throat singing techniques
A family of vocal techniques from Central Asia, particularly Tuva, in which a single singer simultaneously produces two or more distinct pitches by manipulating overtones.
In Depth
Throat singing (known as khoomei in Tuva, and related to Mongolian khöömii) exploits the physics of the human vocal tract to isolate and amplify specific harmonic overtones while maintaining a fundamental drone. The singer shapes their mouth, throat, and tongue to act as a resonant filter, allowing individual overtones to ring out as a clear, whistle-like melody above a low, continuous drone. The main styles include sygyt (whistle-like harmonics), kargyraa (deep sub-harmonic rumbling), and khoomei (the foundational style). Tuvan throat singing gained international recognition through the group Huun-Huur-Tu and the singer Kongar-ol Ondar, who appeared on late-night television and in films. The technique is deeply connected to Tuvan pastoral culture, where singers imitate the sounds of wind, water, horses, and the vast steppe landscape. Similar traditions exist among the Inuit (katajjaq), Sardinians (cantu a tenore), and South African Xhosa people. The physics of overtone singing has been studied extensively by acousticians and vocal scientists.
A single Tuvan throat singer can produce two completely independent pitches simultaneously — the low drone and the high whistle melody — using nothing but their own vocal anatomy, no instruments required.