The Vocal Warm-Up

Why do it?Just as it is important to warm up before physical activities such as running, swimming, or other forms of exercise, we need to prepare our bodies for the physical side of singing. Just like not properly stretching or preparing for exercise increases the chances of injury, not properly warming up before singing increases the chances of damaging or straining our voices. So, how do we physically warm up for singing?

There are three key components to warming up the body before singing: Stretching, Breathing, and Resonator and Articulator exercises.

StretchingHamstring StretchBriefly prepare the hips and legs to support good alignment and breathing. To stretch your hamstrings, it is important to keep your lower back straight and only fold as far as you comfortably can at the hip. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds, and then repeat with the other leg.

Ribcage and Back StretchThese stretches will allow you to gain an awareness of how the ribs, spine, and muscles all interact during breathing. Slightly bend your knees, extending both arms in front of you, while interlocking one hand with the other. Breathe in and out slowly three times. Now, keeping the legs bent, unlock your hands and put your arms behind you, again joining your hands. Breathe in and out slowly three times.

Shoulder Shrug and Shoulder Roll StretchIn a relaxed stance, with your feet shoulder-width apart and your knees soft, lift your shoulders up to your ears and release. Repeat 5 times. Then, roll your shoulders forward five times, and backwards five times.

Shoulder Shrug Shoulder Roll

Neck StretchStanding in a relaxed stance, very gently bring your right ear as close to your right shoulder as is comfortable. Slowly rotate your head, bringing your chin to your chest, and then slowly bring your left ear to your left shoulder. Raise your head back to centre. Repeat four times.

Jaw StretchOpen your jaw as widely as you comfortably can. Hold for 10 seconds, during which time you should gently massage your jaw. Repeat 3 times.

YawnMake yourself yawn! This is a great stretch for the soft palate and pharynx, and yawning also stretches out your eardrums.

Tongue StretchStick out your tongue. This helps to strengthen the genioglossus, the muscle that thrusts the tongue forward, and helps to stretch and release the hyoglossus, the muscle that retracts the tongue.

Breathing

StanceWhen singing, it is important to stand with a neutral posture. This increases relaxation and air flow. Below are some of the key components of a neutral posture:

Feet – flat on the floor, shoulder-width apart. Knees – relaxed/loose/slightly bent. Knees should never be locked! Hips – Firm and shoulder-with apart. Shoulders – back, down, and wide. This will help you to open up the chest and stomach,

increasing breathing ease. Spine – As straight as possible. Try to imagine the spine lengthening as you stand, as if there is a

tight string coming out of the top of your head being gently pulled up to the ceiling. Face – Soft and relaxed. Eyes should be wide.

Engaging the DiaphragmIt is important when singing to engage the diaphragm. This happens as a result of proper breathing. We want to shift our air away from our chest and shoulders. Below are some steps to help you engage your diaphragm:

1. Standing in a neutral posture, place both of your hands lightly on your stomach.2. Slowly inhale through your nose while gently contracting your abdominal muscles. The goal is to

direct the air into the lower part of your torso.3. Imagine that there is a tire or balloon in your midriff that you are trying to inflate. The goal is to

actually see your midriff filling with air.4. Now, as slowly as you comfortably can, deflate this imaginary tire, exhaling through the mouth

on a hiss sound, engaging the diaphragm and abdominal muscles to make the breath last for as long as you can.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4.6. Repeat step 3, but on the exhale, use your diaphragm and abdominal muscles to push the air

out as quickly and forcefully as you can. Repeat.

Chuckle BellyThis is a brief exercise that allows you to really warm up the diaphragm! Place your hands on your stomach, and inhale deeply through the nose. Use your diaphragm and abdominal muscles to repeatedly puff out little bursts of air on a “Ha!” sound.

Resonator and Articulator ExercisesResonatorsTo resonate means to have a lasting presence or effect, so the vocal resonators are the parts of our bodies that allow our voices to resonate, or to last. There are seven areas of the body that are considered vocal resonators:

1. The chest – not an effective resonator, as it is on the wrong side of the vocal folds.2. The trachea – this makes no significant contribution to resonation.3. The larynx – due to its small size, this is a resonator only for higher frequencies. Not under our

conscious control.4. The pharynx – the most important resonator, due to its size and position.5. The oral cavity – the second most effective resonator.6. The nasal cavity – the third most effective resonator.7. The sinuses – extremely important for voice modulation (changing the pitch, tone, or intensity)

So, how do we warm up our resonators? The most effective way is to gently massage them. Follow these simple instructions below:

1. Using the pads of your fingers, gently massage your neck and throat.2. Move your fingers to your face, gently massaging your cheeks and forehead.3. Gently rub the sides of your nose with the pads of your fingers. 4. Finally, close your eyes, and very gently massage your eyes.5. Repeat the above four steps while making a soft, buzzing sound.

ArticulatorsTo articulate means to pronounce precisely and clearly, or to enunciate. The articulators, then, are those parts of our body that allow us to do this, and include our tongue, teeth, lips, and soft and hard palate. Warming up our articulators requires us to use our voices and over-exaggerate our pronunciation of consonants and vowels. Follow the steps below to warm-up the articulators:

1. Begin by slowly forming each vowel sound in the following order, making sure to really exaggerate the pronunciation so that your face and throat muscles move with the sound: e, a, i, o, u. (NOTE: proper diaphragm breathing should be utilized!)

2. Now that our vowel sounds are warmed up, we should warm up our consonants. Begin with the soft consonants. Using the breathing technique from Chucklebelly (short puffs of air), form the following soft sounds:

Buh, buh, buhCeh, ceh, cehHuh, huh, huhJuh, juh, juhLuh, luh, luhMah, mah, mahNah, nah, nahRah, rah, rahSah, sah, sah,Vuh, vuh, vuhYah, yah, yahZeh, zeh, zeh

3. Now that our soft consonants are warmed up, use the same method to warm up our hard consonant sounds below:

Duh, duh, duhFuh, fuh, fuhGuh, guh, guhKuh, kuh, kuh,Pah, pah, pahTuh, tuh, tuhEx, ex, ex

4. Use each of the following in any order to practice the pronunciation of more difficult phrasings of consonant sounds (repeat at least three times, or until articulation is precise):

A proper cup of coffee in a proper copper coffee pot.

The tip of the tongue, the teeth, the lips.

Red leather, yellow leather.

Unique New York, New York’s Unique.

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? He’d chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Now that the articulators and resonators are warmed up, it’s time to begin singing!

Articulator Warm-Up with Singing

It’s time to add some music into our warm up! We’re going to revisit our vowel sounds, but this time, we’re going to enunciate each vowel on a note, starting at middle C (the musical note C which is in the middle of the piano keyboard), and going up by semitones (Also called a half step or half tone, this is the smallest interval between two notes). Repeat 8-12 times. This stage of the warm-up should be done with a piano, keyboard, or other instrument.

Now, pick three soft consonant sounds and three hard consonant sounds, and sing the C major scale for each.