Listening Test 2.0: Can you Hear the New Hidden Melody – and a Surprise

Let’s go to the next level! After the success of the first listening test, a new challenge awaits you: can you recognize the new hidden melody? However, this time it is more difficult to hear because the rhythm has been altered more!

A surprise awaits you at the end of the video: the hidden melody is not only audible in singing, but even without any tones! Be amazed and test how far your hearing really goes.

What awaits you in this video:
– A new, more challenging audio sample
– A surprising discovery in the speaking voice
– Tips on how you can further hone your hearing

Test your ear now and let me know in the comments if you spotted the melody at the end!

If you want to learn how to sing overtones and how you can even make a living from it, subscribe to my newsletter.

If you want to know what happens here, check out listening test 1.

 

How Overtones Harmonize Your Brain

Imagine how a simple hearing test could change the world. That’s exactly what’s happening with my hearing test, which is attracting more and more attention – and not just in philosophical and neuroscience circles. But what makes it so special that it garners such widespread interest?

Since 2022, this test has been a key component of a groundbreaking educational concept for children. Developed under the leadership of the Omni Aqua Foundation by Akiko Stein in collaboration with Prof. Mag. rer. nat. Dr. phil. Annemarie Seither-Preisler, Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Peter Schneider, and myself, the concept, named F-dUR – Peace through Primordial Sound, is based on the unique properties of water and overtones. These elements, combined with mindfulness exercises and the synchronization of the brain hemispheres, foster a deep empathic connection with oneself, fellow humans, and nature from an early age. We are convinced that this approach is key to inner peace, which in turn is essential for peaceful and empathetic interaction with each other.

In the video excerpt from a thirty-minute documentary about the F-dUR concept, which you can see here, you’ll dive into the fascinating world of sound. The documentary features exciting interviews with leading neuroscientists and reveals the unexpected power of overtone awareness. This clip is just a taste of the whole story. You can watch the full film, which takes you deeper into this innovative concept, here. Dive with us into the world of sound and discover how a hearing test can do much more than just detect tones – it can build a bridge to deep inner peace and empathy.

BBC Documentary about Wolfgang Saus’ Overtones in the MRI Tube


At the moment you can download the German version of the BBC documentation, e.g. with Mediathekview, from the ZDF Mediathek: 4th Episode, Wonders of Anatomy – Medical Record X – Borderline Cases of Science.
Note: Video and link currently only work from Germany.


Surgeon Gabriel Weston has spent many years studying the functioning of the human body. In the series «Incredible Medicine: Dr Weston’s Casebook» she presents people from all over the world with the most unusual bodies and abilities.

One of them is the unique body control required for overtone singing (from 10:40 min.). In November 2016, a film team from BBC Science Production, Emma Hatherley (production, direction) and Alexis Smith (camera), produced a film at the Institute of Music Medicine at the University Hospital of Freiburg with Prof. Bernhard Richter and Wolfgang Saus.

Live images from the magnetic resonance tomograph show the complex motion sequences in the mouth and throat that are involved in overtone singing. Interviews explain the scientific background of the phenomenon.

Pictures of the Making-of

Links

→BBC Website

Laughing woman holds her ears shut

Do You Hear a Melody? – Take the Listening Test

In just 3:20 minutes, this listening test opens your ears to a new dimension of hearing that only around 5% of musicians are aware of: overtone hearing. This ability is essential for learning overtone singing. And it is a prerequisite for the practical implementation of vocal and choral phonetics.


New Videos

 


In 2004, a research group led by Dr. Peter Schneider at Heidelberg University Hospital discovered that people perceive sounds differently depending on which hemisphere of the brain processes them. They developed the Heidelberg Hearing Test to determine whether someone perceives fundamental tones or overtones more prominently in a sound. →Take the Heidelberg Test here

My hearing test is different. It evaluates whether someone recognizes vowels or overtones more strongly in a sound. In the second part, it trains the ability to shift the perception threshold from vowels to favour overtones.

→Watch a video about the background.

Saus’s Listening Test

Relax and listen to the first sound sample. I sing a sequence of nonsensical syllables on a single pitch. If you recognize a familiar classical melody within it, congratulations! You have exceptional overtone hearing and belong to the 5% of people who can perceive this spontaneously.

Audio Example 1

Download mp3

If you don’t hear the melody, don’t worry. By the end of the listening test, you will hear the overtones.

In the next audio examples, I gradually remove more and more sound information from the voice that the brain interprets as part of speech. Next, I will sing the syllables by changing only the second vowel formant while keeping the first one steady in a low position. The syllables will then only contain Ü-sounds [Y], making the melody clearer to some listeners.

Audio Example 2

Download mp3

If the melody is now becoming clear, congratulations! At this stage, 20-30% of people can hear the melody. Perhaps you only suspect the melody but aren’t sure if you’re imagining it. Trust your imagination. Your hearing picks up the melody; it’s just that a filter in your consciousness tells you the information is not important. Speech recognition is much more important.

At this point, I’ll reveal the melody: It’s “Ode to Joy” from the 9th Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven. In the next audio example, I’ll whistle it tonelessly. This will help your brain learn what to listen for. Afterward, listen to Audio Example 2 again.

Audio Example 3

Download mp3

Is it clearer now? If not, listen to the next example.

In Audio Example 4, I remove the consonants. At this point, the Broca’s area, the brain region responsible for speech recognition, has nothing to do and transfers auditory attention to other regions.

Audio Example 4

Download mp3

Now, about 60-80% of listeners can hear the melody. If you still can’t hear it, you are likely classified as a fundamental tone listener in the Heidelberg Hearing Test. This has nothing to do with musicality. You are in the company of some of the best flutists, percussionists, and pianists.

In the next example, I completely modify the sound. By using a specific tongue position, I lower the third formant by two octaves until it matches the frequency of the second formant. This creates a double resonance that does not occur in the German language.

Audio Example 5

Download mp3

This technique is called overtone singing. The ear now lacks familiar sound information, and individual partial tones become so loud due to the double resonance that the brain separates the sounds and informs your consciousness that it perceives two tones.

You likely hear a flute-like melody alongside the voice. Overtone singing is an acoustic illusion. In reality, you’re hearing more than 70 partial tones. Physical reality and perception rarely align.

In the final audio example, I go backward through the entire process to the beginning. Try to keep your focus on the melody the entire time. Feel free to listen to Audio Example 6 multiple times; it trains overtone listening and improves your ability to perceive sound details with confidence.

Audio Example 6

Download mp3

Our reality is created within ourselves. And it is changeable.

 

Test Your Rhythm Feeling

On ConcertHotels you will find a test that measures your precision of rhythm feeling. Take the test first. Then try singing overtones while you’re doing the test and write your results in the comment below if you like. I look forward to it.

Enlarged right auditory cortex, Wolfgang Saus.

Enlarged right auditory cortex, Wolfgang Saus.

Overtones are usually sung slowly and meditatively, rarely fast and rhythmically (there are exceptions). Overtone singers process sound more in the right hemisphere, drummers more in the left, says Dr. Schneider from Heidelberg University Hospital. Test here how your brain processes sounds.

Is that one of the reasons? An interesting question that has not yet been examined. I suspect that focusing on overtones, at least for the untrained, draws attention away from rhythm.

In my advanced courses, I experience that at first the intonation and sound quality of the keynote suffers when the focus goes entirely to the overtones. Conversely, concentrating on the keynote causes a poorer overtone quality or even complete loss of control of overtone singing. I can immediately recognize from the sound what a student is concentrating on.

If you want to sing polyphonic overtones, i. e. a fundamental melody and an independent overtone melody at the same time, then both tones must receive equal attention. I have developed special exercises for this purpose, which improve the clean control of both notes after a few hours. It would be interesting to examine whether these exercises have an effect on the feeling of rhythm. I will do the rhythm test in my courses as a before-and-after comparison. I’m curious to see what happens.

What are your experiences with rhythm and overtones?

 

Turning a child's ear

Test: Are you an overtone or fundamental listener?

Do now also the new hearing test by Wolfgang Saus!


The effect of overtones in the brain seems to be of great interest. That’s why I would like to introduce the corresponding hearing test here. Dr. Schneider, the head of the study, provides on his website a hearing test developed by him, with which I have been testing my Masterclass students for years in order to develop an individual and optimal learning strategy for everyone.

This short test plays a series of tone pairs in which you are asked to decide spontaneously whether the second sound feels higher or lower than the first. At the end you get an evaluation of the degree to which you are fundamental or overtone listener, i. e. whether your hearing processes the sound more in the left brain half (fundamental listener) or more in the right brain half (overtone listener). If you are interested in the background of the work of the Heidelberg researchers, you can download the specialist article here.




On some computers this alternative link seems to work better:



Feel free to leave your score below in the comments. I’m curious to see how overtone singers perform. I’ll let you know my result as soon as the first comments come in. Then in another post I’ll show you what’s behind the sounds of the test.



Sources & Links



Overtone and fundamental listeners in the orchestra (c) Neurological University Hospital Heidelberg

How Your Brain Handles Overtones

Why One Plays Violin and the Other Cello

First published at Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg on 21.08.2005 (Repost with kind permission)

The ability to perceive fundamental and overtones is anchored in the brain / Scientists from Heidelberg publish a study of orchestral musicians in “Nature Neuroscience”

→ Here you can do the Heidelberg listening test yourself

The same sounds can be perceived very differently by different people. The cause resides in the brain. Because the sound of a tone depends on structures in the cerebrum: Those who hear more overtones and thus rather long-lasting, deep sounds have more neuronal cell substance in the hearing centre of the right cerebral cortex, the so-called Heschl’s gyrus (transverse temporal gyrus). Those who hear the root more strongly or prefer short, sharp tones show this characteristic in the left half of the brain.

These are the results of a study published on August 21, 2005 as an online publication of “Nature Neurosciences” and in the September print edition . Scientists from the Department of Biomagnetism at the Neurological University Hospital in Heidelberg, together with colleagues from the Universities of Liverpool, Southampton and Maastricht, examined a total of 420 people, the majority of whom were music students and orchestra musicians.

Musicality independent of hearing type / connection with rhythm recognition

Extensive listening tests were used to determine whether the test persons belonged to the group of “fundamental listeners” or “overtone listeners“. (For each natural tone, a multitude of higher tones are produced in addition to the fundamental tone, which determines the pitch. These overtones complement the frequency spectrum of a tone and give it its individual timbre.) In 87 subjects from both groups, additional brain structures were visualized in the magnetic resonance tomogram and their functions were measured with magnetoencephalography (MEG). MEG is a very sensitive method for measuring brain activity. It measures low magnetic fields generated by active nerve cells in the cerebral cortex.

Overtone and fundamental pitch listeners in the orchestra (c) Neurological University Hospital Heidelberg

Overtone and fundamental pitch listeners in the orchestra (c) Neurological University Hospital Heidelberg
The Heidelberg study has shown that the seating arrangement in a modern symphony orchestra follows the individual ability of sound perception, which is anchored in the left or right hemisphere of the brain. Fundamental listeners with high instruments (e.g. violin, flute, trumpet) are located to the left of the conductor and overtone listeners (e.g. viola, cello, double bass, bassoon, tuba) to the right. Image source: Neurological University Hospital Heidelberg

“These two types of hearing also exist among non-musical people,” explains Dr. Peter Schneider, physicist, church musician and MEG specialist in the Heidelberg research group. However, the processing of music is also linked to the ability to hear the fundamental or overtones.

“Overtone listeners can perceive long-lasting sounds and tones better,” says Schneider. This ability is located in the right hearing center. The fundamental listeners, on the other hand, stood out due to a more virtuoso playing technique and better processing of complex rhythms, which is linked to the faster processing in the left hearing centre.

Singers and cellists are “overtone listeners”.

Orchestral musicians have also selected their musical instrument according to their listening type, according to another study recently presented by Dr. Schneider at a specialist congress. Fundamental listeners prefer drums, guitar, piano or high melodic instruments, overtone listeners prefer deep melodic instruments such as cello, bassoon or tuba. Singers also belong to this group.

Musicality has nothing to do with the types of hearing, but it can also be found in the brain structures. In a publication in August 2002, again in “Nature Neuroscience”, Dr. Schneider and his colleagues from Heidelberg have already discovered that professional musicians have more than twice as much brain mass in the primary hearing centre as non-musical people. In addition, as MEG measurements have shown, their brains react more strongly to sounds.

For further information please contact:

Dr. Peter Schneider

E-mail: [email protected]

Further information on the Internet:

www.idw-online.de/pages/de/news51506

www.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php?id=5503

Image source: Neurological University Hospital Heidelberg

Sources