Building Foundations: Beginners Guide to Voice

I've heard this question a thousand times; what is the point of doing vocal warm ups? Yes, they can be a little odd at times but I promise they all serve their purpose.

Not only is it very important to warm up our voices before we sing to avoid injury, but we also use warm ups as a sort of strength exercise for our vocal chords. We can use warm ups to grow stronger, better develop our technique, and to even increase our vocal range. There are many purposes for vocal warm ups, and they are all equally important and useful.

Here we will break down each warm up, how to complete it, and the purpose that it serves. This is the heaviest portion of the class, because this is what most of you came here for!

CAUTION: Just a word of caution, these warm ups going very high and very low to accommodate multiple voice types. Everyone's voice is different, so be sure to listen to yours. If it starts to get tight or even hurts while you're singing, STOP. Do not continue to push your voice. The warm ups will keep going, you do not have to.

In our first warm up, we are going to be a light hum slide. Make sure that you take your time between notes, sliding so that it feels like you are slipping through every single note along the way.

In this warm up, we will be descending into your lower range. For this piano pattern I like to use the "Zi Za Zi Za Za" pattern. An alternate is a repeating "Ya", or any vowel sound that you choose.

This is the last of our super easy warm ups. These first three warm ups are great exercises to do first thing in the morning to get your voice going and as a starting place for warming up if your voice is tired, healing, or you haven't used it much that day.

With this warm up, feel free to use any vowel, any combination of vowels, or even the lip buzzes on this faster variation of the triple five finger scale.

This piano pattern is a little tricky at first, so be sure to listen to it a couple of times before jumping straight in! When sliding between notes, do not push or punch the next note. Slide evenly between notes, starting the very first note with enough sound/space/support to get you all the way to the top note.

This is an easy, quick five finger scale. Choose any vowel that suits your voice!

Same as our last five finger scale but we'll be holding the top note for three beats

Long holds are going to be the same pattern as our other five finger scales, but we'll be holding the top for a longer time.

For this warm up we will be using our vowels again "Ee Eh Ah Oh Oo". A great challenge for this warm up, sing your vowels forward and then backwards!

We'll be revisiting our five finger scale here. With this variation we repeat our top note five times. The pattern is a lot faster, and it is designed to be used with a short word or sound. I recommend using "mum" or "nay" to help you get up into your belt.

Here we go over some fun scales and other ear training exercises that help improve your voice and pitch! Download the scale sheet to help you out with the next few lectures.

Here the basic scale that everyone needs to start with, our major scale. I cannot emphasize enough how important scales are to a singer. Not every vocal instructor teaches scales, but they are so helpful to vocalists and musicians. Some instructors use the "Do Re Mi" and some use numbers (1-8), either way, implement scales into your practice routine! 

Here is the first of our minor scales! This is our pure minor scale, we use all of the same vowels that we did for our major scale except we start on "La".

In our harmonic minor scale, we are taking our pure minor scale and raising the "Sol" a half step to "Si". So our scale will now sing "La Ti Do Re Mi Fa Si La"

We're moving on to our last minor scale! In this scale we're going to sharp the 6 & 7 of our scale on the way up and flat them back to natural on our way down. So it'll be "La Ti Do Re Mi Fi Si La Sol Fa Mi Re Do Ti La"

Chromatic Scales are awesome and super fun! We're hitting every single note on the piano within one octave. All of the vowels are on the sheet you downloaded. On our way up our in between vowels are sharped with that "ee" sound and on the down they are flat with the "eh" sound. Follow along with me in the video and then try it on your own!

This is my favorite warm up! It's so much fun (but a little crazy at first). This is written our completely on your paper. If our vowels are too much for you at first, start out with numbers 1-8 then as you get more comfortable with it add back in your "Do Re Mi".

We are on the last set of scale work! These triads are a basic fundamental of music. Triads are used in everything! These will help you with distinguishing harmonies and your different notes within a chords. There are four triads, this video will walk you through each of them.

Welcome back! I've got a new set of warm ups for you all. I've included some advanced warm ups for my older students and some beginner ones for the little ones! Everyone can find value in all of these exercises, so I encourage everyone to try all seven of these out!

With this exercise, we're taking our five vowels we learned earlier in class and adding an "m" in front of each of them. This exercise is much longer than what we're used to, so it'll really challenge that diaphragm breathing! Make sure you're supporting all the way through this warm up and keeping everything in a floating, lifted register.

Using the same pattern as our last warm up, we're going to now being doing short, broken vowels for every single note you sing. Be strong and supported throughout, making sure that every note is coming from your diaphragm and NOT your throat! 

Here is a faster lip buzz pattern that takes the ladies up into our whistle tone!

Tongue twisters are amazing for everyone, but these fun exercises are a hit with my younger students! If you feel like you have trouble pronouncing certain consonants or vowels, these will help you! 

Tongue twisters are amazing for everyone, but these fun exercises are a hit with my younger students! If you feel like you have trouble pronouncing certain consonants or vowels, these will help you! 

Tongue twisters are amazing for everyone, but these fun exercises are a hit with my younger students! If you feel like you have trouble pronouncing certain consonants or vowels, these will help you! 

Tongue twisters are amazing for everyone, but these fun exercises are a hit with my younger students! If you feel like you have trouble pronouncing certain consonants or vowels, these will help you! 

You've probably heard of some common vocal health habits (i.e. don't drink milk before you sing, drink plenty of water). But did you ever stop to think of why we do these things? 

Here are some common ways we can take care of our instrument.

Every great musician has one, a practice routine. It doesn't have to be anything drastic like spending 5 hours a day on your instrument. But defining a healthy practice routine that works in your schedule and keeps consistent training for your voice will go a very long way in developing your instrument.

Let's take a look at some common questions I've received and some common questions I have had myself.

Here are a few great resources I've used when looking for help with my voice. I hope they help you on your journey!