Breathing Tips

&
Vocal Warm Ups

Posture for Singing

Establish correct posture by standing up straight with your
hands above your head. Slowly bring your arms to your
side, relaxing your shoulders.

Keep feet flat on the floor and hip width apart, keeping the
knees soft.

Your head should free flowing and focused straight ahead,

not tilted up, down, or to the side.

Breathing

Video courtesy of Berklee Online

Anne Peckham, author and instructor. "Breathe and Sing," from Voice Technique 101.

Breathing Exercises
1. Sit in a chair and bend over, hands touching the floor.
Relax your head down and keep it loose. Breathe in slowly,
feeling your ribs and back expand. Hold your breath for a few
seconds and then exhale slowly. Repeat.

2. Inhale on 4 beats, hold for 4 beats, exhale for 4 beats,

then rest for 4 beats. As you make progress, increase the
count to 8, 10 and 12 counts for each step.

3. At mm=80bpm, inhale for 8 beats, sipping in air twice for

each beat. Exhale for 16 beats, using 2 short hisses per beat.

4. Follow instructions for inhalation, as in #2. Exhale by

singing ah on a comfortable pitch for 16 beats, without
collapsing the ribs.

Vocal Warm Ups

Follow these directions for all audio warm-up
exercises.

Listen for the count-off.

Listen to one measure of the given key.
Listen to the demonstration of the exercise.
Now its your turn to do the exercise listen
carefully to the key changes.

Sing in the octave thats most comfortable for

your voice.

1. Descending Fifth Liptrill Slide

Open mouth and loosely close your lips together.

A proper breath, loose lips and a steady release
of air should create the lip trill. If you have
trouble with the lip trill, try adding gentle
pressure to the corners of your mouth with your
index fingers.

If the trill is too difficult, do this exercise on an

open-mouth, closed-lip hum.

2. Five-Note Descending Pattern

Sing the word me and open up to

a yah in order to create the
meeyah sound.

3. Fifth slide liptrill + Octave slide +

OO

Using a liptrill (as in warm up #1) slide up a

perfect 5th and back down. For the octave slide,
relax the lips and create a hooty owl round
oo.

If the octave leap is too difficult, hold the

relaxed,

low oo for 4 beats.

4. Skipping Thirds Pattern

First, speak ee, ay, ah, oh, oo. Notice how the
lips transition from an open position into the
rounded hooty oo position. Try to sing this line
in a smooth, flowing manner, without breaks
between notes (legato).

5. Major Triad Pattern

Sing this pattern with a loose jaw and relaxed

tongue.

All warm up audio used by permission

The Contemporary Singer (2nd Edition): Elements of Vo
cal Technique
by Anne Peckham, published by Berklee Press.