Singing warm-up exercises, in the order your voice wants them
Pick how many minutes you have and what you're warming up for. You get a guided routine with a timer and a reference tone for every exercise, built to run on your phone while you stand at the kitchen counter.
Not sure? The free vocal range test takes about two minutes and tells you.
10-minute warm-up for getting back into it
Six exercises, starting on C4. Tap any exercise to jump to it.
Hands on your lower ribs. Breathe in low for four counts, then hiss the air out on a long "sss" for as long as it stays steady.
That's the warm-up. Your voice is ready for whatever's next.
Run it again tomorrow, or scroll down and we'll email it to you so it's one tap away next time.
Reference tones are a starting pitch, not a target. If a note feels like a reach, stay on the one below and let it climb tomorrow.
A warm-up moves from the body to the voice, and from small to full
The five-minute version and the twenty-minute version keep the same shape. Longer routines don't add harder exercises; they let each stage climb further before moving on.
1. Breath and body
Low breathing, a loose jaw, shoulders down. Thirty seconds here changes everything that follows. Most people skip it, then wonder why the first hum sounds tight.
2. Semi-closed sounds
Lip trills, hums, "ng". The lips or tongue take the effort so the folds don't have to. This is where a returning voice does its safest work.
3. Sirens and slides
Glides across the break, chest into head and back. No notes to hit, so nothing to miss. The point is smoothness, not height.
4. Scales on open vowels
Five-note and octave patterns on "ah", "ee", "oo". Now the voice is warm enough to sit on a pitch and hold it. Longer routines climb more keys here.
Ingrid Moss is a vocal coach, not a clinician. Warm-ups are for a healthy voice on an ordinary day. Hoarseness that lasts more than two weeks, pain, or a sudden change in your voice belongs with a laryngologist, not a warm-up.
Your 10-minute warm-up has its own link
Bookmark it or send it to your phone. It opens straight into this routine, tones and all. No account, nothing stored on our side.
A warm-up gets the voice ready. The app is what it's ready for.
Vocal Refresh is a daily session, five to twenty minutes, built around a short voice check that finds where your range actually sits today. Practice is private. Nobody hears it but you. It's in development, and the waitlist is the only way in.
- A voice check that sets your level, then a daily session for that voice
- A voice journal, so you can hear the change over weeks
- A free tier and a 14-day trial at launch
- Founding pricing, held for three years, for people who joined before launch
One short note when Vocal Refresh opens. Unsubscribe any time.
The 5-minute vocal warm-up
Most days this is the one. Four exercises, low and quiet, in the order below. It is the routine the builder makes when you pick 5 minutes and "Getting back into it", starting on C4.
- 1
Breath first · 1:00
Hands on your lower ribs. Breathe in low for four counts, then hiss the air out on a long "sss" for as long as it stays steady.
- 2
Gentle hum · 1:15
Lips together, teeth apart. Hum the note and feel the buzz on your lips. Quiet is the goal. Each repeat steps up one key, C4 to E4.
- 3
Lip trill slides · 1:30
Blow air through loose lips so they flutter, and slide from the note up five and back down. If the trill stops, the air stopped.
- 4
Sirens on "oo" · 1:15
Slide from the low note up an octave and back, like a distant siren. Quiet, slow, and let the voice flip where it wants to.
The 14 singing warm-up exercises the builder draws from
Every routine is some of these, in this order: body, then closed sounds, then slides, then open vowels. The builder picks which ones and how long, based on your minutes and your goal.
Breath first
Low breath in for four, long "sss" out. Body stage. No tones.
Loosen the jaw and shoulders
Shoulder rolls, a big chewed yawn, two sighs on "hah". Morning-voice opener.
Gentle hum
Lips together, teeth apart, buzz on the lips. Held note, climbs a key at a time.
Lip trill slides
Fluttering lips over a five-note slide up and down. The safest work a returning voice can do.
"Ng" five-note
The "ng" from "sing", tongue up, mouth open. Up five, down five, small and buzzy.
Sirens on "oo"
Octave glide up and back. Chest into head voice and no note to miss.
Small sirens
Same siren over five notes only. For mornings and sore-ish days.
Octave slides on "oo"
Slide to the octave and hold a beat. Stay light at the top. Top-notes goal.
Five-note "ah"
Open vowel, relaxed jaw, up five and down. First exercise that sits on a pitch.
Vowel run: ee · eh · ah · oh · oo
One note, five vowels, same feeling in the throat throughout.
Descending head-voice "oo"
Start at the top of the five-note pattern and come down light.
Arpeggio on "ah"
Do · mi · so · do · so · mi · do. Bigger leaps, still easy on the top: quieter, not louder.
Tongue twister on pitch
"Red leather, yellow leather" on one note, crisp consonants, then a key up. Gets the words ready.
First line of your song
The opening line of tonight's song, half volume, twice. Then stop.
Reference tones start on A3, C4 or E4 depending on where your voice sits. Not sure which? The free vocal range test takes about two minutes.
Questions people ask about vocal warm-ups
Is a 5 minute vocal warm up enough?
For a normal day, yes. Five minutes of breath, lip trills and a few sirens will get a healthy voice moving. Save the 15- and 20-minute routines for a rehearsal, a performance, or a day you plan to sing for an hour or more.
Should I warm up every day, even if I'm not singing?
A short one helps, the same way a walk helps on a rest day. If you're coming back after years away, five gentle minutes most days does more than one long session a week. Skip it entirely on a day your voice is hoarse or sore.
Why does the routine start so low?
The folds are thicker and slower first thing, and after time away. Starting low and climbing a key at a time lets the voice arrive at its top without a jump. If the starting note feels too low, pick "Higher" and the whole routine shifts up.
What's the difference between a warm-up and vocal exercises?
A warm-up prepares the voice for singing; it should feel light and end before you're tired. Vocal exercises build something over weeks: range, stamina, a smoother break. This page is the warm-up. The daily session in the Vocal Refresh app is the exercise.
Do I need the reference tones?
No. They give you a starting pitch so you're not guessing, and they climb a key at a time so you can hear where you are. Mute them if you already know your starting note, or if you're warming up somewhere you'd rather not have a phone playing notes.
My voice cracks on the sirens. Is that bad?
That's the break between chest and head voice, and everyone has one. Make the siren quieter and slower, and let the crack happen. Over weeks it narrows on its own. Pushing through it louder is the one thing that makes it worse.
More on warm-ups: the complete vocal warm-up guide · find your vocal range