Almost everyone can hum and that is great but is it for the singers? I hope the answer doesn’t deter you but propels you to find a better way and by the end of this article, I think I would’ve helped you with that as well.
Humming doesn’t help you sing any better. It’s fun and can be used in creative ways but the technique used to sing and hum are completely different. Time is better spent learning how to sing rather than trying to become better at humming.
I know, those seem to be harsh words but it’s true. On the other hand, learning to sing well will result in you humming well too. Let’s read on ahead.
It Can Help – Sometimes
Humming is limited by its own nature. You can hum melodies and you can hum a lot of things but it is not actually singing. The reason for that is that the technique used to create sounds while singing is worlds apart.
Humming doesn’t require a lot of singing practice to sound decent at it. However the same cannot be said of singing.
So What Is It Good For?
It’s good for matching pitches and singing intervals.
Matching Pitch
Matching pitch means that when you hear a note you can actually hum that note and match its pitch and your vocal cords are essentially opening the same way as they would to actually sing that note. But again, you may sing the pitch but your ability to make it sound like actual singing is missing.
Sing Intervals
It also allows you to sing intervals. Singing intervals is something you can never practice enough of unlike matching pitches.
One of the best ways to achieve this is when you are sitting in traffic you can look at other people’s number plates and sing intervals off of those numbers.
Of course, for this to work you need to have an understanding of music theory that allows you to understand how to convert numbers into sensible sounds.
Other Uses of Humming
Once you know what to practice you can actually start humming your practices, especially arpeggios and other solfege-related exercises. And you can start getting better at them.
This works amazingly well when you are stuck in traffic when you have a number plate in front of you or numbers popping up from everywhere.
You can hum the intervals from the root note. And that will allow you to practice your ear training and singing too.
Beyond that though, humming does not really make much more sense. You can use it to compose and do other kinds of stuff. But it is far more instinctual than actual practical stuff.
Of course, people do use it creatively in songs, and in the song called ‘In Hell I’ll Be in Good Company’ by Dead South, it’s used perfectly.
When you are humming, you are just humming; the actual technique that is used in singing is not present.
Of course, in certain scenarios and everything humming is actually preferred but it is not the norm when you are learning to sing well.
So the reason it stops being effective is because of the technique used. Your mouth is shut, and you are not breathing the way you ought to for singing.
On the other hand, when you are practicing singing properly your facial structure has to be correct, your posture has to be correct, your breath work has to be on point, and your use of the correct technique to make the sound come out of you. And that is the difference between using technique and a proper understanding of how things are for singing versus humming.
As you will find when it comes to actual practice, that’s where you need to let go of humming as a way and find ways to practice proper techniques regarding singing.
Where Can You Learn Singing From?
There are a lot of things you can do to learn singing from.
One of the best ways to do it is through online courses and you can read about them here. But, to sum it up for you, they cost a fraction of a college class, a fraction of a private class, you can join and take a break from these lessons any time you want and you get to be educated by them whenever you want to.
They essentially free up your time. Which is more important than money and they provide so much to practice that you can’t finish them if you’re diligently going through them.
It would be wrong if I didn’t tell you which one to go for either, ‘The Four Pillars of Singing’ is the go-to thing for me. You can and should always strive to have at least one course in your library.
The teacher of this course is Robert Lunte, and he’s a well-known teacher now. Check it out for yourself and then make the decision.
He has many other courses on sale and you can browse through all of them here.
I wish you all the best and keep on practicing!