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Integral Yoga Magazine
Winter 2008-2009

The Gentle Art of Meditative Toning
By David Gordon

In this article, singer, vocal coach, Yoga teacher and toning master David Gordon writes about how the human voice is a powerful tool for self-healing and transformation. He explains how the ancient Nada Yoga teachings show us that vocal sounds are a bridge that can transport us from the outer to inner realms and back again. And, he includes several exercises in his introduction to this gentle, yet powerful art.

The ancient spiritual traditions placed great emphasis on the significance and power of sound. The Malini-vijaya-tantra, the five thousand year-old Kashmiri Saivite text, invites us to bathe in the center of the sound either by sitting near a waterfall or byputting our fingers in our ears to hear our own inner sound. In the eastern traditions, as well as the religions of West, we find the idea of using sound as a powerful tool for awareness and transformation. The quantum physicists are now meeting the ancient rishis in understanding how sounds have a profound effect on our bodies. The trick is to choose the sounds and create our own soundscapes, which are helpful, healing and transformational. Everyone chooses one’s way, whether it’s chanting mantras, listening to music or toning single sounds.

My first experience of the inner power of the voice was during a Yoga session, years ago. We concluded with a silent meditation, and ended the meditation with the usual “OM.” But this time, the teacher suggested that we prolong the sound, entering more fully into the awareness of the vibrations of the tone. The group began toning, each of us breathing at our own natural pace, so the group sound was continuous. When the sound ended, it seemed like my entire being was still vibrating. This experience opened a new door of perception to me.

Soon after, another wise teacher invited me to release the very concept of “OM.” We focused awareness on the breath, imagining what the tone would sound and feel like even before the sound began. We then initiated the audible tone with a low murmur, dark and breathy: the sound of “uh,” as in the word “cup.” Through this low, unformed, earthy sound I experienced more fully the reality that it is my breath itself that vibrates to produce this sound. I deepened my connection with prana, with “spirit,” as if “respiration” gave me “inspiration.”

Only later did I realize that we were practicing an aspect of Nada Yoga—the use of self-generated sound vibration to draw awareness inward in order to experience the deeper layers of the Self. Ever since those early experiences, I have been fascinated with the connections of breath, sound and spirit. I even found connections in the language itself. Our English word “spirit” comes from the Latin word spiritus, which connotes both “breath” and “Spirit.” Many other languages use related word forms to denote breath and spirit.

The Western idea of toning using vowels was developed in the 1950s. Toning is the creation of extended vocal sounds on a single vowel in order to experience the sound and its effects in other parts of the body. Toning uses no melody, no words, no rhythm, and no harmony—just the sound of the vibrating breath. It’s a simple yet powerful technique, accessible to everyone regardless of vocal ability or training. Toning is kind of a simplified, easy way, especially for westerners who have no Sanskrit connection and perhaps don’t want to have a spiritual connection, to make the sounds. It’s like Vipassana vs. Zen. Toning takes away certain trappings, which may be vital and heartfelt for some but become a barrier for others to do this work.

Through toning we can immediately experience the effects of sound on our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being. By literally massaging body and mind from the inside out, meditative toning can help us focus and relax, release negative emotions, reduce stress and improve stamina and concentration. Toning synchronizes the brainwaves and helps relieve tension within a few minutes. Toning is also a wonderful technique for developing our voice-ear connection and enhancing our power of listening to everything around us.

Most of all, toning restores balance and harmony to the mind and body. A big part of toning or sound work is intention. Toning itself is a kind of self-psychology and spiritual examination and can be used with any intention you set. It can help us awaken and deepen our sense of self and it can align us with the deepest vibrations of soul and spirit. On the path of toning, we move toward the source of our own inner balance, creativity, well being and freedom.

Breathing itself is a basic human need. We can exist only minutes without breath. And so the arts of pranayama, chanting, toning and singing all derive their power from a basic and elemental human function. I love this connection of sound and spirit: By uniting sound and breath, we release physiological tension in specific areas, induce relaxation, energize and promote deep breathing with prolonged exhalations. We balance the body’s subtle energies and powerfully draw our awareness deep within, while expressing ourselves outward through the sounds we generate. This simultaneous inward and outward movement integrates who we are inwardly with how and what we are externally. It develops a willingness to be heard, unlocks creativity and enhances self-acceptance.

The self-generated sounds of toning are a natural breathing exercise. To make a prolonged sound, we breathe fully and exhale in a steady, slow stream. Try this simple exercise:

Stand in tadasana (feet shoulder width apart, firmly on the floor; arms at your sides). Inhale, raising the arms high above your head, gently reaching your hands toward the ceiling. Exhaling, lower the arms while toning “AH.” Find the pitch that feels best. Time the movement so that the tone is complete when the movement is complete. Do this five times, then stand in stillness and take in the effect.

The power of toning lies in the vowels “ah-eh-ee-oh-uu.” Toning is to create neutral sounds that are basic and pure vowels from the Romance languages, conveniently boiled down to those five sounds—like we have boiled down the colors of the rainbow even though there are so many more colors. Vowels are much more important in toning than the “pitch” (high or low). Most people experience each vowel as unique in energy, emotion and effect. It’s about where things happen in the mouth. Each vowel has different epicenters of vibration acoustically and how we use that material and focus on that becomes a kind of sonic mandala.

Try this: let your intuition choose a vowel for you. Spend several minutes toning it. Begin in the comfortable middle of your vocal range. Then try a lower pitch, then higher, always with moderate volume and without straining. If the vowel feels physically or vocally wrong right now, leave it and choose another. Be open to inner experience and sensation, without seeking a specific result. Explore the sensations of each of these vowels and their total effect on you.

Toning is not singing, and there’s no aesthetic judgment involved. The sound you make does not have to be pretty; the point of toning is not the quality of the sound but your experience of the vibration and its results. Listen with your whole being and be open to the total effect of the sound. Link your voice, breath and awareness together to enhance your appreciation of your own true power in life.

The power of sound is that it makes us mindful of inner, subtler levels of vibration. Tension and relaxation, joy and depression, clarity and confusion have different vibrations. What we experience at the physical, mental or emotional levels is the result of what is occurring at the energy level of vibration. When we tone, introversion is deepened. At first, the vibration deep within the physical body becomes a focus while toning aloud. When the external sound is extinguished, the vibration continues, and the awareness of this subtle sensation continues to draw us into meditative stillness. Through respiration we are lead to a deeper connection with Spirit.

Modern medical and physiological sciences study and monitor the measurable electro-magnetic energy in the body—such as the electrical impulses in muscle nerves and neural synapses in the brain. For centuries, traditional healing techniques such as acupuncture have followed and utilized the energetic map of the human body. It seems the body has certain hot spots of energy, or chakras. The medical and sacred teachings of both East and West describe them and often correlate them with specific thought patterns and archetypal effects.

Whether we interpret them metaphorically or literally, exploring the body’s energy centers through sound is a fascinating journey. As we learn to perceive the relationship of objective vowels and subjective energy, as we learn to listen to ourselves on every possible level, we enrich our understanding of the broad spectrum of energies and emotions within us. The simple act of toning heightens our awareness of our own inner energies and vibrations. Through that awareness we feel more alive and more connected with everything around us.

We can bring an element of this awareness into any singing we do. This is the Yoga of voice, the Yoga of singing. In the 1990s, Don Campbell, a fellow Kripalu teacher, and I partnered because he had been labeled “New Age” and he wanted to bring more legitimacy to his scientific and spiritual approach to sound. I wanted to bring the softness of spirituality and Yoga into my rigorous work in the professional music world. Now, each day I work with singers performing Mozart operas and all kinds of classical music, I’m constantly aware of principles like chest openers, erectness of the spine, keeping the subtle channels known as nadis flowing freeing. I may not use that language with 95 percent of my students, but these are the principles I am incorporating into my work as a teacher and vocal coach.

I have an intimate relationship—similar to a Yoga teacher’s relationship—with my students and their bodies as I instruct them about the cervical spine, lumbar spine and keeping the knees soft. This has had a profound effect on my work in Western music and my own singing. A new student recently said, “I heard you were a good voice teacher and that you teach something else, but no one could tell me what it was.” I’m grateful that my students realize there is something else going on here.

I tell my professional singing and acting clients to practice a little silent mantra before they walk on stage or to an audition. When they audition and also when they perform, they have a tendency to feel, “Oh my God, I hope they like me.” This just reinforces a performance from a place of ego, fear or anxiety. I encourage my students to come from a place of: “I’m going to do something now I really love and I invite you to share it with me.” That states why you are doing it. It states an intention. Then you don’t give up your power and you are still in your space. The audience then becomes your partner.

I learned this from my spiritual work with sound: to stand in the place you want to be and invite others to join you. Then, all the sounds we make become about connecting, rather than putting them out there awaiting someone else’s applause. When we invite the audience to join us in the place of centeredness, oneness and unity, we are in Yoga. And, when we tone in a group or chant together during kirtan, though we each make a sound, we become part of the group; we breathe the same air. We connect through the sounds, through the breathing, through our toning, through our shared space. The connection is the thread that weaves all sound together.

The most beautiful and sublime way to make sound is with others. It strengthens our sense of our sounding self. When we go into a quiet space, there’s so much more there to vibrate in us. There’s a joy in toning, in singing hymns, opera, chorus, kirtan, barbershop harmony, bluegrass—you name it. It’s about sharing the sound space with other voices. The more aware we are of ourselves as sounding human beings, the more we can show up in that communal space, and that’s the greatest joy.

For toning we begin by focusing on several principal sounds. Remember, this is not a list of universal truths, just some traditional suggestions with which you can begin.

       Vowel 		     Possible Attributes or Related Perceptions
         
       UU ("who") 	grounding, calming, relaxing, awareness of physicality, gives sensation of depth, base of spine
   
       OH  ("go") 		conscious self-image, identity issues, solar plexus self-confidence, individuality
   
       AH ("car") 		centering, expanding, pleasant heartfelt emotions, gives sensation of breadth, heart area
   
       EY  ("pray") 	self-expression, communication, listening throat and neck
   
       EE   ("knee") 	energizing, awakening, mental and physical stamina, gives sensation of length, head
   
       MM (humming, lips closed) 	balancing, harmonizing and integrating, the subtlest and most powerful sound

 Examples of vowel combinations for balancing and centering
 (to be vocalized as one continuous full-breath tone exhalation):

 "UU-AH-EE-MM" Balance and energize; morning wakeup

 "MM-EE-AH-UU" Balance and relax; before bedtime

Note: It’s not recommended to tone for more than 20 minutes at any one time. A little bit goes a long way. It’s often more beneficial to tone more frequently for shorter periods. If you feel tension or discomfort in your mouth or throat, stop for a few moments, breathe, stretch, yawn and resume. Sip water. Do not force your voice. Stop whenever you need to. You do not have to endure physical or vocal strain.

David Gordon has appeared as featured guest soloist with virtually every major North American symphony orchestra and with other prestigious orchestras and music festivals on four continents. David is also an inspiring master class presenter, known for his solo voice workshops and his innovative group/choral vocal seminars. He brings his many years of personal experience and study of Kripalu Yoga and the science of the power of sound to his workshops, classes and mentoring. For more information about his work and his CD, “Healing with Sound and Spirit,” please visit: www.spiritsound.com.