Are you humming?
And if you aren’t, why not?
Humming is more than a vocal warm up. I use it with specialized onsets in the studio to allow singers to release the outside world and drop into their bodies and start to slow down the heart rate and massage the vagus nerve and let the world around you slow down so you can stay present.
My Dad hummed all the time. It’s funny what you remember, isn’t it? Never a tune I recognized, but often humming. It still stays with me - the vibration, the joy, the freedom.
This is my birthday month. It’s a big one (!!!) and I want to celebrate all month. Maybe all year. I shall hum.
Staying present is truly one of my ongoing focuses. Staying present with ease and joy is what I would love to be able to do.
Humming, just for the sake it, can become a life-changer.
When I was recovering from our car accident back in 2011 and even up until the present, when PTSD would rear its head, I couldn’t speak. I would begin to stutter. But if I hummed, it stabilized me. If I sang, the stutter disappeared, and my heart rate slowed down and the PTSD symptoms subsided.
The body and the psyche are marvelous things, aren’t they?
So, remember that singing is a healing force. Humming is self-healing. Don’t speed through it as a warm up - let it ground you. Recognize that you can’t multi-task when you hum in a conscious way. That is fascinating all by itself!!
Notice how your body responds, how your exhale responds, how your focus responds. Notice how your heart rate changes. Notice how the pitch of your hum affects your body. Notice that it doesn’t matter about the quality of sound you produce. The hum is more powerful and more important.
Hum if your life depends on it. And, it kinda does. You are needed in this world, and your ability to anchor into your body and your breath will give you the focus you need throughout the day.
Simplify the why - because the answers can be beyond complex! Hum because it feels good; hum because it slows you down; hum because it drops you in; hum because it focuses you.
Hum because you can.
with fondness & fierceness,
