Simple Vocal Exercises

The most important thing to consider when choosing vocal exercises is the demands of the musical pieces you will be performing. So before you begin any vocal exercises, you should look over your music to identify the musical characteristics of each piece. Determine whether you will be required to reach for the outer limits of your vocal range. Take note of the pace of the music. Fast music requires quick flexibility, while slow music requires well-controlled breathing..

Vocal Exercises for the Low Notes

It doesn't matter whether you sing bass or tenor, alto or soprano, sometimes you'll need to reach toward the bottom of your vocal range. You may need to slide down some octaves to prepare your voice to hit the notes down there. To do this you must begin with easy notes. So start your warm-up vocal exercises in the middle of your range. You'll want to move down the scale from there.

You may wish to do your vocal exercises for only one octave at a time at first, moving one half step down at a time, making a sound such as “ooo”, “ahh”, “vee”, or “voh”. You can repeat the exercise sliding down fifths with “vaw”. For more variation, you can start with one pitch, move down, and then move back, such as “soh”-“doh”-“soh”. When you're done, you can go back up with “doh”-“soh”-“doh”.

Vocal Exercises for the High Notes

Again, it doesn't matter whether you sing bass or tenor, alto or soprano, sometimes you'll need to reach toward the top of your vocal range. Doing simple arpeggios up and down will help. Use a chord, such as “doh”-“mee”-“soh”-“doh”-“soh”-“mee”-“doh”. You'll be going up by a half-step each time you repeat. You can use any of the aforementioned sounds you like as you move through these notes.

If you want to make things even more intense, and get additional benefits, you can arpeggio upward, turn, and then go back down an octave. In other words, you'll do something like “doh”-“mee”-“soh”-“doh”, “tee”-“doh”-“rae”, and then go all the way down an octave, one tone at a time. When you start the next arpeggio, you'll go up a half step higher. 

A similar, but more simple exercise you can do is to arpeggio upward until you staccato the high note. Then repeat the high note with a light staccato several more times. The sound “hah” works well for this exercise.

Vocal Exercises for Quick Flexibility

Triplets are excellent vocal exercises for developing the type of quick-twitch flexibility you'll need for musical pieces with complex vocal maneuvers or quick tempos. For your triplets, use eighth-notes or sixteenth-notes. Go up and down in a variety of patterns, with plenty of overlap. This is a simple version of a triplets vocal exercise.

Going up and down with ascending and descending thirds can also be a productive exercise. You can vary the notes, keys, and scales based on the pieces you need to perform. You'll want to go through this one as fast as you can.

Vocal Exercises for Well-Controlled Breathing

You may want to perform the ever-popular buzz slide vocal exercises when you need to build up your support system for controlled breathing. Proper breathing is essential to singing well, so you need to make sure you've got your whole support system functioning at peak when you perform. Begin with a comfortable tone in the middle of your range. Slide down a fifth. For example, do “soh”-“doh”. Do this repeatedly, moving down a half step with each repetition. The buzz part comes in when you do a descending triad, such as “soh”-“mee”-”doh” while sliding from one tone to the next.

You'll also want to do this repeatedly, moving down a half step with each repetition. For your finale, do slides with five tones, such as “soh”-“fah”-“mee”-“rae”-”doh”. If you still need a final breathing tuneup, try a messa di voce. This is nothing more than making a single “ah” sound on a note in the middle of your range while varying your volume level up and down.