Can Humming Be Used As A Warm-Up?

MarkyMark22

Hi All,

might be a stupid question...

but here goes...can you use humming as a vocal warm up technique?

Lady Chuckles

I wouldn't want to say yes or no to that, I guess it depends on what you hum and how you hum it

It's probably a good idea to combine it with singing a few vowels for a warm up.

Wurly

It's better than nothing.. But it's not great. A good warm up (in my experience) should involve breathing, diaphragmatic work, diction, resonance work. All these things involve movement of the mouth.

So it's like saying that a slow walk is better than sitting on your arse at home but it ain't no marathon.

sheesh

I was doing a musical a few years ago. one of the cast was a vocal coach and used to bring us through a warm up before the shows. he used humming scales to start us off and then we went from that unto singing scales.

my teacher does it to start off gently, then we move on to the proper warm ups

Jemmaa

Yes, of course, different types of humming.
There are seven areas you can use as possible vocal resonators, when you're humming you feel pressure (vibrations); moving vibrations starting with your lips you can explore your tool much better then when when you're singing open mouth.
Just take a look http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocal_resonation

unreggd

I've got bad sinuses [partially blocked by too much tissue]

Do you think I should keep working through it if I potentially need surgery?

Nelly 21

In my opinion humming exercises are good to start off your warm up. Start with humming notes on a 1 3 1 scale (eg c e c) and work up and down the scale. This should take very little effort. Then you can move on to eg sing the same notes ( 1 3 1) starting with aahs, then oohs then ees. Then try to build up on some more difficult scale and remember you are only warming up!!! Btw, I would always start a warm up by doing some breathing exercises first:)

G.K.

In our big choir we start our warm-ups by humming and them move onto many of the things Wurly suggested.

adama89

What's your favourite humming noise?