Overtone singing

Overtone singing—also known as overtone chanting, harmonic singing or throat singing—is a type of singing in which the singer manipulates the resonances (or formants) created as air travels from the lungs, past the vocal folds, and out of the lips to produce a melody.

The harmonics (fundamental and overtones) of a sound wave made by the human voice can be selectively amplified by changing the shape of the resonant cavities of the mouth, larynx and pharynx. This resonant tuning allows the singer to create apparently more than one pitch at the same time (the fundamental and a selected overtone), while actually generating only a single fundamental frequency with his/her vocal folds.

Asia

Mongolia and Buryatia

It is thought that the art of overtone singing originated from south western Mongolia in today's Khovd Province and Govi Altai region. Nowadays, overtone singing is found throughout the country and Mongolia is often considered the most active place of overtone singing in the world. The most commonly practiced style, Khöömii (written in Cyrillic as Хөөмий), can be divided up into the following categories: