[blindside398]

Hey there guys, I got REALLY interested lately in overtone singing and I decided I'd practice it this week. Well, this is about a day of practicing, and it's not that I'm any good, I just think it's really cool and you guys should give it a try to help your altissimo studies. The website has been linked here many times before (by hakukani if I'm correct), and I hope he posts it again because I don't have it, lol. Anyways, give it a try, and if you you make a fool of yourself, take solace in the fact that I did too my first few tries .

Without further adeu:

http://media.putfile.com/Beginning-Overtones

This is all done through the vocal chords, and if you listen closely you can here two distinct tones being produced. If anyone has any tips, please give them, I'd love to hear! Thanks

 

[hakukani]

Hey, good job. You've got some nice resonances.

There are several different styles of overtone singing. Here's one good link:

http://www.fusica.nl/

There's also David Hykes and the harmonic choir, Tibetan style, and Tuvan throat singing.

There's a fun movie called Genghis Blues About a blind blues musician learning Tuvan throat singing, and going to Tuva to join in a singing festival.

 

[blindside398]

Thanks, Hak. And yeah, that's the website I remember you giving out a few times . And I heard a few things about Genghis Blues, and I want to see it, sounds pretty cool. Jamming on my sax at the moment, but I'll go look it up in a while :].

Thanks!

 

[LazySaxman]

So... did one of those places say HOW to do it? I looked, but I didn't see anything.

 

[gearaholic]

I first heard about this through my Ear Training teacher, who's pretty good at it. He played us some recordings of the David Hykes group and demonstrated for us. He said try it in a very reverberate room. You basically say "ear" very slowly until you can hear the overtones come out above your fundamental. (Eeeeerrrrrrreeeeeeeerrrrrrrrr) This is what he showed us to get started. It kind of sounds like a whistle above your singing, but not like whistling and singing at the same time.

 

[hakukani]

Approximate vowel sounds for overtones

fundamental: Mmm
2nd harmonic: pure Ohhh
3rd harmonic: Ohh shape, going toward ahh in the back of the throat (lifts soft palate
4th harmonic: ahh
5th harmonic: ahh, going toward ihh with the tongue
6th-12th harmonic: ihh, going toward eeee, 12th is extreme eeee

This is just a rough guide, the harmonics have to be 'tuned' by experimentation.

A reverberrant room is helpful. Experiment with different pitches to find which note is most resonant with your oral cavity/sinus system.

 

[Carl H.]

This thread reminds me of a breakfast a few years ago.

About a dozen musicians were all sitting around the breakfast table eating and killing time before a 2 pm concert. Topics ranged from cars to birds to you name it. After a while acoustics came up and the idea of humming a room came up. You get into a space and hum up and down until you find a resonant frequency. To cut to the chase. In the hall where the concert was to take place in the hour preceding the concert you couldn't find a bathroom which didn't have a humming musician in it. Some did overtones as well as standard humming.

Must have been odd for the patrons to walk in and hear this.

 

[gary]

To cut to the chase...you couldn't find a bathroom which didn't have a humming musician in it...

Over to you, Marty. :twisted:

 

[Carl H.]

We gotta get you some companionship.

How about a hampster?

 

[martysax]

Over to you, Marty. :twisted:

I've been to a few of those bathrooms in Lowell, Allston, Cambridge and ofcourse, Somerville.

I also recall lots of humming going on.

Is this a thread about overtones or over-blowing? Isn't that a different thread?

 

[trinitron]

the first example on that fusica page under the link "overtone singing" sends a rush up my spine. it sort of puts me in a stupor actually, a sort of meditative state. i must learn to do this.