A hearing 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.
Here you will find the scientific explanation for this and the reason why the inventors of the Heidelberg hearing test and the Saus hearing test are now publishing together:

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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.

→Video about the background.

Saus’ hearing test

Relax and listen to the first sound sample. I sing a series of meaningless syllables on a single note. If you recognize a familiar classical melody, then congratulations, you have a keen sense of overtones and are one of the 5% of people who have this spontaneous perception.

Sound sample 1

 

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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 one unchanged in a low position. The syllables then contain only Ü sounds, and the melody becomes clearer for some people.

Audio sample 2

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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 much more important.

At this point, I want to reveal the melody: it is “O joy, beautiful spark of the gods” from Ludwig van Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. In the next audio example, I whistle it without sound. This will help your brain learn what to listen for. Then listen to audio example 2 again.

Audio example 3

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Does that help? If not, listen to the next example.

In audio example 4, I leave out the consonants. Now the Broca’s area, the region of the brain responsible for speech recognition, has nothing to do and transfers auditory attention to other regions.

Audio example 4

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Now about 60-80% are participating. If you can’t hear the melody here, you will probably also be 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, drummers, and pianists.

In the next example, I completely alter the sound. Using a special tongue position, I lower the third formant by two octaves until it has the same frequency as the second. This creates a double resonance that does not occur in the German language.

Audio example 5

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The 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 the consciousness that there are two 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 the last sound example, I go all the way back to the beginning. Try to keep your focus on the melody the entire time. Listen to sound example 6 several times; it trains your ability to hear overtones and makes you more confident in your perception of sound details.

Audio example 6

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Our reality arises within ourselves. And it can be changed.