal sirens
    I love doing these. This exercise takes an ‘ooo’ sound and gradually goes from the lowest note in your range to the highest and back down, somewhat emulating the siren of an emergency vehicle. It’s continuous and covers the tones in between the notes.
    (source: School of Rock - click for the full list)

I hope these will help anyone who’s interested!

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@Caticorn do you always do vocal warm ups before you sing?

I’m not good at singing by any means and usually just starts to sing whenever I hear a song :musical_score:

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Yeah. Obviously I don’t warm up if I’m just signing along to songs on the radio, but when I’m at any sort of show or choir practice, or before a performance, I always warm up. I’m a top soprano, so I’d hurt my voice if I didn’t

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Ohhh :sparkles: I cant hit high nor low notes :joy:

But sounds reasonable to warmup for it :+1:t3:

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woah what’s your range—if you know it?

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My lowest note is somewhere around middle c/the b and a below it and my highest note is around a D6 (the d above the staff). My upper register is way stronger than my lower register.

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bruh–
that’s so high my God lmao

I can’t imagine being able to sing that high since I’m an alto

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My friend and I did this ‘test your range’ YouTube video thing after show choir practice, which is how I know the exact note.

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Wow, I didn’t know about these! I sing a lot, so this is a really helpful list to have, thank you :banana::sparkles:

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Impressive! I can get up to around an E on a good day…
I haven’t properly sung in ages :pleading_face:

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