WHAT HAPPENS DURING VOCAL WARM-UP

Most singers prefer to warm up their voices before performing. Althoug h the subjective effect is often considerable, the underlying physiolo gical effects are largely unknown. Because warm-up tends to increase b lood flow in muscles, it seems likely that vocal warm-up might induce decreased viscosity in the vocal folds. According to the theory of voc al-fold vibration, such a decrease should lead to a lower phonation th reshold pressure. In this investigation the effect of vocal warm-up on the phonation threshold pressure was examined in a group of male and female singers. The effect varied considerably between subjects, presu mably because the vocal-fold viscosity was not a dominating factor for the phonation-threshold pressure.