I have always told my students that singing without warming up first can really damage your vocal chords.
You would always do a bit of stretching and warming up before going to the gym, so you should ALWAYS warm up your voice before singing.
Here are 5 really good vocal warm-ups to get them to start with: 1.
Speak Your Words.
This sounds simple but it's a good way to start.
Start counting from 1 to 9 in your normal speaking voice.
Say "one, two, three, four, five, four, three, two, one, two, three, four, five, four, three, two, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one".
Speak these words as you were having a chat with me.
After you have done that a couple of times start going up the scale.
Keeping speaking the words and don't sing them yet.
Go as high as you can but please don't strain your voice.
Try to focus on the sound in your mouth, throat and chest and don't push too much and say the words without sounding too breathy.
2.
Hum The Scale If you are like me, this next one makes your face tickle.
As you do it I want you to notice where the vibrations are coming from.
The lower notes should vibrate in your throat and the higher ones in your face.
Starting low, make a humming noise.
Now slowly start to go higher.
After a few times of doing this you should notice that the higher notes are starting to get easier.
You also notice that your note placement and vocal control improves as well.
Do this a few times before moving on to the next warm up.
3.
Yawn Your Tone.
This may seem weird but I want you to yawn a long continuous yawn starting around the middle of your range.
Bring the pitch of the yawn to the top of your range in your chest voice but remember do not strain.
Now bring the yawn back down again and yawn the lowest note you can.
You should feel your voice box lower as you go lower.
Place a finger on your voice box when you are at the lowest note you can go and start to go back up the scale.
Try and keep from moving your voice box as you get higher.
This is a great warm up, try to do this without breaking between each note.
4.
Vowel Warm-UpsExercises This is good for warming up your words.
Singing the scale again but this time using vowel sounds.
Start low with "A,E,I,O,U".
Each sound should be held for a couple of seconds.
It should all be melodious and flowing.
5.
Enunciation This is a very important warm up as makes sure the words you sing can be understood.
I hate it when the word "You" sounds like "Hue".
Who is this Hue and why do so many singers love him? Use the same scale as you did with the vowel warm ups, you can use different tongue-twisting phrases but here are a few I use.
"Shredded Swiss cheese", "She sells seashells by the sea-shore", "Mixed biscuits" and "Red lorry, yellow lorry".
No matter how you sing or what style you sing this is a very important exercise.
You will perform better and with more confidence if you learn to enunciation clearly.
Finally don't forget that the rest of your body needs to be warmed up as well.
Stretching your arms over your head and touching your toes is always a good start.
You will dramatically improve your voice if you take the time to practice these vocal exercises and do other singing lessons.