Vocal Warmups

Put Your Best Voice Forward

It is important that you put your best voice forward. Remember that your voice is part of your appearance. Effective verbal communication depends not only on what you say, but also on how you sound.

When you speak, you make sound in your larynx (voice box) with your vocal folds. Your vocal folds are soft tissue folds that consist of muscle, ligament and mucous membrane.

Certainly, when you exercise, run or play sports, a healthy warm-up is a good way to prepare, improve your performance and prevent injury to yourself. The same holds true when you use your voice. A short vocal warm-up improves the quality of the sounds you make and helps prevent vocal injury, keeping you in good voice and making your voice production feel better. Many people use warm-ups everyday. You should use vocal warm-ups before vocally intensive activities like public speaking or singing, classroom teaching or exuberant social events.

There are many ways to warm up your voice, and listed below are several examples to get you started.

Warm-Up #1‍

Breath Relaxation: Releases tension often associated in the breathing mechanism that can interfere with effective voice production. Ordinarily, if there is tension when breathing, that tension radiates to the voice box muscles. Take a normal breath and then exhale. Make sure your shoulders and chest are low and relaxed. Repeat many times, making sure that your breaths are focused low in the abdomen and that there is not associated chest, neck or shoulder tension while breathing. You can place one hand on your abdomen to remind you to keep the focus low and away from the chest and shoulders. Hold an “s” sound like in “hiss” when you exhale.

Warm-Up #2‍

Jaw Release: Reduces tension in the mouth and jaw area during speaking and singing. Place the heels of each hand directly below the cheek bone. Pushing in and down from the cheeks to the jaw, massage the facial muscles. Allow your jaw to passively open as you move the hands down the face. Repeat several times.

Warm-Up #3‍

Lip Trills: Releases lip tension and connects breathing and speaking. Releases tension in the vocal folds. Place your lips loosely together, release the air in a steady stream to create a trill or raspberry sound. First try it on an “h” sounds. Then repeat on a “b” sound. Hold the sound steady and keep the air moving past the lips. Next try to repeat the b-trill gliding gently up and down the scales. Don’t push beyond what is comfortable at the top or bottom of the scale.

Warm-Up #4‍

Tongue Trill: Relaxes the tongue and engages breathing and voice. Place your tongue behind your upper teeth. Exhale and trill your tongue with a “r” sound. Hold the sound steady and keep the breath connected. Now try to vary the pitch up and down the scale while trilling. Again, don’t push beyond what is comfortable at the top or bottom of your scale.

Warm-Up #5‍

Two Octave Scales: Provides maximum stretch on the vocal folds. Start in a low pitch and gently glide up the scale on a “me” sound. Don’t push the top or bottom of your range but do try to increase the range gently each time you do the scales. Now reverse and glide down the scale from the top to the bottom on an “e” sound. You can try this on the “oo” sound also.

Warm-Up #6‍

Sirens/Kazoo Buzz: Improves the resonant focus of the sound and continues work with maximal stretch on the vocal folds. The mouth postures are easily made by pretending you are sucking in spaghetti with an inhalation. On exhalation make the “woo” sound. It will be a buzz-like sound. Hold the sound steady for 2-3 attempts. Now use the woo sound to go up and down the scales.

Warm-Up #7‍

Humming: Highlights anterior frontal vibrations in your lips, teeth and facial bones. Begin with lips gently closed with jaw released. Take an easy breath in and exhale while saying “hum”. Begin with the nasal sound “m” and gently glide from a high to a low pitch as if you were sighing. Don’t forget your vocal cool-down after extensive vocal use. Gently humming, feeling the focus of the sound on the lips is an excellent way to cool down the voice. You should hum gentle glides on the sound “m”, feeling a tickling vibration in the lip/nose area.

Warm-Up #8‍

Cool-down: Don’t forget your vocal cool-down after extensive vocal use. Gently humming, feeling the focus of the sound on the lips is an excellent way to cool down the voice. You should hum gentle glides on the sound “m”, feeling a tickling vibration in the lip/nose area.

© 2017 American Academy of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery