2 Challenging Vocal Exercises For Singers

There are a lot of great reasons to practice vocal exercises, beyond just warming up your voice before singing. Doing vocal exercises is like taking your voice to the gym- you are gaining strength, flexibility and control over your instrument. Much like the way pianists and other instrumentalists practice scales and etudes.

Today I’m going to share with you two great vocal exercises for singers- both focused on building flexibility, agility and breath control.

Vocal Exercises for Singers

What does it mean to have a flexible & agile voice? It means you can sing fast, difficult vocal lines with accuracy and ease. This is a skill that all singers can learn, but it does require daily practice.

When we gain vocal flexibility and control through practice exercises, we are actually developing the fine motor skills of our vocal instruments. Fine motor skills are small muscle actions, such as grasping an object between your thumb and finger or using your lips and tongue to form words.

In relation to singing, we are talking about the small muscles in the throat that are involved in changing pitch and producing sound. The muscles of the face, lips and tongue are involved in sound production as well.

These small muscles are delicate and are more easily fatigued than a bicep or some other large muscle. For this reason, pushing these muscles too hard is not healthy or helpful. Don’t practice for more than an hour a day and if you feel vocal fatigue, stop and let your voice rest for a day or until you no longer feel fatigued.

How To Practice

Exercise #1

Exercise #2

Sing along with the vocal exercises in the video. Focus on relaxing the muscles in you neck, throat and face. Make sure you are taking deep, diaphragmatic breaths. Picture your voice being carried on your breath- moving forward & away from your body.

A good practice routine lasts 30-60 min. a day. Start with a few easy vocal warm-ups (5-10min), then move on to some more difficult vocal exercises like the ones in today’s lesson (10-20 min). Next, work on repertoire (songs).

Make sure that you are focusing on applying good vocal technique (relaxing the throat, deep diaphragmatic breaths etc.) while practice songs. It’s important that the technique you are working on while you sing vocal exercises translates to the songs you are singing.

Enjoy your practice & See you next week!