Day 2 Vocal Warm Up: Release Tension in Your Voice

Does something feel blocked when you sing? Like the sound is there but won't come out? That's usually tension you might not know you're holding. Day 2 is all about finding it and letting it go.

Welcome to Day 2 of Our Vocal Warm-Up

We’re continuing our seven-day vocal warm-up series!

The intention behind these seven days is simple: experience what consistently warming up your voice can do for your singing.

Sometimes we don’t even realize how much tension we’ve built up around our voice. But that tension can affect how freely we sing, which is why today is all about letting go.

And there’s one important rule throughout this entire warm-up: no pushing and no forcing.

We’re going to let the voice do what it wants to do today.

Start by Stretching Out Your Vocal Cords

We’ll begin with a simple SOVT exercise.

Imagine that you’re blowing through an imaginary straw. Keep your cheeks nice and puffy and begin gently sliding through your voice.

This is a beautiful way to start stretching out the vocal cords without demanding too much from them.

Keep everything relaxed. You don’t need to make the sound bigger, louder, or more impressive. We’re simply waking up the voice and allowing it to move.

Release Tension Instead of Fighting Your Voice

Next, we continue stretching the vocal cords with a lip trill over an octave-and-a-half scale.

But then we make one small change.

Instead of holding the lip trill through the entire exercise, we release the sound at the top into a light, airy and relaxed “ooh.”

The important word here is release.

We’re not pushing the sound out. We’re not trying to force that high note to happen.

In fact, maybe nothing comes out at all.

That’s okay.

Your voice might simply be working through something today. Maybe you have a cold. Maybe your voice feels tired. Whatever is happening, allow it to happen rather than immediately trying to fight against it.

As long as we’re not pushing, we’re doing what we need to do.

Use Vocal Fry to Relax Your Vocal Cords

Next up is vocal fry.

Vocal fry is that low, slightly creaky sound you can make with your voice. It might sound a little strange, but it’s a wonderful exercise for allowing the vocal cords to come together and vibrate in a very relaxed, almost lazy way.

And that’s exactly what we’re looking for today.

If getting into vocal fry feels difficult, try adding two small glottal onsets before moving into the fry.

Then experiment with different vowels.

You might notice that an “ah” feels easy while an “ooh” or “ee” feels more difficult. That’s totally fine. Your voice doesn’t have to respond exactly the same way to every sound.

Go From Relaxation to a Full Note

Once we’ve found that relaxed vocal fry, we’re going to start activating the voice.

Begin in the fry, move into a full note, and then return to the fry.

Yes, it sounds a little creepy!

But there’s a reason we’re doing it. We’re moving from that very lazy vibration of the vocal cords into a more active sound, without suddenly adding unnecessary pressure.

From there, we can put the exercise onto actual notes and begin sliding up and back down.

Again, the goal isn’t volume or power.

We’re looking for an easy transition into the voice.

Activate Your Head Voice Without Pushing

Now it’s time to activate the head voice.

And the same rule applies: no pushing and no forcing.

Keep the sound light as we move through the exercise. If a higher note doesn’t want to come out today, don’t fight for it.

This entire warm-up is about giving your voice room rather than placing more demands on it.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your voice is stop trying so hard to control it.

Now Put Your Warm-Up to the Test

Congratulations—you’ve finished today’s warm-up!

But I have one more invitation for you.

Go sing a song.

It doesn’t really matter which song you choose, although ideally you’ll sing the same song you used yesterday. Then pay attention to your voice.

How good does your voice feel today? And how good does your voice sound?

Give yourself a score from 1 to 10.

We’re going to repeat this throughout the seven-day series so that you can actually notice what happens when you consistently warm up your voice.

Don’t just assume a warm-up makes a difference. Experience the difference for yourself.

Want to Keep Working on Your Voice?

Seven days is a beautiful start, but there’s so much more you can discover when you learn how to use your voice with more freedom, confidence and control.

If you want to take the next step, I’d love to invite you to join my free training. We’ll dive deeper into your voice and give you practical tools that you can immediately start applying to your singing.

Join the free training and discover what can happen when you stop fighting your voice and start learning how to work with it.

Ready to Go Deeper? Join the Vocal Freedom Practice Hub for just $8.

This is a shorter version of the full  practice inside the Practice Hub. Ready for the complete session?

👉 Start training your voice with the Practice Hub here!