5 Quick Warmups I Do as a Professional Singer

5 Quick Warmups I Do as a Professional Singer

Warming up isn’t fun or glamorous, but it’s a fundamental part of being a professional singer. Each vocalize can target different aspects of the voice and strengthen it as a whole, making the experience more consistent. Here are a few of my favorite vocal warmups I use! (Note: I made a quick video demonstrating these here.)

You might also like: How To Build a Vocal Warmup Routine

Lip trills

The first of my vocal warmups is lip trills. No matter what style I’m singing in, I always start with these. It gets me focused and in the singing mindset, along with the benefits of what it does physiologically. Since they are semi-occluded, they provide back pressure to the vocal folds. This allows them to vibrate with more ease and less effort. If you’re curious about how to do lip trills, this website has a great demonstration. For more in-depth information about them, I recommend heading over to 30 Day Singer for a deep dive.

Busy bee’s

I know, I know. These sound pretty elementary. But yes, I really do these almost every day when I sing! They’re effective for me because this simple five-note pattern gets the voice to a healthy forward placement. They’re also easy on the vocal cords since we’re still early in the warmup. Sometimes I find myself doing an extension of these, with variations to further get my voice moving. I pay close attention to how my voice feels so that I can give it what it needs. It’s important to check in with yourself and evaluate how you’re feeling, and this simple exercise is my favorite way to do that.

Nyeah

Even though this one is similar to busy bee’s in execution, it has a totally different purpose. I always feel the benefit of doing them! They force me to sing in the “mask” and have a nice, bright buzz to my sound. It balances against the darker tones in my speaking voice to give me the balance I like to have in my singing voice.

Yah-ee

This one helps to open up my full voice and connect my high and low registers. It encourages me to make my voice sound like one column of sound instead of separate head voice and chest voice. Spanning to two octaves, it also gets my voice vibrating on all fronts so that I can choose to use vibrato no matter what style I’m singing in.

Staccato

My voice teacher in college would call this one “staccato,” and it really helped me understand sound connection to the breath. It helps me make sure I’m not starting the sound in my throat and supporting it properly with my breath.

There you have it! These vocal warmups are the foundation of how I exercise my voice, and I’ll pick and choose other ones to do depending on what my goals are for that day. It’s important for me to do these vocalizes not just to “warm up”, but to keep my voice in shape.

Wondering how these vocal warm ups sound? Check out my video demonstrating them!