Mix it up Monday: Dr.

Ingo Titzes Five

Favorite Vocal Warm-ups for Singers
Mix it up Monday is a new series on the blog. Each Monday I will post an exercise for you
to try out in the studio or in your own practice. It is easy for teachers, and singers, to fall into
a routine and use the same exercises over and over again. My hope is these posts will give
you new ideas each week to keep things exciting for you and your students. If you have an
idea you would like to share, please comment below. If you want to receive a message each
time a new post is added, be sure to follow the blog. Thanks for reading! ~Matt

Dr. Ingo Titze

Dr. Ingo Titze is the Executive Director of the National Center for Voice and Speech,
President of the Pan-American Vocology Association, and the creator of straw phonation.
Dr. Titze is especially interested in singers and has made countless contributions to our
understanding of the vocal mechanism. Today I want to feature his advice for how to warm-
up.

Dr. Titze published an article in the Journal of Singing detailing what he believes are five
essential exercises for warming-up the voice.

1. Dr. Titze suggests starting with lip trills, tongue trills, humming or straw phonation.
These exercises activate the respiratory system and improve vocal fold closure.

2. Second, he suggests two-octave glides on /i/ or /u/. These stretch the vocal folds and
require use of both the thyroarytenoid and cricothyroid muscles.

3. Next he suggests /a/-/i/ scales with a forward tongue roll and extension. These help
loosen the tongue and jaw and cultivate independence between the vocal folds and the
articulators.

4. Fourth, he suggests messa di voce exercises, which require fine motor control of the
vocal mechanism in order to regulate vocal fold closure and air flow.

5. Finally, he suggests staccati on arpeggios.

Ive found this warm-up routine to be extremely effective in my studio and my students can
easily understand what they need to do and why these exercises work. For more information,
check out the original article in the Journal of Singing, January/February 2001, volume 57,
number 3, pages 51-52 or check out a reduced version here on the National Center for Voice
and Speech website. Also be sure to check out Dr. Titzes numerous books for sale on the
NCVS website.

Try these out this week with your students and comment below to let me know what you
think or if you have other ideas that align with Dr. Titzes suggestions.

Have a great week!