a tempo Voice Center, LLC www.atempovoicecenter.com at Fort Worth ENT

Dr. Titze’s Favorite Vocal Warm-ups

Lip trill, tongue trill, humming, or phonation into narrow tubes  How to: o Lip trills: raspberries o Tongue trill: roll your ‘r’ o Humming: closed mouth and let sound resonate in the middle of your face o Phonate (make sound) into a straw  Benefits: o Gets respiratory muscles into full action rapidly o Minimizes upward force on vocal folds because of positive oral pressure o Spreads the vocal folds to vibrate their edges only o Lowers phonation threshold pressure by providing an intertive acoustic load

Two-octave pitch glides  How to: o On “eeeeeee” o On “ooooooo” o Start at a low pitch and glide up all 16 notes and come back down. o Start at a high pitch and glide down all 16 notes and go back up.  Benefits: o Allows practice from the low chest voice to high pure falsetto, and mixed o Gives a maximal stretch to vocal folds o Avoids difficult transitions o Gets your fundamental frequency above F1 for varying acoustic loads

Forward tongue roll and extension  How to: o Let your tongue roll forward and extend out o Do this on “ahhhh” and “eeeeee” o Do this on scales up and down  Benefits: o Creates independence between phonatory and articulatory structures o Loosens tongue and jaw o Helps keep vertical larynx position stable during articualtion Adapted from: National Center for Voice and Speech – Dr. Titze’s Five Favorite vocal warm-ups for singers and Titze, I.R. (2006) Voice training and therapy with a semi-occluded vocal tract: Rationale and scientific underpinnings.

a tempo Voice Center, LLC www.atempovoicecenter.com at Fort Worth ENT

Messa di Voce; semi-occluded, high vowels, low vowels  How to: o Messa di Voce is simply starting soft, growing slowly louder (crescendo) and then slowly growing softer again (decrescendo) (placing the voice) o Do this with raspberries, humming, or through a straw o Do this with high vowels o Do this with low vowels  Benefits: o Engages the layers of vocal fold tissue gradually in vibration from the middle to the outside o Helps singers match tension in muscle to tension in ligament o Tests symmetry of crescendo and decrescendo control under changing respiratory conditions o Makes all inner muscles of larynx coordinate with changing lung pressure

Staccato on arpeggios  How to: o Staccato: a note of shortened duration o Arpeggio: a type of broken chord possibly (1 3 5 1 5 3 1 or C E G C G E C) o Start on the tonic note, finish the arpeggio, then move up a half-step o You can do this from a low tonic note to a high and back down again  Benefits: o Elicits clean and rapid voice onset, establishing a dominant mode of vibration o Simultaneously trains muscles which open and close the vocal folds with tensor muscles during pitch changes

Adapted from: National Center for Voice and Speech – Dr. Titze’s Five Favorite vocal warm-ups for singers and Titze, I.R. (2006) Voice training and therapy with a semi-occluded vocal tract: Rationale and scientific underpinnings.