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Music vocabulary · Instruments and Voice

Hum

Meaning in music, with examples

verbCore term

In music, hum means: To sing a tune softly with a closed mouth, usually without clear words.

In Turkish: mırıldanmak

How it is used

Used for finding a melody, warming up gently, remembering a tune, or showing an idea quickly in rehearsal.

Example sentences

  1. She hummed the bridge into her phone on the train so she would not forget the melody before rehearsal.

    Here hum means quietly voicing the melody to remember it later, without fully singing the words in public.

  2. During soundcheck, the producer asked him to hum the vocal line while the engineer adjusted the monitor mix.

    In this example, hum is used as a light vocal test that helps check pitch and monitor balance during setup.

Common collocations

  • hum a tune
  • hum softly
  • hum the melody
  • hum along
  • melodyA sequence of single notes that forms a recognisable musical line, often the part that people remember and sing along to.
  • vocalsThe singing parts of a piece of music, especially in pop, rock and jazz. The main singer sings the lead vocals, and others sing the backing vocals.

More terms: Instruments and Voice

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