Vocal warm-ups
Three routines from the Scalita app, played on a real piano in your range: a quick warm-up for right before you sing, a full warm-up, and a cool-down for after. Choose the voice type closest to yours, or set your own lowest and highest notes, and press play.
Each routine here is the one in the app, step for step: the same patterns, syllables, tempos and order. What a video can't do is change key for you. Here the piano moves every pattern a half step at a time to fit the range you set, so you sing in your own voice instead of the voice of whoever recorded it.
Not sure which one fits today? Answer the two Find My Warmup questions on this page, the same ones the app asks. If you don't know your range yet, the vocal range test finds your lowest and highest notes.
Quick warm-up
A quick vocal warm-up for right before you sing: five exercises on a real piano, moved to your range. Scalita's Pre-Performance Quick routine, step by step.
Full warm-up
A full vocal warm-up: nine exercises from a tongue trill to an octave and a half, on a real piano in your range, explained step by step.
Vocal cool-down
A gentle vocal cool-down for after a show, a long rehearsal or a tiring day: slow trills and hums on a real piano, and what the research says.
Lip and tongue trills
How to do a lip trill and a tongue trill, which one Scalita starts on, when to switch, and what to try when the trill keeps stopping.
Five-note scale
The five-note scale, 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1, opens most of Scalita's warm-ups. What it is, why teachers use it and what to sing on it, played in your range.
Play it in your range
Piano: Salamander Grand Piano V3 by Alexander Holm, licensed under CC BY 3.0. Retuned, shortened and compressed for this site.
Find My Warmup
Answer a couple of questions
How does your voice feel?
- Ready to go
Fully warmed up or feeling great - Normal
Nothing special, let's go - A bit off
Not at my best today - Tired / strained
Needs gentle care
Gentle / Recovery
What do you want to focus on?
- Just warm me up
General all-purpose warmup
General Warmup - Extend my range
Push your upper and lower limits
Range Extension
A bit off Your voice needs care today. Try a gentler option. - More power
Volume and projection
Power & Volume - Speed & flexibility
Fast runs and precision
Agility & Runs - Breath & stamina
Sustained phrases and control
Breath Control & Stamina - Quick pre-show
Get ready fast
Pre-Performance Quick - Grit / screaming
Distortion and extreme vocals
Heavy Rock / Distortion
A bit off Your voice needs care today. Try a gentler option. - Adaptive Mode
I'll build your warmup as we go
Only in the app
Which one today?
Find My Warmup asks how your voice feels before it asks what you want to work on, and the first answer can overrule the second.
- Tired / strained always leads to the cool-down, played a little slower, whatever you wanted to work on.
- Quick pre-show leads to the quick warm-up, and Just warm me up to the full one.
- A bit off slows any routine down a little, and the app holds back Extend my range and Grit / screaming for the day.
- Ready to go plays the routines a little faster.
How these warm-ups are built
All three start with a trill on a five-note scale. Trills and hums partly close the mouth. Singing teachers and voice therapists have used them for a long time, and many warm-ups, these included, begin with them. In a survey of 117 singers, five-note scales and arpeggios were among the exercises used most.
From there the patterns widen: five notes, then an arpeggio across an octave, then, in the two warm-ups, an octave and a half. Each exercise starts on a comfortable key rather than your lowest, climbs to the top of its range, then comes back down through the keys to the bottom.
Some steps are placed around your voice break instead. Approach only stops just under the break, and Cross once goes over it and back. Between keys, the piano plays a short chord to give you the new key and a beat to breathe.
Common questions
How long should a vocal warm-up be?
There's no agreed number. In a survey of 117 singers, the warm-up length they preferred most was 5 to 10 minutes. On a two-octave range, the routines here take 6 to 8 minutes (quick), 12 to 14 (full) and 7 to 11 (cool-down).
Are there different warm-ups for female and male voices?
The exercises are the same for everyone. What changes is the key: pick the preset closest to your voice, from soprano down to bass, or set your own range, and the piano moves every pattern to fit. A preset only sets where the piano plays, so choose it by where your voice sits rather than by gender. The voice types page describes each one.
Do vocal warm-ups actually work?
Singers feel them. In one study, all twelve classically trained singers noticed changes in their tone and control after 25 minutes of warming up. Listeners heard a difference less often, mostly in singers whose vibrato had evened out. A warm-up is mainly for you: it's how you find today's voice before the singing counts.
Should I warm up when I am sick?
No. If your throat hurts or your voice is hoarse, rest it, and see a doctor if it doesn't clear up. The cool-down is for a voice that's tired from singing, not for one that's ill.
Sources
- Gish, Kunduk, Sims and McWhorter (2012). Vocal warm-up practices and perceptions in vocalists: a pilot survey. Journal of Voice 26(1).
- Moorcroft and Kenny (2013). Singer and listener perception of vocal warm-up. Journal of Voice 27(2).
- Titze (2006). Voice training and therapy with a semi-occluded vocal tract: rationale and scientific underpinnings. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 49(2).
- Ragan (2018). The efficacy of vocal cool-down exercises. Journal of Singing 74(5).