If you search YouTube for vocal warm-up exercises, you’ll be inundated with scales, lip trills, and glissandos—often sung quickly, and especially very high and loud. Not only vocal teachers but also “singing celebrities” contribute to this trend, with the latter sometimes even posting videos live from their dressing rooms or on the red carpet.
Although I, too, regularly sing scales and lip trills during my warm-up, my favorite warm-up consists of singing long notes. Singing long notes is a pleasant and soothing way to “check in with yourself”: How am I feeling today? How does my body feel? How is my breath? How does my voice sound? This focus fosters the connection between breath, voice, and body and also makes you more aware of how they’re all interconnected.
I usually do this exercise standing up, but you can also sit down, as long as your back is straight and your neck is elongated. It’s best to sing an open “aa” so you can let your tongue relax and your jaw hang loosely. Choose a pitch somewhere in the middle of your range and sing until you run out of breath, but don’t push yourself to the limit. As you sing, observe: where do you feel movement? How do your tongue, lips, and jaw feel? What do you feel in your abdomen, back, and ribs? What do you hear in your voice? At the end of the note, relax your jaw and abdominal muscles and let the breath flow back in. Repeat this exercise, each time going down a half-step and then back up again. While singing, you can relax your shoulders with slow circular movements.
In this exercise, it’s especially important to let go of the idea that you’re singing “beautifully”; just see what comes. If you do this exercise regularly, you’ll notice that the results vary from day to day. It’s important that you observe this without passing judgment. Good luck!
© 2026 Ineke Vandoorn
ZINGmagazine nr 127- febr/mrt 2026