Comparing the Exposure-Response Relationships of Physiological and Traditional Vocal Warm-ups on Aerodynamic and Acoustic Parameters in Untrained Singers

Question: The aim of this study was to quantify the effects of traditional warm-ups and straw phonation and to determine optimal duration.

Research Team: Jing Kang, Chao Xue, Adriana Chou, Austin Scholp, Ting Gong, Yi Zhang, Zhen Chen, Jack J Jiang

‍Results: The team found that traditional methods took longer, around 20 minutes for maximum results, and were beneficial only for skill development where straw phonation was most beneficial after 10 minutes but only for fatigue resistance training. Straw phonation significantly reduced phonation threshold pressure.

‍Thoughts: This study is a first great step towards a better understanding of vocal warm-ups. Rather importantly this study was conducted exclusively on participants with no prior singing training. The results found are statistically significant but contradict the findings of other studies that included professional and semi-professional singers. This study does add additional evidence that tradition warm-ups are best used for skill acquisition.

‍Reference: Kang, J., Xue, C., Chou, A., Scholp, A., Gong, T., Zhang, Y., Chen, Z., & Jiang, J. J. (2019). Comparing the Exposure-Response Relationships of Physiological and Traditional Vocal Warm-ups on Aerodynamic and Acoustic Parameters in Untrained Singers. Journal of voice : official journal of the Voice Foundation, 33(4), 420–428. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2017.12.019