Here are four vocal warmups I’ve been experimenting with, along with rationale for their use.
Mississippi – the state everyone loves to spell as fast as possible. It introduces two concepts simultaneously – odd meter/metric division and clear diction. And the spelling is familiar enough for American singers that it comes together very quickly.
This is my go-to head voice exercise for TTBB ensembles. We start in this key, in that octave, and move first up, and then down, carrying head voice as low as possible in our range. It has added benefits of practicing transitioning from lip (oo) to tongue (ee) vowels, and singing outside of the major mode, because the exercise is in the Mixolydian mode.
Yes, we can expand outward from the typical descending major scale. But we can also use that familiarity to challenge our singers’ ears. In this case, I’ve given some options for alternative harmonizations under the descending 5-note scale. Use any of these to go from bland to sophisticated. The harmonic progression probably won’t make sense – but that doesn’t matter in this case.
There are lots of great examples of vocal jazz warmups that expand our singers’ harmonic language. (See Michele Weir’s recent video, or lots of other places). But I find that proper swing emphasis is a challenge – well-trained choral singers tend to want to emphasize 1 & 3 rather than 2 & 4, and downbeat rather than upbeat 8th notes. This exercise basically forces singers to emphasize the upbeat 8ths by always having them at a higher pitch class than the downbeat 8ths on either side, plus using an upbeat syllable that increases volume naturally.