Sunday, November 16, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Throat Singing Instructions
So, since I like teaching people things, and a few people have expressed an interest in some of the throat singing I've been doing, I figured I'd write out a tutorial explaining how to learn to throat sing and achieve the various styles. There are lotsa instructions online, and some of the YouTube demonstrations are pretty good, but I feel like I can explain things a bit better than the ways I've seen them described. A lot of these tips were gleaned (or stolen) from others, but re-explained or modified from my perspective.
1. Khoomei:
You should start by learning Khoomei. Khoomei is the most basic style of throat singing, and is a necessary component of Sygyt. Khoomei was pretty simple for me to learn, but for others, it's very non-intuitive. I'm not trying to brag, I'm merely saying that it may make sense immediately, or it may not. Just stick with it.
Start by just "singing" a simple tone like "Ah" somewhere in the middle of your range (not too high, not too low). Then try to constrict the back of your throat to make it sound tighter and a bit grittier, while at the same time flexing your abs and really pushing the air up from your abdomen. It's very much a valsalva maneuver, like you're trying to have a bowel movement. The transition should sound like this.
It should not hurt to do this. When I was learning, I found my throat was a bit sore for a few days, but once I learned how to do it correctly, it didn't hurt at all. Take it slow. A little bit of practice, and a long break.
Alright that's Khoomei. That's it. A Tuvan throat song may have a melody sung in Khoomei with some minimal changes in pitch. I don't really know any true Tuvan songs, as I can't find any lyrics online... But here's a comically ridiculous "melody" line in Khoomei, consisting entirely of gibberish.
2. Ok, now Sygyt. Sygyt means "whistle," and is characterized by high flute-like overtones that sound on top of a lower bagpipe like drone. You're shooting for this.
Alright, now here's how you do it. First off, you HAVE to be able to do Khoomei before you do this. If you haven't got Khoomei yet, go back to part 1 and learn that. Then come back to here.
Ok, so say "her." Take note of your tongue position. It should be curved up a bit with the tip a bit behind your front teeth. Now sing "her," kind of high in your range. Now, trying to keep the tip of your tongue where it is, try to move the BACK part of your tongue up and down a bit. This is tricky. Try saying "yuhree," while keeping the tip of your tongue where it is. Realistically the tip will move back a bit while you say the "yuhr" part, and forward a bit when you say the "ree" part, but focus on keeping it stationary. It should sound like this.
What you're doing is creating a second reasonating chamber in your mouth, above your tongue, so that you've got some air vibrating from your vocal cords, and some air above your tongue vibrating too. Note that there needs to be a way for the air to "escape" from the upper resonating chamber; if you had made a perfect seal with your tongue against your hard palate, the air wouldn't be able to resonate and escape properly. If I think about it, I can ALMOST feel the tip of my tongue vibrating a little bit against my hard palate behind my teeth, but this is very subtle, it shouldn't be like you're rolling your R's like in Spanish. Your lips and jaw should NOT move much at all while you're doing this, they should remain in a loose "ooh" shape.
Now if you listen carefully while you're doing this "yuhree" thing, you might hear some hints of overtones, which will sound like higher pitched variations on top of the "body" of the sound. Here's where the Khoomei comes in. When you do exactly what was described in the paragraph above USING A KHOOMEI VOICE, you'll selectively filter out some sounds, producing clearer overtones.
Now do the "yuhree" thing, while siging in Khoomei. Your overtones will probably appear and disappear kind of randomly, and I bet you'll feel your tongue hit the right frequency and then get "out of phase" while this is occuring. With time, you'll get better at localizing the tongue positions necessary to produce the overtones. Here's a sample of me performing some pseudo-Sygyt WITHOUT the Khoomei voice, and then adding in the constriction to produce true Sygyt.
You'll hear the overtones get alot clearer in the sample.
This takes practice, practice, practice. Learning where the overtones are is like learning where the notes are on a trombone. Practice your Khoomei too, as the more constriction you can get, the easier it is to find overtones.
3. Kargyraa.
This is much simpler than Sygyt, in that there aren't tricky tongue positions to master or anything. Basically, once you can get the initial Kargyraa sound, all you do is mouth exaggerated vowel shapes to get overtones. The hard part though is figuring out how the hell to get that distinctive low sound of Kargyraa.
Once you do though, it's extremely rewarding. It literally will just click into place, and then you'll think "OH, THAT'S how you do it."
Alright so what you need to do is get a part of your voice-box vibrating that you probably don't even know you have, the vestibular folds (or false vocal cords).
When you make a growling noice with your mouth closed, or clear your throat, you're vibrating these. As much as I hate the show Home Improvement, the man-grunt that the dad in that show does is a pretty good example. So here's the kind of closed-mouth growl/throat clearing that I'm talking about.
Now Kargyraa is singing a tone while vibrating this same area. HOWEVER, you don't want to just try to perpetually growl while singing, this will really hurt. The best way I've found to make this happen is as follows. Sing "Ho" relatively low in your range. Now, sing "Hoden", with a very short "den." It's almost just like "Ho-dn." It should sound like this.
Alright, so when you're singing that "den" part, you should be able to feel some pressure or vibration on your palate / the back part of your nasal cavity, and if you put your finger under your nostrils, you should feel a bit of air coming out your nose at this point. My point is you're producing some backpressure in your mouth/throat by blocking with your tongue to say the "n" sound. Now is the really tricky part. This backpressure can be increased by pushing hard from your abdomen, and then you can get your false vocal cords vibrating. Try to visualize the part of your voice box that you want to get moving; again, it's the part that moves when you growl or clear your throat. Increase the force with which your singing "den," and try to visualize directing the pressure back down your throat. It will probably take a number of tries, but eventually you'll feel part of your larynx just leap into vibration. When this happens to me, I can feel my nasal cavity vibrate really hard too... it tickles the inside of my nose. Now the first time you get this vibration, it will probably hurt a bit, and will feel like you just cleared your throat really really hard. This is where you need to take it slow. DO NOT PRACTICE THIS TOO MUCH AT ONE SITTING. Only a few minutes day until you can get the vibration without much effort. When you're really trying hard to GET the vibration, it hurts. When you're actually vibrating, it's painless.
Alright, so the "Hoden" --> vibration should sound like this.
Now, you have to open your lips and tongue while keeping your false vocal cords vibrating, so that you can shape your mouth into other vowel shapes (other than the "den" you are pronouncing). It's a bit tricky to open your mouth without losing the vibration at first. Try saying "Hoden-Ay." When you can get your mouth open into the "ay" position and still have the vibrating going on, you're 90% there. It should sound like this.
Once you get better that vibration, you'll find out you can drop into the vibration without having to do the backpressure method. This isn't a crucial step though, at this point, so just stick with the Hoden-Ay approach for now.
Now you've just got to move your mouth into shapes like "A E I O U," and you'll get different overtones to sound. They're alot more subtle than the piercing Sygyt ones, and they're hard to record on a crappy microphone, but it will sound something like this.
There you go. The three main styles of throat singing. Take it slow and be patient. I think my instructions are pretty good, and I think if you follow them, you could learn this all in a week.
Good luck : )
1. Khoomei:
You should start by learning Khoomei. Khoomei is the most basic style of throat singing, and is a necessary component of Sygyt. Khoomei was pretty simple for me to learn, but for others, it's very non-intuitive. I'm not trying to brag, I'm merely saying that it may make sense immediately, or it may not. Just stick with it.
Start by just "singing" a simple tone like "Ah" somewhere in the middle of your range (not too high, not too low). Then try to constrict the back of your throat to make it sound tighter and a bit grittier, while at the same time flexing your abs and really pushing the air up from your abdomen. It's very much a valsalva maneuver, like you're trying to have a bowel movement. The transition should sound like this.
It should not hurt to do this. When I was learning, I found my throat was a bit sore for a few days, but once I learned how to do it correctly, it didn't hurt at all. Take it slow. A little bit of practice, and a long break.
Alright that's Khoomei. That's it. A Tuvan throat song may have a melody sung in Khoomei with some minimal changes in pitch. I don't really know any true Tuvan songs, as I can't find any lyrics online... But here's a comically ridiculous "melody" line in Khoomei, consisting entirely of gibberish.
2. Ok, now Sygyt. Sygyt means "whistle," and is characterized by high flute-like overtones that sound on top of a lower bagpipe like drone. You're shooting for this.
Alright, now here's how you do it. First off, you HAVE to be able to do Khoomei before you do this. If you haven't got Khoomei yet, go back to part 1 and learn that. Then come back to here.
Ok, so say "her." Take note of your tongue position. It should be curved up a bit with the tip a bit behind your front teeth. Now sing "her," kind of high in your range. Now, trying to keep the tip of your tongue where it is, try to move the BACK part of your tongue up and down a bit. This is tricky. Try saying "yuhree," while keeping the tip of your tongue where it is. Realistically the tip will move back a bit while you say the "yuhr" part, and forward a bit when you say the "ree" part, but focus on keeping it stationary. It should sound like this.
What you're doing is creating a second reasonating chamber in your mouth, above your tongue, so that you've got some air vibrating from your vocal cords, and some air above your tongue vibrating too. Note that there needs to be a way for the air to "escape" from the upper resonating chamber; if you had made a perfect seal with your tongue against your hard palate, the air wouldn't be able to resonate and escape properly. If I think about it, I can ALMOST feel the tip of my tongue vibrating a little bit against my hard palate behind my teeth, but this is very subtle, it shouldn't be like you're rolling your R's like in Spanish. Your lips and jaw should NOT move much at all while you're doing this, they should remain in a loose "ooh" shape.
Now if you listen carefully while you're doing this "yuhree" thing, you might hear some hints of overtones, which will sound like higher pitched variations on top of the "body" of the sound. Here's where the Khoomei comes in. When you do exactly what was described in the paragraph above USING A KHOOMEI VOICE, you'll selectively filter out some sounds, producing clearer overtones.
Now do the "yuhree" thing, while siging in Khoomei. Your overtones will probably appear and disappear kind of randomly, and I bet you'll feel your tongue hit the right frequency and then get "out of phase" while this is occuring. With time, you'll get better at localizing the tongue positions necessary to produce the overtones. Here's a sample of me performing some pseudo-Sygyt WITHOUT the Khoomei voice, and then adding in the constriction to produce true Sygyt.
You'll hear the overtones get alot clearer in the sample.
This takes practice, practice, practice. Learning where the overtones are is like learning where the notes are on a trombone. Practice your Khoomei too, as the more constriction you can get, the easier it is to find overtones.
3. Kargyraa.
This is much simpler than Sygyt, in that there aren't tricky tongue positions to master or anything. Basically, once you can get the initial Kargyraa sound, all you do is mouth exaggerated vowel shapes to get overtones. The hard part though is figuring out how the hell to get that distinctive low sound of Kargyraa.
Once you do though, it's extremely rewarding. It literally will just click into place, and then you'll think "OH, THAT'S how you do it."
Alright so what you need to do is get a part of your voice-box vibrating that you probably don't even know you have, the vestibular folds (or false vocal cords).
When you make a growling noice with your mouth closed, or clear your throat, you're vibrating these. As much as I hate the show Home Improvement, the man-grunt that the dad in that show does is a pretty good example. So here's the kind of closed-mouth growl/throat clearing that I'm talking about.
Now Kargyraa is singing a tone while vibrating this same area. HOWEVER, you don't want to just try to perpetually growl while singing, this will really hurt. The best way I've found to make this happen is as follows. Sing "Ho" relatively low in your range. Now, sing "Hoden", with a very short "den." It's almost just like "Ho-dn." It should sound like this.
Alright, so when you're singing that "den" part, you should be able to feel some pressure or vibration on your palate / the back part of your nasal cavity, and if you put your finger under your nostrils, you should feel a bit of air coming out your nose at this point. My point is you're producing some backpressure in your mouth/throat by blocking with your tongue to say the "n" sound. Now is the really tricky part. This backpressure can be increased by pushing hard from your abdomen, and then you can get your false vocal cords vibrating. Try to visualize the part of your voice box that you want to get moving; again, it's the part that moves when you growl or clear your throat. Increase the force with which your singing "den," and try to visualize directing the pressure back down your throat. It will probably take a number of tries, but eventually you'll feel part of your larynx just leap into vibration. When this happens to me, I can feel my nasal cavity vibrate really hard too... it tickles the inside of my nose. Now the first time you get this vibration, it will probably hurt a bit, and will feel like you just cleared your throat really really hard. This is where you need to take it slow. DO NOT PRACTICE THIS TOO MUCH AT ONE SITTING. Only a few minutes day until you can get the vibration without much effort. When you're really trying hard to GET the vibration, it hurts. When you're actually vibrating, it's painless.
Alright, so the "Hoden" --> vibration should sound like this.
Now, you have to open your lips and tongue while keeping your false vocal cords vibrating, so that you can shape your mouth into other vowel shapes (other than the "den" you are pronouncing). It's a bit tricky to open your mouth without losing the vibration at first. Try saying "Hoden-Ay." When you can get your mouth open into the "ay" position and still have the vibrating going on, you're 90% there. It should sound like this.
Once you get better that vibration, you'll find out you can drop into the vibration without having to do the backpressure method. This isn't a crucial step though, at this point, so just stick with the Hoden-Ay approach for now.
Now you've just got to move your mouth into shapes like "A E I O U," and you'll get different overtones to sound. They're alot more subtle than the piercing Sygyt ones, and they're hard to record on a crappy microphone, but it will sound something like this.
There you go. The three main styles of throat singing. Take it slow and be patient. I think my instructions are pretty good, and I think if you follow them, you could learn this all in a week.
Good luck : )
Cute.
This is a really cute video of a little french girl telling a crazy story that she apparently made up.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
kargyraa.....!
My throat hurts today. I practiced too much yesterday. Will take it easy for a while. But listen to my sample from yesterday!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Kargyraa!
WOOHOO!
Had a huge breakthrough in throat singing today, and actually discovered the unique feeling of vibration required for Kargyrra.
Quick and very dirty sample. Not at all elegant, but just to demonstrate the different tonalities while I could keep it going.
Goal: 1 week from today, Kargyrra with overtones. Like this:
Had a huge breakthrough in throat singing today, and actually discovered the unique feeling of vibration required for Kargyrra.
Quick and very dirty sample. Not at all elegant, but just to demonstrate the different tonalities while I could keep it going.
Goal: 1 week from today, Kargyrra with overtones. Like this:
Today
Picked up the fleece for my cold weather lounging / camping kilt. 7 yards (I might trim it down to ~6) that then is pleated up and bound about the waist, with the top part thrown over the shoulder. Can serve as a regular old leg-only garment, a block, and a very warm sleeping bag. I sat outside in only boxers and a t-shirt in 44 degree weather today wrapped up in it, and it was plenty warm. One day I hope to camp with only the kilt for clothing and shelter.
No pictures of me wearing it because, as much as I respect the kilt and am excited about it, a picture on the internet of a random American guy proudly standing there in his homemade kilt is just a little pathetic.
Then, we hypothetically went back to an old abandoned factory that I've never been too before, and hypothetically I found a "human nest" filled with dolls and teddy bears. Really, really creepy. In the picture, you can even see a large human-shaped bundle of blankets... which is why I hypothetically didn't explore the room, as I hypothetically was concerned their might've been a living person under those blankets (and, in hypothetical retrospect, a non-living person could've been under there too). I also hypothetically found what I first thought might've been some hobo-gin, but it turned out to be a really old oil lamp (still filled with pungent black oil, nonetheless). Pretty rockin.
No pictures of me wearing it because, as much as I respect the kilt and am excited about it, a picture on the internet of a random American guy proudly standing there in his homemade kilt is just a little pathetic.Then, we hypothetically went back to an old abandoned factory that I've never been too before, and hypothetically I found a "human nest" filled with dolls and teddy bears. Really, really creepy. In the picture, you can even see a large human-shaped bundle of blankets... which is why I hypothetically didn't explore the room, as I hypothetically was concerned their might've been a living person under those blankets (and, in hypothetical retrospect, a non-living person could've been under there too). I also hypothetically found what I first thought might've been some hobo-gin, but it turned out to be a really old oil lamp (still filled with pungent black oil, nonetheless). Pretty rockin.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Dream
I had a dream last night (or, this morning between 8 and 9:30, more precisely), that my dad had found an old leather bound bible at a garage sale, and picked it up cause it was really unique looking. Turns out it was colonized by bees, and they had somehow turned the entire inside of the book into a huge glowing supernatural honeycomb, dripping with glowing honey. Also turns out that this was some sort of magical key to the underworld, with the power to call forth Satan. Also, turns out that my grandmother (who really was my cousin's Grandma D.... but for some reason in this dream she was my grandmother) was possessed or something, and so was clearly going to try to use this to bring Beelzebub onto the earth, if she found out what I had wrapped up in a plastic bag in my room. So, I was going to try to climb out on some scaffolding into an old abandoned building that was connected to my house somehow (again, exploring old abandoned places is such a recurrent theme in my dreams, and always has been even before I started urban exploring), and go hide the honey-bible there. Then, I almost got attacked by a dog somehow, and then woke up. Weird dream.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
New Belt Buckle
I made one similar to this back in Boston once, but it broke.
So I made this one (w/ Superglue, instead of the JB Weld I used the first time).
So I made this one (w/ Superglue, instead of the JB Weld I used the first time).
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Didj
So I recorded a demonstration of circular breathing to get a bonus point from my anatomy professor, who lectured on circular breathing but had no demonstration of it to show to the class.
I haven't ever really posted a didgeridoo sample, so figured I'd post this one.
I haven't ever really posted a didgeridoo sample, so figured I'd post this one.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
For Posterity...
...and for the sake of completeness, I'd like to go on record by saying that tonight, I saw Barack Obama elected President of the United States of America. And I was mighty happy about it : )
Monday, November 3, 2008
Meh...
Well, the test was trickier than I expected, and I was less prepared than I expected. I got a 87%... But with my previous grade, I am still sitting OK. If I get a 89% on both the Anatomy Final and the Neuro Shelf, I can still get a Superior. If I get a 65% on both, I can still get a High-Satisfactory. So, whatsnever.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Sygyt
Preliminary demonstrations of my Sygyt. I know, it sounds very, very crappy. But, the important thing is, you can hear overtones above the drone. In the first one, about 16 seconds in, I succeeded in really playing around with the overtones up and down, and you can hear it pretty well. The second one I was trying for a sliiightly lower pitched drone and a different embouchure.
Again, crappy... but still, for only a few days' worth of effort, and being entirely self-taught, not too bad.
Here.
and Here.
Again, crappy... but still, for only a few days' worth of effort, and being entirely self-taught, not too bad.
Here.
and Here.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Huun Huur Tu at Philadelphia Folk Festival, August 2006
Wow. This is such pretty overtone Sygyt singing. The whistling overtones remind me of bagpipes so much. I am practicing a little each day, and am able to get some overtones, just not nearly so loudly. My goal is to be able to do this while hiking or otherwise being outside : )
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