Fox Music’s Solo Vocal Academy
Basic Voice Training Exercises
It is important to understand that “exercising” the voice and “warming up” the voice are two completely different activities and should not be confused. Choral directors warm up their choruses by vocalizing in ways that help the singers breathe together and homogenize their voices into the desired choral sound. Soloists also might “warm up” their voices before singing in public. Usually the solo warm up consists of a short period of vocalization that helps the singer focus on a healthy tone production and provides a sense of how well their voice is working that day. For choral singers and soloists alike the warm up might also include running through certain difficult passages in the music about to be performed. This routine can be very helpful in the moment to prepare a singer for performance, but the singer must be careful not to tire the voice before performing.
The purpose of vocal exercises is to develop strength, balance, and coordination of the muscles involved in singing over an extended period of time. As in all muscular development, muscle tissue grows by being broken down (slightly stretched and torn) through a significant, yet appropriate amount of exercise. At the end of a vocal workout the voice will be somewhat fatigued. This is normal and to be expected, just as after any other physical workout. You probably won’t choose to sing in public immediately after exercising your voice because a tired voice won’t function at its best. As the muscles recover after each workout through a period of rest, they grow stronger. Fox Music recommends that vocal students start off by exercising once each day followed by as much vocal rest as possible before the next day’s workout.
Be careful that you don’t overdo the exercises because you can wear down the muscles beyond their ability to recover in a reasonable amount of time. Over-exercising will set you back more than it will help. It is not uncommon for singers to lose their voices for several days due to overuse, and long-term overuse of a voice can lead to much more serious problems. Just use caution, let Fox Music’s voice teachers guide you, and you won’t have any issues. For beginners who are just starting out with an exercise routine Fox Music suggests the following programs.
Women: 1, 2, 14, 15, 18, and 19a Do each exercise one time each day.
Men: 27, 29, 32, 33, 34, 55, and 19b Do each exercise one time each day.
Before beginning any additional exercises BE SURE to schedule a private lesson with one of our voice teachers for recommendations about which exercises to add and more importantly, how to do them correctly. Doing any exercises incorrectly will cause more harm than good. The best use of your first private lesson is to have the teacher assess your current level of vocal development, provide an exercise routine for your own unique vocal situation, and explain how to do each exercise correctly. As you follow your teacher’s instructions and exercise your voice consistently over time, the muscles will begin to develop. You will want to meet again with the teacher for additional private lessons whenever you feel that you are ready to move forward with additional exercises and instruction about how to do them correctly. Keep in mind that the exercises are progressive and that the more advanced exercises won’t work until you have developed some muscular ability through the basic ones.
Key to Phonetic Symbols Used In These Exercises
[æ] = “A” as in Cat, Sat, Fat
[ɑ] = “Ah” as in Father, Top, Stop
[ɔ] = “Aw” as in Paul, Thaw, Raw
*Don’t let the pitch ranges such as (Bb4 – C#5) in the exercise descriptions confuse you. They are for our teacher’s to use. You can just ignore them.
Head Voice – Women
All of these head voice exercises should be done on an [ɔ] vowel, with the jaw dropped, and with the mouth in head voice position.
Basic Head Voice – The purpose of these exercises is to isolate as pure a head voice as possible and to begin its development.
1. Single notes around Bb4 – C#5 (try for pure head voice without any chest voice participation. Breathy, hooty, light, inefficient. Blow lots of air.) The piano will play each note multiple times so that you continue to hear the pitch, but sing the note only once and hold it while the piano repeats the note.
2. 5 tone scale starting (Ab4-Eb5) ascend to (Bb4-F5) (Aim for pure head voice – as in exercise #1, only now on a running scale pattern)
Moose Call – The purpose of these exercises it to strengthen the head voice and to expand its upper range. (These exercises may also be used to help lighten a heavy registration – In that case do them on a lip trill. If done using a lip trill be sure to lower the larynx and raise the soft palate even though the mouth opening cannot be as tall.)
3. 5 tone scale starting (Ab4-Eb5) ascend to (C5-G5) as in exercise #2, but a little higher now. Sing in head voice but be louder, particularly on the high point of each scale pattern. Be careful not to shift into chest voice on the low notes. The larynx should be down – soft palate high.
4. 5 tone scale starting (Ab4-Eb5) ascend to (Eb5-Bb5) as in exercise #3, but even higher now. Sing in head voice, but sing very strongly with the larynx down and the soft palate high.
Chest Voice – Women
The purpose of these exercises is to develop strength in the lower part of the chest voice. Pulling the strength of the chest voice as low as possible allows the chest voice to provide power without interfering with the middle and upper vocal ranges. Use an [æ] vowel. Try for a very strong sound without overblowing or straining. If it is done properly this will probably not be a pretty sound. Aim to keep the strength and ring in the sound as you descend lower and lower.
14. Basic – 3 tone scale (Bb3-D4)(B3-D#4)(C4-E4) only
15. Down to A – as above, but add (A3-C#4)
16. Down to G – as above, but descend through (G3-B3)
17. Down to F – as above, but descend through (F3-A3)
Vocal Fry – Women
The purpose of this exercise is to pull the chest voice down as low as possible. By working the vocal fry, the low chest will expand downward. Eventually there will be a seamless transition from chest voice into the vocal fry without any “dead spots”.
18. Single notes into fry – Begin on A3 and descend to A0 – Begin the exercise in low chest voice. Use an [æ] vowel. As the notes descend allow the vocal fry to occur whenever it becomes necessary. Do not let the sound become breathy. Rather try to keep the sound strong and resonant as it transitions into the vocal fry. The piano plays each note multiple times so that you can continue to hear the pitch, but sing the note only once and hold it as the piano repeats it.
Octave Pop
The purpose of these exercises is to separate the head voice and the chest voice. That means pulling the chest voice out of the head voice and pulling the head voice out of the chest voice the make them as distinct as possible. As the ability to separate the registration develops, students can work with their teacher to optimize the balance between head voice and chest voice on every note in their range.
19. 5 Tone Octave Pop – The exercise consists of 5 notes to be sung on one consistent flow of breath. Each note is an octave jump from the preceding note. Sing the lower note of each exercise in pure chest on an [æ] vowel. Pop (or crack) to head voice on an [ɔ] vowel for each high note. Pop back and forth between head voice and chest voice for a total of 5 notes. It is important that the chest voice is strong and ringy for each low note, that the sound breaks completely free of chest voice into an easily produced head voice for each high note. (This is not supposed to sound pretty!)
a. Women (B3-B4) up to (Eb3-Eb4)
b. Men (Eb3-Eb4) up to (Ab3-Ab4)
Head Voice – Men
The purpose of these exercises is to isolate as pure a head voice as possible and to begin its development. All of these head voice exercises should be done on an [ɔ] vowel, with the jaw dropped, and with the mouth in head voice position.
27. Single notes around Eb4 – G4
28. Basic 5 tone scale up to G4 – Bb4
29. 5 tone scale down to F3
30. 5 tone scale down to D3
31. Reverse 5 tone scale down to Bb2
Chest Voice – Men
The purpose of these exercises is to develop strength in the lower part of the chest voice. Pulling the strength of the chest voice as low as possible helps to anchor the voice. This is a pre-requisite to healthy coordinated head voice. (powerful, yet easy high notes). Aim for a very strong sound, without overblowing or straining on ALL of these chest voice exercises.
Basic
32. 3 tone scale, start D3, descend to Bb2. Use an [æ] vowel
Descending – Try to keep the strength and vibrancy (ring) in the sound as you descend lower and lower. Use an [æ] vowel
33. Reverse 5 tone scale down to A2
34. Reverse 5 tone scale down to G2
35. Reverse 5 tone scale down to F2
36. Single notes A2 into fry
Vocal Fry – Men
The purpose of this exercise is to pull the chest voice down as low as possible. This also helps to strengthen the ability to keep the larynx down and the soft palate up. By working the vocal fry, the low chest voice will expand downward. Eventually there will be a seamless transition from chest voice into the vocal fry without any notes in between that do not work.
55. Single notes into fry – Begin on C3 and descend to A0 – Sing using an [æ] vowel. Start the exercise in low chest voice. As the notes descend allow the vocal fry to occur whenever it becomes necessary. Do not let the sound become breathy. Rather try to keep the “bight” in the sound as it transitions into the vocal fry. The piano plays each note multiple times so that you can continue to hear the pitch, but sing the note only once and hold it as the piano repeats it.