A ten-minute vocal warm-up for beginners

Why warm up

The muscles and tissues that make your voice work better after some gentle use, much like the rest of your body before exercise. A warm-up also settles your breathing and tunes your ears to pitch. Singers who skip it often find the first song feels stiff, with high notes that crack or strain. Ten easy minutes avoids most of that.

The ten-minute routine

1. Body, 1 minute. Roll your shoulders, stretch your neck gently to each side, and rub the hinge of your jaw with your fingertips. Let your jaw hang loose for a moment.
2. Breath, 1 minute. Take three or four low breaths, each followed by a long, even hiss, as in the breathing guide.
3. Humming, 2 minutes. Hum on "mm" at a comfortable pitch, lips closed and teeth slightly apart. Slide gently up a little and back down. You should feel a buzz around your lips and nose.
4. Lip trills or a straw, 2 minutes. Blow air through loosely closed lips so they flutter, then add voice and slide up and down. If lip trills are hard, hum through a drinking straw instead.
5. Sirens, 1 minute. On "ng", the sound at the end of "sing", or on "oo", slide smoothly from low to high and back like a siren. Go only as high as feels easy.
6. Five-note scales, 2 minutes. Sing do, re, mi, fa, so, fa, mi, re, do on "mah" or "nee". Start in the middle of your voice and move the starting note up one half step at a time, then come back down.
7. A song phrase, 1 minute. Sing a line from the song you plan to practice, softly at first, then at your normal volume.

Keep everything at a soft or medium volume. A warm-up is a gentle start, so save the test of your top notes for later, if at all.

Why straws, trills and humming help

Humming, lip trills and singing through a straw all partly close the mouth or lips. Voice scientists call these semi-occluded vocal tract exercises. The partial closure creates a little back pressure that helps the vocal folds vibrate with less effort, which is why many voice teachers and speech-language pathologists use them both to warm up healthy voices and to help tired ones recover.

A thin drinking straw gives more resistance than a wide one. Some singers put the far end of the straw in a cup of water and blow gentle bubbles while they hum, which makes the airflow easy to see.

Adjust for the day

• Early morning: voices are usually lower and stiffer after sleep, so give the warm-up a few extra minutes.
• After a lot of talking: keep everything softer and shorter, and plan a lighter practice.
• With a cold or sore throat: hum gently or rest. Don't push through soreness. See vocal health.
• Before a performance: warm up within an hour or so of singing, then keep your voice ready with a little quiet humming.

Cool down after singing

After a long practice or a show, spend a minute or two on gentle hums or lip trills, sliding from the middle of your voice down to low notes. Then talk in a relaxed, quiet speaking voice for a while and have a drink of water. A cool-down helps your voice settle back to speaking after a lot of high or loud singing.

Warm-up questions

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