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If you’re a voice teacher looking for the best easy vocal warm ups for beginners to help improve breath control and vocal range, look no further!

I have had numerous requests for a list of my go-to vocal warm ups, so here they are! This list is the one I use for beginner students, but in all honesty, they can be used for every level. I use every one of these warm ups for my own voice; they will work great for every skill level from beginner to advanced, and they are great vocal warm ups for kids all the way to adults.

I do add more advanced vocal warm ups to the regimen as the student progresses. Stay tuned for a post of my warm ups for more experienced students!

My favorite easy vocal exercises for beginners (of all ages)

I’ve broken my list down into time slots – my vocal warm ups build upon each other, depending on how much time I have (typically that correlates to how long the lesson is – I try to allot 1/3 of the lesson to warm ups). My 5-minute list is comprised of the ones I always do. Then, as time allows, I’ll add the others.

These are all great easy vocal warm ups for kids, adults, women, men, and everyone in-between to help them improve their breath control, increase their vocal range, and start singing more confidently. I use them with all my students!

Important: I do some light stretching and posturing with my students before we get to the actual vocal warm ups – read this post for that routine.

My 5 minute vocal exercises for beginners

Hooty Vocalizations

If you think of an owl, you’ll do this exercise right.

Lightly, using “siren” resonance, say “who, who, whooooo” in ascending pitch (no particular pitch, but each should be higher than the last).

Repeat the sound but on an “e” vowel: “Hee, hee, heeeeeee!”

The goal here is to open up the throat and start to feel for full resonance. I will have the student do this a few times if they are coming into the lesson completely cold.

Vocal Sirens

You know what a police siren sounds like? That’s what this exercise is.

The student should start at the bottom of their range, slide up to the top of their range, and back down.

The important part of this exercise is the stretching, or sliding, through an entire register. They can be done at any speed or in any register, as long as the pitch shifts are smooth and connected.

Click here if you want to see or hear how it’s done.

Lip Trills

Lip trills are where you purse your lips together and blow gently through them, making them vibrate. I like to use lip trills on a variety of different vocal exercises for beginners such as:

• Staccato arpeggios

Staccato lip trills are a great way to engage the core and warm up those support muscles! I like to do them in a 1-3-5-3-1 pattern, or a descending 5-3-1 pattern.

For some additional ear training, alternate between major and minor arpeggios!

• Fifth slides

Like the name suggests, sliding lip trills in 5ths (I go 1-5-1 in each key).

My 10 minute vocal exercises routine for beginners

Like I mentioned at the beginning, my 10 minute vocal warm up routine includes everything from my 5 minute vocal warm up, plus…

Straw phonation

If you are a voice teacher and you are not using straw phonation, I would like to strongly urge you to consider it.

It is when you sing a vocal warm up (or a song, or part of a song) through a straw! We don’t have time to get into the scientific specifics here, but it works some almost literal magic with support, focus of tone, and placement. If you want to read about why straw phonation works so well, here’s a great article.

Any of these exercises benefit from utilizing straw phonation. I switch it around to keep my students on their toes!

5-note scales up and down

This is the “stereotypical” vocal exercise that most people think of when they think of vocal warmups. Many times done on an “ah,” and is in a 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 pattern, usually ascending.

Here’s what I’ll say about this one: it’s good. I use it. However, I will switch up the used vowel depending on the student, and make sure I span their range with it. That usually means starting in the middle and heading up, then bringing it back down on a descending 5-note scale (5-4-3-2-1).

Nih-Neh-Noh-Nah

I love this one! I’m including a little sheet music picture here, because it’s hard to explain with just text:

The cool thing about this vocal exercise, especially for beginners, is the vowel work – finding cohesive resonance across all the vowel sounds in this exercise is challenging and extremely beneficial for the student.

The key is to use pure vowels. think:

knee, neh, noh, nah

My 15 minute vocal warm ups for beginners

My 15 minute vocal warm up routine includes all the vocal warm ups from the 10 minute routine, plus…

Breathing cycles

Breath support work is, of course, very important, but also a by-product of the lip trills and straw phonation. However, when I have a little bit more time, I like to do some more intensive training to really help the student lock into quality breath control.

On breaths in, fill the lungs entirely, but take the whole time. On holds, don’t close the back of the throat (don’t do a glottal stop to hold the air), but suspend the air using your support muscles. On breaths out, empty lungs completely, but take the whole time!

at a pace of 60bpm (one beat per second), use the following pattern of beats:

Breathe in	Hold	Breathe Out
4	6	4
4	8	4
6	8	6
6	10	6

As the student progresses, you can up the number of beats in each column.

Fun Vocal Warm Up Twist: instead of having them breathe out for a certain number of beats, see how long they can breathe out on an “f” or an “s.” Record how many beats it takes them to run out of breath and have them try to beat their high score. With older or more advanced students, I often have them compete with me!

Mommy made me Mash my M&M’s, oh no! – a favorite, fun vocal warm up for kids

Fellow theater people, this one’s for you. As quickly as they can, they sing the sentence:

This exercise is easily one of my favorite vocal warm ups for kids – it is fun, silly, and helps warm up the articulators as well as helps them navigate faster moving notes. Plus, the silliness of it encourages the shyer kiddos to project and use their diaphragm (that everyone uses when they laugh!)

There you have it – my favorite easy vocal warm ups for beginners.

Keep in mind: these vocal exercises can be (and should be) modified or altered for the needs of each student. The philosophies I use when deciding how to do that will be in another post (to come), but these exercises are a great starting point!

If you want some extra help with your first voice lesson plan, click here for our easy guide.

If you have any questions, or have any beginner vocal warm ups you think should be on this list, leave a comment!