Vocal Warm Up Exercises
Are vocal warm up exercises worth your time? Yes, without a doubt they are. They may seem boring but a good vocal warm up helps tremendously when it comes to singing. Most people will have a better singing voice after a proper warm up. You will have less trouble hitting those high and low notes. Perhaps comparing singing to sports is a good comparison. Will you start your favourite sport without a warm up? I doubt it, it will be bad for your muscles and your performance will suffer. If you take your singing seriously and you want people to hear your voice at its best then vocal warm up exercises are imperative.
Mixing your vocal warm up with mental exercises will help both making yourself comfortable and preparing your voice for performance. Do the exercises frequently and your vocal performances will improve. During the exercises try to clear your mind and fully focus on your voice. This allows for better control of your vocal abilities. Obviously a full length vocal warm up exercise is better than a short one. However, we often don't have much time - so learning to do your warm up in a short amount of time, yet keeping the effectiveness, is important.
Start your vocal warm up exercises with relaxing your muscles. Do some exercises that relax the shoulders, back and jaw. After that start doing lip thrills and scales to open up your voice. The tongue muscle can be relaxed by sticking your tongue out and pushing it all the way down. Moving your lower jaw around will help get the jaw muscles ready. The vocal exercises should start in your comfortable range and then slowly add lower and higher notes. Doing sirens will allow you to move from your lower to higher octaves with more ease.
What most people forget are vocal cool down exercises. Some soft exercises will relax the vocal chords. A cup of tea with honey will soothe your voice. I love to take a warm bath after a performance, but understand that some people may not have the time for that. Consistently doing warm ups can keep your voice in excellent shape for a long time, so don't ignore them.