If you feel you haven’t mastered the effortless hum yet (and it’s normal for it to take a while) the exercises below should give you some help, as well as being useful for everyone.

Exercise 5: Another kind of hum

By changing the configuration of your lips and tongue you are now going to produce a hum with an nnnn sound, which some people find easier than mmmm.

For the nnnn hum we want here, have:

• your jaw relaxed and your teeth and lips slightly apart. (The lips don’t have to be apart to produce the sound but it distinguishes it better from the mmmm hum.)
• the tip of your tongue touching the back of your upper teeth.

With your lips and tongue in this position you are going to repeat Exercise 2. So:

• Pick a comfortable note to work with.
• Switch the note on. Don’t try to do anything active: just allow the sound to happen. This time you should hear a very quiet nnnn.
• It may help you initially to touch your forehead with a finger as you start and stop the sound, to reinforce the idea of where to visualise the sound coming from.
• Keep producing the nnnn for as long as you comfortably can without taking another breath, then visualise switching it off from the switch behind your forehead.
• Repeat the exercise a few times, trying always to use even less effort to produce the sound. The ultimate aim is to feel mentally in control of the sound but not physically involved in producing it. The main physical sensation (though you may not feel any) should be in your nose and the front of your face, not your throat.

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You are now going to repeat Exercise 3 with the nnnn hum:

• Instead of humming the note for a whole breath, now switch it on and off more than once on each breath. 
• Start with two hums per breath and work up to three, four or five.
• If you lose the effortless feeling, go back to slower switching for a bit.

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Finally repeat Exercise 4: 

• Switch a hum on and off on one breath again, this time choosing some comfortable random notes that are slightly higher or lower in pitch.
• Now do between two and five hums per breath on different notes.

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Did you find the nnnn easier than the mmmm hum? If you did it’s probably because the sound is thinner and the high position of the tongue encourages you to keep the focus in your head.

At this stage it doesn’t really matter which hum you use, as both do the same job of moving the focus of your voice up into your head. Use the one you find easier. As you make progress, you can start to alternate them.

Exercise 6: Good vibrations

Here is a useful test to carry out periodically as you work through the course.

Remember the whole of the front of your head above your mouth consists of a series of linked chambers: the sinuses and lots of nasal cavities. When healthy they contain only air.

When you hum in the way we’ve taught you the air in all these cavities vibrates and you can often feel the vibrations through the bones of your face. They are confirmation that you’re producing the sound in the correct way.

As your Better Voice develops, these same cavities act as natural resonators for your voice, amplifying the volume without the need for any effort in the throat.

• Switch on a hum (mmmm or nnnn).
• Place the tips of your little fingers (which are the most sensitive: smaller fingers have a greater density of sensory receptors) just above your eyebrows.
• Little by little, and pressing firmly, move them round your eye sockets and down onto your cheekbones until they almost meet on the bridge of your nose.

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Did you feel some vibration through your fingers – usually more in some areas than others? Women generally have a natural advantage, as the bones of most male skulls are thicker so the vibrations don’t come through so well.

If you didn’t, get a friend to place their little fingers on your face while you hum. It’s often easier to feel the vibrations in someone else’s skull. 

You can also try this version of the exercise, which again makes the vibrations easier to experience. It can also help you feel the general sensation of your voice being in your head rather than your throat.

• Start humming while standing then bend forward, as though trying to touch your toes (unless you have a medical condition that makes this unwise).
• Slowly uncurl back to a standing position while still humming, noting your position when the sense of vibration lessens or disappears.
• Repeat, trying gradually to uncurl more while still feeling the vibrations. The aim is to still feel them in your nose and the front of your face when you are standing up straight again.

Don’t worry too much if you can’t feel anything. If you’re producing the hum in the right way things will be happening in your head, even if you can’t feel them yet.

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