Vocal Exercises For A Healthy Voice

Lisa Witt  /  UPDATED Aug 18, 2022

This daily vocal routine will help you sing with ease and power and keep your voice healthy and protected. And a healthy voice is a happy voice.

The goal here is vocal freedom. And when you feel free in your voice, you can expect to do some of the best singing of your life.

At least that’s been our experience!

Let’s get started:

Step 1 – Check in with your body

Your voice is part of you and you are your instrument. More than any other instrument it’s important that you’re connected to your body.

Do you have any tension? Any soreness?

Try doing some shoulder rolls, neck rolls, and even a little bit of massage if you feel like it.

The goal is to loosen up your muscles and check in with your body.

Step 2 – Check in with your tongue

Warning, this is going to get weird.

But it will make an amazing difference. Trust us. You’ll need a paper towel for this because we’re going to literally grab hold of our tongue while we sing “Happy Birthday”.

Just like this:

Yes, it’ll feel weird. But it works!

Why?

We can hold so much tension in our tongue and jaws, and this will affect our ability to sing.

Usually, you want your tongue to remain relaxed, resting on the bottom of your mouth with the tip of the tongue touching the back of your bottom teeth.

This exercise will do just that. But one important point…

We’re not pulling on the tongue!

Just simply holding it while we sing. It’ll loosen up on its own.

Try singing before holding your tongue and then compare after. Pretty big difference right?

Step 3 – Focus on the breath

Breathing is so important for singing (and living haha!!) so we want to be in control of our breath. A good way to do this is to try a hissing exercise.

Hiss out for a count of 10, and then breathe in for a count of 4, and then repeat.

You can follow along to the video as we have the timing all counted out for you. This exercise will help you feel even more relaxed and in control of your airflow.

Step 4 – Vocal exercises

It’s finally time to start some genuine vocal exercises. We have 4 favorites for you that will help free up your voice and sing with ease.

The first is to sing a 5-note scale using the “VVV” sound. The goal here is not to stretch your range but to feel comfortable and continue to warm up the voice.

Remember to sing up and down the scale.

Next, we’ll sing “FOO” using an arpeggio pattern. Again, you can follow along to the video if you need to.

The “OO” sound creates a narrow sound that will really help free up your vocal cords.

The goal is relaxation, and this will help you get there.

Now we’ll get a little weird, because it’s time to sing “WOOF”. But we’re not barking like a dog.

The focus will remain on the “OO” sound.

By the time you’re finished, it should feel like you’ve done the perfect full-body stretch!

And finally, we’ll sing “HOO” in a descending arpeggio.

In this exercise, you might experience some vibrato. That’s a great thing and if it happens, let it happen. But don’t try and force it.

Vibrato will happen naturally if you’re singing with correct technique.

When to use this routine

This routine makes the perfect warmup or cool-down. You can use it every day if you like.

It’s also super helpful if you’re struggling a little with a particular song or section. If tension is the issue, this routine will help get rid of it.

Vocal routines are vital for singing health and development. If you’d like more, we have a whole library of vocal routines for all situations inside the Singeo members area.

Take your singing to the next level

If you enjoyed working on your voice with this guide, you’re in luck! As a Singeo Member you can access:

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