Hum
Encyclopedia
A hum is a sound
made by humming a wordless tone with the mouth opened or closed, forcing the sound to emerge from the nose
. To hum is to produce such a sound, most often with a melody
. It is difficult to hum with your nose pinched closed for more than a few seconds. It keeps the volume
at a low level, so humming is rarely used in musical productions, with some exceptions such as scat singing
and vocable
s. Humming is sometimes used to keep the melody when the singer does not know the lyrics
.
A hum has a particular timbre
(or sound quality), usually a monotone
or with slightly varying tones
. There are other similar sounds not produced by human singing that are also called hums, such as a sound produced by machinery in operation or by an insect
in flight. The hummingbird
was named for the sound that bird makes in flight.
. Whole crowds would hum to show their approval of a public statement, a sermon, or a piece of news. We still use humming as a signal of approval during everyday communication (for example, when talking on the phone, we often produce humming "Uh-huh" to show our approval). An informal research conducted by the London zoo found out that humans mostly hum when they feel very well. Humming can also upset listeners, particularly if the humming is out of tune. Humming can also be attributed to being bored
. The person who is bored makes an ostentatious show of humming to indicate their impatience. Humming might also be a sign of being in an uncomfortable situation in which, out of nervousness, a person starts humming. Humming can also be used to show feelings of emptiness.
suggested that humming could have played an important role in the early human (hominid) evolution as contact calls
. Many social animals produce seemingly haphazard and indistinct sounds (like chicken cluck) when they are going about their everyday business (foraging, feeding). These sounds have two functions: (1) to let group members know that they are among kin and there is no danger, and (2) in case of the appearance of any signs of danger (suspicious sounds, movements in a forest), the animal that notices danger first, stops moving, stops producing sounds, remains silent and looks in the direction of the danger sign. Other animals quickly follow suit and very soon all the group is silent and is scanning the environment for the possible danger. Charles Darwin
was the first to notice this phenomenon on the example of the wild horses and the cattle (Darwin, Descent of Men, 2004:123). Jordania
suggested that for humans, as for many social animals, silence can be a sign of danger, and that's why gentle humming and musical sounds relax humans (see the use of gentle music in music therapy
, lullabies
).
Sound
Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...
made by humming a wordless tone with the mouth opened or closed, forcing the sound to emerge from the nose
Nose
Anatomically, a nose is a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which admit and expel air for respiration in conjunction with the mouth. Behind the nose are the olfactory mucosa and the sinuses. Behind the nasal cavity, air next passes through the pharynx, shared with the...
. To hum is to produce such a sound, most often with a melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
. It is difficult to hum with your nose pinched closed for more than a few seconds. It keeps the volume
Volume
Volume is the quantity of three-dimensional space enclosed by some closed boundary, for example, the space that a substance or shape occupies or contains....
at a low level, so humming is rarely used in musical productions, with some exceptions such as scat singing
Scat singing
In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice.- Structure and syllable choice...
and vocable
Vocable
In speech, a vocable is an utterance, term, or word that is capable of being spoken and recognized. A non-lexical vocable is used without semantic role or meaning, while structure of vocables is often considered apart from any meaning...
s. Humming is sometimes used to keep the melody when the singer does not know the lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
.
A hum has a particular timbre
Timbre
In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the...
(or sound quality), usually a monotone
Monotone
Monotone refers to a sound, for example speech or music, that has a single unvaried tone.Monotone or monotonicity may also refer to:*Monotone , an open source revision control system*Monotone class theorem, in measure theory...
or with slightly varying tones
Frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency...
. There are other similar sounds not produced by human singing that are also called hums, such as a sound produced by machinery in operation or by an insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
in flight. The hummingbird
Hummingbird
Hummingbirds are birds that comprise the family Trochilidae. They are among the smallest of birds, most species measuring in the 7.5–13 cm range. Indeed, the smallest extant bird species is a hummingbird, the 5-cm Bee Hummingbird. They can hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings...
was named for the sound that bird makes in flight.
Meaning
Prior to the 18th century, singing was used in England as a form of applauseApplause
Applause is primarily the expression of approval by the act of clapping, or striking the palms of the hands together, in order to create noise. Audiences are usually expected to applaud after a performance, such as a musical concert, speech, or play...
. Whole crowds would hum to show their approval of a public statement, a sermon, or a piece of news. We still use humming as a signal of approval during everyday communication (for example, when talking on the phone, we often produce humming "Uh-huh" to show our approval). An informal research conducted by the London zoo found out that humans mostly hum when they feel very well. Humming can also upset listeners, particularly if the humming is out of tune. Humming can also be attributed to being bored
Boredom
Boredom is an emotional state experienced when an individual is without any activity or is not interested in their surroundings. The first recorded use of the word boredom is in the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens, written in 1852, in which it appears six times, although the expression to be a...
. The person who is bored makes an ostentatious show of humming to indicate their impatience. Humming might also be a sign of being in an uncomfortable situation in which, out of nervousness, a person starts humming. Humming can also be used to show feelings of emptiness.
Humming in human evolution
Joseph JordaniaJoseph Jordania
Joseph Jordania is an Australian-Georgian ethnomusicologist and evolutionary musicologist. In some early publications his name was spelled as Zhordania...
suggested that humming could have played an important role in the early human (hominid) evolution as contact calls
Contact calls
Seemingly haphazard sounds made by many social animals are known as contact calls. Contact calls are very different from many other types of calls , as contact calls are not a specific signal, designed to communicate some specific information...
. Many social animals produce seemingly haphazard and indistinct sounds (like chicken cluck) when they are going about their everyday business (foraging, feeding). These sounds have two functions: (1) to let group members know that they are among kin and there is no danger, and (2) in case of the appearance of any signs of danger (suspicious sounds, movements in a forest), the animal that notices danger first, stops moving, stops producing sounds, remains silent and looks in the direction of the danger sign. Other animals quickly follow suit and very soon all the group is silent and is scanning the environment for the possible danger. Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
was the first to notice this phenomenon on the example of the wild horses and the cattle (Darwin, Descent of Men, 2004:123). Jordania
Jordânia
Jordânia is a Brazilian municipality located in the northeast of the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion of Jequitinhonha and to the microregion of Almenara. As of 2007 the population was 10,751 in a total area of 549 km²....
suggested that for humans, as for many social animals, silence can be a sign of danger, and that's why gentle humming and musical sounds relax humans (see the use of gentle music in music therapy
Music therapy
Music therapy is an allied health profession and one of the expressive therapies, consisting of an interpersonal process in which a trained music therapist uses music and all of its facets—physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic, and spiritual—to help clients to improve or maintain their...
, lullabies
Lullaby
A lullaby is a soothing song, usually sung to young children before they go to sleep, with the intention of speeding that process. As a result they are often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in every culture and since the ancient period....
).
See also
- KazooKazooThe kazoo is a wind instrument which adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. The kazoo is a type of mirliton, which is a membranophone, a device which modifies the sound of a person's voice by way of a vibrating membrane."Kazoo" was the name given by...
- The HumThe HumThe Hum is a generic name for a series of phenomena involving a persistent and invasive low-frequency humming noise not audible to all people. Hums have been reported in various geographical locations. In some cases a source has been located. A Hum on the Big Island of Hawaii, typically related...
- an apparently widespread phenomenon involving a low-frequency hum of unknown origin, inaudible to most people - Mains humMains humMains hum, electric hum, or power line hum is an audible oscillation of alternating current at the frequency of the mains electricity, which is usually 50 Hz or 60 Hz, depending on the local power line frequency...
- an electric or electromagnetic phenomenon that causes a low frequency (50 or 60 Hz) audible signal