Singing Warm-Ups
Singing warm-ups free printable sheets, for your vocal students. Address vocal resonance, relaxation, breathing for singing, vocal range, and other issues with these vocal warmups.
Vocal Warm-Ups
I start all voice lessons with singing warm-ups of some kind.
If it is a morning or even early afternoon lesson, the vocal warmups will probably start with humming and careful listening with harmony... a singing exercise that stretches gently and softly.
Please scroll down for the link to the sheet music shown above
Hooting like a gorilla, whimpering like a puppy, meowing like a cat, and more...
These warmups will help your student begin to understand resonance in the mask, how to use the diaphragm, and how to open the throat!
If my student has already warmed up, we MAY start right in with one of their songs.
More likely, though, we will start with a round such as "Heigh, Ho" to get them listening and concentrating as they sing.
We might work on a duet or group song that we are preparing for a recital. This way, they don't sing "full voice" right at first.
By that time, we will probably stop and do a few "sirens" and 5-note scales, if their voice still sounds a bit tight to me.
Please scroll down for the link to the sheet music shown above
Easy slides and steps are what these morning warmups are about.
My warm-ups always are written in the key of C (to start), to orient the pianist whose job it is to PLAY the exercise (or my students, once they've figured out how to play it on the piano). Then they move up.
In fact, it is best, I tell my students, when they are still working at learning the notes of a song, to sing sotto voce, with a subdued voice, or even down an octave much of the time as they practice the song, if the vocal line lingers up high for a while.
This is also a very good practice in choral groups, and especially in long rehearsals of The Messiah!)
Some students seem blessed with a naturally warm, flexible, high and phlegm-free voice. How I envy them.
Others (more like me!) have voices that wake up tight and a little stiff unless the voice is "flexed" every day, a bit like a new, un-stretched balloon.
One of my daughters has a voice as tight as a new thick rubber band.
Daily, she needs gentle warming up as well as an additional vigorous workout.
Without daily attention, her singing voice can be rough and subject to breaking only an octave above Middle C.
Please scroll down for the link to the sheet music shown above
Help your students understand the "break" in their voice, and how to move through it smoothly.
In addition to these exercise shown above, I also like to take them through a two-octave scale:
- Starting high, and coming down two octaves
- Starting low, and going UP two octaves.
As they sing both scales, they need to be watchful of the place(s) where they encounter the register change!
My own singing voice seems to acquire ever greater smoothness (in spite of rapidly advancing age!) as I have built the habit over the past few years of lightly warming up off and on throughout the whole day and even into the evening.
This habit was forced upon me, the piano teacher, gradually, as I acquired more and more voice students... I had to be able to sing up high -- no more excuses!
The result of this continuous light singing is (to my own surprise) the ability to sing with ease on Sunday mornings at church the melodies of old-fashioned hymns (invariably set too high!), even early in the morning.
That is a fun thing; I used to stick almost exclusively to the alto harmonies!
Please scroll down for the link to the sheet music shown above
Like the animal sounds page, this page will help with developing resonance.
However blessed your singing student may be naturally, learning a set of vocal warmups that they can recall by memory at home, and use to gently warm themselves up, will help prevent sore throats and "blown" voices when they sing for an hour or more a day at lessons, rehearsals, school choir or just around the house.
Therefore, I encourage them to learn the easiest patterns on the piano, and demonstrate them during lessons.
Please scroll down for the link to the sheet music shown above
This is an advanced skill, but ear training has to start somewhere!
As a vocal teacher working at the piano bench, these warm-ups are most efficiently performed at lessons if you have the ability to transpose the patterns up or down a half-step after each repetition. This is a sophisticated skill! But it can be learned.
If transposing seems too much of a stretch for you, take a look at my page for Beginning Piano students Mary Had a Little Lamb. Transposing using a very easy song is a great way to get started.
But to help those who are less pianists than vocalists, all of the vocal exercises are written in the key of C (all white notes!).
The page links:
Dianna:
Your website is a light in the darkness. THANK YOU for all you do in helping to spread the love of music. It matters!
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All the first-year material I give my beginner students.
Piano keyboard sheets, scales, chords, note-reading exercises, and over 256 pages of music!
This beautiful song book for piano & voice "Esther, For Such a Time as This", available as a digital download, tells the riveting story of the time when Jews in ancient Persia faced a foe named Haman, and how a brave young queen risked her life to save her people.
A good choice for a singing story-teller, an operatic group, a short theater production, or a class of children!
This book is also available from Amazon as a paperback.
This book is available as a digital download from this site. Visit this page to see some free examples from the book.
It is also available from Amazon as a paperback!
This is the perfect easy start for little pianists.
And when they start reading white-key notes on the staff, this is a fun easy resource to say each week, "Choose a new black-key song at home this week and figure it out to show me next lesson!" They will be spending more time at the piano.
A perfect read aloud storybook
for little boys or girls.
The Adventures of Tonsta highlight the travels of a very young boy with a good heart, who goes about helping folk in trouble.
With a red cap on his head and a sack of tools slung over his shoulder, Tonsta seems to meet people in distress wherever he goes.
Lots of trolls in this book - including one who gives him a Christmas gift!
Carrie,Voice and Piano Teacher:
This site is FABULOUS.
For all the reasons you explain on the site itself--this is exactly what piano teachers need! (I still need to go look at the vocal music). Wow. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Marta:
Thank you for the free downloads! I'm a private teacher and I teach piano and beginner voice as well. :)
I've been running my studio for about a year and I've come across the same issue; I don't want my students to have to purchase an entire supplemental book for only a couple of songs. So thank you for this site...some great downloads!!
Comments
I'd love to know about your favorite warm-ups, perhaps passed on to you by a dear teacher, or one you have made up yourself and come to rely upon. Tell us how you use it!
What Other Visitors Have Said
Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...
mama made me mash my m and ms
We do this one in class every day... it is very repetitive.
Dana:
I have seen this one before, but not the notes with which to sing it. I suppose …
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Finger placement = 1 on C, 2 on D etc.
Sing numbers to the melody played as indicated by finger …
Warmups for Steps of the Scale & Intonation
We do this at school during music class.
1,
1 2 1,
1 2 3 2 1,
1 2 3 4 3 2 1,
1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1,
1 2 3 4 5 6 5 4 3 2 1,
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 6 5 4 …
Warm up with the Baha'i choir
The local Baha'i choir the "New Era Baha'i Singers" in Perth run up and down the octave with the following phrases when warming up:
"Yonder and far" …
two tigers
two tigers tango in the twiiilight till they are too tired to tango anymorrre, its in a blues key. i learned this from a dear teacher of mine and we all …
Great diction Warm Up
do, do re do, do re mi re do, do re mi fa mi re do, do re mi fa so fa mi re do, do re mi fa so la so fa mi re do, do re mi fa so la ti la so fa mi re do, …
Heres a warm up
he did, he did, he died of a broken rib he did
he did, he did, he died of a broken rib he did
he did, he died, he died, he did, he died of a broken rib …
Diction
Diction is done with the tip of the tongue and the teeth.
Tinkers Take Their Time at Tea...
"Tinkers take their time at tea until their tale is told" --
Great one for early morning warm-ups -- have fun with it!
Daddy dropped a dollar down the drain
I teach piano and vocal beginners at my teacher's suggestion to help round out my budget.
Dana:
Cute tongue-twister!
super bubble gum
super bubble gum (clap,clap)
super dooper bubble gum (clap,clap)
super dooper double bubble super dooper double bubble super dooper double gum (clap,clap) …
lu la lee la lei la lei lu la lee lei la lei lu la lu la lu la lei lu la lee lei la lei lu la lee lei la lei lu la lu la lu la lei
I learned this from my high school! It helps a lot with diction
baba baby baby baba booba
Each beat of every word you clap.
Dana:
Each beat? Or each syllable? This would be fun going faster and faster. Thanks for sharing.
New York
I know New York
I need New York
I know I need unique New York
Dana:
Thanks, Emily. What tune would work with this, I wonder?
Twinkling stars
Two twinkling stars telling too many stories too-oo-night
Dana:
Megan, I don't get how to use this!
M&M's
Mama made me mash my M&M's
Dana:
That's hard to say!
Mary Had a Little Lamb for Choral Warmup
We go 'Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow', up a semitone each time.
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Mumbling Mice
Many Mumbling Mice
Are making midnight music in thee moonlight
Mighty nice
...Ooo! This "tongue-twister" is really all about the lips, not the …
About the Author
Hi, I'm Dana! (Say that like "Anna".) I'm the owner of Music-for-Music-Teachers.com, and a newer site, SingTheBibleStory.com.
Like some of you, I've been playing the piano since early childhood, and have added a few other instruments along the way, plus an interest in arranging and composing music.
You can find out more about me and the reason for this website at my About Me page.
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Angels We Have Heard on High: children love the fancy "Gloria" chorus, and you can download multiple arrangements for piano, violin, & guitar! -
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