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.

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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’ Listening Test

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.

Audio example 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 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.

Audio example 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 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.

Audio example 3

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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.

Audio example 4

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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”).

Audio example 5

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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.

Audio example 6

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Our reality is a construct of our consciousness. And it can be changed.