This post may contain affiliate links. I only promote products I use and love.
There are a million and one warm-ups you can do on a daily basis, and there are many fun warm-ups you can make-up if you want. But why spend the time creating one when you can just pick from a list of proven awesome ones?
I have used these in my time as a middle school and high school choir teacher, a voice class teacher, and as a one-on-one voice teacher. A lot of these fun warm-ups break the ice for your choir, reveal cool harmonies, make your mind really think, or just let you revel in the beauty of two complimentary lines.
I can’t guarantee that you will like all of them, but hopefully you can find a few fun ones to add your usual warm-up list.
These warm-ups are great for individuals who take voice lessons, for small groups, and for large choirs, too! So, really everyone.
There will be a few partner singing songs that will require at least two people, so some of the magic of these will not work for solo singers who are warming up alone.
A classic warm-up that I don’t even remember where I learned it. I just know I’ve known it pretty much all of my choir days. I like this one for its zingy quality, the ability to add some physical actions to it, and how it helps keep your voice resonating towards the front of your face.
This may be considered a slight tongue-twister type warm-up at first, but in it really is just using the same word on different notes each sequence.
The confused looks and laughter at the first few attempts are sure to make for a good time while warming up. Trust me, you’ll get it!
I knew this song before I bought a canon warm-up book, but it still is fun. It sort of reminds me of a Sound of Music and Heidi mixed together.
While this works well for practicing range and stretching your vocal chords, it can be sung with a choir for a delightful canon, too! Just start the second part after “I love the rolling hills” and you will be good!
I originally found this on YouTube, I believe.
Talk about fun! If you have a group of people who are very comfortable with holding their own, this is a great warm-up. In addition, it will support your teaching of solfege and sight-singing if you choose to go this route and practice with a little ear training/sight singing while warming up.
Win/win for all of us music teacher geeks who like to get things done while having a good time.
Kind of a joyful song to sing to remind us of all the happy things in life. Which is what the purpose of music is in most cases, in my opinion.
So enjoy learning and using this to warm-up next time! It can be used as a canon, too.
This is a call and response warm-up, so you will need at least two people. The best way to learn is to have the teacher teach everyone, and then have those who feel comfortable start leading the call for others to respond.
In the case of a church choir, this would be excellent practice for a cantor to incite the call for the “congregation” to respond.
The best part about this warm-up is that you can literally subsitute “chumbara” with any three syllable word. Imagine the possibilities. I know because I did this with Middle School and High School.
You could come up with the most crazy or the best words you want, within your best judgment, of course.
I dare you not to laugh at this one! It is great as an ascending warm-up or for a canon again. Canons are super popular but oh so fun for testing if one has the confidence and ability to stick to their part.
Really, if any warm-up makes you go “huh?”, “what?”, you’ve got a great learning piece. On top of that, you want to look for ones that make you laugh while you attempt to sing them with a straight face.
Warm-ups that pair two or more different melodies together.
I love these for when you are learning polyphony and need to practice singing two different lines with different rhythms and times like that. These fun warm-ups provide a fantastic lead-in to those types of music.
This fun warm-up is great for practicing a higher part with a different lower part. This is helpful for those who might be practicing a descant while others are trying to sing alto, tenor, etc.
It would also be a great learning tool for modifying vowels in upper registers and learning how to read rests and counter-rhythms as well.
A great tune of two countermelodies that are sure to be a fun warm-up. The songs do not seem similar at all until you sing them together, and then it’s amazing how they fit.
This could be pretty sung a little slower, though usually I do it in a moderate tempo.
When I first introduced this different kind of warm-up to my class, they at first where like, what the world? By the time they got the hand of it, they loved it and all had a turn singing a different part.
I could group them into three sections with similar voicing, or I could just do every three people were on the same part. Numbering them off, if you know what I mean. That made them think twice as hard and they had to be strong on their part.
You can find the free sheet music here at 8Notes.com
Everybody loves tongue twisters, right? Maybe not, but these are nice to have for laughs and practicing fast songs with lots of words!
If I could say there was one fun warm-up that my choir wanted to do all the time, this was it. Granted, it was only about half of them who “really” wanted to, but the rest were good sports anyway!
The same tune and idea of Peggy Piggy’s, Tommy Turtle’s is the more difficult and advanced version of the tongue twister. I like to incorporate this into our daily warm-ups every now and then so they didn’t forget it!
This is actually the most simple in this fun warm-up category, and it teaches you how you actually create diction, too. I like to do this one with over-exaggerated diction. Every song we sing needs to be conveyed clearly, no matter the genre or tempo.
While this was not one that we did for choir practices, it was on my radar. Start slow with this one and once you can confidently say everything without stumbling, then go faster. And don’t forget to laugh at yourself if you mess up. That’s what these fun warm-ups are for, after all!
Related Posts:
Do you need Cantor Training? Are you in the market for cantor training? Perhaps you…
There are many exercises out there for singers. Breathing exercises can come in many forms,…
This website uses cookies.
View Comments
Well done! Love these. Thank you.
I would love to have the PDFs of your warmups to use! Thank you in advance!
Did you see the sign-up at the bottom of the post for the PDF? That will send all of the warmups in one big PDF straight to your email!
My favorite tonguetwister is sung on a minor triad 'Many Mumbling Mice are Making Midnight music in the Moonlight. Mighty Nice! It's from a Dr. Suess ABC vocal warm up book.
Yes, that one is quite nice, too! I've sang it a lot!
I would like to have these pdf items to give to my students. When I entered my email address, I never received anything. Thank you!
I'm so sorry Kelly! You should have been sent them in your email. Please let me know if you got them. I will check on my end.
Thanks for some new warmup ideas!!
You are welcome, Colleen!
Thanks for the zesty warm-ups!
You're welcome! My students always loved these, too!