Vocal Warm ups
Here are some of the vocal warm-ups I use with students. Please use these to warm up at home.
If you have a higher voice, match my pitch, but if you have a lower voice (i.e. male or AMAB) please start an octave below me if that feels most comfortable or you may run out of notes very quickly! These warm ups are designed so no one is left wanting more, so please stop if you feel it's out of your range, too difficult or painful! If you are having any difficulty or discomfort, listen to your body and STOP! Then we can discuss it during our next lesson.
Happy practicing!
A E I O U exercise
While you're singing this, you want to be thinking of the letters A, E, I O and U, but you're going to be singing "Eh, Ee, Uh, Oh & Oo." This is a nice warm up, but the focus is on vowel sounds and shapes. Each one should merge into the next, almost as if it's one sound.
Siren exercise
The siren exercise is fantastic for a quick warm up, as it gets into all the nooks and crannies. Sing this to the noise "ng" of the word "sing." Start at any note, slide up as high as you feel comfortable then slide down like a siren (hence the name) as low as you feel comfortable (not as high or low as you can). Do this a few times in a row. Here's an example of me doing it:
Register transition exercise - Ooo
This exercise helps you to navigate your way over that really tricky register transition area, otherwise known as the gear change. (Some people call it the "break" in the voice, but that implies there's something broken when there isn't, so let's call it the "gear change" or "register transition.") Either sing along to this, or sing slower without the track if you prefer.
Register transition exercise - Nee-ah
This exercise helps you to navigate your way over that really tricky register transition area, otherwise known as the gear change. (Some people call it the "break" in the voice, but that implies there's something broken when there isn't, so let's call it the "gear change" or "register transition.") Either sing along to this, or sing slower without the track if you prefer.
Register transition exercise - Noh
This exercise helps you to navigate your way over that really tricky register transition area, otherwise known as the gear change. (Some people call it the "break" in the voice, but that implies there's something broken when there isn't, so let's call it the "gear change" or "register transition.") Either sing along to this, or sing slower without the track if you prefer.
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Fricative Consonants exercise
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This is a fantastic exercise to help feel the movement in the abdonimal muscles - repeat each sound 5 times in quick succesion with your hand on your belly.
Do the first two collums to begin with, then do the middle and last ones. For the last one, do the middle collum as before, and then merge the last sound into the word.
Tongue Twister
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Here is my favourite tongue twister I learned at primary school. It comes in 4 sections and I've split them up into syllables. Go slowly to begin with and make sure to enunciate. Sometimes it even helps to exaggerate the syllables at first, to get your mouth used to the feel of it. Once you feel you've got it, try singing it to a scale. I've recorded some examples for you to hear. Remember to have a giggle with it!
Shelly the Snail​
Let me introduce you to Shelly the Snail! Drawn by Lynnette Cruickshank. Shelly is here to remind you that there is no such thing as too slow when you're practicing your instrument, and by instrument, that includes your vocals, too! When you find something tricky, slow it down to give your brain plenty of time to think about all the many things it needs to process.
Your brain is basically an organic computer, and like a computer, it needs to slow down when it's processing one too many things at once (like your phone when it has too many apps open at one go!) So, like your phone, try slowing down to give your brain a chance to think!
When you're getting frustrated, or you can't wrap your brain around a tricky part, try taking a section out of a song, and looping it veeery slowly. Think of Shelly holding up this placard up with a gentle smile - Shelly's got your back!
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"THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS TOO SLOW!"
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The thing is, there's always a chance to speed up later. We're not in a hurry!
Drawn by Lynnette Cruickshank.
© to Lynnette Cruickshank
& L C Music 2022.
Interval Training​
If you're working on the 'playback' part of your Trinity Rock and Pop exams, then use this interval training game to help get used to how intervals sound. On the right of the page, you can customise it to only play intervals that you want to test yourself on.
Here are the list of intervals you will have for your grade:
Edinburgh,
singing teacher,
piano teacher,
flute teacher,
solo artist
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