Unlocking Your Resonance: The Hum-to-Vowel Exercise
One of my favorite exercises to help singers find freedom, resonance, and warmth in their tone is the Hum-to-Vowel Exercise. It looks simple on the surface, but it works like magic for opening the voice.
1. Start with an open breath — Standing tall and relaxed, inhale through the nose to the high back of the throat. Notice the place where the cool air hits and imagine that cool pocket of air lifting up there (lifting what's called the soft palate, the squishy area at the top of your throat).
2. Hum! — Continuing this tall, relaxed sensibility and soft palate lift, hum in your speaking voice, elongating the "mmmm." Touch your lips and nose and feel the vibration! Does the vibration move around as you change to higher and lower pitches?
3. Gradually open into a vowel — Without breaking the flow of sound, open from the hum into a vowel such as “ah,” “ee,” or “oo.” Let the resonance you felt in the hum carry forward into the vowel. Slide back and forth between the hum and the vowel. The goal is to encourage this sensation of the resonance falling forward, counteracting the common habit of letting the sensation fall back into the throat. The felt vibration will dissipate a bit with your mouth open, but stay focused on the area where you felt the vibration in hum-mode.
4. Repeat on Different Pitches —Try this on a simple five-note scale or arpeggio, always beginning with the hum and flowing into the vowel.
Why It Works
Resonance Finder: The hum naturally places the voice “in the mask,” which helps you discover a ringing, forward tone, which is essential for endurance and lifelong vocal health.
Tension Release: Because we're focusing our awareness in the nasal cavity instead of the throat space, the throat relaxes, reducing strain.
Breath Connection: Sliding smoothly from hum to vowel encourages the breath to move steadily, with continuous support from the lower torso.
Tone Consistency: It teaches your voice to carry the same resonance across different vowels, creating a unified, efficient sound. Less work, more resonance.
Set aside five minutes a day to practice humming into vowels. Focus on the sensation of resonance instead of the sound of your voice. This is essential to developing as a singer, since one of the most common habits of new singers is to want to control the sound from the throat.
You'll be surprised by how quickly your tone feels warmer, freer, and more powerful.
Happy practicing!
Coach Nelle