How do I do overtone singing?
Is it just a head voice overlaying a steady chest voice? How does this work? Do you need to have 2 different airflows? Please explain! I have tried it multiple times but every time just end up in a head voice.
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You are Always Singing Overtones
Each note you sing produces many overtones, the relative volume of each changes depending on several things, including the shape of your lips and mouth, position of your tongue, etc. This actually plays a large part in why each mouth "position" sounds different from the rest. The human brain interprets all the notes as a single sound, but they are all still being heard.
Producing Overtones is Easy, Controlling Them...Not so Much
Adjusting the relative volumes of these overtones in order to make specific ones prominent enough to be clearly heard above the rest is actually very simple (you just need to have the correct mouth shape), but learning to actually sing melodies in overtones is exceptionally difficult, as the difference in mouth position between notes is nearly imperceptible.
How to Produce Distinct Overtones
To get started, choose a relatively low note that you can still sing at full volume. Next, sing "Wee" with an open pallet (try to resonate about half way back in your mouth). If you notice a slight whistling sound, what you are hearing is actually a series of ascending overtones. Now, sing "Wee" again, but transition from the starting "ooo" shape to the ending "eee" shape very slowly. If the resonance is in the right place in your mouth you will hear a high pitch tone that gets higher as you transition.
Go slowly enough and you might notice that the pitches are following the harmonic series, which makes sense, because that is exactly what they are! (If you happen to remember those plastic tube things that produce whistling noises when you twirl them, it sounds kind of like that (fun fact: those toys also follow the harmonic series as you twirl them faster)). If you do not hear the notes, that's ok. Just adjust the position of you tongue, and where in your mouth you are resonating, and you should find it.
How to Control Overtones (TLDR: I have no idea!)
Now that you are producing the pitches, try finding the exact shape between "ooo" and "eee" that produces a specific pitch. If you can't, don't worry (neither can I). This is the "exceptionally difficult" part I mentioned earlier. The differences in mouth shape are tiny and the harmonic series limits exactly which notes you actually have access too. Honestly, at this point, I can't help you. You can experiment with it, or possibly find a tutorial somewhere on how to hit specific pitches.
Good Luck!
But for now, hopefully this answer is enough to get you started and impress people at parties by singing two pitches at once!
Any note that you sing consists of overtones. However, humans will just think of it as one note, and interpret the overtones as "timbre".
The effect of overtone singing (or throat singing) is to emphasise one of those overtones. If you can do that strong enough (and especially if you can emphasise different overtones in a sequence), then eventually humans will start hearing it as two notes.
In practice, you take a deep breath and produce a low steady tone in your throat (just with your vocal tracts). Tighten your throat and make it 'ugly' so that the sound has a lot of overtones to begin with. Then make a relatively small "oh" opening with your lips and shape your mouth cavity to resonate with the frequency of one of those overtones (octave, octave+fifth, double-octave, double-octave+third, etc...). Sounds difficult, but if you can whistle a tune, then you are already capable of shaping your mouth to resonate with a desired frequency.
As a result, that overtone (which was already present in the original sound) will become stronger and more emphasised. And if you practice long enough... it will be convincing enough to be heard as 2 different tones.
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