Yes! I highly recommend warming up your voice before singing because your throat is made up of organs that are supported by muscles, and ligaments. Properly warming up can create a lot more space to expand your vocal range and it prevents you from straining. In this post, we are going to use this post as a baseline guide on what type of warm-up you can use and how long should your warm-up be. Do I warm up my voice before singing? is not the question you should begin asking yourself.
In what ways can you warm up?
OR
How long should your warm-up be? is what you should be asking yourself.
Different types of exercises for your warm-up
Yawning
This exercise is not really you doing a full yawn. At the start of a yawn position, your tongue placement should be behind your lower teeth, jaw relax. Do this with Ah Vowel and behind with “Ahhhhhhh……” Do it with ascending and descending. Ascending and descending in singing is basically singing incrementally higher or lower using DO RE MI FA LA
Humming
Place the tip of your tongue behind the bottom of your front bottom teeth and keep the front of your mouth close. “hmmm.. ” ascending and descending. This is the easiest and my favorite warm-up. This is easiest because of how natural it is for your mouth, and jaw placement. Just make sure you include the “h” not only sounds “mmmm”
Lip Trills
This was one of the challenges for me when I first started to learn different warm-ups because somehow I lack air support in my abdomen. So to make things easier I found all coaches recommend placing 2 fingers on the side of your jaw. Here is how you do it:
Tongue Trill
Some may find it hard for this warm-up but not me. If you are one of the few that struggle with tongue trill. Start with the alphabet “R”. Be best to do without any trill or ascending or descending. Just pronounce the alphabet “R” with your tongue curling up or touching behind the upper teeth.
Try these above and make sure to record your warm-up to know where you are now. Practice this all the time. To add in, have a great posture while doing it.
How long should my warm-up be?
For beginners would be best to do a 15-20minute warm-up. This is all possible to do because of how everything is. There is no need to do more than anything else.
You can always mix different warm up and longer warm up but as long as you stick to a routine that you are comfortable with and do not skip warm then it’s great.
Learning how to sing should be fun but if you are reading this, you are already thinking of improving your singing so add in a little discipline. Being consistent is just about doing it over and over again. Use your voice memo to know if you have actually improved from day 1. I love kicking in new habits with the 21-day.
4 replies on “Do I warm up my voice before singing?”
Hey thanks for this great and helpful post!
I have been trying to sing for a while now and warming up definitely makes a difference not mention it’s essential too!
I usually warm up for 10 minutes a day sometimes missing them out but I guess I have got to up my game and practice consistently and for longer periods.
Definitely going to be saving this website, contains a great amount of helpful tips!
Thanks again!
Have a great day!
Yes Sariyah that’s great if you are planning to up your game on being consistency. It’s worthwhile to warm up before anything. 🙂
As a guitarist, I’ve been thinking about singing for a long time. I really liked your article and I’m gonna start doing the exercises as soon as possible. Before reading your article, I didn’t know that you need to warm up before singing. I just thought that you need to have a special diet. I think I’m gonna have some problems with tongue trill exercises. I will share the result of my exercises with you after 21 days.
Hi Liam, If you are already a guitarist, you should learn how to sing next. it’s fun! Warm-up is essential. it’s not common that people to think they don’t need to do it for singing. Just keep the tongue on “r” for tongue roll. It will be great if you track your improvement.