Even amateur athletes know that warming up before physical exertion is vital to avoid muscle injury and strain. Runners, golfers, tennis players, weight lifters, joggers, and sportsmen of all kinds understand the value of spending time warming up their muscles before they begin a vigorous routine. The body’s vocal production system can benefit just as much from a good warm up as other parts of the anatomy. In fact, if you are a singer that knows how to do a proper warm up and does it consistently, you have a much smaller chance of doing harm to your voice than a vocalist who skips this important routine. Here are some tips for warming up your singing voice to make it sound its best.

1)      First, massage your face, throat, lips, and neck to find any tense spots. Do some shoulder rolls to try to relax through your shoulders and upper body.

2)      Stretch your arms above your head and yawn while holding out the final “ah” sound of your yawn.

3)      Sustain each of the following sounds while feeling the spot in your mouth, lips, nose, tongue, or throat where each one vibrates.

MMMMMMMM   ZZZZZZZZ    EEEEEEE   NNNNNNN   VVVVVVV   ThThThThThTh    FFFFFFFF

4)      Repeat the following nonsense word while opening your face, mouth, and eyes as wide as you possibly can on the final syllable.

Mumula  Mumula  Mumula  Mumula

5)      Say some tongue twisters to get your mouth in shape and improve your diction.

Start slowly and over-pronounce each one. Then speed up gradually and make

your diction more normal.

Red leather, yellow leather

Good blood, bad blood

The tip of the tongue, the lips, the teeth

Selfish Shellfish

6)      Stand with your feet about as far apart as your shoulders. Take a deep breath into

your diaphragm and allow yourself to fall forward from the waist as you breathe

out. Roll back up and sustain a vowel sound as you inhale. Do this several more

times to ensure relaxation.

7)      Make motor noises. Vibrate your lips and see if you can sound like a motorcycle,

a tractor, a big truck, or a sports car. If you really want to relax, pretend you are

driving at the same time and laugh at yourself.

8)      Sustain a hum for as long as you can. Change the pitch that you are humming

from low to high and back again. Feel the vibrations that are caused by humming

and try to move them around your vocal production system. See if you can feel

the resonation first in your chest, then move it up to your throat, jaw, mouth and

lips, before sending it back again.

9)      Sing scales or exercises concentrating on one set of sounds at a time. Try the syllable “La” first and sing it up and down five tones. Do each of the following in turn, remembering to keep your range comfortable before hitting high or low notes.

Lee   Loo   Lye  Low

These activities should all help you to be sure your voice is warm and ready to provide the best sound possible. Don’t forget the importance of cooling down your voice as well. After a good vocal workout, your vocal cords should have more fluid collected in them than is normal, and they may be slightly swollen. If you try to speak while this extra fluid is present, it can damage your cords. A gentle hum for a few minutes is a good way to cool down your voice.

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