Guided vocal warm-up exercises
Singing warm-ups that count you in and score your pitch as you sing. The mic comes on only when you press start, and your audio never leaves this device.
Free guided practice today: 5:00 left of 5:00·Pro has no daily limit
Morning reset
Half awake is fine. Six tiny exercises that ask nothing of a cold voice.
6 exercises·~4 min·Scored as you sing
- First hum
- Lip-trill wake-up
- Small three-note climb
- Easy fourth siren
- Sighing slide
- +1 more
Today's three
One to warm up on, then two that need you most: picked from your recent scores, or from the start of the path until you have some. Tempo follows how each went last time. The same three all day.
Programs. One to twelve weeks of warmups, breath and check-ins, planned day by day.
Browse programsHow a warmup works here
- Each exercise plays its pattern once, counts you in with two beats, then scores your pitch as you sing it back with the guide underneath you.
- The key moves a semitone every rep: most exercises climb and then come back down, and the descending ones start high and step down. In a routine, after the set number of reps the next exercise introduces itself and starts on its own. A single exercise keeps going until you press End.
- At the end you get one summary: score, stars, XP, and the streak you just kept alive.
Scoring needs your microphone. Audio is read and analyzed in this browser and never leaves your device.
Sing at a comfortable volume. Stop if a note hurts or feels strained, and rest if your voice turns hoarse or scratchy.
Audio setupDefault mic·Headphones
Sing into a better mic than the one your laptop lid picked, and every score gets more honest.
Free · Pro adds the coach
Warmup routines
Pick a length, press startUntil you take the range test, warmups stay between A2 and E4 (A3 and E5 an octave up), and either octave counts. Take the range test and they fit your measured range.
Hums, the bubble, the straw and a slow hoo, then easy scales, a held note and a straw slide to cool down. Start here if you have never warmed up on purpose.
Wider sirens and intervals, a minor ladder, staccato, and long holds that swell or wobble. The everyday middle of a practice session.
A full-octave siren, clean sixth leaps, work past the octave and fast runs, for a voice that is already moving freely.
Themed sets that pick up where the path ends.
Why do singers warm up?
Singers warm up to coordinate breath, vocal-fold vibration and register changes before asking the voice for anything difficult. A warmup is closer to a pianist's scales than to a runner's stretching: the point is coordination, not loosening, and a short run of quiet, connected sound is the usual shape.
The exercises that show up in most teachers' warmups — lip trills, hums, sirens, five-note scales — share a design. They keep the tone quiet, keep the airflow steady, and move pitch gradually so the voice changes register without a jolt. That is why they are boring, and why the boring version works.
A warmup is also preparation for effort. Asking for volume or height before breath and fold closure are coordinated tends to push a singer into squeezing rather than supporting, and a coordinated voice usually reaches the same note with less force. A warmup does not make a voice ready for something it was never ready to sing.
Each warmup here plays its pattern once, counts you in, then scores your pitch as you sing it back. The key moves a semitone every rep, whatever the score: most exercises climb and then come back down, and the descending ones start high and step down, so one exercise covers a run of keys instead of sitting at one fixed height.
How to warm up your voice before singing
A useful warmup runs about ten minutes and stays quiet throughout. If you are getting loud or reaching, the warmup has turned into practice.
- 01
Start with breath, not sound
Half a minute of slow, low breathing before any note. Let the belly move rather than the shoulders. This sets the support you will use for everything after it.
- 02
Hum or lip trill through the middle
Begin with closed, gentle sound in the comfortable middle of your voice. Semi-occluded sounds — hums, lip trills, straw phonation — reduce the effort needed to make a clear tone, which is exactly what a cold voice needs.
- 03
Add gentle sirens
Slide slowly from low to high and back on an 'ng' or a hum. Sirens take the voice through its register transitions without letting it stop and brace at any one point.
- 04
Move to open vowels on five-note scales
Now open the sound. Sing the pattern back, matching pitch as closely as you can; the score tells you where you drifted. Keep the volume moderate — accuracy first, size later.
- 05
Let the key move, and stop early
Each rep moves the key a semitone, whether or not the last rep scored well, so stopping is your job. If the top of a ladder stops feeling easy, open Adjust and nudge Transpose down, or end the exercise, rather than pushing through. Ending a warmup at the edge of your range is how a warmup becomes fatigue.
- 06
Finish where you started
Come back down through the middle for a minute of quiet sound. The voice you finish the warmup with is the one you start singing with.
Ten quiet minutes beats twenty loud ones
The most common beginner mistake is treating a warmup as a performance — full volume, top of the range, straight in. That fatigues the voice before the real practice starts.
- Keep every warmup quieter than you think you need to; volume is the last thing to add
- If a pattern is uncomfortable at the top, transpose it down or end it rather than pushing through it
- Lip trills and hums feel silly and earn their place: they make clear tone easy at low effort
- Warm up before the range test, before song practice, and before recording anything you plan to keep
Aim the warmup at the thing you're about to do
Once the basic routine is automatic, the warmup becomes preparation for a specific demand — a belted chorus, a long legato line, a session where you need consistency over an hour.
- Warm toward the register your material actually sits in rather than sweeping the whole range every time
- Use the per-pattern accuracy scores to find the interval or vowel that reliably drifts, then drill that shape
- Note the semitone where accuracy dips: a dip that turns up in the same place every session is usually a passaggio, not a limit
- Pro adds three technique packs: belt prep, a head-voice builder and a mix builder
How long should a vocal warmup take?
There is no fixed rule. About ten minutes is a common length for ordinary practice, with a little longer before a demanding sing. Longer is not better — past a point you are spending voice rather than preparing it.
Do I need to warm up before every practice session?
Before anything that asks for range, volume or accuracy, yes. Quiet, mid-range noodling is closer to a warmup than to a demand, so it can double as one.
What is a lip trill and why do teachers keep asking for it?
You blow air through loosely closed lips so they flutter while you make a pitch. The partial closure of the mouth makes it easier for the vocal folds to vibrate efficiently, so you get clear tone at low effort — useful for a cold voice, and for finding a smooth transition between registers.
Should I warm down after singing?
A couple of minutes of quiet humming or gentle descending slides after heavy singing helps the voice settle. It matters most after a long, loud session, which is exactly when singers skip it.
Can I warm up without making noise?
Mostly, yes. Hums, lip trills and straw phonation are quiet enough for thin walls, and they are the effective part of the routine anyway. Silent breathing exercises prepare the support but do not warm the voice itself.
Warmups, ear training, breath drills and song practice share 5 free minutes of guided practice a day; Suede Pro removes the limit.