Voice Warm Exercises: A 10-minute routine
Ten minutes that change how your voice sounds: from body to scale, starting soft and in your comfortable area with adjustments for when you have little time.
A good vocal warming takes about 10 minutes and goes from general to specific: release of body, activate breathing, vibrate lips, slide the voice into sirens and sing short scales at the comfortable area before you get close to the end of the register. The golden rule is to start soft and at the centre of your voice.
The routine will be useful for any kind of voice and level. If you are starting, do so as soon as and with time, your teacher will suit your voice and what you are singing.
To sum up
- Warm from general to specific: body, breathing, lips, sirens and scales.
- Semi-occluded tract exercises, such as lips vibration or singing with a pyllo, activate their voices with little effort.
- It starts with your mean and moderate volume record, and the sharp and volume reach the end.
- Ten minutes are enough for a regular practice. If you have only five, do lips and sirens and a scale.
- If a note hurts or scrape, it isn't part of the warming: low or stop intensity.
Why warm up your voice before you sing
The voice depends on muscles and tissues that work with great precision: vocal folds, larynx musculature, breathing and resonators. Just as a sportsman doesn't start running at full speed, while singing it's best to activate that co-ordination progressively. A well-done warming allows you to sing with less effort, better tuning from the first song and notice in time if the voice's tiring.
It's also a time to focus: you leave the tranny, school or office behind and focus on listening to your sound.
The 10 minutes at a glance routine
| Minuto | Bloque | Main financial year |
|---|---|---|
| 0–2 | Cuerpo | Moulds, necks, mandrels and yawns |
| 2–3 | Breast | Inhalate at 4 and exhalate at sss at 8 |
| 3–5 | Vibration | Loaves or tongue vibrates in notes and minutes |
| 5–7 | Sirens and MRI | Retiring at "u" or "ng" and humming at "m" |
| 7–9 | Stairs and pits | Five notes and an octave, rising by semitones |
| 9–10 | Articulation | Trabalingas and first sentence of your song |
Step by step: how to do every exercise
1. Body (2 minutes)
Do slow circle with his shoulders back, tilt his head to his or her sides without forcing and massage his or his jaw muscles with his or her yolks, before his or her ears. He or she ends up with a broad stezo that ends up with a sharp to serious sound sigh: relax his or her throat and prepare you for what follows.
2. Respiration (1 minute)
Three series of inhaling at 4 times and releasing air into a pair "s" for 8 with his shoulders still and his low ribs open. If you want to get deeper, you have a complete routine in our [breathing exercises to sing]](/blog/ejercicios-de-respiracion-para-cantar).
3. Vibration of lips or tongue (2 minutes)
With loose lips, blow them to vibrate as a "brr" while production sound at a comfortable note. Then make a scale of five notes up and down (do-re-ma-fa-sol-fa-ma-re-do). If the lips do not vibrate, they support the indexes at the cheeks with the curfew to loosen them. Also useful alternatives: vibrate the tongue at "rr" or sing through a picket. These exercises reduce the efforts of the vocal folds while they get into heat.
4. Sirens and MRI (2 minutes)
He moves his voice from serious to sharp and back as a soft siren, at "u" or "ng." He starts with short sirens and sees them amplify without forcing the ends. If a break appears, nothing happens: repeat it softer. He then sings with his mouth closed at "m," with his vibration at his lips and his nose.
5. Stairs and Arpegtiums (2 minutes)
He sings the five note scale with syllables as "mi-me-ma-mo-mu" and then an octave (do-mi-sol-do-sol-mi-do) at "a." Following each repetition, half a tone goes up with the help of a piano, keyboard or an application. When you notice that you start to tighten, stop and come down again with semitones up to the starting point.
6. Articulation (1 minute)
Say and then write a note with a trabalingas as "three sad tigers swallowed wheat at a tridal," or repeat "pa-ta-ka" more and more quickly. Closes gently singing the first sentence of the song that you will work with.
How to adapt the routine to your day
| Status | Ajuste |
|---|---|
| You're singing early in the morning. | Expand body blocks, vibration and sirens, and the voice is usually more rigid at awaken. |
| You have only 5 minutes | Vibration of lips, sirens and a scale of five notes. |
| Before a test or a presentation | Full rutin and a soft review of the difficult passages without singing the whole work at full volume. |
| That's how bad you have been talking about them. | Cleaner and shorter with more humming and less volume. |
| Cold and dry day, as many in Bogotá | Take water throughout the day and give a few more minutes to your lips vibration. |
After singing, a minute's cooling helps: soft descending sirens and humming in your serious comfortable area. The habits of the rest of the day, as moisturizing and resting the voice, you find them in our guide to [care for the voice]](/blog/como-cuidar-la-voz-guia-para-cantantes).
Common mistakes while warming up the voice
- To start with the sharp or the most picky song.
- Warm up at full volume, believing that his voice will "open up" faster.
- Do the drill with an automatic pilot, without listening to how every exercise sounds.
- Skip his body and his breathing, and they hold up everything else.
- Carraspate to clear your throat and you better swallow saliva or have a sip of water.
- Loan up the warming till tiring the voice before you start singing.
If you don't know what your range is, do our [voice type test]](/herramientas/tipo-de-voz) after warming. At [singing]](/clases/canto)The teacher adapts this routine to your kind of voice and to your repertoire and hears details that are difficult to notice by itself. If you're just about to start, we'll tell you how they are [first singing classes]](/blog/primeras-clases-de-canto-que-esperar).
Frequently asked questions
How long should a vocal warming last?
For a regular practice, between 5 and 15 minutes is enough. The important thing is that it's progressive. If you heat up too much time or too strong, you can get tired to the part where you're really gonna sing.
Can I have a silent voice, for instance at the bus?
Partly. The humming in "m" and low volume vibration of lips can be done almost anywhere and body and breathing exercises make no noise. Even so, before singing at least a scale with full voice should be made.
Is warming equal to all voices?
The structure serves everyone: body, breathing, vibration, sirens and scales. What changes is the starting note and how far you go up and down. It always starts at the area where you speak conveniently and let your teacher help you define your range.
Do you serve this warming to speak public or teach?
A few minutes of breathing, vibration and humming are available before the day begins.