Warming up might seem like unnecessary and boring waste of time. However proper warm up can make or break your performance.
Most if not all professional singers warm up their voices, and so should you. There are some naturally born singers out there that can open their mouth and start singing just like that, but there are not that many.
Let’s look at why, what and how of vocal warm ups for singers. I’ll share my view on why it is important to warm up, and will give you some great warm up exercises that I picked up from various vocal coaches and which I do regularly.
Warm ups improve singing
Unless you are one of those naturally born singers (in which case you probably won’t be here reading this), you will definitely see the positive impact of warm ups on your singing voice.
Warm ups do take time some time, but they are well worth the effort. Don’t skip them, and plan for them. There were too many times when I couldn’t dedicate time to a proper warm up and I paid for it…
Singing is a physical activity, perhaps not like running, or playing tennis, but still it involves muscular effort. Warming up for sports seems to be a given, because it gets your body prepared for all the beating. When you are warming up blood flow to muscles increases, muscles stretch and relax. This loosens the body, and allows you to use full range of motion, which in turn maximizes your performance and reduces the chance of injuries.
But it is not just about getting your body warm and loose. To me warming up especially for singing, is about finding the right coordinations. This is something I need to do every time before I start to sing. And you need to do that too, unless you are naturally born singer of course.
During the warm up you get a chance to uncover the gaps in your singing voice and figure out what to work on during practice, or what to watch for while singing.
Many singers say that they have to rediscover their voice every single day, and that seems to be so true. I find that every day my voice feels different, so what worked yesterday, might not work today. I have to adjust and adopt my warm up routine accordingly.
How long should you warm up
There is no hard and fast rule to how long to warm up. I’d say it all really depends on your voice.
Some say you should warm up for at least 40-60 minutes. That’s a long time.
In my experience, if done carefully and with full concentration you might not need more than 15-30 minutes. It really depends on the time of the day and also on the condition of your voice. It might take longer to get your voice going in the morning.
Also if your voice is stubborn like mine, you might want to aim for at least 30 minutes. Sometimes it might take even longer, so be prepared for that.
I find that there are days when I can just wing it, but then I find that it takes about 20-30 minutes into the singing session to get my voice to start opening up, and those first 20-30 minutes are not much fun at all.
How to warm up for singing
I find that attitude plays huge role in warming up. I used to take my warm ups too seriously and treated them as practice. I would even get hoarse during my warm ups… not good.
Warm ups are not singing. They should be easy and playful. Vocal warmup are also not the same as singing practice, although the line gets blurred depending on the day and condition of your voice.
With that in view let’s get into a good warm up routine. Again, like anything with the voice it is very individual. So give it a try, and adopt what works for you.
1. Full body warm up
Singing is a full body activity, so it is best to start with warming up the whole body.
Feel free to skip this part if you already went for a run, or exercised not long before your singing warm up session.
I like to start my warm ups with some aerobic exercises, especially if I haven’t been moving much prior to that (desk job). 3-5 minutes of jumping jacks, running in place, or bodyweight squats is all you might need. Do something to get your blood going. Just don’t over do it. Keep the intensity low-moderate, just enough to keep your breath elevated.
Some light stretching is great too, especially to loosen the face, neck and shoulder muscles.
This is good time to be goofy: jump around a bit, dance, shake your limbs, make faces…
In general, the more limp and loose your body feel the better off you will be during your vocal warm up and singing session.
2. Breathing Exercises (optional)
If you have hard time connecting to your breath this might also be a good time for breathing exercises.
I personally don’t find much benefit in breathing exercises, especially if I’ve already done due diligence in warming up my body. I tend to do some breathing exercises during the warm up just to shake off any tension and unlock the breath.
3. Vocal warm up exercises
Now when the body is warm and loose, I like to switch to vocalizing.
I like to start with really light and easy exercises in falsetto, and gradually progress to add weight and fullness to the voice. My voice is naturally heavy, so I find that top-down approach to warming up and exercising my voice works best for me. Once top registers are there it is much easier to find and keep balance in the full voice.
Don’t rush and move to harder exercises or songs too quickly… this does require discipline. It is so tempting to get to actual singing… but is is well worth taking the time to warm up properly.
Couple things to remember as you are vocalizing:
- Don’t judge your sound (but keep a close pulse on how you feel)
- Start light, and add weight and substance to your sound gradually
- Don’t push
- Don’t make the sound happen, but rather let it happen
Remember that the main point is to start engaging the right muscles and make sure that wrong ones don’t interfere. For me warming up is mostly about finding the support, resonance, placement, the right balance.
Exercise 1: Falsetto slides (sirens)
Falsetto slides on Oo is an exercise I learned from Berton Coffin. I typically start higher up in my range, just above the passaggio area. I’d start on very light Oo just above the break area (F#4) and slide two octave down. Sometimes I’d transition into Ah, and sometimes I’d stay with Oo. I’d take it up one note at a time to about C5.
As a variation I’d also do the same exercise but going down and then coming back up.
Exercise 2: Falsetto scale exercises
Another great falsetto exercise is a top-down octave scale (8-5-3-1). It was given to me by coach Daniel. A very similar exercise is presented by Berton Coffin in The Overtones of Bel Canto and Seth Riggs in Singing for the Stars.
I would typically start it on Oo and Ee around the same F4 area, and move up one note at a time as far as I can go. I find that I can go up to E5, and occasionally to F5-G5.
This is a falsetto exercise, so it is important to keep it light. You also have to stay in falsetto all the way down the scale. It feels weird at first, and it is tempting to make it sound fuller than it wants to be. It will feel quieter as you descend to your chest voice range, and that is how it has to be done.
Exercise 3: Lip trills
Semi-occluded exercises like lip trills are great for warm ups. Almost every singer out there does them.
I don’t always do them, and sometimes choose to go straight to open mouth hums (another semi-occluded exercise).
I typically start lip trills with an octave or Rossini scale. I find shorter scales harder to do, because I have a tendency to carry the weight of the voice up. So I save shorter scales for later.
I’d start around C3 and go up as high as comfortable.
Another scale that works well for lip trills is a top-down octave scale (8-5-3-1). I’d start it around D4 and move up to about F5. This one is especially good for warming up the mixed voice.
Exercise 4: Open mouth hum
Lip trills are a great exercise, but I often find it is hard to tell what is going on under the trill. So I often skip lip trills and do open mouth hum instead.
Open mouth hum is another genius exercise from Berton Coffin’s books. It is a bit tricky to do, but it truly works wonders! I wrote a detailed article about open mouth humming, check it out if you’d like to learn more.
In short, you sing a vowel with the hand covering open mouth. This simple action assists with equalizing the back pressure in the throat and makes it easier to keep the vocal cords engaged correctly. It also takes the dead weight off the voice right in that tricky middle part of the voice (the passaggio area).
I like to do it Uh (as in fun) on a top-down octave scale (8-5-3-1) starting on D4. Coffin suggests to use a fast moving repeat pattern like so:
8-5-3-8-5-3-8-5-3-1
do-sol-mi-do-sol-mi-do-sol-mi-do
I don’t go up on this one too high (typically to A4 or so).
Exercise 5: Open vowels
Open mouth hum leads nicely to warming up on open vowels. Actually a variation of the open mouth hum starts with the hand over mouth. Once resonance is found you can remove the hand. If done correctly the result should be a nice open vowel.
I’d do same top-down octave repeating pattern as before, but would only use the hand for the first note.
I’d then proceed to do the same exercise without using the hand at all.
For a change, I also like doing open vowels on an octave scale or Rossini scale. Once I feel comfortable with those, I’d progress to 5 tone scales:
1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1
do-re-mi-fa-sol-fa-mi-re-do
This is a simple pattern but these scales are hard to do, especially in the middle of the range (C4-G4). You really have to manage the weight of the voice well on this one, otherwise you will end up yelling on top notes, and it won’t feel good.
While you can get away with poor technique on longer scales, there is no way to cheat on the 5-note exercises. If your technique is off you will know it immediately, so for me this scale becomes a great check. If I can do them well, I know that my voice is ready for anything.
Exercise 6: Warming up with songs
Finally, I like to use songs in warm ups. I wouldn’t sing the song all the way, but I tend to have several go to songs (actually just certain lines) that work as a tester for my singing voice. Those are the lines I tend to have most trouble with, so if I can’t get them right, I know I have more work to do.
At this point I would either go back to some of the exercises that I’ve done before, but would do them on the notes that I have trouble with. Depending on what the problem is I’ll use lip trills, open vowels, or something else (more on that a bit later). I’d then gradually substitute these sounds for the actual lyrics of the song.
If I have no real trouble with the line in the original key, I might move the key up a bit to give the voice an extra stretch.
Because I came to singing with lots of bad habits, I like to be very careful with using songs for warm up. If I jump to songs too quickly old habits seem to kick in and my progress stalls. Again, this might not apply to you, but if you do have troubles with developing your voice, keep that in mind.
Additional thoughts on vocal warm ups
I hope these exercises gave you some ideas that you can use and apply to your own warm ups.
Remember, take it slowly and master proper technique for each exercise. Poor technique on warm ups will inevitably lead to bad technique during practice and singing. Warm up is the time to adjust and align and make sure everything falls in place.
My warm up rarely goes smoothly. As I start using my voice, I find gaps that need to be closed. Some are reoccurring issues, and some come up just for a given day. If that happens I have to inject certain remedial exercises into the warm up.
For example, if I feel my cord closure is weak, I’d spend more time on SLS type of exercises like Gug, No, Mum or Nay…
If my breath is locked up, I’d do something like Ha Ha exercise.
And in most cases taking a short break does works the best!
It is a good idea to keep some warm water or tea with you (I love Throat Coat) and sip on it during the warm up.
Try to avoid coffee and sugar, and anything that might dry your mouth. Each one of us responds to different foods differently, so experiment and see what works and what doesn’t work for you.
For me, green tea doesn’t work too well as it seems to leave my mouth dry. Also dairy doesn’t work at all as there seems to be a lot of mucous because of it.
Best vocal warm ups app
At times when I really get bored from the same warm ups, I’d use an awesome app called Warm Me Up.
It is a collection of 50 awesome warm up exercises for different voice types that covers range, agility and diction.
You can set how much time you have and the app will generate a warm up for you. It includes demonstrations for each exercise and sing along scales. It is really cool.
Some exercises are a bit hard to follow, but in general it is great and fun way to try something different.
Warm up routines of famous singers
As a bonus take a look at these clips of famous singers talking about their warm up routines.
Lucas Meachem is a working opera singer. He is a baritone (I find his voice is fairly similar to mine). He is one of the few professional singers who openly shares his vocal routine and tips online.
Danielle de Niese is also a professional opera singer. Listen to her talk about how warming up is different from singing!
And finally Celine Dion. She still has a coach, and she does the same boring stuff we all have to do!
You might not be into opera or Celine Dion (I am not), but I find these are excellent example to learn from.
Did you find any of these warm up ideas and exercises interesting and inspiring? What do your warm ups look like? Let me know in the comments!
