Tips on How to Warm Up the Voice

It happens all the time. You wake up in the morning and you know you've had a lack of sleep the night before. As you go to speak, you yourself can barely understand the words that are coming out of your mouth. This groggy feeling would appear to be death for singers, but what about taking this situation and using it to your advantage?

This is exactly where vocal fry comes into play. Vocal fry is known as the lowest vocal register and produces the lowest frequency sound¹. This low frequency sound is made by the vocal cords vibrating very slowly along the length of the vocal cords. As the vocal cords slowly vibrate along their entire length, your body sends signals from your brain to activate your voice box. As you lightly produce this groggy sound, you are preparing your voice for speaking and singing while removing mucous from the throat area.

Vocal fry is often used to gently warm up the voice and prepare it for singing. One good way to achieve vocal fry is to speak like the cartoon character Elmer Fudd. Once you imitate him, you are effectively wielding the technique of vocal fry. Because vocal fry is a slow vibration along the length of the vocal cords, it gently massages the cords and gently removes unneeded tension from the throat area.

Therapeutic healing is also associated with using vocal fry¹, so the benefits are two-fold: 1) vocal fry warms up your voice by moving the vocal cords in an easy fashion and 2) vocal fry works to heal the vocal cords from damage caused by singing too hard or for too long a period of time.

Practice this technique while you are in the shower (after waking up) or after a strenuous time of singing. Either way, vocal fry will leave your vocal cords feeling relaxed and free - a must for any serious singer. Vocal fry will also continue to heal those damaged cords and condition your voice to sing as it was made to do. As you continue to use this technique, you will find yourself waking up to a more relaxed, refreshed and refurbished voice ready to meet the demands of today.

1. McKinney, James (1994). The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults. Genovex Music Group. ISBN13: 978-1565939400.