How to Do a Proper Warmup

Benvenuto, everyone!

The voice is a delicate thing. It’s very important to warm it up properly, especially when the body is undergoing any kind of hormone modification. Here I will detail a basic list of easy warmups that will get you or your student ready to sing in a safe and effective way.

1. Stretch!

Before you stretch your voice, you have to stretch your body and loosen your muscles. Stretch up, stretch down and side to side. Pull your arms across your body and pull them lightly with the other hand. Roll the head around to the left and the right- never back- and roll the shoulders forward and back. Once you have stretched enough to feel loose, get in the proper posture to start the singing portion of your warmup.

2. Start singing with a single note

I usually have my singers start by simply singing a sustained A, something get their minds started and geared toward the subject and technique without clouding their minds with complicated exercises. For choirs, singing a single note together can unify the voices. It’s an exercise in listening, tuning, and grounding.

3. Use scales to stretch the range further

Start by singling half scales up and down and ascending each time by a half step. Do this to the highest point in the comfortable range. Do the same thing with a descending five note scale, descending by half step each time until you reach your lowest comfortable note. This will get you comfortable in all ranges before you start singing repertoire.

4. Sing a percussive syllable like “ha” to engage the muscles

The warmup I usually do is a simple 1-3-5-3-1 triad on “ha” to engage the breath. Ascend by a half note each time to the upper range, taking care to give each syllable a good punch of power. This, as stated previously, engages the muscles involved in breath support and power behind the voice. It also gears your mind toward breathing and controlled movement through notes. 

5. Lip trills and sirens can save the voice

Lip trills are a fantastic way to engage the voice and stretch the vocal cords. If you are particularly tired, dehydrated, stressed, or otherwise vocally compromised, lip trills are a great way to stretch the vocal folds safely. A variation of this is singing sirens through a thin straw. Doing this makes it physically impossible to injure the vocal folds, and it makes for a relaxing kind of “cool down” after a harsher, more percussive exercise.

6. End your warmup with something technical

To apply all the techniques you touched on in the previous warmup, a great way to wrap things up is with a quick technical exercise. This can be anything from singing through a musical tongue twister to singing a short song or nursery rhyme. It prepares you for repertoire work in an easier and more familiar way.

Warmups are so important for all singers. I hope this quick guide helps you warm up safely and well. Keep singing, everyone!

Cantare.