Exercising without warming up the muscles, tendons and joints can lead to injury. The same goes for vocal cords. If they are not warmed up properly before singing, not only are they not going to produce the best sound but there is the risk of damage occurring.
We have put together the top four vocal warm ups to help you to produce the best sound and to prevent damage to your vocal cords.
Straw Phonation
This is a relatively simple technique involving exhaling air through a straw while humming – starting at the bottom of the voice range and moving the the highest register.
Be careful not to grip the straw between the teeth. The straw should be held lightly between the lips. Inhaling or taking a breath through the straw is not recommended as this can result in feeling light-headed, dizzy or even fainting. Rather, inhale without the straw in the mouth and only exhale through the straw.
Practice this a few times and then hum an entire song through the straw. To give the lungs and vocal cords a slightly harder workout, try the same technique placing the straw in water and then trying to control the release of bubbles.
Tongue And Lip Trills
Tongue trills are a slightly more advanced technique and involve placing the tip of the tongue on the palate while performing a trilling “R” sound. The reason this warm up technique is difficult for many singers is because it should be performed while going through an entire voice range starting from low to high.
Lip trills can also be difficult to get the hang of. Simply breathe air out through relaxed lips that are slightly open. The air should vibrate the lips, causing a trill. Think of a horse snorting and blowing air out through its mouth to make those lips flap and flop.
Jaw Drop
The mouth is opened much wider while singing than when talking which can put unusual strain on the jaw joint. Warming up the muscles and the joints before singing will prevent injury to the jaw that can be painful and slow to heal.
Slowly open the mouth to its greatest extent and then close it again. This should be much like yawning and may even encourage a yawn. Try to yawn with the mouth closed to get the jaw to drop and loosen up.
Solfege Arpeggios And Ladders
Solfege (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do) arpeggios exercise the entire vocal range. It is, however, important to focus on reaching each note independently before moving on to the next. The faster the warm up exercise is performed, the more it works the vocal cords. It then becomes more difficult to reach the top of the range so stick with one note at a time.
Solfege ladders are designed to work the vocal cords and therefore, extend the range to a greater degree. Starting with Do, Re, Do – then progress to Do, Re, Mi, Re, Do and so on and so forth. Speed is not as important as accuracy.
Even you are just going to practice singing or participate in a training session, it is always recommended to perform vocal warm ups prior to any type of singing.