I was very happy about this video from Barnaby Martin. It is a wonderful introduction to the basics of my → Choral Phonetics. In this video he shows why formants are so important for intonation.
Choral phonetics uses our hidden ability to perceive resonances in the vocal tract as pitches (→ hearing test). And it trains a special fine motoricity of the tongue to control these resonances and to adapt the timbre to chords. This know-how enables singers to tune resonances just as precisely as their vocal tones. This turns timbre into a musical instrument. Choir sounds, as they can be heard in the video, become controllable.
What otherwise requires many years of experience and voice training for choristers can be achieved much faster with the knowledge of choral phonetics. Choir singers and conductors usually learn the necessary vocal techniques in just a few days and can develop them into a retrievable skill set within half a year. This refines not only intonation and homogeneity in the ensemble, but also the carrying capacity and lightness of the voice.
Besides, Barnaby Martin has a great talent to explain complex musical phenomena in a simple and entertaining way. Be sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel “Listening In”, there are a lot of first-class videos about the effects of musical sounds.Among other things I recommend his video about the completely crazy intonation movements that Jacob Collier uses in his choir pieces. Guys, choral phonetics is slowly becoming mainstream :)!
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https://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.png00Wolfgang Saushttps://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.pngWolfgang Saus2020-11-09 01:55:132020-12-16 03:41:15Why Does Choral Music Sound So Good?
https://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.png00Wolfgang Saushttps://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.pngWolfgang Saus2020-05-26 19:09:192020-12-16 03:43:24Jew’s harp and beatbox
You first have to learn to hear overtones. With this program you can do that. Whoever learns it will change his entire listening experience. This is because completely new insights into the essence of sounds and realities are opened up.
Radio Feature by: Tanja Gronde. Broadcast from 09.05.2020 on BR Bayern 2 and BR Heimat.
https://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/Wolfgang_Saus_photo_c_Luna_Buerger_39.jpg17062560Wolfgang Saushttps://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.pngWolfgang Saus2020-05-17 21:56:512020-06-17 15:17:04Radio Feature: Between two tones – The art of overtone singing
Minghao Xu’s 2009 film brings us close to the mystery of overtones, which seems to become the stranger the deeper you look into it. The film illuminates the phenomenon from the perspective of some of the greatest experts in the field of overtone singing, with some exciting and well-researched scientific and philosophical backgrounds. This documentary film portrays seven international musicians and tells the story of the director’s personal fascination with ‘overtone singing’ and the fractal geometry of sound. An amazing journey into a mysterious world of sound.
With
David Hykes
Wolfgang Saus
Christian Bollmann
Danny Wetzels
Hosoo & Transmongolia
Jill Purce
Mark van Tongeren
Director and producer: Minghao Xu
2009 Traumzeit publishing house, David Lindner
You can buy the DVD of the film with some extras in German/English here.
Minghao Xu about his film (quote from facebook):
My first production – a documentary about overtone singing – was published in 2010. Now after 10 years I am making it available for free on YouTube.
A big Thank You to Danny Wetzels who introduced me to overtone singing, who was and is a musical inspiration and a friend to me throughout the years.
Big Thank You to Wolfgang Saus who has a deep understanding of the human voice, who is brilliant in teaching how to hear and sing overtones and who supported me massively in creating this documentary.
Thank You to David Hykes who touched me as a singer as much as an inspirational being.
https://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.png00Wolfgang Saushttps://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.pngWolfgang Saus2020-01-24 00:58:102020-03-22 11:01:13Watch now for free: The film “Space – Sound – Voice” by Minghao Xu
The full ringing of Aachen Cathedral, recorded on Christmas Eve at midnight.
Nice to see in the spectrogram how some tones develop only after the beat. And not always the loudest ones are also the perceived ones.
Mary’s Bell: strike tone g°+8, 2075 mm diameter and 5,800 kg.
Charlemagne Bell: strike tone h°+7, 1628 mm diameter and 2700 kg.
Joh. evangelist: strike tone d’+8, 1367 mm diameter and 1650 kg.
Joh. Baptist: strike tone e’+7, 1367 mm diameter and 1150 kg.
Leopardus bell: strike tone fis’+3, 1078 mm diameter and 800 kg.
Stephanus bell: strike tone g’+8, 1027 mm diameter and 700 kg.
Petrus bell: strike tone a’+1, 894 mm diameter and 450 kg.
Simeon’s bell: strike tone h’+8, 793 mm diameter and 300 kg.
The Mary’s Bell was melted down by the Nazis and re-cast in 1958. The bell motif is formed by the Latin hymn Veni Creator Spiritus.
After many years, I finally succeeded in 2017 to get a largely trouble-free recording. I recorded it from Katschhof, the place between the cathedral and the town hall and this time recorded it with wind-protected hypercardioid microphones on a high stand behind two lonely Christmas market stalls, and one hour before I visited all the security people (who guard the empty Christmas market stalls), discussed the recording and – important! – I showed them a place from where they could watch me without disturbing the recording too much.
For years there were always disturbances, unfortunately also with the acoustically most beautiful 3D recordings with OKM original head microphones 2014. Sometimes it stormed, sometimes it rained, sometimes the police drove over the Katschhof, sometimes a blower blew into a plastic print, or security people asked questions, or someone poked loudly with high heels into the Christmas mass. In 2017, hypercardioid microphones with windscreens largely blanked out the sounds of space and the wind.
I moved away from Aachen in 2018 and am happy to have this recording in my box. It gives feelings of home. For me, the cathedral is the most impressive thing in Aachen.
“Silent Night, Holy Night”, the world’s most famous Christmas song, was sung for the first time on 24.12.1818, exactly 200 years ago. On Christmas Eve 1818 the Arnsdorf village school teacher and organist Franz Xaver Gruber (1787-1863) and the auxiliary priest Joseph Mohr (1792-1848) performed the Christmas carol for the first time in the Schifferkirche St. Nikola in Oberndorf near Salzburg, Austria. (Wikipedia)
For this version for overtone singing, the brilliant pianist Michael Reimann has improvised a piano movement on the electric piano. The notes for overtone singing are suitable for beginners. At one point, however, a small psychoacoustic trick is used, because one of the melody notes is not actually included in the overtone series. Who can find it?
https://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.png00Wolfgang Saushttps://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.pngWolfgang Saus2018-12-24 01:45:302020-03-16 02:40:23Silent Night with Overtone Singing
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.
https://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/BBC-Drehtag-Uniklinik-Freiburg-20161107_130847.jpg10801920Wolfgang Saushttps://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.pngWolfgang Saus2018-02-18 04:30:262019-10-30 18:03:40BBC Documentary about Wolfgang Saus’ Overtones in the MRI Tube
This auditory transformation opens your ears in just 3:20 minutes to a new dimension of hearing that only about 5% of musicians perceive: overtone hearing. This ability is essential for learning overtone singing. And it is a prerequisite for the practical implementation of vocal and choral phonetics.
https://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/listening-test-2-0-can-you-hear.jpg7201280Wolfgang Saushttps://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.pngWolfgang Saus2024-12-09 01:43:492024-12-09 01:43:49Listening Test 2.0: Can you Hear the New Hidden Melody – and a Surprise
https://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/decoded-the-hidden-melody-in-syl.jpg360480Wolfgang Saushttps://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.pngWolfgang Saus2024-11-28 03:46:212024-11-28 03:57:08Decoded: The Hidden Melody in Syllables!
https://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/do-you-hear-a-melody-or-syllable.jpg7201280Wolfgang Saushttps://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.pngWolfgang Saus2022-07-10 13:47:092024-02-06 12:25:25Do You Hear a Melody or Syllables? Saus’ Hearing Test.
In 2004, a working group led by Dr. Peter Schneider at Heidelberg University Hospital discovered that people perceive sounds differently depending on which hemisphere of the brain processes the sound. They developed the Heidelberg Hearing Test to find out whether someone perceives fundamental tones or overtones in a sound. →You can take the Heidelberg test here.
My hearing test is different. It tests whether someone recognizes vowels or overtones in a sound. In the second part, it trains you to shift the threshold between vowel and overtone perception in favor of overtones.
Listen to the first sound sample in a relaxed manner. I sing a series of meaningless syllables on a single note. If you recognize a familiar melody from classical music, then congratulations, you have a keen sense of overtones and are one of the 5% of people who have this perception spontaneously.
If you can’t hear the melody, don’t worry. At the end of the listening test, you will hear the overtones.
In the next sound samples, I remove more and more sound information from the voice that the brain interprets as part of speech. Next, I sing the syllables by changing only the second vowel formant. I keep the first formant unchanged in a low position. The syllables then contain only Ü sounds (German umlaut ü – keep your tongue like ee, round your lips like oo), and the melody becomes clearer for some people.
If the melody is now clear, congratulations. Around 20-30% of people can hear the melody. But perhaps you only suspect the melody and don’t know whether you are just imagining it. Trust your imagination. Your ears are picking up the melody, but a filter in your consciousness is telling you that the information is not important. Speech recognition is interpreted as more important.
At this point, I will reveal the melody: it is “Ode to joy” from Ludwig van Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. In the next audio example, I whistle it without tone. This will help your brain learn what to listen for. Then listen to audio example 2 again.
Does it get any better? If not, listen to the next example.
In audio example 4, I leave out the consonants. Now the Broca’s area, the brain region responsible for speech recognition, has nothing left to do and hands over listening attention to other regions.
Now about 60-80% are there. If you can’t hear the melody here, you’ll probably be classified as a fundamental tone listener in the Heidelberg hearing test. This has nothing to do with musicality. You’re in the company of some of the best flutists, drummers, and pianists.
In the next example, I completely defamiliarize the sound. Using a special tongue placement, I lower the third formant by two octaves until it has the same frequency as the second formant. This creates a double resonance that is not a part of the English language (or it even is in the pronuciation of the “r”).
This technique is called overtone singing. The ear now lacks information from the familiar sound of the voice, and individual partial tones become so loud due to double resonance that the brain separates the sounds and informs your consciousness that there are two separate tones.
You will probably now hear a flute-like melody and the voice. Overtone singing is an acoustic illusion. In reality, you are hearing more than 70 partial tones. Physical reality and perception rarely coincide in hearing.
In the last audio example, I go all the way back to the beginning. Try to keep your focus on the melody the entire time. Listen to audio example 6 several times; it trains your ability to hear overtones and makes you more confident in your perception of sound details.
Our reality is a construct of our consciousness. And it can be changed.
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https://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/HAT-ChatGPT1-1.png10241536Wolfgang Saushttps://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.pngWolfgang Saus2017-08-11 15:31:302025-09-08 21:19:53Do you hear a melody or syllables? – Experience new hearing with Harmonic Awareness Training
Who does not remember to have made a ruler made sound by plucking at the edge of the table as a child. The German guitarist, improviser, composer and instrument inventor Hans Reichel (1949-2011) from Wuppertal has brought this simple principle to a professional level.
A 30 cm long wooden tongue is played with a cello bow. In a resonance box, the sound is picked up by contact microphones. The Daxophon Is an idiophone and at the same time a string instrument.
The Dax takes a decisive function. This is a handy, round shaped block with which the pitch is varied. On one side the block has frets so that sound sequences can be played, while the smooth side allows flowing glissandi.
ダクソフォンのセッティング法と弓を使った基本奏法【サンレコ2014年６月号連動】
What particularly fascinates me is the voice-like sound that the Daxophon produces. This comes through vocal-like formants, which arise when the Dax blocks the oscillation in the wood tongue at the contact points.
It can only say yes, no no.
Hans Reichel at a performance
Daxophone: Hans Reichel - Bubu And His Friends
Hans Reichel - Le Bal (excerpt)
Daxophone - Hans Reichel
At the bottom in the related links you’ll find a building instruction on the page daxo.de (Flash) >downloads.
My colleague Anna-Maria Hefele made me aware of these charming instrument.
https://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.png00Wolfgang Saushttps://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.pngWolfgang Saus2017-03-12 12:29:032018-02-18 17:57:16Incredible – a piece of wood with a voice
You already have super-power in your eard, which you where not aware of. Steve Mould demonstrates in this video that you can hear without exercising, whether water is cold or warm. Test it yourself.
The reason is that you are already familiar with the sound of pouring water and have stored the information somewhere in your brain. This information is automatically retrieved if you hear the process but do not see it.
Hot water has a lower viscosity than cold. The blubber noise in warm water is slightly higher on average due to its lower viscosity. Our fine hearing sensors are clearly aware of this difference.
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