Many of you who sing with me know how much I love humming!! If I could, I would invite you to hum for a whole lesson!
There are many physical, psychological and metaphysical benefits and mysteries to humming. In Indian Philosophy, they don’t say the universe hums; they say the hum is the universe. The divine self-sustaining Song that transcends all forms.
Babies hum to soothe themselves and stimulate the vagus nerve, helping them relax and sleep. They hum as they explore their pre-language voices to develop sensation and nervous system connectivity; they hum while breastfeeding or concentrating, and to self-regulate when overstimulated.
Bees hum or buzz - the flapping of their wings creates this hum. Their wings flap around 200-230 times per second. Bumblebees use their thoracic (chest) flight muscles to vibrate their whole body to a frequency of around 200 - 400 Hz, while keeping their wings mostly folded and not moving. This is called vibration pollination. It’s how they shake loose tightly held pollen from flowers of certain fruit and vegetables. It’s louder and higher-pitched than normal bees. It’s often near middle C.
What happens to the body when you HUM!
Humming increases nasal “nitric oxide” fifteen-to twenty-fold. Humming alone can improve our circulatory health and immunity and activate the parasympathetic nervous system for rest and relaxation.
When you hum, nitric oxide is produced in the body. The vibrations of the humming sound stimulate the mucosal cells in the nose to produce more nitric oxide. In just a short time, by humming alone, you can increase your nitric oxide levels by 15-fold. You must breathe through your nose to get this effect, as only nasal breathing creates nitric oxide.
They found that when a body is under stress, nitric oxide production diminishes and can result in lack of energy, joint pain, depression, decreased sexual drive, headaches, memory loss, and poor digestion. Over time, these conditions can escalate into major diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, autoimmune diseases, and cancer.
What is Nitric Oxide?
Nitric Oxide is a vasodilator. Vasodilators relax the muscles in the walls of arteries and veins, preventing them from tightening and narrowing. Therefore, blood can flow more easily through the vessels, and the heart does not have to pump so hard.
What does Nitric Oxide do and support?
Nitric Oxide widens blood vessels, relieves high blood pressure, improves mood, stress levels, cardiovascular health, neurotransmission, brain function, erectile function, immune response, inflammation regulation, hormone release, gastrointestinal function, kidney function, recovery, relaxation, helps you sleep, and stimulates the vagus nerve.
Practicing humming
I teach humming as a way to feel the resonance of your voice vibrating through your body/instrument. For me, it is the most essential sensation and realisation to come into somatic awareness of, as this is you, this is what happens when you sing.
This is also how I teach people to feel pitch in the body. If someone has trouble hearing pitch, I will first have them feel the hum in their chest, then let it move through the body's channel to their head and back down. When we do these sirens, we can feel how the vibration moves through the body and, at the same time, how the pitch changes.
When people are learning to sing the correct pitch/note, I have them hum the note, feel it internally and also feel it with their hands on their skin. Once they can sense and feel this, I then have them hum the same note again, connecting to its vibration inside and with their hands on their skin, then open their mouths to a mAh sound. This practice grounds the pitch in the body and helps the student understand where each pitch/note vibrates and to trust this feeling while singing.
I also hum when I am in pain or find it hard to go to sleep.
I encourage you all to hum for 5-10 minutes every day and see what begins to happen.
Here is a recording of a humming kindness meditation.