Ahh, remember the long sweet lingering in the womb, when the subtle echoes of outside voices and the swoosh of amniotic fluid soothed your waiting soul? NO?
Well, even if you don’t, there are adults who believe that what goes on acoustically in proximity to mom’s bulging belly may have dramatic effects upon the evolving brain therein.
This is not in the realm of my expertise, though I’ve always been fascinated by the prospects.
I like this post about introducing the unborn to music, with a range of choices to consider. The ‘Mozart Effect’ is widely known, but I agree with the idea of the mother using intuition with the responses of her fetus. Regular hearing begins at about the 4 month stage. It is believed that the most effective music in terms of future musical development depends on rhythmic factors. Higher frequencies tend to be muted out in the fluid environment.
There’s also underwater sound therapy (for those who’ve already gone through the birth process, that is).
When I attended a seminar in Halliburton, ON about sound ecology, I witnessed a video made by a woman who explored recording her own reactionary (wordless) sounds underwater while scuba diving by a coral reef. To me, it was as close as any of us might ever get to being back in the womb. It was incredibly comforting, creating for me a longing to get back there, away from the cacophony of every day life.
What I can give you from my own experience, though it’s not highly sophisticated, is very simple. While lying in a bathtub, lie back with your head slightly submerged, just enough so that your ears are under water. Hum, sing, overtone sing, yodel, try all those funny noises you made as a kid, etc. Notice the intense listening you experience inside your head. Without the interference of those sound waves traveling through the air (or at least have them greatly reduced in significance), there is an unusual calmness present. It allows us to get inside our own sound. And in the case of overtone singing, it tends to ‘exaggerate’ the harmonic content we might otherwise miss.
When it comes to recording whale song, for example, there are numerous complex factors to take into account. I won’t pretend to know or understand these principles, but if you’re interested, here’s a good site for the layperson.
I did have the pleasure of ‘jamming’ with the songs of the whales from Raratonga, on a recording by Lisa Walker. I could imagine sharing their environment, and perhaps even intutitively acknowledging what they were communicating.
It has been shown that the calls of dolphins, with their staccato like sound when heard above water, actually resemble human overtone singing when recorded underwater with hydrophones. For me, that’s reason enough to sing overtones, if we can interact with these highly intelligent beings!
CommentContinuing with the theme of auditory illusions, combination tones (or resultant tones), when heard in the presence of two audible pitches, can be quite startling. It’s as if there is a third pitch there. This ‘third’ frequency, however, is not actually present in terms of measurable frequencies or volume. It cannot be detected or measured on any spectrum analysis device. It is only the human ear which detects this phenomenon. If two singers each produce pure sine wave- like tones in different pitches, they can move these around, creating different interval relationships, producing the effect of a siren-like sweep of combination tones. The resulting siren effect depends on the relationship between the two changing frequencies produced by the singers, and by the direction they are moving (closer together, or further apart).
The ability of the listener to detect combination tones depends upon certain physiological, experiential and sensory factors. It seems to be related to a function of the brain to focus and categorize the experience. Singers skilled in overtone singing seem to be particularly adept at perceiving these tones.
The imagined frequency can be much lower than the original two. This is due to it being the difference in vibration between the two original pitches. These are known as differential tones.
It can also be higher than the original pitches, corresponding to the sum of their vibrations. In this case, the tones may be referred to as summational tones.
The effect may be especially pronounced given ideal acoustical properties of the space they are in. This is curious, since the differential tones themselves cannot be recorded or measured, yet the very architecture may enhance our ‘perception’ of sound.
The best experience I had in hearing these tones (both listening to other singers and participating in the singing), was in a modern ‘castle’ in the Czech Republic, which had a very unusual ceiling with vaulted areas that produced a very surreal ‘bonus’ acoustic effect.
I highly recommend experimenting with this phenomenon (with a friend), as it is sure to increase your listening sensitivity, and heighten your ability to hear the partials in your own voice.
Check out the Titchener Test for combination tones. It is an excellent self- study program for finding and expanding your level of intuitive listening (as opposed to ‘analytical’ listening). I would call it an ideal companion to the study of perfect and/ or relative pitch, and by extension, the study of overtone singing.
CommentWhen it comes to overtone singing, nothing can be more fun than doing it in a nice resonant space. It doesn’t have to be huge in size. Just the configuration of the dimensions of a room and shape of a vaulted ceiling can be magical in resulting reverberation, as well as the type of building materials.
What tends to happen here, is the room will pick up the higher harmonic frequencies and send them right back at you, providing a catalyst effect which helps you to sing the overtones even more loudly and clearly.
Some of these types of spaces are ideal for recording overtone singing. The natural echo/ reverb in these spaces is usually plenty, and does not need any extra artificial reverb. Too much of a good thing is not necessarily a good thing, though. It’s nearly impossible to successfully record or sing live with a quick tempo or rhythm, because it all gets washed away in a messy blur. It’s okay for long tones or meditative type music.
These spaces can be separated into 2 categories, man-made and natural.
Certainly the man-made sources of these acoustic phenomena are easy and practical for almost everybody to seek out. For example:
-Stair wells in high rise buildings
-Underground parking lots
-Certain tiled bathrooms
-Beneath bridges, in tunnels
-Cathedrals
-(abandoned) water towers
-empty Grain silos
At an abandoned grain silo complex called the SILOPHONE in Montreal, one can make use of extraordinarily long echo effects produced there, all remotely via internet (even for live concerts).
For centuries in Tibet, the monks have chanted the frequencies of the temples themselves.
And honorable mention goes to the architectural wizardry of the freemasons, whose most impressive work exists in the ‘Pool of the Black Star‘ (Manitoba Legislative Building). It contains an indescribable acoustic phenomenon, only detectable when you are standing directly in the center, and people outside of this area cannot hear it. (I actually taught a workshop in this space once).
On the other hand, natural, sometimes ancient formations lend themselves to some other-worldly acoustic beauty. Since most of these are location specific, they are not so practical for most singers. However, if you ever have the chance to reach some of them, by all means seize the opportunity to sing there.
For brevity sake, I’ll just mention caves here, although there are many more examples.
Pre-historic peoples knew how to make use of these formations, and evidently chose specific locations in caves to make their wall paintings.
For example- did you know that in a number of caves in France, with the still clear and colorful paintings of animals, that sounding directly in front of these paintings produces a pronounced acoustic effect not present elsewhere in the caves? Did they intuit and make use of characteristics that only modern research has been able to measure? And why did they seek these places out? Was this culturally based? For rituals? For music?
Here are some of the caves in France with such evidence:
Niaux at Argiege
Arcy-sur-Cure at Burgundy
Grotte du Portel at Portel
Grotte du Pech Merle at Caberets
Cougnac Cave at Lot
Article on Art of Paleolithic Caves
My favorite source of information on this topic is to be found in the book ‘Stone Age Soundtracks‘, the acoustic archeology of ancient sites.
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