Humming

I took some singing lessons at one point. The lessons began not with singing, but with humming, which was a welcome surprise. Trying to sing when you think you can’t or don’t know how to sing makes most people self-conscious and can be nerve-wracking. Humming, however, feels safe, and is the foundational skill for singing that most of us already have.

Singing is a versatile skill, as our voice is the instrument that we take with us wherever we go. I imagine that most people who love music would also love to sing, though for whatever reason, most don’t.

I think many assume that singing is a natural talent that only a few people have. On they occasions when they’ve tried to sing, perhaps while reciting the anthem or whisper-singing a rendition of happy birthday, their voices may have manifested haltingly and without a hint of grace. It is true that some people are naturally talented at singing and have extraordinary voices. But it is also true that most people could sing, as singing is a skill to be learned. The barriers to learning to sing are higher than they ought to be.

That is why I decided moments ago to become an advocate for humming. We need to hum more. Go ahead, try it. Any pitch you can hum, you can sing. It takes just moments to reveal our innate ability to create musical sound. Pitch is controlled by subtle movements that are intuitive but unconscious, like walking. You can probably walk, but if you tried to think about every muscle movement that went into walking, it would overwhelm and inhibit you.

Like with walking, if you stop thinking, and start humming, it just works. Try adjusting the volume and intensity. Make low sounds. Make high sounds. Make everything in between.

One of the reasons people struggle to sing is that they try to sing in their speaking voice. Singing and speaking are different. If you have tried to sing and failed, you were probably just trying to sing in your speaking voice. That doesn’t mean that you’re bad at singing. You just weren’t singing. But humming is a gentle first step to singing. So go forth and hum. Maybe, eventually, you’ll even sing.