Vocal Exercises and Voice Health

Here’s a link to resources Mira Kehoe uses for her voice classes. For my purposes, below I’ve arranged relevant material in addition to some other resources shared with students.

Vocal Warm-up Exercises

• Mira’s 15-Minute Vocal Warm-up (mp3)

Breathing Exercises

Breathing exercises are an essential start to any vocal warm-up; they organize the breathing muscles, extend the capacity of the voice and give a sense of the breath very deep inside the body.

• Breathing Exercises – (PDF)
• Breathing Exercises – National Theatre Discovery (YouTube)
• Breathing Techniques (PDF)

Resonance Exercises

To achieve the feeling that the actors are speaking using their whole body, humming exercises are used to develop the voice’s resonance.

• Resonance Exercise – National Theatre Discovery (YouTube)
• Straw technique: therapy for tired voices by Dr. Ingo Titze (YouTube)

Opening Up the Voice

Opening Up the Voice – National Theater Discovery (YouTube)
After working on breathing and resonance, Jeannette gets the actors to do some stretching exercises to open their ribs up, and yawning to open up the throat.

Articulation Exercises

• Articulation Exercises (PDF)
• Articulation Exercise – National Theatre (YouTube)

Phrasing

• Readings on Shakespeare

Vocal Health

• Keeping Your Voice Healthy (PDF)
• Care for Your Speaking Voice (PDF)
• Tips for Singers and Professional Voice Users (PDF)

Learn more…

• Your Voice and How to Use It (Amazon) and (PDF)
• Fantastic Voyage – a journey into the human voice (YouTube)
  Take an incredible journey inside the body’s vocal system.
• World Within Your Voice (YouTube)
  Medical experts, graphics and computer animation detail how the human voice works.
• What Is In a Human Voice? (YouTube)
  38 Celebrity Impressions by Jim Meskimen