Vocal warm up routines are a foundational piece of vocal study. The efficacy of those warmups have a big impact on how well and how quickly a student progresses in building skills. Think of an athlete: without an effective workout regimen, they can’t build the stamina and strength they need to be competitive. So today, I want to answer some of the more popular questions I’ve received from students and clients about vocal warmups.
Why are vocal warmups important?
Warmups really serve two purposes as a singer:
- to help build mind-body connection, and
- to refine specific technical skills to be integrated into repertoire.
As singers, we are attempting to control small, delicate muscles and tissues (which we can’t see) with nothing but our brains. Most of those muscles have very few nerve endings, so feeling their movement requires a lot of attention. Singers need to develop a keen sense of kinesthetic awareness; to go inside and feel minute changes in both muscle movement and resulting vibration to make necessary adjustments. Warmups serve as a valuable opportunity to get our heads in the game, to slow down and tune in to what’s happening inside so our practice will be more effective.
Vocal exercises must be used strategically to build the skills needed to conquer repertoire. Because these skills require such complete attention to master, it’s helpful to learn them outside the context of a song or aria. This allows a singer to focus only on the necessary coordination, and not be distracted by wanting to “sound good.” Once a concept is understood and felt out of context, it’s much easier to integrate it into the singer’s repertoire.
Will vocal warmups help me stretch my range?
Yes, a properly designed vocal warm up routine will help you enhance your vocal range. However, there’s a lot more to it than that. The elasticity of the vocal folds is what gives each person access to their full vocal range. Not everyone is born with the same amount of flexibility in their vocal folds. Think of your voice as a lump of clay. With time, patience, and guidance, you can mold that lump of clay into a beautiful pot. However, some people are born holding a larger lump of clay, so their pot is going to be bigger and deeper. That doesn’t mean the smaller pot isn’t as good, it’s just different. While vocal warmups will help you enhance what you have, they cannot change your physiological limits.
It’s easy to get hung up on which pitches you can reach as a singer, but a large range does not necessarily render you a better or more exciting singer. The singers we love to listen to are those that move us with their performances. When was the last time you got excited about a singer just because they had a lot of high notes? Singers who move us have one big thing in common – they understand their own voices and how to use them well. Vocal warmups are an important component to gaining the skills needed to control and capitalize upon what our voices are capable of.
What makes a good vocal warmup regimen?
There are six main skills every singer needs to master:
- Singing high and low (pitch range)
- Singing fast and slow (agility and legato)
- Singing loud and soft (dynamic range)
A training singer must work with their teacher or coach to develop an effective, individualized practice routine that targets these six skills. Whether you’re a gospel artist, a musical theater performer or an opera singer, you’re going to need them all!
Good warmups have multiple levels to them – like a compound exercise in fitness training, they’ll target more than one skill. They will also have increasing difficulty levels, so you can continue using them for years to build mastery over your abilities. When I build warm up routines for my students, I like to keep the following in mind:
- Start easy – the first warm up is always a chance to get the voice moving and your brain in gear.
- Wake up your support – healthy singing requires good breath connection.
- Focus on the middle voice – everything is built off stability in the middle voice, so focus on building strength and resonance there first.
- Build up to the harder stuff – more advanced coordination exercises should be saved for later in the warmup. Once your basics are in place, then you can start to incorporate agility exercises, larger interval leaps and greater dynamic ranges.
How long should I do them?
Basically, as long as it takes you to establish a strong mind-body connection that coordinates your singing is how long you need to warm up. In most cases, 5-10 minutes is usually enough, according to the Speech Language Pathologist community. Honor where you are that day and take the time you need to get your head in the game and tuned into your body.
You should be using the same exercises for at least a few weeks (months in most cases) to feel real results. Motor learning takes time. Singing the correct pitches in the correct sequence does not mean you’ve mastered the exercise. Repetition over time allows you to master the physical concepts. Good exercises will help you for your entire singing life. The goal is to find increasing levels of skill refinement. And in that sense, the work is never done. We will always have more to learn!
Ready to try it? Click here to check out our warm up video.Interested in learning more and getting started on your own vocal journey? We would love to work with you! Book a trial lesson with one of our amazing instructors, and let us help you build your vocal skills.
