5 Vocal Exercises for Superior Singing
Good vocal exercises can take you from being a decent (or bad) singer to being a singer that everyone in the rooms stops and stares at. Yeah, vocal exercises are important!
Let’s dive right in to the Top 5 Vocal Exercises for Superior Singing, and we’ll have you on your way to being a singer that everyone looks up to in no time.
1. Vocal Exercises – Breathing
Breathe is the most fundamental aspect of singing, and you most use breathing exercises to get the most out of your singing. To practice your breathing, you can use a little trick I learned a long time ago.
First, cut a small square of paper, about 2 or 3 inches on each side. You could also tear the paper if that’s easier, just make sure it is free of adhesive, and very smooth and flat.
Second, find a wall that doesn’t have anything around it. You must be able to face the wall and stand right next to the wall without furniture or wall art getting in your way
Third, use your forefinger to hold the paper against the wall in front of your lips
Fourth, take a deep breathe and gently blow on the paper so that it stays against the wall without you needing to hold it. Count how many seconds you can make it stay against the wall before you run out of breath.
Fifth, repeat this process 5 to 10 times, with the goal of ‘blowing’ the paper against the wall longer each time.
WARNING: Do not faint doing this exercise! If you feel light headed, which you will at first, STOP. You can work your way up gradually, but I don’t want you to pass out and hit your head on the couch while doing these vocal exercises! You will look silly onstage with a big bandage on your head.
Why Do All This Crazy Stuff?
Well, what happens when you practice this breathing exercise? You are forced to use your breath in a consistent manner, and to be conservative of it. This is EXACTLY the same breathing pattern you need to master in order to smoothly hold notes for a long time. By conditioning your breathing with this simple exercise, you go a long way towards improving your singing!
2. Vocal Exercises – Rolling Your Lips
Rolling your lips simply means blowing air out while loosely holding your lips together – think about how you would make a ‘Motorboat’ sound with your lips and you’ve already mastered this vocal exercise!
Why does this help? Well, loosening your facial muscles will help your singing, and by rolling your lips you get the advantage of being all loosened up.
You can repeat this exercise for 1 to 3 minutes – your goal should be to exhale for longer and longer periods each time, so you also get a bit of a breathing exercise bonus here too!
3. Vocal Exercises - Siren
This vocal exercise involves mimicking a siren to warm up the vocal chords. It’s a very simple exercise, since you already know what a siren sounds like. Simply start out with the lowest note in your range, and slowly build up to the highest note in your range.
When you’ve reached the top of your range, move back down slowly to your lowest note.
Repeat this as many times as you can. As your lung capacity gets better, you will be able to do more ‘up and downs’ with this exercise. Running regularly or riding a bike can help immensely with your lung capacity, so I highly recommend that!
4. Vocal Exercises - Humming
Humming is another great vocal exercise that you already know how to do. It also adds on to vocal exercise #2 above: rolling your lips.
However, instead of just making a ‘motorboat’ sound, you will actually add notes. Use a note that is comfortable for you, and experiment with different notes in your range.
Bonus tip: You may also want to alternate between humming the note and saying ‘ah’ – just like at the doctor! You can hum for 2 seconds, then say ‘ah’ for 2 seconds, back and forth.
5. Vocal Exercises - Scales
Finally, we have scales. Scales are a great way to practice hitting your notes well. I won’t labor this point too much, but you can find some scales online or play scales on piano or guitar and sing along with them. This will help you hit notes more accurately, and also warm up your vocal chords – a true win-win!
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Reader Submission
Singer Michael Bombay of Los Angeles was kind enough to write us this article on Vocal Exercises:
“A good singer – no matter how experienced – will always benefit from vocal exercises. In fact, they’ll not only benefit, but come to rely upon them! It is essential for the well being of every singer to always remember their vocal exercises - this can only have a positive effect on their vocal chords, something that every singer should look after and cherish. Bad vocal chords = bad singing, buddy! And damaged vocal chords = no singing. Not Good! The way to avoid damage to your vocal chords is by making sure you always carry out your exercises especially before any performance. It’s not hard, you just need to create the habit, my friend.
There are different vocal exercises that you can practice in order to improve and protect your voice – Jake’s done a great job outlining 5 above.
Practicing the high pitches as well as the low pitches is a very good way to do your vocal exercises – this will prepare both your throat and lungs to sing an awesome set. Scale singing is a very good way to practice. Remember that the more hours you put in practicing, the more benefits and rewards you will no doubt experience.
Every once you’ve achieved a very high level of singing expertise, it’s STILL necessary to always practice your vocal exercises – it’s just like when you exercise your body to keep fit and to stop it becoming sluggish. The same goes for you voice: you must always practice your vocals for it to remain strong and (if possible) show some improvement. Even the professional singers I talk to and jam with will always practice their vocals just about every day – just like professional athletes practice their moves daily.
It makes no difference if you are a world class singer going on tour and top of the bill, or you are singing at a family wedding – you must always ensure that you do your vocal exercises if you want to give a performance that people will enjoy listening to. Like the saying goes: In any profession there is always room for improvement!”
Alright Michael! Thank you for your contribution. I sincerely hope that YOU, Dear Reader, have gotten a TON of value today from this website – thank you kindly for stopping by.
Jake Jones | Founder | LearnHowToSingBetterFast.com