Toning
Sustaining simple vowel sounds with the voice, alone or in a circle, for the physical and emotional effect of the vibration.
Belongs to pillar 06: Frequencies
Toning needs no instrument, no training and no talent. You take a breath and let out a long ah, or oh, or mmm, for as long as the breath lasts. In a circle, twenty voices doing that at once produce something nobody could produce alone: beats between the voices, harmonics that appear out of nowhere, a hum you feel in the sternum. Then it stops, and the silence rings.
It is the most democratic of the frequencies because everyone already owns the instrument. It is also the one that most quickly gets people out of their heads: it is hard to worry about email while making a sound with your whole chest. Voice circles on the land happen at dusk, before the fire, and after ceremonies as part of integration.
Singing badly and loudly around the fire is toning’s cousin, and just as welcome.
Related words
- Drum circlePeople seated in a ring with drums and percussion, playing together without a score or a leader, finding a shared rhythm as they go.
- FrequencyVibration, in sound and in the body, felt as much as heard; the physical basis of the frequencies pillar, described without pseudoscience.
- Sound bathLying down while a practitioner plays gongs, bowls and other instruments around you for thirty to sixty minutes; you do nothing.
Join the circle