Looking for vocal exercises that actually make a difference? In this week’s episode, vocal coach and rehabilitation specialist Amber Mogg Cathey shares her seven go-to exercises she’s using with singers every day — simple, effective tools you can use to warm up, release tension, build strength, and feel more connected to your voice.
Inside the episode, you’ll get:
• An on-the-go vocal warm-up you can do anywhere
• A silent vocal rest technique to reset the voice
• Articulator + tension release tools to free up your sound
• Head voice, chest voice, and mix voice builders
• And Amber’s current favorite belt exercise for power with less strain
Whether you’re prepping for a gig, practicing at home, or easing back into singing, these exercises will help you warm up efficiently, build healthy technique, and stay vocally strong.
00:00 Introduction to Vocal Exercises
01:18 The Vocal Rasberry Exercise (SOVT)
02:34 Easy Vocal Exercise to Do Anywhere (HN Hum)
03:40 Articulation Vocal Exercise (Floppy Jaw)
04:44 Chest Voice/Low Notes Vocal Exercise
05:49 Head Voice/High Notes Vocal Exercise
06:37 Great Mix Voice Exercise
07:58 Great Belt Voice Exercise
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Hello friends, thank you for being here. Today I am jumping into some of my favorite vocal exercises. This was inspired by two things. One, I exercised this morning. If you're watching this on YouTube, I'm wearing workout gear, which is rare. I always wanted to be one of those people who like, you know, just always has workout gear on. They always look like they either just got finished working out or they're headed to a workout and I'm just not that person. You rarely see me rocking workout gear.
but I did work out this morning and go right into teaching lessons. So I was like, you know, I'm in exercise gear and one of the areas of exercise that I do not slack on is my vocal exercises. So I want to share with you some of my favorites. And two, this is our next to last episode for 2025, which is crazy to me. We're in the holiday season and it's one of the episodes I did last year. I ended the year kind of giving you the gift.
of some of my favorite vocal exercises. So let me stop talking about it and let me actually do it. I'm gonna jump in first with one of my favorite warmups. And I love this one because it does so many things and you don't need anything. You can do it on the go, meaning you don't have to have a recorded track, an instrument in front of you. You don't need to be anywhere in particular. It is the vocal raspberry.
Like you're a little brat that's sticking your tongue out at someone, being mean. Like that's a little bit harder, so then relax everything. That's another thing I love about the raspberry. I feel like I have to get borderline meditative sometimes. Because if I tighten anywhere,
I have a really hard time with it, so I have to really relax everything. It's great for breath flow. It is a semi-occluded vocal tract exercise, so it sets up the vocal folds as efficiently as possible. And then because the tongue is out and you've got another oscillator, the tongue trilling, it helps really release tongue tension. So I feel like it does a lot at once. You can do the raspberry on anything, but for an on-the-go, don't-need-anything exercise, just do some vocal sirens. Think about a fire truck.
an ambulance so pitches low to high, high to low on that raspberry.
Just a couple of those, I feel better. Another exercise I want to share with you is one of my favorites to do when you can't make much sound. This one is great for if you are in a hotel room or you have
roommate who is sleeping or you're in a busy crowded room with a lot of ambient noise, you want to warm up or cool down or reset your voice and no one can hear this. It is a gentle hum on H N Like you're going to say the word hun, but you take out the vowel. It feels so nice and buzzy. It's completely a nasal sound, meaning you don't have to have your mouth open at all. I like to do
Not a big volume. Hold it for about 10 seconds. Slowly work your way up and down. I'm doing mini versions, obviously. This is another semi-occluded vocal tract exercise. Great to set your vocal folds up efficiently. It's a very resonant sound. So I love it for locking in resonance.
This is also a sound that can potentially diminish swelling, help vocal folds that are tired feel a little bit better. And like I said, you can do it almost anywhere and get away with it.
One of my favorite exercises to get your articulators, your jaw and tongue ready to go, release some potential tension, I call floppy jaw. I made this one up. You're going to take your tongue, hang it out on your bottom lip. I always tell singers, think about going to the dentist. If you've ever had to go to the dentist and you've had novocaine and you think you can use your tongue, but nope, alas, you cannot. It's just going to hang out on your bottom lip. And then you're just going to let your jaw flop.
Buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh. People ask me what vowel consonant combo this is, which always makes me giggle because it is not a particular vowel consonant. Bleh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's probably the closest. The closest consonant is probably B with an ah vowel sound. You can take it up a five note scale. Buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh,
Arpeggio. It gets the jaw and tongue working independently. Gets me feeling really stretchy and ready to go really quickly.
My favorite exercise to work my low register, some of you might call it M1, your chest voice, I don't really care what you call it, whatever works for you, is very speechy because our low end is based in speech. It's the voice that we talk in. So I like to take an interval, let's say a fifth, and say, hey, hey, hey, hey, yo, yo, yo.
really relaxed and speechy. If you want a little bit fuller sound, I like to think about calling out to someone across the street from you. If it feels at all throaty, if you feel any constriction, any weight discomfort at all, let it go, go back to speech. Hey, hey, hey, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo. Conversely, if you find yourself getting a little too singery, which means you're letting more of that upper register come in.
Yo, yo, yo. There's nothing wrong with that, but you aren't really working that shortening, thickening muscle, which is responsible for our low end. And that's the muscle I'm looking to work in this exercise. So just take it back to speech. Then we want to work the flip side. If we're going to work the shortening, thickening muscle, much like a bicep, we want to work the stretching, elongating muscle, much like our tricep. That's the muscle responsible for our upper register, our head voice, M2, again, whatever you want to call it,
I love little baby sirens, kind of like we did with the raspberry, but I like to pitch these. So let's say a sliding third.
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a nice ooh vowel, kind of like a baby You look like you have a little bit of a pucker. And you want to hit the first pitch, slide through every note up to that top third, slide through every note back, sounding like a siren. So this takes a lot of flexibility and a lot of control. And I just love this one for stretching out that upper end.
Like all of these, work it where it feels good for you. I wanna give you two more. One, one of my favorite mix voice exercises. I love to base it on sounds we already know how to make. Give me your best wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, like a baby. And I always tell my singers, I don't want you to be the cherubic little clean baby in the perfect little outfit in the corner that has like a glow from heaven down on you. I want you to be the little snot-nosed baby that has.
Probably the start of pink eye. And what I mean by that is this shouldn't be a gentle sound. Your voice is cutting through, getting people's attention because your eyes are hurting. put that on pitches, five note scale descending.
If you start to feel weighty at all with this, one of the little tips I love, it works for so much also. Take the tip of your tongue and gently touch the back of your bottom teeth. Gently. We don't want to trade one area of tension for another. I see singers like really pushing it, arching the tongue. It should be like a liquid tongue and it's going to give you a lisp, which is bad if you are using words, but for wah, wah, wah, you don't need it. And what it does is it is
put some energy at the front of the tongue, which keeps that root of the tongue from over engaging, which can happen a lot of times when we're doing more of those bigger mix voice sounds. And then my last one I want to share with you, I shouldn't even be sharing this because it is magic if you have not used the puppy whimper. And
And it is a great way if you are going to get a beltier, fuller sound and you find yourself a little too heavy, the vocal folds are too thick and you're having a hard time lightening it up a little bit, play with the puppy whimper. ⁓ Should feel easy and effortless. Then I love to take that puppy dog whimper into my song.
yes, that's puppy dog whimper on shallow. Then you jump back in and add the words. I can almost guarantee you, or there's going to be a big old percentage of you who are like, what is this witchcraft and wizardry? And it just really helps those edges of the vocal folds work together so it naturally thins out things a little bit. So you get this full sound for such an easier feel.
I just want to give you guys all of these to say thank you for listening. Thank you for making this podcast as successful as it has been.
If you find this podcast helpful, if you are a regular listener, I would so appreciate it if you would take the time to give a quick review. That would help me so much if you would share it with somebody else who is a singer who cares about the voice, who wants to learn more. I sure hope it's helpful. Also, if you have ideas for episodes that you want to hear in 2026, please let me know. Put it down in the comments. Thank you for listening and I can't wait to see you again in next week's episode.
