Vocal Warmups

There are countless books with exercises that are good for warming up the voice. Some of these books even give examples of sets of exercises to do, but they don’t go into much more detail than that. It can be helpful to see a sequence not only in terms of the exercises themselves but also in terms of the range used. In this post I’ll detail my personal sequence and how I modify it for my private voice students and choirs I work with. First let’s talk a few general rules that are good for all warmup scenarios.

1. Have a set of favorite exercises to come back to, but find enough that you can vary them. I’ve worked with people who have done the same series every single time and with people who try to do something different every warmup. I find the former leads to complacency because it’s very easy to go on autopilot. This isn’t good for paying attention to technique; which should be one of the goals for warmups. The latter is way too stressful for me and doesn’t give opportunity to see progress that happens when using the same groups of warmups.
2. Always try to allow time for the warmup. I try to dedicate the first ten minutes of practice/lesson/rehearsal time to the warmup. I’ll extend that if I know it’s going to be a strenuous period. It’s necessary physically but I also find it helps to mentally prepare the singers by putting them in a rehearsal frame of mind. There are situations where it can be tempting to skip a warmup in the interest of time, like a public school classroom in the days leading up to a performance. Always do some sort of warmup, even if it’s singing through an easy part of the repertoire.
3. Multiple method books say to take problems from the literature and create warmups out of them. It’s a great thing to do, but don’t stress out about doing it all the time. It can be a great way to sneak an issue in and work it, but it doesn’t always work the way you think it will. Sometimes I’ve done this and it’s been great, others it’s been a mess that simply wasted time. There’s also something to be said for using the warmup period purely as a time to work vocal technique, which is especially good for singers/directors/teachers who don’t have a lot of time to dedicate purely to that purpose.
4. There are tons of books out there with really good exercises in them, but you can just make them up on the spot. They don’t have to be complicated. If you look at those books you’ll see that so many of the exercises are variations on a few different patterns with different syllables. By mixing and matching these note and syllable patterns you can improvise your own warmups on the fly. I literally had a choir do a pattern of descending fifths on “umm” once because I forgot which exercise I was thinking of and found myself muttering “umm.” So I turned it into a warmup.

The warmup sequence I use has a standard order that I modify to fit each situation:

1. Physical Warmup
2. Breath Exercise
3. Four exercises with maximum range of a fifth (Ascend, descend, ascend about a whole step higher, descend a whole step lower).
4. Ascending exercise of at least an octave range
5. Falsetto exercise.
6. Sirens or slides.

Now I will go through how I modify this sequence for my personal warmup, my voice students, and my choral rehearsals.

When I warmup for my own practice sessions I’m much looser than I am for other situations, because I don’t have to explain the process to anyone else. This gives me a wider range of freedom, especially with the syllables/words/vowels I use. I can, and often do, change vowel or syllable on every iteration of a warmup, because I don’t have to prompt anyone else.

When I warm up on my own I don’t always use the piano. Most of the time I will just start wherever feels good and warmup to the top and bottom on my range. I usually begin around a B-flat 3. I am a baritone with a rather wide range, so I go pretty far on the first warmup, usually to around G4.

Figure 1

Then I’ll start myself around D4 and descend to around G2.

Figure 2

Back up a whole step or so and ascend again, going around a whole step higher than I went on the first warmup.

Figure 3

I’ll start around a fourth lower than that and descend as low as I can go, usually between D2 and F2 depending on the day and time.

Figure 4

Then back up around a third and I’ll do a final ascending exercise with at least an octave range to the top of my full voice, usually around B4.

Figure 5

It should be noted now that those notes are the extremes of my range and are not very pretty. I always tell my students that you want around three half steps on either end of the range that you can hit but that you shouldn’t sing in repertoire. After that I will do one or two exercises to work my falsetto range. This is something I usually try to do in any situation where I work with male singers.

Figure 6

Then depending on how I am feeling I may do some slides and sirens, usually to bring my voice back down after working the falsetto.

When I work with my voice students I usually follow that same basic format, but I will use the warmup time to work aspects of technique more intensely than I do working on my own or with choirs. This means I adapt my lesson warmups much more than other scenarios, tailoring to the specific student for each specific lesson.

With younger students, usually below high school age, I will keep everything in a much smaller range. I will still do breathing exercises but will often start out with a simpler vocal exercise. This sometimes applies to older, less experienced singers too, especially if they are nervous. I usually start these students around D4 and take them up somewhere between A4 and D5, depending on how they sound/feel.

Figure 7

If the smaller exercise goes well I’ll expand to the distance of a fifth. I rarely do an octave exercise with these students until their range is wide enough to comfortably do it in at least three different keys.

With my more experienced singers I usually follow a format similar to my own warmup. This is where you really have to know the student, because the matters of range and technical work will change depending on their age and level of experience. The following is a sequence I would use with an intermediate student to work space and resonance of the vocal cavity.

I prefer to use a piano during voice lessons. This doesn’t mean that every exercise should be done in exact parallel with the student, or they can become dependent upon it, but I will usually play at least a chord to provide harmonic support.

Working with choirs can be the most challenging because of the potential for wide levels of experience within the choir. For this section I’ll show the same set of exercises and give the ranges I would use working with two high school choirs, beginning men and advanced mixed, the ranges I would use with my former church choir, consisting mostly of singers over the age of 50, and the range I would use with the local community choir, which has a huge variety of experience levels and ages.

I almost always use the piano for choral warmups, but it isn’t at all necessary. I know directors who rarely use it for warmups, or simply use it to provide pitches. Use whatever works best for you and whatever choir you’re working with.

I always begin my choral rehearsals with a physical warmup. I will sometimes start with group shoulder massages, but this can make some members uncomfortable, so I don’t always do so. Every other aspect of my physical warmup is the same, and this is the only time I deviate from my policy of not doing the same set of exercises every rehearsal.

1. Stretch upward. Interlock the fingers and tilt slightly to one side and then the other to stretch out the side muscles.
2. Stretch forward and then down to the toes. Hang loosely for a few breaths and then slowly roll up. Sometimes I will say “as you roll up bring yourself into a rehearsal state of mind.” I find that can be effective to focus some groups.
3. Shoulder rolls – backward and forward.
4. Shoulder squeezes – up, back, and forward. Hold tight for a few seconds and then release. The shoulders are such a common place for people to store tension that this stretch is really helpful, especially for long concerts/rehearsals with singers holding music.
5. Shake out the arms and legs.

Figure 13

Figure 14

Figure 15

Figure 16

Figure 17

Figure 18

Figure 19

I don’t do the thirds exercise with the beginning group or the church choir, because it can be tricky for the less experienced singers. For the community choir I trust that most of them can do it and count on the ones that have a harder time being able to rely on the other singers for a while. I wouldn’t usually do a falsetto exercise with the church choir because they didn’t all have a good understanding of that particular register. I could have taken the time to give them that, but it wasn’t a priority for that choir

No two voices are the same, which means that no two warmups will be exactly the same. We should be adaptable to the situations we find ourselves in. The most important thing to do with warmups is to know who you’re working with, and how to most effectively use that period of practice, lesson, or rehearsal time to benefit the singer(s).

Notes

The printed warmups are taken from a variety of warmup books I’ve used over the years, or stolen from various choral directors or voice teachers I’ve worked with. Many of them have been modified and used by me so much that I cannot give credit where it is due, however much I may want to, with the following exceptions:

The physical warmup sequence is a slight modification of that used by Dr. Charissa Chiaravalloti, Director of Choral Activities, Fort Lewis College.

Figure 4 – Dr. Charissa Chiaravalloti

Figures 5, 6, 18 – Virginia Nickels-Hircock, Director of Choral Activities, Piedra Vista High School

Figures 9, 12 – (Boytim, 2003)

Figure 11 – Veronica Turner, Adjunct Voice Instructor, Casper College

Figure 16 – (Lamb, 1983)

Figure 17 – Linda Mack Berven, Professor Emerita, Fort Lewis College

Bibliography

Lamb, G. H. (1983). Choral Techniques (Second ed.). Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown.

Boytim, J. F. (2003). The Private Voice Studio Handbook: A Practical Guide to All Aspects of Teaching. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Hal Leonard Corporation.