Unlock Your Voice: Best exercise to strengthen your voice

Have you ever wanted to sing with more warmth and richness? What if I told you there is a singing exercise that you can do that has worked with all of my students?

It's kind of a funny exerice. I actually felt embarrassed when I first introduced it to my adult choir. I felt my cheeks burn as I described how to do this exercise. Surely I was as red as a tomatoe. It didn't help that I felt my stomach doing flips as warming them up for an upcoming worship service-and I was their brand new director. What must they think of me?

I actually planned to leave it completely out of warm-ups the next week because I thought they must think I was ridiculous even though I had seen it work with my students. I started to end the warm-up and one of my altos told me that she wanted to do the "robot" exercise. I was stunned.

A couple of sopranos nodded and agreed and told me that it helped them tremendously. We've done this warm-up exercise ever since every single Sunday.

To do the exercise you simply sing/speak like a robot (think E.T.) starting on "B flat" (just below middle c) and go down every half step saying 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 until you can go no more. The purpose of this exercise is to strengthen the lower register of your voice. I've noticed improved tone and warmth when doing this exercise regularly. It also helps clear and remove what I call the "cobwebs" and is an absolute must when I'm either helping a voice student or getting ready for a performance.

This simple exercise should be done at the beginning of your practice. I always recommend working with the lower register before heading up into the higher notes. Try this every other day for the next four weeks. Let me know your results. :). https://youtu.be/gs6Mwu3tJ3s?si=_uk6yy3JBZLXUFoM

Happy singing.

Kristi Joyce