Vocal Warm-ups: Why, When, and What?
Do you ever wonder why a vocal warm-up is important - or if it’s even necessary? When should you warm-up? What kind of vocal exercises should you do to warm-up your voice?
This week’s post will explain just that!
Why
Exercise scientists will tell us we should warm-up before any physical activity to loosen up the muscles and reduce risk of injury. Singing is a physical activity. It requires the coordination of several sub-systems and muscle groups. I’ve posted about these subsystems here, but I’ll briefly review this info, as it is pertinent to today’s post.
The three subsystems of voicing include respiration, phonation, and resonation. To sing there is a fourth subsystem involved: articulation. As we breathe out, airflow from our lungs provides the power to set the vocal folds into vibration - as long as our vocal folds are in the closed (adducted) position. The vibration of our vocal folds causes a sound (like a buzz) to be produced. The pitch of the sound is dependent on how stretched out and thick the vocal folds are (think of a thicker rubber band as it is pulled taught. As it stretches it makes a higher pitch. A thinner rubber band can make that same pitch with less stretch, but won’t be able to go as low as the thicker rubber band). Once the vocal folds are vibrating this is called phonation. The sound then travels through a filter - our mouth, throat, and nasal passages - which cause the voice to sound like a voice instead of a buzz. Unless you’re singing entirely on the same vowel, the last subsystem is articulation - how we move our mouth muscles to form words.
Based on all the different muscles it takes to make a sound, a good vocal warm-up will help lightly stretch and engage these muscles to reduce risk of injury while singing.
2. When
Warm-ups are a good idea both before rehearsal and performances. Anytime you’re going to sing, a warm-up will reduce risk of injury and improve vocal quality. A recent study found that the average warm-up time is about 10 minutes. Ten minutes is enough time to warm-up each sub-system and begin to coordinate them well. In terms of vocal agility, some more time may be needed in order to get the voice moving quickly.
3. What
There are so many options for warm-up exercises! It’s a good idea to make your warm-up specific to your genre. What follows is a basic outline of a warm-up.
I’d recommend starting with some breathing exercises (like lip trills or straw phonation) with just airflow and no voice. Then, start to add the voice using the same semi-occluded vocal tract. Do some work on resonance focus using some kind of /m/ sound (how does it feel? Where do you feel vibrations?), then try to coordinate the 3 subsystems on vowel sounds, then add some consonants. Possibly do some stretching of the tongue. Sing or say some tongue twisters to get the articulators moving. Finally, you’re ready for some agility work, if desired, and then get to working on whatever music you want to sing.
If you want to follow along with me and see some brief examples, check out the YouTube video associated with this post. I also plan to have some new warm-up routines on the channel toward the beginning of 2023! Make sure to like and subscribe to my YouTube channel to stay up to date on these upcoming videos.
Hope you have a wonderful, prosperous, and (vocally) healthy new year!