Favourite Warm-Ups?! (Singing Teachers)

[Ben Reeves]

Interesting one to discuss! I really like to focus on stretching muscles across the whole body in order to ease any lingering muscle tension. I find that this also gets you feeling engaged and ready. After that it’s the usual run of lip trills, tongue trills, sirens, scales and arpeggios to get your vocal cords nice and ready; and finally a song to bring it all together and get you in the zone! I adapted this routine from a reputable source…

[Kat Hunter]

I LOVE lip trills. That’s definitely my go-to exercise. If a student has trouble with that, then tongue trills will do. I just find that the lip trill can get the student feeling warmed up over their whole range, with no strain, and of course the air gets regulated this way too.

If it’s a warm up to get ready for a performance I’d usually suggest doing lip trills at the same time as moving the body, to get rid of any tension, as Ben was indicating; especially watching for any tension in the shoulders, abdomen, neck or jaw as tends to happen when people are nervous!

[Eliza Fyfe]

I have started doing these:

– 3 gentle pulses on “zz”, or “vv” – focus on the natural diaphragm recoil in the breathing gaps between pulses. No massive breaths (unnecessary air) needed. Take air into belly
– Octave slides: “zz”, “singggg” and “ee”, ensuring they are smooth and even, with the sound really resonating in the nose/mouth area, gently driving the pressure from the diaphragm. Enables more volume without straining or over-exerting
– “Na/nya’s” in the mid-range plus a few “yeah’s, hey’s and oi’s” to open up the range and relax the muscles into the natural calling out

Inspired by Vocal Process!