10 Mus Ed Warm-Ups

10 Warm-Ups for the Music Education Classroom
1. Objective: Familiarize students with a major scale, singing on number scale degrees,
hearing what different skips/intervals sound like, staying actively engaged.
Age Group: Middle to high school aged students, choral ensemble
Sing a scale on numbers to this melody:

12345, 54321. 15453525, 1545321. 15453525, 1545678!
Once the students master this melody, challenge them to leave out one number at a time
as they sing the song. Example: Leave out the 3!
12(pause)45, 54(pause)21. 1545(pause)525, 1545(pause)21. 1545(pause)525, 1545678!
2. Objective: Developing breath control, developing and being aware of their lung capacity
Age Group: Middle to high school aged students, choral ensemble
Have students take a deep breath and hiss for 12 counts. Count down from the highest
number to the lowest. Ask, “How many made it?” and have the students raise their hands.
Provide affirmations and then repeat the process, having the students renew the breath
and increase the counts to 16, then 20, 24, 28, 32 (if there are at least a few students left
after 28). At the end of every set ask the students again “Who made it” and watch as the
hands raised dwindles. Challenge the students to go for as long as they can and to stop
when they use up all their breath.
3. Objective: Students practice solfege, learn about simple harmony and resolution.
Age Group: Middle school to high school aged students, choral ensemble
Divide the students into 4 groups (can be by voice part) and have them each sing a scale
up to high do, starting at different times specific by the teacher. When they land on do,
tell them to stay there until everyone gets there. Then on the descent, have group one stay
on high do, group 2 stop on la, group 3 stop on fa, and group 4 stop on re. Have groups
2,3, and 4 all resolve down to a 1-3-5-8 chord.
4. Objective: Practice solfege, quick identification of solfege hand symbols, stepwise and
skip-wise motion, challenge intervallic knowledge
Age Group: Middle, mostly high school aged students, choral ensemble or general
music/theory class. Can be a very easy exercise with mostly stepwise motion or a very
advanced one for theory and aural skills training.
The hand symbols of solfege must be taught and reviewed before this warm-up. Once
doing so, establish the key and tonal center, then challenge the students to sing the
solfege specified by the hand symbol the teacher is holding up. The teacher can linger on
certain notes here or there, and have the option of making it quite melodic. For more
advanced groups, you can test intervallic knowledge by attempting intervals and
skip-wise motion.
5. Objective: Recall of string placement on their specific instrument, learning how to pluck.
If adapted for band, practice of finding the notes
Age Group: Any beginning orchestra – mostly elementary or middle school aged
students, orchestral ensemble, in the couple of weeks of school. Can be adapted to a band
as well.
In the very beginning of the year, after introducing each instrument’s string/note
placement and perhaps identifying pneumonic devices to memorize them, teach the
students where to place their hand as they pluck/play. Then have the students pluck/play
certain strings/notes by name; can be done in a melodic or counting fashion.
Ex: “OK! Everyone find an A. Pluck (or play) an A four times. Now everyone find an
E/C. Pluck that four times. Now pluck A twice and E twice. Now pluck E three times and
A twice” Can be done in different fashions.
6. Objective: Identifying half steps, how it sounds to move by a half step in correlation to
another part. If using solfege, recall of solfege’s chromatic names and hand symbols.
Age Group: Advanced middle school or high school aged students, choral ensemble.
Divide the choir into groups (can be by parts) and each sing a note in a 1-3-5-8 arpeggio
of a major scale. Indicate before the warm up that they will be moving in stepwise half
steps either up or down, indicated by the teacher moving their hand up or down. May ask
the students to use solfege names and their hand symbols, if they are advanced enough.
The teacher may be creative with this process and does not have to necessarily start with
a 1-3-5-8 arpeggio, nor make the students stay in that position; the teacher may ask
certain groups to move and others to stay on their note, for example.
7. Objective: Teaching the students how to conduct in 4/4 time, sing and conduct at the
same time
Age Group: Middle school to beginning high school aged children.
Teach the students the motion of how to conduct in 4/4 time. Then have them bring out
one of their choral pieces written in that specific meter, start to sing it, and conduct while
they sing (with the teacher doing it in front of them). ¾ and other meters can be taught
and practiced in this way, depending on the level of the group and the different meters
present in their repertoire.
8. Objective: Enforcing early theory concepts

Age Group: Elementary or middle school aged students, any ensemble/beginning theory
class
After teaching the students about the lines and spaces on the staff, ask them to make up
different mnemonic devices to remember them by. Have them get silly about it if they
want to, and write down the suggestions on the board. Have them take notes and write
down the pneumonic device that they like the best/will work the best for them to
remember. Can be adapted to anything else in music that needs a pneumonic device, such
as the string letter names on different orchestra instruments.
9. Objective: Simple aural skills training – quality recognition, vocal arpeggiation, root
identification of a chord
Age Group: Advanced middle school students or high school students, any
ensemble/beginning theory or aural skills class
After introducing how major and minor triads sound and are built, play major and minor
triads all over the keyboard and have the students try to identify their quality. With every
chord, ask them to identify and sing back the root, then arpeggiate the chord to figure out
the quality (solfege optional). With more advanced groups the teacher can introduce
augmented and diminished chords as well.
10. Objective: Physical warm-up to loosen the body up for proper singing, practice counting
beats
Age Group: Elementary, middle, and high school aged children, choral ensemble
In the very beginning of class, put an up-tempo song on the speakers and tell them to
follow you. Have them stretch their bodies, reaching to the sky for 8 counts on each arm
and pulsing, then twisting (stretching their backs) on either side and pulsing for 8 counts,
leaning down and touching one foot, then the other for 8 counts, etc. Then do the round
again, but for four counts, then two, then one, which will be a silly mess but will get the
students to laugh. Have them count down from the highest number on each new stretch.
Ex: “87654321!” for every pulse on one arm, then “87654321!” on every pulse for the
other.
Warm-up can be adapted to not be stretching, but shaking out your hands, feet, etc.

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What are some of the objectives of the warm-ups described?

What age groups are the warm-ups generally intended for?

10 Warm-Ups for the Music Education Classroom

Sing a scale on numbers to this melody:

8. Objective: Enforcing early theory concepts

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