Why Should I do vocal warm ups?

One question a lot of our new voice students at Rock U ask is “Why does my teacher make me do those silly noises before we start singing?” As much fun as it is to hear students doing lip trills and falsetto yawns, these vocal exercises all serve a VERY important purpose. Warming up your voice is the absolute best thing you can do as a singer! And the crazy thing is, so many vocalists and performers neglect this crucial aspect of singing. Maybe it’s because they don’t want to sound ridiculous singing “poo poo poo” in their high register, or it’s just not cool singing “I looooove to sing” up and down the scale. Well I’m hear to tell you, you’re not cool unless you do vocal warmups!

Think about it this way. Every time you go to a game, whether its football, basketball, hockey, baseball, etc…you always see the athletes out for a LONG time before the game stretching, running, hitting, passing, you name it. Athletes know that if they go into a game without warming up their muscles, they are bound for a bad game or a potentially devastating injury. Singing is exactly the same! Your vocal cords are muscle. And if you just start belting “Don’t Stop Believing” at the top of your range on karaoke night without a proper warmup, you are probably going to feel the effects the next day with a hoarse voice or a sore throat. And if you keep doing that at karaoke night every week, things can get bad pretty quickly. Vocal cord injuries, nodes on your vocal cords, and other nasty things can develop over time if you don’t properly warm up your voice.

So what can you do about it? Talk to a Rock U teacher today to learn more about vocal warm ups, and what all you can do to make sure you’re always singing at the top of your game!