10 Fun & Easy Warm-ups for your Choir

At Total Choir Resources, we know that it’s a tough job to plan engaging warm-up
sessions for your choir, week in, week out.

With our choirs, we always try to keep the focus on fun, fast-moving exercises that
keep everyone thinking as well as warming-up and developing their voices.

Remember that when you’re working with singers of mixed abilities, particularly
those who are inexperienced, you’ll probably want to avoid a lot of talking. Your
choir is there to sing, not hear a lecture, so lean towards demonstrating rather than
explaining.

Remind your singers to work within their capabilities and to challenge themselves
gently, never straining their voices.

1
This exercise helps everyone to And … relax
relax, while at the same 5me
working on pitch and intervals.
Divide the choir into three sec5ons 2
(vocal parts or randomly). Ask one
part to hum a fairly low star5ng Ask everyone to stand with good posture and
note. Ask the second part to hum a relaxed shoulders.
major (or minor) third above, and
Choose a note for everyone to hum. Ask
the final part to sing a fiCh, forming
them to place the sound at the front of the
a triad.
mouth so that their lips buzz.
Now ask everyone to take a deep
OCen, singers will push the sound forward,
breath and hum the triad for as long
tensing the neck, which is counterproduc5ve.
as they can.
To avoid this ask them to relax the neck
Swap around who’s singing the first,
imagining it was made of jelly. The hum
third and fiCh notes. You can also
should then sound much more relaxed.
experiment with dynamics during
the long note and even add in a
fourth note, such as a major 2nd or
6th.

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 Mix it up
3
4 This is a great way to mix up voices if
you have limited space in your
Mix up the choir into four groups using the
rehearsal venue and don’t want to
same method as in exercise no. 3. Give each
physically move everyone.
group two numbers between 1 and 8,
ensuring that each number is only used once. Choose a simple round such as Row,
Row, Row Your Boat. Get everyone to
Sing the numbers up and down a major scale
sing through it, then divide the choir
(‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc’), then ask the singers to only
into four parts. The easiest way to do
sing their numbers, so group 1 might only
this in a large group is by birthday eg
sing ‘3’ and ‘6’. Together, the four groups
January to March are group 1, April-
should make a whole scale.
June are group 2 etc.
When the choir has got the hang of it, swap
Sing the round again in these mixed
the numbers around and sing the scale faster.
parts.

6
Explore your range
Ask your singers to imagine they’re
geXng on a rollercoaster.
Using a ‘hoo’ sound, start at a low 5
point in your range and make a slow,
upward siren noise to mimic the Choose a series of sounds such as ‘la, leh, lee,
rollercoaster climbing the first hill. loh, loo’.
When you get to the top, let go and
Ask your singers to run up a five-note scale,
swoop down and around the track,
then hold the final note and gently slide back to
incorpora5ng some loops.
the star5ng note.
You can indicate the route to the
At the end of each slide, move up a semitone to
choir with your hand and improvise
work through to the top of the choir’s range
where the ups, downs and loops will
(don’t forget to allow lower voices to drop out
come. Remind your singers that
when they need to)
ranges vary so their own rollercoaster
ride will be unique. Vary the sounds and work down to the bo]om
(allowing upper voices to drop out when they
need to).

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Stay flexible
7 and down a five-note scale (using
Choose a simple song or nursery rhyme with a
reasonably wide range of notes (at least an
octave).
Ask the choir to sing it repeatedly to your
conduc5ng, star5ng slowly and speeding up.
Play around with the tempo, some5mes
accelera5ng, some5mes pulling back, and
move the whole thing up a semitone each
5me.
10
Ask your singers to stand with good
posture and relaxed shoulders.
Demonstrate a short ‘sip’ in-breath,
expanding the abdomen quickly, and
a long out-breath, bringing the
abdomen back in.
Choose a note which is good for all
ranges and ask your choir to take a
quick in-breath then hum the chosen
note on a long out-breath.
Now choose a singer to give you a
word, which can be absolutely
anything (polite!). Ask your singers
to take another in-breath and on the
out-breath sing the chosen word
repeatedly.
Do this a few 5mes, asking a
different singer for a different word
each 5me.
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8
Choose a star5ng note and run up
any vowel and consonant
combina5on).
Then run up and down the scale
twice in one breath. Then three
5mes.
If your choir finds this easy, vary the
scale from five notes a full octave, or
add an arpeggio on the end.
Show your support
9
As space is oCen limited in rehearsal rooms,
ask your singers to turn to the side.
Take a deep in-breath while slowly raising
the arms to the side at shoulder height. Then
ask them to make a ‘hiss’ sound on the out-
breath while lowering their arms.
Repeat this a few 5mes. Remind singers to
focus on crea5ng as much space as they can
in the ribcage and abdominal area.
This is a great breathing exercise and feels
good. We’re oCen guilty of hunching,
especially when siXng in rehearsals. Remind
your singers to work within they physical
capabili5es.
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