A good rule of thumb that will save your voice from unnecessary wear and tear and eventual damage is “Light and Right is Better than Strong and Wrong”.

What do I mean?  Well, simply this; keep the volume down, especially when just warming up the voice.  Your volume should be light and conversational as you are warming up your voice and beginning your exercises and song rehearsals.

Never dive in full volume thinking this will warm up your voice quicker.  This is the equivalent to an athlete waking up from a sound sleep and immediately running a full speed bursting sprint without warming up the muscles and the body.  That’s a good way to damage muscles, tendons and ligaments.

Prep your voice with the same care as any athlete would prep their muscles.

To begin warming your voice, vocalize with some conversational humming in your lower “talking” range.  If you’re like the rest of us, some days you wake up to a “thick” and husky low voice.  That’s a great time to maximize waking up your chest voice, warming easily into your mix, then head voice.  Then move into Lip Trills on simple scales progressing into longer and more broad range scales.  Lip Trills are hands down the most effective way to provide proper blood flow to the vocal folds and efficiently warm up and stretch out the voice with least resistance.  From there, move into your favorite scales and exercises.

Remember that as your voice developes stamina and strength, your natural resonant volume will begin to increase and you will begin to notice more ease and ability to transition into a powerful, well balanced sound.

Happy Singing!

Lora Hodges