Vocal Exercises
Be warmed up by the time you are ready to work by using these exercises. Perfect when you’re pressed for time or on your way to an audition or appointment.
Learn more about these helpful exercises below.
Vocal Warmup: Put Your Best Voice Forward
Any professional will tell you that it is important to be warmed up by the time you are ready to work. It is important not to waste anyone’s time. Remember time is money. The exercises below, are simple enough so that you can do most of them in your car on the way to your audition or appointment. In addition, they are wonderful for non-singers/voice over artists.
The most important thing is to pay attention to what you are doing. Remember each of these exercises serves a purpose. Be clear on what that purpose is as intention is the key to a wonderful warm-up. You want your voice to feel loose, open, and ready. By the time you get to your destination, you should feel ready to do what is asked of you.
I have provided some simple exercises below:
15 minute Exercise
This is a wonderful warm-up , when you are pressed for time.
- Yawn while saying dumb
- Flutter lips
- Wag tongue while sticking it out
- Stick Tongue in and out while saying AAAA
- Sniff then hum up and down a scale , keep repeating
- Light and bright Humming – up and down throughout your range – keep repeating
- Stick tongue all the way out to bottom of chin and say AAA – do this several times
- Baby cry (get this all the way into your nasal passages)
- Hooting like and owl in the middle of your range
- Siren sound with lips closed
- Pull your tongue with tissue – up, down and to each side. (You are trying to get rid of the tension in the back of your tongue)
- Hello How Are You – in chest voice not in your throat. At the bottom of your range.
- Uh Huh in chest voice several times. Do it slowly
- Open head (light head voice) with the syllable “who.” Descending a five not scale
30 minute Exercise
- Bend over touch toes so that the gravity pulls on your cheeks, lips.
- Let your back stretch into the hang
- Come slowly up
- Lean head to the left stretching the neck (drop right shoulder to increase the stretch)
- Do the same on the right
- Do the same stretching the head forward
- Now tilt the head back
- Flutter lips
- Wag tongue
- Stick tongue out saying long A
- Tilt head back and stick tongue in and out saying Ah
- Baby cry in the nasal passages
- Sniff and count to five (Do this five or six times)
- NG in the back of the throat . (Think of Kermit the Frog. Say ming and feel the ng – next time leave the “mi” off. Slide up and down scales while NG is engaged.
- Yawn while saying dumb
- Bright humming
- Slowly trace back of the teeth with tongue in each direction
- Do the same tracing the front of the teeth
- Do the same with the outside of the lips
- Do the same with the tongue sticking out
- Pull tongue up, down and to each side. Do this with tissue.
- Say AW with the back of the tongue down several times
- Siren sound with mouth closed
- Hoot in the middle of your range
- Cooing to open up head register. Light and open sound like a dove
- Vowel alignment – knee ah I oh u . Say this as if you were meditating. All in one tone of the voice. Direct it towards the cheekbones.
- Sigh pulling air through.
- Work on counting while sticking out diaphram, keeping it out. Do this in increments of five until you get to 20. Remember the diaphragm cannot collapse.
- Quiet “mask” hum on the way to gig