The three principles of Nature Singing are attunement, humming, and calls. Together, they form a framework that leaves space for flexibility, creativity, and adaptation to circumstances. This structure is part of what makes Nature Singing practical. Its flexibility supports and encourages relaxation through creative voice use and expression in varying situations and environments. Repetition strengthens it. Incorporating Nature Singing into moments spent in nature deepens, over time, your understanding and ability to be present both in nature and with your voice.

Attunement – Steps Towards Interaction with Nature

The significance of sounds is often experienced subconsciously, as we hear sounds even in our dreams. By blocking out the noise of our environment, many lose their sensitivity to listen. When we focus on our senses, the noise of the mind quiets and the flow of thoughts calms. The senses bring us into the present moment, where we can receive everything that nature offers us and allow nature to settle within us. Attunement brings us closer to the nature experience, relaxes us, and helps us focus. We establish a connection to our surroundings, listen to our body’s sensations, and open the gates to new experiences. When we allow nature to come close, it supports our body’s inherent ability to feel well and heal.

Interestingly, I have never experienced animals being frightened by a singer in nature. On the contrary, birds often come closer when we hum.

Singing begins with listening. Quiet moments, when we focus on listening to our body, our sensations, and the environment we are in. We receive sound through auditory experience – sound arrives to us in waves through the air and water. We cannot turn off our sense of hearing, as we hear sounds even when we are asleep. Continuous noise leads to prolonged stress, while quiet moments soothe our senses and sharpen our hearing.

The sounds of nature include both human-made sounds—chainsaws and airplanes flying overhead—and natural sounds like birdsong and the whispering wind through the treetops. There are also cultural sounds, such as ceremonial voices, drumming, cattle calls, and other songs. All these sounds together create the soundscape around us.

Even though we cannot turn off our hearing, we can still choose which sounds to focus on. We can also choose how we listen to them. Do we listen acceptingly, enjoying them, or critically, with irritation? These listening positions can be changed whenever we wish, even repeatedly.

Stop and quiet yourself for a moment. Breathe in and out at your own pace. Exhale all the air with a long out-breath and wait for your body to want to breathe in. You might have to wait a bit longer, or you might breathe in right away. There is no right or wrong. The important thing is that you feel your body’s sensations. Calmly exhale, pause, inhale when it feels right. With every inhalation, breathe in the beneficial phytoncides and oxygen from the forest; with every exhalation, give carbon dioxide back to the forest. You are already in interaction with nature.

If breathing feels stuck in your throat or difficult, you can momentarily place both hands on your lower abdomen and breathe toward them. Calmly, at your own pace.

Walk slowly: as you slow down your pace, your mind also quiets. Follow the movement of the forest; as it moves, so does your inner self. When the forest’s sounds calm around you and your inner movement settles, the animals will no longer fear your presence, and you can enjoy the forest together.

Next, stop at a nice, quiet spot in nature. Close your eyes and listen to the silence. You will notice how, from what initially seems like silence, individual sounds start to stand out. Count the sounds. Raise a finger for each sound you hear. Use your left hand’s fingers for nature’s sounds and your right hand’s fingers for the sounds made by humans.

Next, localize the sounds. Where are they coming from?

Then, start moving and listen to the terrain. How does the shape of the land affect the sounds? Do you hear echoes? Which sounds are closest to you? Which sounds do you hear from far away, from a distance?

Next, stop at the top of a hill, on a rocky shore, or in a forest clearing. Somewhere where you have space in front of you but feel your back is supported. As you inhale, raise your hands, palms facing up, in front of your body, horizontal. On the exhale, let your hands drop palms first down. You can even press your hands down if that feels right. Repeat a few times. Then, continue the inhalation as before, but on the exhalation, let whatever sound comes with the breath escape. It might be a sigh, a groan, a shout, or a hum. Let the sound release any sensations stuck in your body, exhaling with the release and inhaling with nature’s energy flowing in. Repeat a few times, or continue longer if you feel the need.

Humming – Well-Being Through Singing

Singing is an inner dance of breath, the soul, but it can also help our bodies free themselves from numbness and teach us to feel the pulse of life. Humming is the movement and vibration of the soul, personal time, and well-being. It grows from silence and opens up through attentive listening. Through humming, we learn to hear ourselves and our environment. Humming is care for the body and mind through quiet sounds and melodies.

From Breath to Humming

Close your eyes and turn your attention inward to your body.
Is there a particular area of your body that draws your attention?
The sensations may be tension, tightness, warmth, tingling, or even itching. Take note of them, but don’t try to change anything. Sometimes, you might not feel anything at all. Take note of that too, and just be present with your body.
Then, begin your journey into your body and voice. Breathe slowly and feel the movement of your breath inside your body. Does it feel tight anywhere? How does the breath move inside? With the exhalation, you can gradually let the humming out, moving the sound within your body, directing it to tight spots, letting the vibration soothe the tense body or letting the humming resonate freely in open space.
Explore, entice, but don’t push or force. The sound moves with the breath just as it is now—fragmented, quiet, flowing, or hissing. Inside, it resonates.

Find a comfortable spot, a stone or a tree trunk, and sit down. Sit quietly and follow the flow of your breath in and out. Place your hands on your chest and feel the warmth and movement of the breath beneath your hands.
Then, let the humming come, in small bursts with your lips closed… mmmmm….
Feel how the song vibrates through your body, how the vibrations move through you…

Calls – Dialogue with Your Own Voice

Calls are interactions with other people and nature in a way that preserves the connection to oneself. Communication involves not just the voice, but the body and environment. We can call for help when an accident happens, invite family to dinner, warn of danger, or shout across the street to a friend… but we can also call to our own spirit, converse with the forest, enjoy the echoes of calls and sounds in nature, and discover through them the power of our own voice and body. Calls are empowering prompts of the inner voice, brought out with the help of sound, tone, and the natural acoustics provided by the forest.

The soul of a call is power. And the secret of the caller is that the power does not leave the caller with the sound; rather, the power stays within the caller’s body as the sound detaches, carries, and travels. In nature, each call is a mystery; each sound invites improvisation. Does the echo answer from the third or fourth forest over? Does the friend hear you from the other side of the rock? How does the surface of the lake reflect my voice today?

A call is different from singing a song or humming. In calls, we use a calling voice rather than a singing voice. If you notice on the street that an approaching car is not slowing down for a pedestrian about to step onto the crosswalk, you don’t hesitate for a moment on how or what to shout. You shout from the depths of your heart, “Watch out!” or “Hey!” intending to catch the pedestrian’s attention and avoid a dangerous situation. If you shout in a low voice, your sound will not be heard. Your voice won’t find direction but will be swallowed by the noise of traffic. You most likely use a higher voice, focus all your attention on the pedestrian, and let your voice echo in a curve downwards: HEEEEEEEeeeeiiii SSSIE!! VVVAro!

A call will not carry if you just try it lightly. A call must be given your whole soul and heart. When the echo responds, a dialogue is created between the caller and nature, a cycle of sound. At first, it might feel like there is no power in the voice. In that case, just try throwing a mental stone a few times. Feel your body’s sensations as you support the stone: do you feel how your core flexes and supports? Trust your power and try again!

What could be the call of your soul? Head into nature, try different sounds, and find your own.

You can start with these syllables: Hei, Hoi, Vei, Voi, Tšei, Shei, Jiu, Jei.
Or mix syllables: He-hei, She-hei, Je-hei, Tšu-hei, Vai-jai-jai-jai, Voi-joi-joi-joi.

Pause for a moment, breathe in and out, and calm yourself by the landscape’s sounds. Choose a target across the shore that you want to call. A forest, a tree, a stone, or even an imaginary friend or the spirit of nature.

Take the mental stone in your hand, beside your shoulder, and feel its weight in your core. Let your feet bend under the stone’s weight. Your body is just as flexible and strong.

Focus all your attention on your target and throw the mental stone swiftly towards it. The sound travels with the stone towards the other shore, but the power stays within your body.

Follow the movement of your body with the arc of your arm and listen to the echo. You can catch the echo and continue on to the next call.