Our Ten Favourite Warm-up Techniques

Warming up your voice muscles is just as important as any other muscle in your body before you put it to work. Every pro-singer knows that a great performance hinges on how good the warm-up is!

Here are our ten favourite warm-up techniques that will help get your voice ready for your best performance every single time.

Make sure to spend at least 10-20 minutes to warm up before you sing to give yourself the stamina and power you need.

1. Yawn

You’re not getting ready for bed, but yawning is a great way to get relaxed and ready your voice for a good range of notes. Just make sure to do it the right way. Open your mouth as wide as you can to take in as much air as possible, and then sigh it all out through your nose.

2. Hum

Again, there is a specific way to hum for your warm-up. The ‘h’ sound is one of the gentlest on your voice box, which is why it’s such a great one to ease you into your session. Place the tip of your tongue on the back of your teeth and work your way up and down your scales, making each note sound like an ‘h’.

3. Emergency Sirens

This time, take your ‘ooo’ sound and start it at the bottom of your vocal range, gliding smoothly to the top of your range and back down again. Make sure to hit every note on the way up and the way down.

4. Pitch Glide

This is a lovely, easy technique to use. Pick your favourite two octaves and make an ‘ooo’ sound or an ‘eee’ sound as you work your way up and down them. This helps you to warm up both your chest voice and your head voice.

5. Straw Prop

This warm-up requires a straw, which makes it a bit more fun! Start by humming from the bottom of your range to the top through the straw. Then go back down again. Then, you can play around with humming your favourite songs through the straw.

6. Jaw hang

Drop your jaw as low as you comfortably can. Make sure you are not just tilting your chin – you want to be able to feel that your jaw is wide open by finding the bone by your ear and feeling it drop with your fingers. Now sing like that. This is a great one for loosening up your jaw so you can better project your voice.

7. Portamento

While other vocal exercises have you singing every note in your range, this technique focuses on just the two ends of the scale or certain notes within it. You should then sing these notes as smoothly as if they were one note, with no jolts or gaps in between. But avoid the in-between notes; they are not included in this technique.

8. Trilling

This technique requires you to roll your ‘r’s as you work your way through your vocal range. Some people find this easy, while others need a bit more practice. Rolling your ‘r’s requires you to curl your tongue as you sing. If you find this difficult to get the hang of, keep practising. The warm-up pay-off is worth the investment.

9. Buzz

A similar technique is the lip buzz. This replicates the trill but uses your lips instead of your tongue. As you breathe air through your mouth and nose, make your lips vibrate. This is a great way to loosen up your lips. Why not try going through your scales at the same time?

10. The Sound of Music

Or solfege, as professionals know it. Do-re-mi-lo-so-fa-ti-do. Singing these scales really helps you to recognise notes by ear. You can do it with an accompaniment instrument to make sure you hit the right notes, or if you’re confident, acapella.

As vocal coaches, we are well-versed in a number of warm-up techniques and can recognise the ones you would benefit from the most.

Every class starts with a warm-up, but we actually recommend you do these techniques daily to make them a habit and protect your voice.

Ready to book a singing class or one-on-one lesson with us? We’d love to have you. Get in touch now – it might be the best thing you ever do for your voice!