Vocal Warm-up Increases Phonation Threshold Pressure in Soprano Singers at High Pitch

: Vocal warm-up is thought to optimize singing performance. We compared effects of short-term, submaximal, vocal warm-up exercise with those of vocal rest on the soprano voice (nآ =آ 10, ages 19–21 years). Dependent variables were the minimum subglottic air pressure required for vocal fold oscillation to occur (phonation threshold pressure, Pth), and the maximum and minimum phonation fundamental frequency. Warm-up increased Pth for high pitch phonation (pآ =آ 0.033), but not for comfortable (pآ =آ 0.297) or low (pآ =آ 0.087) pitch phonation. No significant difference in the maximum phonation frequency (pآ =آ 0.193) or minimum frequency (pآ =آ 0.222) was observed. An elevated Pth at controlled high pitch, but an unchanging maximum and minimum frequency production suggests that short-term vocal exercise may increase the viscosity of the vocal fold and thus serve to stabilize the high voice.