Vocal warm-ups

[Deep Thought]

I'm the singer in our band, not out of talent but because I'm the only one who could sing and play at the same time! I think I get away with it, if nothing else I'm loud! These days I help myself out by not singing stuff that's too high for me, and by warming up my voice beforehand. Despite never having had lessons (I was horrified how much they cost!), I warm up, usually in the car, using some techniques I've picked up on YouTube and out of books. I generally start off with low droning and rumbling then start gently going up a scale, working my way up to my highest note, which isn't really very high. I do this with short and long notes, and it seems to work. Even though I have a fairly gravelly voice, folk are often surprised that I don't get sore throats after a gig. Interested how other vocalists warm up.

[lurksalot]

Our singist doesn't really warm up at all , he has a superb singing voice and has had coaching which brought it on loads , but 2 gigs in a weekend seems him knackered , granted, we do too many songs , but he could take a lot more care of his voice, 5 minutes of lips trems and few lah lah lah's doesn't really count .
We do try and plan the set a bit with a few of the less demanding vocals in the first few numbers though , tuneful, but not balls out stuff.

[Kirky]

I have a friend who is an opera singer who does around 3 hours vocal warm-up before a performance.

[JTUK]

[quote name='Kirky' timestamp='1430061797' post='2757579']
I have a friend who is an opera singer who does around 3 hours vocal warm-up before a performance.
[/quote]

In a nutshell... it amazes me that people take so little care of an already fragile instrument
and one that is so important to the band.
We had a limit of 2 hrs for a gig but even that was a struggle so now we have cut it down to
105 mins.
My new project will have 2 main vocals and apart from the mix-up that this gives and the superb harmonies
they're known for, these two singers really can't afford to get into voice flogging territory as their main bands
depend on them.

[ubit]

I find that 4 or 5 pints of lager brings out the best in my voice. Strangely, if I stay sober, I seem to get hoarse quickly. Its a cross I have had to bear for years now

[RockfordStone]

i tend to sing the songs and other songs quietly on the way to gigs to start, and then stretch out my jaw muscles and mouth etc whilst doing notes up and down a range, i can't say im religious, but ive pushed my voice to far in the past so now i take more care.

[lowlandtrees]

I am no singer and definitely cannot sing and play. However I did some singing lessons years ago. If you get the right teacher then I would say that they are worth their weight in stuffed brown envelopes. You don t necessarily need continuous lessons (although many pros do have vocal coaches). I would say book 5 initial lessons from a coach to get the basics.
Some of the warm ups that I learned involved 'placing' and anchoring the voice ie pinpointing which part of the body creates the sound...in the mouth it is the soft palate. Getting your air to vibrate the area of your face around the sinuses etc. Humming siren sounds is good and sounds like moom and mum. Sing your range with the words Kung and Kong(great exercise).
One great excercise I found was talking like Boo Boo (remember Yogi Bear).....this opens and relaxes the gullet. The main anchor is of course breathing, relaxation and posture.
I would say that I am probably an extremely average singer but the lessons improved my voice 10 fold. I wish that I had taken vocal coaching as a teenager (was in my early 50s when I went to coaching) before all the bad habits formed.
Don't be put off by teachers who train classical.