05/21/2021 09:28 AM
Warming up your voice before you practice or perform is essential and can help prevent vocal strain or injury. Most standard vocal warm-ups, however, require a piano accompaniment and can be hard to sing without any pitch reference.
These free iPhone apps will help guide you through vocal-warm up exercises from wherever you are, without needing a pianist or a vocal instructor to help you. These app would be ideal for beginning singers and voice students to practice in between their voice lessons.
VOCO VOCAL COACH
VoCo Vocal Coach by Seaview Media Ltd is a vocal warm-up app with three main features: tracks, demos, and playlists. The free version of the app has 5 different warm-up tracks and a warm-up playlist of 10 tracks.
The playlists feature of the app is great, allowing you to select tracks and customize your warm-up, and even rename the tracks as you add them. The "Warm Up" playlist that comes with the app contains a 10-part warm up with different suggestions (like humming, lip roll, "oh", "mum," etc.) attached to each track.
The demos section of the app features short clips of singers singing pop-style melodies and runs. You can copy their runs and record them and then compare your track to the original to see how you sound. This feature is definitely made for contemporary singers, not classical or choral singers. The free version of the app contains 5 demos for female singers and 5 demos for male singers.
Overall this app is a decent warm-up app for singers, though users who want access to the entire library of warm-ups and demos will need to make a purchase.
Warm-Ups Types: Scales, arpeggios, and single note warm ups with recommendations on how to sing them
Who It's For: Contemporary singers, beginning through advanced
SWIFTSCALES VIRTUAL VOCAL TRAINER
Swiftscales Vocal Trainer by Velden is an app with curated warm-up routines for different vocal ranges, progressing from beginner to advanced warm-ups. Users can customize the pace of the warm-ups and swipe between different exercises to skip forward in the routine.
Though there are only 6 different warm-up "routines" available to free users, each routine is a sequence of different 12 different exercises, so there is actually a lot of content. Each exercises gives a recommended syllable to sing on and is labelled with a goal, such as consistency, range, accuracy, or connection.
The app interface is a little dated and the swipe functions take a little bit of time to get used to, but once you get past the appearance, the warm-up content is very helpful.
In addition to limiting free users to certain warm up exercises, the app also shows two full-screen ads whenever you exit a warm-up exercise.
Warm Up Types: Scales, arpeggios, and other melodic warm-up exercises labelled with recommended syllables and goals.
Who It's For: All singers, beginning to advanced
MATT FARNSWORTH VOCAL STUDIO
The Matt Farnsworth Vocal Studio App is unique in that each exercises begins with a video demonstration explaining how to do the warm-up and what the purpose of the warm-up is. After watching the short video, you can click "practice" and sing along with a piano accompaniment.
This app includes a much more thorough approach to warming up than many of the other warm-up apps. Vocal technique is a huge aspect of warming up your voice, and the videos in this app will be helpful for anyone looking to improve their technique as they warm up.
The warm-ups are split into sections so you can practice different exercises depending on your vocal style and your goals. The sections are: breathing, warming up when you are sick, pop/country, rock, classic and contemporary musical theater, belting, warm down, and informational videos.
There are a good number (around 4+ warm-ups per section) of videos that are available in the free version of the app. The premium videos can all be unlocked with a one-time purchase of $9.99. Also note, the app requires you to set up an account with your email address, even with the free version.
What It Covers: Technique, breath support, belting, and more.
Who It's For: Contemporary singers and musical theater singers
VOCALIZER
Vocalizer for iOS by Hector Ricardo Mendez Sordia is a completely free, ad-supported app with a lot of great features. It has a large range of vocal warm-ups categorized by scale type (major, minor, pentatonic, chromatic, and intervals). Each warm-up is labelled by solfege syllables.
The app allows you to select your vocal range by selecting keys on a piano, which are played for you when you press them. There is also an option to record yourself to find your vocal range, which is a cool feature for students who are confused by the piano or have trouble matching pitch.
Each exercise plays the melody once and then modulates up a key, in typical warm-up style. One feature that I love in this app is it gives you the option to loop the warm-up in the same key, so if you are having trouble singing it you can practice it over and over again without changing keys each time.
Overall, Vocalizer is a great free app for warming up your voice. The only thing missing from this app are prompts to give you ideas of what vowel or consonant to sing on or what area of your voice to focus on with each warm-up.
The app is supported by ads and there is a small banner ad at the top of the app. There are no upgrade options, so the free version of the app is fully functional.
Warm-Up Types: Arpeggios and scales in all keys and 2-note interval warm-ups.
Who It's For: Intermediate and advanced singers who know different warm up techniques and can pick up on different patterns quickly.
The best way to learn how to warm up your voice and to try new vocal techniques is to take private lessons with an experienced teacher. Sign up for lessons at NOLA School of Music today!