Vocal Gym Ball Exercises

Place the stress ball between the palms of your hands in a prayer-like position. While doing an “Oo” glissando with the pattern demonstrated in the video above, gently roll the ball in a vertical motion by moving your hands in opposite directions. The movement of the ball should reflect the same speed of motion as your voice within the exercise.

1. Maintain a gentle pressure against the ball, just enough to keep it from falling
2. Don’t allow the volume to change as you go up and down in pitch
3. Make sure to slide to each note rather than jump to them

To get the most out of an exercise, it’s important to make appropriate modifications based on your current skills and the condition of your voice. If you find this exercise too challenging, it’s best to modify it to avoid frustration. If, on the other hand, you were able to work through the exercise quickly and easily, it’s time to take it up a notch!

• Make it easier: Change the “Oo” formant to an “Mm” sound. This will provide a higher degree of back pressure (making it easy for the folds to stretch), keeping the focus of the exercise on track for flexibility.
• Make it harder: Change the “Oo” formant to an open “Ah”. This will reduce the amount of backpressure and focus on the dimension of range more. In addition, you can increase the volume, making it more difficult to transition between vocal registers.

Toss the ball into the air, throw it against the wall, or play catch with a partner while vocalizing “Ma” on the octave scale demonstrated in the video or while singing a song. The action of throwing and catching a stress ball encourages responsiveness and relaxed reflex actions throughout the body, particularly the muscles attached to the spine. Good posture and alignment can improve breath function and help to reduce vocal strain, producing better vocal projection and tonal quality. 

1. Don’t let the “Ah” vowel (or lyric) change as you approach the higher notes
2. Change up the direction or type of movement often to keep your body responsive
3. Don’t stop vocalizing if you drop the ball – keep on singing!

After exploring this exercise with both the exercise and a song, consider modifying the challenge based on whether or not you are running out of breath quickly or losing concentration of the scale or melody often.

• Make it easier: If you are trying the exercise with a song, consider first choosing an easier song to sing while you work out the coordination with the ball. Otherwise, you can modify your body’s movement by staying comfortably still (sitting or standing) and simply passing the ball casually from one hand to the other.
• Make it harder: Try the exercise at a much louder volume or select a more changing song that you struggle with in terms of vocal range or expressing your intended tone. Additionally, you can make the ball catching a more extreme action by tossing it further or moving around the room more where possible.

The Vocal Gym for Homeschool is a Fine Arts credit-qualifying course that offers self-paced, interactive learning for homeschooled high school students interested in singing. The course utilizes the highest U.S. State standards for classroom Artistic Processes and Blooms Taxonomies integrated throughout the curriculum.

Based on the only vocal technique awarded with a U.S Patent, The Vocal Gym revolves around the 7 Dimensions of Singing (Flexibility, Breathing, Intonation, Range, Tone, Articulation, and Strength) which starts with creating a personalized vocal profile for each student. This profile is then used to tailor the exercise, lesson, activity, and quiz experiences within the course to the individual student’s strengths and weaknesses.