WWelcome to my brand new blog! Harmonicovertones.com has just launched the new online overtone singing course. I’m very excited about this, as I’ve got so much to share with you. Apart from the course (of course!). For all of you fine blog reading folks out there who share a common love of overtones and all such related stuff, I aim to provide a wealth of useful and thought provoking tidbits. Many will be specifically about the world of overtones, but I will take lots of detours. The kind of detours that we never expect to take in life, but nonetheless spark all kinds of adventures and opportunities to expand our consciousness. I’ll introduce you to folks you really ought to know about, if you don’t already.
Read MoreToday, I'd like to talk about the connection between our brain hemispheres in relation to overtone singing. It is understood that the left brain is responsible for the fundamental (lower) pitch we sing, and the right brain takes care of the upper pitch (harmonic). I like to call it a 'symphony' of interaction between these parts of the brain. So for independent movement of both pitches, they need to co-operate. The more one practices this technique, the more the two hemispheres become in sync. In the beginning stages of learning overtone singing, a common occurrence is for the lower pitch to drift towards that of the intended harmonic. It's a good idea to record oneself while practising, then to listen back and identify whether this is happening. We are not always aware of it while we are singing.
Read MoreIn the present atmosphere of western overtone music, most of the stuff out there is still based on a single note drone for the fundamental. This allows one specific set of pitches available for the harmonics for the entire length of the piece. Much of this material focuses on new age/spiritual/healing/ meditation type music. This is great, for those people whose main interest in overtones is related to healing. I touched upon this topic in my last blog. I’d like to expand on this idea here.
Read MoreIn case you were wondering whether you have to be a 'singer' or otherwise musically inclined in order to learn overtone singing.
In my experience, I've had all kinds of students over the past 20 years. Some come to me with no musical background whatsoever, with interests mainly in the therapeutic/ healing aspects of overtone singing. Others, even some trained in opera, have come to me to add new tools to their basket of goodies. I tell singers who have studied in other vocal disciplines that the practice of overtoning may greatly enhance their normal voices. It may involve exercises they are not familiar with, mainly because the isolation and control of harmonics requires a special set of skills beyond the conventional teachings. Due to the almost 'infinite' number of vowels, we begin to explore all the nooks and crannies of our voices we never knew were there!
