I’ve always loved Anthropology. I joke that all of my interests lie in fields that pay equally poorly. But as a singer and wanna-be evolutionary anthropologist, I’ve enjoyed researching and speculating about the origins of singing.

The earliest known musical instrument is a Neanderthal flute dated to be anywhere from 50,000-60,000 years old. A flute is a more complex instrument than say a drum or shaker, and so it has been hypothesized (as most of prehistory is) that simpler instruments made of less durable material were made long before this. Which leads to the extremely plausible hypothesis that the first instrument in the history of humanity was the voice.

We’ll probably never know when or why humans began singing, but we know that as far back as the middle Paleolithic period humans were making some form of music for some reason, either utilitarian, for enjoyment, or both. I think knowing that music is both ancient and intrinsic can offer us a special connection with our vocal instruments. As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “O, how wonderful is the human voice! It is indeed the organ of the soul.”

In lessons you’ve probably heard me say that “your body already has everything it needs.” Think about what it means that for at least 50,000 years of our ancestry there has been singing. I wonder if the early hominids worried about whether or not they “sounded good.”