This extract from Exercise 2 in Part One of the course will show you:

Make a start: how to hum correctly

We’ll work with an mmmm hum, so have:

• your lips together but your jaw relaxed and your teeth slightly apart.
• your tongue lying in the bottom of your mouth with the tip touching the back of your lower teeth.

To help you visualize your voice as coming from your head:

Imagine you have a sound-producing machine behind your forehead with an on/off switch attached. When it’s switched on the sound flows down effortlessly from your forehead and out of your mouth.

With that visualization in mind:

• Pick a note that’s not too low or high.
• Switch the note on. Don’t do anything: just allow the sound to happen. The mmmm should be very quiet.
• It may help you to touch your forehead with a finger as you start and stop the sound, to remind you of where to imagine it’s coming from.
• Keep producing the mmmm for as long as you comfortably can without taking another breath, then turn off the sound at the switch behind your forehead.
• Repeat a few times, trying always to use even less effort to produce the sound.

Watch Simon’s demonstration:

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When humming correctly you might feel some sensation in your nose and the front of your face, and possibly a slight tingling in your lips.

You might also be aware of a slight something going on in your throat: that’s the air moving through your larynx. Just ignore it and concentrate on your head.

But if you feel effort in your throat, you’re trying too hard. In the video below Simon exaggerates to make the point, but you don’t want to be doing anything like this!

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