Lip trills also known as lip bubbles and lip rolls are a staple exercise in most singers warm up and practice routines. You look silly doing them, but they really work!
Lip trills sound like a motor boat running. Also depending on how wet your lips get you might want to keep some distance between you and things (or people) directly in front of you.
But pros of lip trills outweigh the cons.
It is hard to find a singer out there who doesn’t practice lip trills. You can see Celine Dion demonstrating them on the national TV. You can easily find clips of famous singers doing lip trills on Youtube.
Lucas Meacham, a working opera singer, likes to say “lip trills are life”. Here is what he writes about lip trills on his blog:
To me, lip trills are the most important exercise of any day. I start every singing day of my life with at least two good rounds of lip trills. They kick-start your vocal engine: your breath. And it’s true that you can’t do a proper lip trill without a proper amount of support. As soon as the lip trill goes away, it means that your support is inconsistent.
– Lucas Meacham on The Baritone Blog
One of the main points of lip trills is to keep the vocal cords engaged as you move through the vocal range and have the seamless connected sound. If you can’t have that on lip trills forget about it in real singing. So lip trill become a great warm up but also a great workout for extending the range.
Why do lip trills?
To truly understand the benefit of lip trills we need to understand how singing works. Singing is a complicated process. To keep it simple, good singing comes down to managing pressure above and below the vocal folds.
When you start singing, air is released form the lungs and reaches the vocal cords. Vocal cords start to vibrate and pressure builds up under the cords. Ideally, there is also pressure on the other side of the cords, just enough to keep the vocal cords vibrating freely.
To complicate things more this balance of pressure changes depending on where in your range you are singing, and also depending on the vowel you are singing.
When we do lip rolls our lips are working in a way similar to vocal cords. Because our mouth is closed the pressure inside builds up more easily. Thus it is easier to achieve the right balance of air. This becomes critical for singing in the higher parts of your range.
Because during lip trills the mouth is mostly closed lip trills are called semi-occluded phonation.
So in short, lip trills equalize pressure above and below the vocal folds by providing additional point of resistance for air, making it easier for vocal cords to stay connected as you move higher up in your vocal range.
Think of them as assisted pull-ups. Not something you would want to boast about, but an exercise, something to help you get stronger.
How to do lip trills properly
To get the most out of lip trills it is important to do them properly. Pay attention to all parts of the voice production mechanism: breath, vocal cord vibration and resonant space.
1. Relax
It is super important to stay relaxed. If you are not relaxed your lips might not move at all. It is a good idea to try some lip rolls even without much sound first. They will sound weak and very airy. That is not how you want to do it long-term, but it is a good way to make sure your face and lips are relaxed.
2. Brrr
To get lip rolls started say “Brrr”, kind of like a motor boat starting. Repeat several times. Then see if you can keep it going.
To keep it going you need to blow air. Just enough to produce a motor boat sound.
Seth Riggs teaches his students to hold up the weight of the cheeks to minimize the amount of air needed to move the lips. Some vocal coaches see it as a crutch, but I find it really helps. Just make sure to stay relaxed and don’t press your cheeks in too hard.
If you don’t blow enough air lips won’t be moving. If you blow too much they will be always blown apart. Also if you use too much air your outer muscles might start engaging to keep the sound going, so this exercise will become counterproductive.
The key to lip trills is to find good balance of air and voice. Experiment to find this right balance.
You will know when your lips are bubbling, and you feel no tension anywhere. Watch for that as tension might start creeping in as you continue higher in the range. Stop and take a short break before continuing.
Make sure you do Brrr and not Prrr… B is a voiced consonant that will help you get just the right amount of voice in your lip roll.
3. Cord Closure
Now to get the most out of the lip trills you need to get those vocal cords closing. That really means that you will be using your full voice, and not airy and weak falsetto…
Full voice doesn’t mean it will be blasting loud, but it means your vocal cords are engaged fully. Which in turn means there will be more pressure to handle.
Think about it for a moment. If your vocal cords are not closing all the way, the air will be leaking through. There won’t be a lot of pressure to handle, but the sound will be airy and weak. That is not a good vocal production, and also a fairly useless set up if you want to develop a stronger voice.
4. Keep lower larynx
To help with keeping vocal cords closed and connected in higher we have to keep our larynx low. That is why lip trills are done with a “dopey” sound on Uh vowel. That is the sound of a lower larynx. Don’t force it down. Think more of the vowel Uh, and not so much of where your larynx is.
To get a bit more technical, we want the larynx low (or neutral) because that position allows for the intrinsic muscles in the larynx to do their job properly (to allow for tilting and thinning of the cords). When larynx is raised the muscles that manipulate the vocal cords are not free to do their job thus outer muscles come to the rescue, and that’s when straining comes in.
5. Maintain the resonant space
Under the lip trills is the dopey Uh sound (think, Brrruh). You should start with it, and maintain the same resonant space as you move up in your vocal range.
Resonant space will be created not just by lower larynx, but also by somewhat lowered (relaxed) jaw. Make sure the jaw doesn’t tighten on you at any point in time.
Also make sure the sound is not in the back (swallowed). It should be in the front of your face. You might feel resonance on your lips. Again, experiment with it to find the right balance. The right sound will be tension free and fairly loud.
Speaking of volume. If you do it correctly it will sound fairly loud. Don’t try and make it quieter unless you really have to. Keeping it quiet will require more control and might be harder to handle.
On the other hand don’t try to make it louder. Just make sure that your vocal cords are closing well and you have a good balance of air and voice.
Lip trill exercise ideas
Here are some exercises ideas you can use lip trills on. Start with simple exercises and slowly move to more complex ones.
Single note exercises
It is a good idea to start lip trills on a single note. Start on any note that is in your comfortable singing range. See if you can execute the note freely. Repeat several times.
Next you can either move to the next note, or see if you can hold the note longer. You can also try and do messa di voce with lip bubbles:
Keep in mind that messa di voce is an advanced exercise, so don’t be frustrated if you can’t do it. One way to approach it is to start doing it in a limited dynamic range: get a bit quieter and a bit louder. Then gradually increase the dynamic range until you can go all the way from very quiet to loud and back.
Sirens
Another way to start warming up the voice with lip trills is by doing top-down sirens. Simply pick a note that is high in your range and slide down all the way down. This is a great way to loosen up the voice for practice and singing.
Good thing about it is that you don’t even need a pitch reference. Just pick any random notes in high in your range, and have fun.
For this to work well the note should be high in your head voice. Make sure you are not reaching to it, but also make sure your vocal cords and engaging and there is a good amount of voice in your lip trill, and it is not all air.
Scales
Scales and arpeggios is a staple in any singers warm up and practice regimen. You can do lip trills on any scale you like.
Octave (1-3-5-8-5-3-1) and Rossini scales work best.
These scales work well because of the roundtrip motion. It helps not to think of the top note as you destination point, but rather think of coming back to your starting note.
Warming up with the same scales might get boring quickly. One simple way to spice up the routine is to double or pair the scales by lip trilling 2 scales in a row.
Additional tips for lip trills
We covered a lot of ground with the main article, but here are few additional tips to make the most of your lip trills:
Lick lips occasionally to moisten them. Some recommend using lip balm to keep lips from drying out. I personally don’t like using lip balm at all, but if you do, give it a try.
Do not get louder as you go higher. This might be something to watch for especially in the beginning. Again, not thinking of the top note as destination, but rather thinking of your starting note as a destination should help.
Hold the skin of the chicks if you have to. This was you will have to move less weight and thus use less air.
Don’t push and force notes. Let notes happen. If you find you have to push to hit the notes, it might be that your cords are closing too tight, or your lips are stiff. Stop. Take a short break. Relax. Try again.
If you are struggling with lip trills it’s not the end of the world. Try other semi-occluded exercises, and see if they work for you better.
