Voice Exercises that Work!

Dr. Ingo Titze is one of the world's foremost voice scientists. I will forever be grateful for all he taught me this past summer at the National Center for Voice and Speech - @ncvsorg. Here are his recommended vocal warmups for singers and a bonus link to his famed straw exercises:

1.
Lip trill, tongue trill, humming,
or phonation into narrow tubes
(all partial occlusions of vocal
tract) on glides, scales, or
arpeggios
Gets respiratory muscles into full action rapidly
Minimizes upward force on vocal folds because of positive oral pressure
Spreads the vocal folds to vibrate their edges only
Lowers phonation threshold pressure by providing an inertive acoustic load
2
Two-octave pitch glides, up
and down, high vowels /i/ or /u/
Low chest to high pure falsetto
mixed voice
Gives maximal stretch to vocal folds (first ligament, then muscle)
Maximum dichotomy between TA and CT muscles; then unity between them
Avoids the difficult passaggi
Gets Fo above F1 for varying acoustic loads
3.
Forward tongue roll and
extension, vowel sequence
/a/-/i/, scales
Creates independence between the phonatory and articulatory structures
Loosens tongue and jaw
Helps keep vertical larynx position stable during articulation
4.
Messa di voce, proceeding
from a partially occluded tract,
to high vowels, to low vowels
Engages the layers of vocal fold tissue gradually in vibration, medial to lateral
Help singer match tension in muscle to tension in ligament
Tests symmetry of crescendo versus decrescendo control under changing respiratory conditions
Makes all intrinsic muscles of the larynx work in coordination with changing lung pressure
5.
Staccato on arpeggios
Elicits clean and rapid voice onset, establishing a dominant mode of vibration
Trains adductor/abductor muscles simultaneously with tensor muscles during pitch change
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