#harmonic singing

So profoundly beautiful I shed a couple of tears.

‘Overtone singing—also known as overtone chanting, harmonic singing or throat singing—is a type of singing in which the singer manipulates the resonances (or formants) created as air travels from the lungs, past the vocal folds, and out of the lips to produce a melody.’ (Thanks Wikipedia) This might just sound like a really annoying noise to you, but let me explain. I’ve been fascinated by overtone singing from the first time I heard it, which was about 6 years ago. At the time I heard people from Tuva do it and I wrote an essay about the culture, the singing and how it connects to their way of life. I also tried to do overtone singing myself but ended up damaging my throat and coughing for a month straight. After this I kinda gave up on it and just saw it as a mythic way of singing only a few people in the world can pull off.. until a few weeks ago. I went to a singing camp in Dartmoor (UK) where we practiced singing 5 hours a day, for 10 days. One day we did a workshop about overtone singing and after some explaining and about 30 minutes of practice, most of us could do it. The sounds that were created by a group of people singing overtones inside a yurt (round tent) were amazing, almost otherworldly and it gave me such a euphoric experience, I knew I wanted to keep trying it. Since I got home I taught some of my friends how to do it, it’s really not that hard! Right now I don’t feel like I’m ready to actually ‘sing’ overtones yet, so I’m just practicing but it’s been so much fun figuring out what my voice can do. Near the end of this fragment I kinda sound like a human didgeridoo and I found it exciting enough to share. I really advise you to look up how to do overtone singing if you’re interested! It’s so cool and as long as you don’t start with low and raspy sounds right away, your voice should be fine. 

(M A G A)

Happy 1 by Dean Frenkel and David Jones from 'Barefoot in the Sky'