Preparing Your Voice

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Members’ only information

Singing Exercises for Choirs by voice part

Maintaining quality

We are all expected to ensure that we do as much as we can to ensure that the quality of singing is as high as it can be, as expected from a regional symphonic chorus. Members may use the advice about looking after the voice below, and can ask for a session with Maggie Our Voice Coach at any time.

Members with concerns about how well they are singing or about their ability to sing in concerts, for example because of health issues, should speak to their Voice Rep in the first instance – see Chorus contacts for contact details. A supportive session with Maggie is likely to be arranged at the first available opportunity.

Looking after your voice

There is lots of information on the internet about caring for your voice. Most experts agree that you should:

  • Always warm up before singing
  • Hydrate your vocal chords by drinking lots of water a good few hours before you sing
  • Watch your posture – a “collapsed” posture limits breathing capacity and puts stress on laryngeal muscles
  • Don’t over sing
  • Get plenty of sleep and exercise.
  • Use common sense when you’re sick – don’t sing over a cold, and avoid exposing other choir members to your germs

The links below may provide useful information about caring for your voice. The Chorus does not necessarily endorse the information to be found on these sites, which are merely provided as a starting point for member’s own research.

Warming up

  • Yawn-and-sigh: simply yawn (take in air) with your mouth closed, then breathe out through your nose as if you are sighing. This helps relax your voice and improve its range.
  • Humming is a good vocal warm-up; it doesn’t strain your vocal cords. With the tip of the tongue behind the bottom front teeth, hum up and down a major scale with your mouth closed. To educe the strain on your voice, include the “h” sound on each note.
  • Lip buzz (or lip trill): make a motorboat sound by making your lips vibrate as you blow air through your mouth and nose. You can incorporate pitch slides as well. You can also use the tongue trill if you can do it – rolling your R’s through your range from low to high.
  • Make an “eeee” or “ohhhh” sound and gradually glide up and down through a two-octave chromatic scale.
  • Siren: glide up and down to “oooo” from the lowest note of your range to the highest and back again.
  • Singing Exercises for Choirs by voice part

Singing Lessons and Exercises

Singing Lessons for Adults from English Touring Opera

Singing Exercises for Choirs by voice part

Vocal Exercises (Maggie McDonald, 2020, with Rachel Fright)

Specific Vocal Exercises (Maggie McDonald, 2012)

  • Guiding the sound  Word / PDF
  • Resonance and placement exercises Word / PDF
  • Quick technical reminders Word / PDF
  • Technical route maps – Sopranos PDF

General Vocal Exercises (Maggie McDonald, 2010)

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