Kargyraa – throat singing

Undertone singing is combined with overtone singing in some cultures. Lowering the fundamental by undertone singing shifts the entire harmonic scale downwards. This means that twice as many overtones are available as with the normal voice. In this way, women, for example, can sing in the bass and baritone ranges and produce the same overtones as men.

In Tuva there is the undertone singing technique called kargyraa, which is often combined with overtone singing. There are artists who use only this low register (cf. Albert Kuvezin, Yat Kha). Many (probably most) undertone throat songs do not use overtone singing (see above). Kargyraa-like undertones also exist in the traditional music of Europe and Africa.

More about throat overtone singing ->

The umngqokolo, which combines the vocal technique of kargyraa with overtone singing, is known from Xhosa women. In this case it is very virtuosic, because the Xhosa women (singing in a bass/baritone register!) imitate the sounds of the mouth bow and thereby change the fundamental note and thus sing two melodies at the same time (polyphonic overtone singing). The fundamental changes rhythmically by a major second, while an overtone melody appears above it in a faster tone sequence.

More about umngqokolo ->

There are also throat singing styles in Tibetan monasteries that produce undertones. It is not always clear to me whether the techniques are based on kargyraa or strobass, or whether both techniques occur and are used differently depending on the singer. The recordings I know are sung with strobass, which you can easily recognize by the occasional overturning of the voice into modal register. Tibetan monks usually recite very slow texts or mantras or phrases. Often the sound is dominated by the 10th harmonic, which is why some authors regard these songs as overtone singing.

In paghjella from Corsica and in cantu a tenores from Sardinia there is a rough deep voice called bassu or su basciu. It corresponds technically to kargyraa, but is sung without overtone techniques. In classical choral singing there are compositions -- e.g. Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky -- which require basses down to A1 (contra A). Hardly any German voice achieves this bass with a modal voice (normal voice). That is why strohbass is used in such passages, something that only a few experts have mastered.

The aryepiglottic folds push against the epiglottis in steppe kargyraa and create undertones when they resonate with the voice.

In undertone singing in Tuvan kargyraa technique, there are several styles that have been little studied so far. Sven Grawunder’s diploma thesis provides a good overview.

In the steppe kargyraa Sven Grawunder found the same constriction as in the khöömej. The aryepiglottic folds that form this constriction are vibrated during singing in addition to the vocal cords. The result is a pseudoglottis, a second sound source. Apparently these coupled oscillations generate a period of oscillation with half the frequency of the singing tone and thus produce the overtones of a tone that lies one octave below the singing voice.

It is also possible that the ventricular folds below the constriction are included in the phonation process. But since they are hidden in the picture, you wouldn’t see it. Studies by Tran Quang Hai, myself and others show that in the case of kargyraa techniques, the ventricular folds (false vocal cords) together with the vocal cords form a complex vibrational system without integrating the aryepiglottic folds.

Kargyraa is not entirely risk-free to learn, as one can easily injure the vocal cords. You don’t need a deep voice. There is a wonderful recording of an 11-year-old singing this technique on the CD “Tuva” by zeitausendeins and the same recording on the CD “Deep in the Heart of Tuva” by ellipsis arts.

Women can also use it to sing the bass, as the singers of the Tuvan group Tyva Kyzy and the throat singers of the Xhosa impressively demonstrate. In kargyraa you always sing an octave higher than the voice sounds. During a long campfire night together with the group Huun-Huur-Tu I learned to develop the approach to kargyraa from a relaxed throat by feeling the vibration deep in the windpipe and keeping my mouth closed.

Steve Sklar has released a CD video tutorial that I recommend.

Here’s a video by Jonathan Cope: