Tools
Bhrāmarī
Inhale. Hum on the exhale, lips closed, one steady note. When the sound runs out, do not inhale yet. Stay in the silence until the body asks for breath.
The dashed line is the pitch you started on. Above is sharp, below is flat; the faint lines are ±50 cents (a quarter tone). The pale line is your previous hum.
How to practise
- Sit upright with the phone or laptop about an arm's length away. Keep the room quiet for the first second and a half while the page listens to it.
- Inhale through the nose. Close the lips, keep the teeth slightly apart, and hum on one comfortable low note. Many practitioners close the ears with the thumbs; the meter works either way.
- Let the exhale be slow and even. Do not squeeze out the last of the air — that is where the note sinks.
- When the sound stops, stay. Do not inhale on purpose. Tap I inhaled when the breath returns by itself, or just begin the next hum.
- Five rounds is a set. The verse appears after the last one.
If the meter stops while you are still humming
Watch the bar under the counter. If it drops left of the tick while you hum, the microphone isn't hearing enough: choose Soft hum or Very soft, or bring the phone closer. Short dips of up to a second are carried over and do not end the hum. Keep the screen on — the page asks the phone to stay awake, but a locked screen stops the microphone.
What is measured
Length — seconds from the first voiced sample to the last. Steadiness — the spread of the pitch, in cents. An untrained hum sags flat as the lungs empty. Drift — the last third of the hum against the first. Silence after — from the end of the sound to the next inhale. A ~ means you went straight into the next hum without tapping, so the inhale is included. Note — the nearest musical note to the middle of the hum.
A rough guide to steadiness: within ±15¢ is very steady, up to ±30¢ steady, beyond ±50¢ the note is wandering. A semitone is 100¢. Drift of −25¢ or more means the note sank as the air ran out.
The science
Humming raises nasal nitric oxide about fifteen-fold over quiet exhalation. The vibrating air moves gas in and out of the sinuses, where it is made. This is one plausible part of the calm students report; it is not shown to be the cause.
Weitzberg E, Lundberg JON. Humming greatly increases nasal nitric oxide. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2002;166(2):144–145.
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