A few months ago, I received an email asking me if I did “toning” in my voice classes. I responded by saying that what I teach is how to use one’s breath and body to essentially “hum” all the time, which, in my mind, is the essence of toning. Apparently, that was not a satisfactory answer. The person wanted something more mystical than, “When we are aligned internally through the muscles responsible for breath and voice, we resonate continually.” We are humming beings. We are invigorated and energized and we feel vibration move through our whole body and onto our lips and face.
Humming is acknowledged as an excellent way to “harmonize” body and mind, but it is important to understand what makes a hum so enlivening and healthy. If one hums in a way that uses the throat or presses with the lips, it is not beneficial. The ideal hum is an end result of the alignment of the inner muscles of the torso which remarkably creates a certain amount of air pressure in the lungs to vibrate the vocal cords. The miracle of the human body is that when the air pressure is just right the vocal cords produce a regular sound wave which resonates through our whole being and carries our voice without effort.
One way to stimulate the inner muscles responsible for humming is to sit in such a way that you sense your chair holding you up. Rest your hands at the bottom of your torso and sense something deep and profound inside of you. Be careful not to look in to try to “find” something, but rather let it stir in you and surprise you. Very lightly and very slightly let escape a tiny moan.Make sure that it does not from your throat but from where you are resting your hands. This is the starting point of a hum. If you are too eager to hum and you hum from your throat without an awareness of how sound happens, you will disconnect from your body and be working against it. It’s almost like you will be saying to your body, “I am humming and through my hum I will harmonize with you.” In fact, it is the opposite. It is our integration and interplay of the inner muscles of our body which allow the vocal cords to vibrate and to resonate through our bones and cells. We stand aside ourselves and witness this resonation—this humming being—and we are transfixed by this experience.
Jean McClelland is on the faculty of the Columbia University School of the Arts and The Open Center, through which she teaches Awakening Your True Voice beginning on November 2. For more information and videos, and to watch Jean demonstrate how to be a humming being, visit JeanMcClellandVoice.com.