What chanting does in the body

The teaching

As the physiology of breath and voice beside the chant traditions teaches it.

Breath and spirit

Many of the languages of prayer use one word for breath and for spirit: ruach in Hebrew, pneuma in Greek, spiritus in Latin, and prana, the breath of life, in Sanskrit. The psalter closes on it: “Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD.” Chant is prayer carried on the breath, and its first effect is on the breath itself.

How a breath is made

At rest the in-breath is made by the diaphragm, the dome of muscle beneath the lungs, which flattens and draws air in, with help from the muscles between the ribs; the out-breath is mostly the lungs and chest springing back of themselves. Speaking and singing change the out-breath. The voice needs a steady stream of air, so the out-breath becomes long, slow and controlled, held back by the same muscles that drew it in, while the in-breath becomes short and quick. Singers call this control support.

The heart rides on the breath

The heart does not beat at an even rate. It quickens a little with each in-breath and slows with each out-breath, a rhythm called respiratory sinus arrhythmia, carried by the vagus nerve. Pressure sensors in the great arteries add a slower rhythm of their own. When breathing slows to about six breaths a minute, ten seconds for each breath, the two rhythms fall into step, and the rise and fall of the heart rate becomes large and smooth. This pace is often called resonance breathing, and it goes with calm.

Why a verse takes ten seconds

Much of the world's chant falls naturally near that pace. A line of the rosary, a mantra of middling length or the half verse of a psalm takes several seconds to say on one breath, followed by a short in-breath; the long out-breath of a sounded Om is the same. Repetition holds the pace steady, the beads or the verses keep the count, and the pause at the middle of each psalm verse gives a full breath its place. None of this asks the singer to think about breathing at all: the form of the chant does it.

Over-breathing

Breathing too deeply or too fast blows off carbon dioxide and shifts the balance of the blood. The signs are light-headedness, tingling in the fingers or around the mouth, a tight chest and sometimes a sense of unreality, and they mean the breath has been pushed too hard. The remedy is to stop, breathe quietly and normally, and let the feeling pass. Chant is never forced to make a breath longer than it comfortably is, and the breath is never held to strain. Anyone with a lung or heart condition, or who is pregnant, asks a doctor before taking up any breathing practice.

The voice and the hum

The voice is made by the vocal folds in the larynx, set vibrating by the out-breath and shaped by the spaces of the throat, mouth and nose. A hummed or chanted note sets the chest, throat and face buzzing in sympathy, which is why a hum can be felt in the lips and in the bones of the face. Posture lets the sound move freely: the spine upright, the shoulders loose, the jaw unclenched and the throat open, whether sitting or standing.

The bee breath

The hatha yoga books teach a humming practice called bhramari, the bee. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika describes breathing in quickly with a sound like the buzz of the male bee and out slowly with the softer hum of the female, and says that it brings a joy in the heart beyond words. It is taught today without holding the breath: sit upright, breathe in through the nose, and hum softly through closed lips for the whole of the out-breath, for a few rounds, perhaps with the ears gently covered by the hands. It is stopped at any dizziness, and the ears are never pressed hard.

The breath's own mantra

The Tantric teachers say that the breath repeats a mantra of its own without being asked. It sounds ha as it moves one way and sa as it moves the other, and the books hear in the pair both hamsa, the swan, and so'ham, I am that. Since a person breathes about fifteen times a minute, they count the breath as saying it twenty-one thousand six hundred times a day. They call it ajapa japa, the repetition that is never repeated, and the practice is only to notice it, letting the breath come and go as it will.

Singing together

When people sing together they breathe together: a choir draws breath at the same moments, before each phrase, and its out-breaths last as long as the phrases do, so a room of singers comes to share one slow rhythm. Call and response does the same in turn, the leader's line and the gathering's answer making a single round of breath. Most traditions of group chant teach the singer to listen more than to sing, to match the others and blend rather than stand out, and that listening is itself a kind of attention.

Care of the voice

The voice is a small instrument and wears with misuse. Chant at the loudness of quiet speech or a little more, drink water, warm up with a few hums before singing for long, and stop before the throat tires. Shouting and straining harm it, and so does singing through a sore throat. Hoarseness that lasts more than three weeks is a reason to see a doctor. Chant can calm and steady, and it is safe for most people when it is quiet, brief and unforced; it is not a treatment for any illness and does not replace a doctor's care.