Vocal Warm Up Exercises

It was said by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche that Without music life would be a mistake. As a music lover, I think that is so amazingly true! If there would have been no music, there would not have been any notes and singers and instrumentalists who are a source of happiness and relaxation for innumerable people. But singers, who really want to excel, unless they slog hard, would not be able to win hearts of the audience. Their voice and those million dollar vocal cords is their capital and road to fame. How do they do it and what needs to be done by those who aspire to hit that impeccable note? The answer follows...

Vocal Warm up Exercises for Singers

These can be divided into basic breathing exercises and then pitching, intonation and pronunciation. A look at both these types.

Breathing Exercises
The throat and the entire airway is fundamental to breathing and consequently to singing. Therefore breathing correctly and sometimes being able to manipulate breathing is imperative for any singer, seasoned, amateur or aspiring. Inhaling and exhaling deeply is one of the basic breathing exercise for improving your singing. When you inhale, totally fill up your lungs and ribcage and hold for 4 counts before you exhale. Now let go of the air in 4 counts. Another thing you can do is do an exercise resembling an action where you ask someone to keep quiet. So put a finger on your mouth and say "shhh". Say this till you are out of breath. Then relax and let the breath come in. Lip rolling is another thing you can do for getting better control on your breathing. To do this put your lips together and then breathe out, thinking of your lips as if it is a flap. This exercise loosens up the vocal cords and train them. An exercise to add to all these is to take a deep breath and create a hissing sound, breathing out, till you can exhale as much as you can. To add one more to the kitty, what you need to do is, as if you are yawning, inhale normally and then inhale deeply. Your shoulders, jaw and tongue have to be relaxed and there has to be a sound accompanying it. A variation of this is to start inhaling as you yawn but purse your lips together breathing out, through the straw.

Pronunciation, Pitching and Intonation Exercises
One the basic vocal exercises for improving the pitch range and relaxing your jaw is to sing several combinations of vowels and consonant sounds, at different scales. These have to be from high to low and the opposite. Tongue twisters further are great to relax the palate, throat, lips and tongue, which are instrumental in the articulation of words and notes. Tongue twisters are great for improving pronunciation as well, as you give proper exercise to your tongue and it can be twisted as you want. While you do the pitch related vocal exercises, remember that starting these from an octave and range comfortable to you, normally the mid range, is advisable. Then go on to the extremes of the range, but without straining your vocal cords.

There are several more to add to this list of warm up exercises for the vocal cords. You can get many more free vocal warm up exercises on the internet. Eventually, though the purpose of all these is the same. The first and foremost exercise is to help you gain control over your voice, helps in breathing correctly, loosening as well as relaxing the tongue, jaw, palate and so on to facilitate proper singing and finally to improve vocal range. That is all about improving your singing voice. All the Best!