exercise: making overtones

[pianonut]

you may wish to be alone when you try this exercise.   unsuspecting neighbors or family members may think you have become strange and otherworldly as you make these sounds 

sit comfortably with your eyes closed.  shape your mouth as though you had a straw in your mouth.  stretch your lower jaw downward.  imagine the inside of your mouth becoming a very large cave.

yawn and hold your chin down with one hand as you begin to make a low "Ooo" sound.  remember to keep only a small opening in your lips.  then, gently very gradually, without changing th epitch of the "Ooo," begin to change the sound to  "You" and then to "Eeee."

as you fully exhale with a small opening in your lips and your chin down, make a sound something like this:

"oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooouououououuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"
 
          "eueueueueueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"

then

"eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeueueueuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

ouououououoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo"

the key is to go very slowly and observe how your mouth and tongue change positions as you modify the vowel sound ever so slightly. the slower you move your tongue between the vowel sounds, the more you will notice the overtones beginning to appear in your voice.  this is not an authentic tibetian technique, though it is somewhat similar to one of the mongolian styles.

[steinwayguy]

 

[Bob]

"Urrrrrrrrrrrr.r.....eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"

(performs Mary Had a Little Lamb with overtone singing)

"Thank you!  Thank you!  I'm here all week!"

[nipohc]

ROFL







:gets up from the floor: couldn't help myself with the replies


I can do harmonics with my voice, i put my tongue on the roof of my mouth in a U shape, very cool if you can actually control what pitch you make.... i usually get a pentatonic scale depending on how wide i stretch the mouth

[pianonut]

very cool!

[asyncopated]

Hmmm... Sounds like what I'm doing druing vocal lessons.  BTW, teach is russian and not mongolian/tibetian and I'm suppose to be learning opera.

I've been told that before doing this, one is suppose to warm up.

So here are a couple of warm-up exercises that I do all the time.

1. With pursed lips, keep your lower jaw and loose and lips flabby, and blow, doing scales that the same time.  Like micking the sound flatulence -- kids always do this. Just do it elegantly. 

Go through some of the hanon exercies (or any other suitable ones) in your vocal range.
Do - Re - Mi - Fa -So -Fa- Mi- Re -Do.

A variation of this is to roll your rrrr (rrerrrrr).  And do the same exercies on a rolled r.

2.  Smile profusely and imagine that you are playing a reed through your teeth.  Do a zzzzzz sound with the same exerciese.

This should get you warmed up and your breath flowing for the overtones exercies pianonut suggested!

al.
 

[ajw400]

I can tell you that this most definitely should not be done in any building that may have other residents - they'll think you're crazy. I used to practice this, but it scared some people because it has to be REALLY LOUD to work.

BTW i heard a choir piece once where the whole choir was doing tuvan throat singing - marvelous effect!

[c18cont]

Well I tried,

But my wife caught me, and so she called her brother to come and get her.......

John

[pianonut]

sorry!  i wasn't the one that said to do it really loud, ok. 

[janne p.]

I used to practice this, but it scared some people because it has to be REALLY LOUD to work.

If you do the tongue variant that nipohc suggested, you can do it as quiet as you want. It's also the easiest way to get the overtones really strong and penetrating, and the easiest technique for singing melodies with them/changing overtones rapidly.

Someone said that he/she gets a pentatonic scale; you can only get the overtone scale, which includes fragments of the major pentatonic scale.

An exercise for advanced droners: try to hold an overtone, and then switch the root tone while keeping the same overtone! This works, of course, only with a handful of notes per overtone, but with some practice and mind work you can sing two-part things (without bordune) with yourself!

[c18cont]

O....K., O.K.,

So I may go ahead and try this again,....But are you sure this isn't something like the people who burp the National Anthem, or something like that?......

John

[quantum]

Do you know how to do the other version, when you attempt to sing a lower pitch than your natural voice supports?

[claudio]

sounds like bending a harp. also fun ... 

[pianonut]

janne p, amazing!

quantum, how do you sing a lower pitch than you are used to singing?

claudio, bending a saw, but a harp?  how do you do this?

much different than burping the national anthem, c18.  more like the glass harmonicas and extraordinary experiments bells.

[c18cont]

 

John

[c18cont]

O.K.....

I think I might be getting the hang of it......

John

[janne p.]

Do you know how to do the other version, when you attempt to sing a lower pitch than your natural voice supports?

There are various techniques for this as well, and I know of only two, of which I only master ½ :-P

Throat singing is the most used technique, a friend of mine could do one such variant: he somehow growled while singing about a fifth above his lowest note, and produced a (fake) tone an octave lower with the growl. This was incredibly loud, and didn't resemble singing as much as it did, eh, growling. He tried to explain it to me (this was years back) but I didn't quite get the hang of it. He said that somehow you make your "false vocal cords" vibrate and the resonance gives you the octaver effect.

The technique I'm starting to get the hang of is called Strobas (don't know the spelling). You sing a note (also here, it isn't that easy with your lowest notes so maybe a fifth or sixth above your lowest note) and, while singing it, start making a creaking, grating noise. Think of an old door creaking. If you do this right, you make the impression of singing an octave lower than you actually do.

You can also "sing" with a creaking voice (without a tone an octave higher) and make the impression of singing real low. With this kind of fake singing I can reach the lowest C on the piano (with my real voice only the G sharp above).

[c18cont]

You know,

I used to hear about such as a vocal minor, but we were so seroius we didn't do much that was out of the ordinary...We stuck to our practice and were very serious all the time...(One good thing with the modern adv. student....They are usually so bright and experimental...!)

Now I find this incredibly interesting, so I am starting some research on it...!!! Anybody know anymore good sites with odd singing methods, inc. some of those incredible indian and sub-continent and the eastern islands and mainland?....?

John

[pianonut]

janne,  i tried the second one and did it right away - but octave and fifth higher instead of lower.  ?  i tried the third idea, creaking and only got a low note when i REALLY opened up my throat (not mouth of course).  i've never sung that low.  cool!

you can sing the lowest note on the piano!  wow.

have you ever heard of ivan rebrov (ff)  he could sing 5-6 octaves as well, and transitioned amazingly.  he's dead now, but has recordings that are phenomenal.

[c18cont]

Well, two things,

I found just BUNCHES of good sites, and ideas....including lists of practicing musicians....Many exciting things....!..but also,

It is not really very sucessful for me, and I know why...I am unable to hold a sound long enough to move it, as my left ear has fused middle ear parts from a diving accident many years ago, and I hear mostly through the bony structure of the head on my left side.... It is so involved to have the necessary surgery, even if it was covered by ins. along with medicare, and I could feel O.K. about the wasted money....It will probably never get done....)

I will try more, and see if I can concentrate on the sound and avoid the POWERFUL sound in the bone....(I have trouble just singing loudly with a choir now, because of it..but still sing O.K. solo....(?) Sorry to waste time with this...

Best,   John

[pianonut]

wasting time?  humming and creating overtones isn't a waste of time.  just like yoga or meditation.  of course, prayer will get you more results - and doesn't break glass, but just enjoy yourself.  allow the neighbors to wonder.

[janne p.]

janne,  i tried the second one and did it right away - but octave and fifth higher instead of lower.  ?  i tried the third idea, creaking and only got a low note when i REALLY opened up my throat (not mouth of course).  i've never sung that low.  cool!

you can sing the lowest note on the piano!  wow.

have you ever heard of ivan rebrov (ff)  he could sing 5-6 octaves as well, and transitioned amazingly.  he's dead now, but has recordings that are phenomenal.

Great that it works. The more you practice on the techniques, the lower you can go. Speaking of the third idea; "opening up your throat" is helpful as you said, here two more helpful things: when hitting a low note, think that you're taking the note a little from below, slurring up to it from below, no matter how low the note is, just think that way and it will help! I also find it much easier to sing really low with both my regular voice and these techniques just after I've sung really high and strong.
And I can only sing the lowest C, not the lowest note of the piano. And that's achieved with the third fake technique :-P

Haven't heard anything of or with Rebrov; I'll have to check him out, thanks for the tip!

Oh yeah, c18cont: check out https://www.roy-hart.com

[c18cont]

Many thanks for the Roy Hart address....Read of him and Wolfshon, but had forgotten. I am going to take some time with this....

Regards,   John