Imagine you could hear a melody that remains inaudible to most people – an acoustic illusion that challenges your senses and revolutionizes your understanding of sound. This is exactly what happens in my viral listening test that fascinates people worldwide.
In my new video, I dive deep into the science of sound with VoceVista and reveal the fascinating acoustic mechanisms behind this exciting listening experience. What to expect:
A detailed spectrum analysis that reveals the hidden structures of sound
A dynamic spectrogram that reveals the journey of your sound perception
Insights into the neuronal processes that determine how our brain decodes melodies
The scientific solution to the riddle: How do we perceive melodies that don’t seem to exist?
Let yourself be enchanted by the wonders of acoustics and expand your perception of sound. This insight will change your listening habits forever!
Share
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!
Recording of the webinar “Voice Masters Live” by Philippe Hall from Singing Revealed on March 29, 2022.
Recording of the webinar Next Level Resonance Strategies in the Voice Masters Live series by Philippe Hall from Singing Revealed, on March 29, 2022.
Sprache: English
Next Level Resonance Strategies – Singing Phonetics
What are formants?
What are resonances?
Why are vowels dependent on pitch?
What is formant tuning?
Philippe Hall talks to Wolfgang Saus about vowels and their importance for resonance strategies.
Resonance is a cornerstone of any vocal technique. However, the relationship between vowels, resonances, formants, harmonics and pitch is a complex topic and often confusing.
Wolfgang Saus shows participants how to use a vowel resonance chart to see at a glance why some vowels work excellently at a particular pitch and others not at all. Participants learn how resonances can be controlled by tongue movements and how they can optimize their resonances by using the right vowel nuances. After the seminar, they will be able to deal confidently with the terms vowel, resonance and overtones.
As the Federal Association of German Clinical Speech Scientists announced today, the jubilee volume on the occasion of the DBKS’s 25th anniversary, Voice Disorders – a Focus of Clinical Speech Science, is currently available free of charge in Open Access. “This is a reminiscence of our wonderful colleague and former DBKS board member Anke Bergt, who died far too early and who had acted as co-editor,” said the spokeswoman of the Department of Speech Science and Phonetics and director of the Institute of Music, Media and Speech Sciences, Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Susanne Voigt-Zimmermann.
I contributed a short text on the control of formants to the volume. You can read the volume online and download it as PDF.
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:
Saus, Wolfgang, Annemarie Seither-Preisler, and Peter Schneider. “Harmonic Vowels and Neural Dynamics: MEG Evidence for Auditory Resonance Integration in Singing.” Frontiers in Neuroscience 19 (August 2025): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2025.1625403.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Imagine you could hear a melody that remains inaudible to most people – an acoustic illusion that challenges your senses and revolutionizes your understanding of sound. This is exactly what happens in my viral listening test that fascinates people worldwide.
In my new video, I dive deep into the science of sound with VoceVista and reveal the fascinating acoustic mechanisms behind this exciting listening experience. What to expect:
A detailed spectrum analysis that reveals the hidden structures of sound
A dynamic spectrogram that reveals the journey of your sound perception
Insights into the neuronal processes that determine how our brain decodes melodies
The scientific solution to the riddle: How do we perceive melodies that don’t seem to exist?
Let yourself be enchanted by the wonders of acoustics and expand your perception of sound. This insight will change your listening habits forever!
Share
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!
… will wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse aus Musikphysiologie, Hirn forschung, Musik-, Oberton- & Klangforschung vernetzen. Mit diesem iterdisziplinären Symposium soll ein neues Begegnungsforum initiiert werden, das zukünftig an verschiedenen Musik-Hochschulorten in Kooperation mit Medizinischen Fakultäten fortgesetzt werden kann.
Sie sind als Musiker*in oder Mediziner*in an Musikergesundheit und wissenschaftlicher Forschung hierzu interessiert?
Sie sind herzlich eingeladen, teilzunehmen und dieses Forum zu entwickeln.
Das Geigenbauatelier Falk Peters veranstaltet dieses erste internationale Symposium im Rahmen des Firmenjubiläums mit Musikern aus dem eigenen Kundenkreis und Bekannten/ Freunden in Forschung und Medizin.
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https://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/230610-aachen-symposium.jpg19312480Wolfgang Saushttps://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.pngWolfgang Saus2023-04-28 16:30:492023-04-29 17:32:53Symposium – Music Meets Medicine | Aachen, 10.6.2023
The PAS7+ conference promotes synergistic relationships between physiological and acoustical science, pedagogy, voice habilitation and vocal performance. Since the inception of the PAS conference series in 2002, leading voice researchers and pedagogues from around the globe have gathered to share their work. The outcomes of the conference yield several benefits: areas of singing in need of further examination are codified, collaborative relationships between scientists and practitioners are established, and objective vocal pedagogy is promoted.
Friday, 6th May 2022, 15:00 h
My, Wolfgang Saus’, contribution will be an oral presentation on my “Singing Phonetics Diagram – The Quantization of Sung Vowels”.
This presentation introduces a singing phonetics chart that helps singers match vowels with the strongest resonance, and that illustrates how resonance and vowel color depend on pitch.The diagram shows which vowel nuances produce resonance and which do not by visualizing how the partials of the voice are distributed differently in the acoustic-phonetic vowel triangle for each pitch. In discussions of vocal vowels, it can assist in separating subjective sensations, such as vowel and vocal feel, from measurable acoustic parameters, such as partials and resonant frequencies, and it can provide vocal educators with objective criteria for improving resonance. A new didactic approach is shown for controlling vocal tract resonance to within a semitone, and how this technique can be used, for example, to improve just intonation in ensemble singing.
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https://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/PAS7plus_flyer-e1650927542552.jpg12801024wolfhttps://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.pngwolf2022-04-26 02:07:032022-04-26 06:02:20PAS7 – International Physiology & Acoustics of Singing Conference
Recording of the webinar “Voice Masters Live” by Philippe Hall from Singing Revealed on March 29, 2022.
Recording of the webinar Next Level Resonance Strategies in the Voice Masters Live series by Philippe Hall from Singing Revealed, on March 29, 2022.
Sprache: English
Next Level Resonance Strategies – Singing Phonetics
What are formants?
What are resonances?
Why are vowels dependent on pitch?
What is formant tuning?
Philippe Hall talks to Wolfgang Saus about vowels and their importance for resonance strategies.
Resonance is a cornerstone of any vocal technique. However, the relationship between vowels, resonances, formants, harmonics and pitch is a complex topic and often confusing.
Wolfgang Saus shows participants how to use a vowel resonance chart to see at a glance why some vowels work excellently at a particular pitch and others not at all. Participants learn how resonances can be controlled by tongue movements and how they can optimize their resonances by using the right vowel nuances. After the seminar, they will be able to deal confidently with the terms vowel, resonance and overtones.
Next Level Resonance Strategies – Singing Phonetics
What are formants?
What are resonances?
Why are vowels dependent on pitch?
What is formant tuning?
Philippe Hall talks to Wolfgang Saus about vowels and their importance for resonance strategies.
Resonance is a cornerstone of any vocal technique. However, the relationship between vowels, resonances, formants, harmonics and pitch is a complex topic and often confusing.
Wolfgang Saus shows participants how to use a vowel resonance chart to see at a glance why some vowels work excellently at a particular pitch and others not at all. Participants learn how resonances can be controlled by tongue movements and how they can optimize their resonances by using the right vowel nuances. After the seminar, they will be able to deal confidently with the terms formant, resonance and overtones.
Those who would like to prepare themselves optimally for the seminar can take this exciting listening test in advance on the speaker’s website: https://www.oberton.org/en/hearing-test-saus/
Wolfgang Saus on Voice Masters
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https://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/VOICE-MASTERS-2022-12.png10801080Wolfgang Saushttps://www.oberton.org/wp-content/uploads/logo-schmetterling-s.pngWolfgang Saus2022-03-08 16:26:492022-03-28 16:19:25[YouTube Live] Voice Masters – Philippe Hall & Wolfgang Saus on “Next Level Resonance Strategies – Singing Phonetics”
Vokale sind entscheidend für die Klangqualität der Singstimme. Sie entstehen durch die Form des Vokaltrakts, die das Resonanzverhalten bestimmt. Hörbar werden sie durch die Wechselwirkung mit Schall. Ein neu entwickeltes Gesangsphonetik-Diagramm gibt eine Übersicht, wie Vokale, Harmonie und Resonanz sich in Abhängigkeit von der Tonhöhe verhalten. Es macht sichtbar, warum für jede Tonhöhe nur bestimmte Vokale „funktionieren“ und in welche Richtung Vokaltrakteinstellungen verändert werden müssen, um Vokale für unterschiedliche Singsituationen zu optimieren.
As the Federal Association of German Clinical Speech Scientists announced today, the jubilee volume on the occasion of the DBKS’s 25th anniversary, Voice Disorders – a Focus of Clinical Speech Science, is currently available free of charge in Open Access. “This is a reminiscence of our wonderful colleague and former DBKS board member Anke Bergt, who died far too early and who had acted as co-editor,” said the spokeswoman of the Department of Speech Science and Phonetics and director of the Institute of Music, Media and Speech Sciences, Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Susanne Voigt-Zimmermann.
I contributed a short text on the control of formants to the volume. You can read the volume online and download it as PDF.
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:
Saus, Wolfgang, Annemarie Seither-Preisler, and Peter Schneider. “Harmonic Vowels and Neural Dynamics: MEG Evidence for Auditory Resonance Integration in Singing.” Frontiers in Neuroscience 19 (August 2025): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2025.1625403.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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