Throat singing (related) content

I had this idea for a thread where we post youtube videos and other stuff that might be useful, interesting, unknown, or anything else.
I start with a few videos:
You probably saw this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwANedEkqaY He is pretty impressive, though I think he's not tuvan. Title says mongolian, but some people call everything from the middle east mongolian... I don't know, does anyone know more about him and the song?
Second, this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uf1lEawgTE Kongar-Ool Ondar is raping in Kargraa. It's really cool and you probably know that one, too.
The last video is quite unknown, but really cool, even though it doesn't directly feature throat singing... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LYJzl6ZKBU The idea is just awesome, check it out. ;-)

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Alzin on December 10, 2011 at 4:37pm

Mh, true, it might really be a unique feature...
Or maybe he is doing some sort of whistle register like Blixa Bargeld uses so virtuosicly. I was practising that lately, works well with the normal breathing techniques, no pressure, more like "keeping the air back", I think you know what I mean.

Permalink Reply by Dan Zimmermann on December 10, 2011 at 10:26pm

I can do that style of whistling, albeit not nearly that well. I don't make the guitar face either, but that may be because I don't whistle tunes like that.
Whistle sounds can be produced in many ways, I can personally do at least 4 different kinds, not including fingers.

Alzin said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IFt6MyiV...!
Okay, I don't think this guy uses overtones, but what IS he doing? He claims to be whistling, but I have never seen/heard someone whistle like that. Anyone knows how that works?

Permalink Reply by Dan Zimmermann on December 11, 2011 at 6:51am

In fact, I learned a bunch about whistling and flutes and what they have in common and what makes them different since I started learning about overtones, but I don't know precisely how the human vocal tract makes whistling at controlled pitches possible. Something about throat-tuning, I'm told.

I theorize that the specific type of whistling employed in the video is a little different from "normal" whistling. As I mentioned, I can do several types of whistling. The "normal" kind is with pursed lips and uses the tip of the tongue to make a ducted "fipple" with the aperture of the lips. I can feel the whole tongue writhe and twitch behind that tip when I whistle melodies. Very little air is required to produce clear sound of a sweet quality.

Then there's the type where I use the bottom lip against the upper teeth with the tongue broadly against the back of the teeth, leaving just a little gap behind the incisors. This is also a low-airflow style, but it sounds a lot crisper and perhaps just a little "wet". The entire tongue moves when I whistle melodies.

The third distinct type may be a little "special" as the sound is produced between an arched tongue and the palate. It sounds breathy and airy and has a lower register than the other two, in fact I can achieve pitches of an octave or so below normal with this, I presume because the air column my throat makes is much less restricted and open. In conjunction with different tongue positions (very very different) I can make melodies like this that sound like a large-bore flute or imitate a cuckoo. I'd use this to add flourishes to meditative music or produce animal sounds.

The fourth type features a curled-back tongue. I think this is what the guy in the video is doing, at some points you can see through his lips and he definitely has the tongue rolled back at least sometimes. Huge changes in mouth, lip aperture, tongue position etc can be applied to this and it sounds very screechy, similar to the sound you get when you whistle on your fingers. This whistle style is also used by herders that need to use a piercing sound that carries far and leaves you with both hands free.

Permalink Reply by Dan Zimmermann on December 11, 2011 at 7:18am

Yeah, something like that

Alzin said:

Mh, true, it might really be a unique feature...
Or maybe he is doing some sort of whistle register like Blixa Bargeld uses so virtuosicly. I was practising that lately, works well with the normal breathing techniques, no pressure, more like "keeping the air back", I think you know what I mean.

Permalink Reply by Alzin on December 11, 2011 at 1:21pm

Wow, I'd love to hear examples of your whistling! Can you do such a thing? I invented a sort of "overtone-whistling". I don't know how that works, I should make a sample and post it on youtube. I can get really high and sometimes shrill notes from it, I guess it has to do with overtones in some way, but I don't really know.

Permalink Reply by Dan Zimmermann on December 12, 2011 at 9:37am

I used to do a thing with my pal in high school where we'd both whistle as loud as we can, he'd hold a pitch and I'd "hover" around that same pitch. The result is a shrill and very hurtful shriek that fills any space with an eerie "detuned" sound. Let's exchange whistle samples soon.

Permalink Reply by Alzin on December 12, 2011 at 6:57pm

I hope to be able to make some next weekend, we'll see... This should be good.

Permalink Reply by Dan Zimmermann on December 26, 2011 at 9:46pm

I got an iPod for Xmas this year and tried out the YouTube app on it today. I found 118 videos by typing "sygyt" and searching. Some I have seen, some are my own (wow, 338 views, really?) and some I had not noticed before...
Seems like a lot of white newbies out there have cameras and upload themselves trying to sing Sygyt nowadays. 99% of them aren't doing actual Sygyt, though.

Wonder what I'll find typing "khoomei"...

Permalink Reply by Dan Zimmermann on December 26, 2011 at 9:51pm

I pondered this... It feels like "keeping the air back"
what's actually happening is you constrict somewhat (the "holding" part) and then increase pressure by tightening the diaphragm and chest. The result is a high pressure squeak through the ventricular folds. The vocal folds are not engaged here, but their muscles are used to adjust pitch somewhat. Even after a fair amount of time you haven't used the lungful of air up, so you are in a sense keeping the air back after all. It's like a tug-of-war between pressure and constriction. You are however not noticing the pressure because there's less of it needed than in throat singing... it IS there though.

Dan Zimmermann said:

Yeah, something like that

Alzin said:

Mh, true, it might really be a unique feature...
Or maybe he is doing some sort of whistle register like Blixa Bargeld uses so virtuosicly. I was practising that lately, works well with the normal breathing techniques, no pressure, more like "keeping the air back", I think you know what I mean.

Permalink Reply by Alzin on January 2, 2012 at 2:35pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4X9XAzjXb8
Listen to this. I am surprised this contains throat singing (I'm pretty sure it does). Sound somehow mongolian to me... what do you think?
I am a fan of Veljanov's music, and just today, I realised this song contains throat singing... My mind is somehow a bit blown right now.

Permalink Reply by Sam MOUROT on January 3, 2012 at 7:55am