Dr.

Titze's Favorite Five vocal warmups for singers

1 Lip trill, tongue  Gets respiratory muscles into full action

. trill, humming,  rapidly
or phonation into  Minimizes upward force on vocal folds
narrow tubes  because of positive oral pressure
(all partial  Spreads the vocal folds to vibrate their
occlusions of edges only
vocal   Lowers phonation threshold pressure by
tract) on glides, providing an inertive acoustic load
scales, or 
arpeggios
2 Two-octave pitch  Low chest to high pure falsetto
glides, up   mixed voice
and down, high  Gives maximal stretch to vocal folds (first
vowels /i/ or /u/ ligament, then muscle)
 Maximum dichotomy between TA and CT
muscles; then unity between them
 Avoids the difficult passaggi
 Gets Fo above F1 for varying acoustic
loads

3 Forward tongue  Creates independence between the

. roll and  phonatory and articulatory structures
extension, vowel  Loosens tongue and jaw
sequence  Helps keep vertical larynx position stable
/a/-/i/, scales during articulation

4 Messa di voce,  Engages the layers of vocal fold tissue

. proceeding  gradually in vibration, medial to lateral
from a partially  Help singer match tension in muscle to
occluded tract,  tension in ligament
to high vowels, to  Tests symmetry of crescendo versus
low vowels decrescendo control under changing
respiratory conditions
 Makes all intrinsic muscles of the larynx
work in coordination with changing lung
pressure

5 Staccato on  Elicits clean and rapid voice onset,

. arpeggios establishing a dominant mode of vibration
 Trains adductor/abductor muscles
simultaneously with tensor muscles during
pitch change