5 ms·

This is really cool. I used to do a lot of overtone ("harmonic") throat singing and playing with this tool reminded me of those days. For anyone curious, vowel

This is really cool. I used to do a lot of overtone ("harmonic") throat singing and playing with this tool reminded me of those days. For anyone curious, vowels are mostly just how we perceive different harmonic distributions. Put differently, harmonics are the basis of what it means to pronounce a different vowel. The human voice is basically just a harmonic chord, with different distributions of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. harmonics. e.g. https://www.open.edu/openlearn/health-sports-psychology/health/from-sound-meaning-hearing-speech-and-language/content-section-2.3 https://www.open.edu/openlearn/health-sports-psychology/heal...

lioeters 3y ago
That reminds me, I saw a video recently of a choir practice where they sang "brighter" and "darker" based on the conductor's hand position. It was fascinating how the singers could control the brightness of their voice while holding the same note and frequency. When they went bright, it sounded closer to "eee" or "iii". When they went dark, it sounded like "uuu" and "ooo". From that, I learned that the lyrics of a song, in particular the vowels, can be chosen consciously (or not) for their harmonic effect.
- xeonmc 3y ago
  You may find this interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC9Qh709gas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC9Qh709gas EDIT: also this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdldD0-kEcc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdldD0-kEcc
  - brk 3y ago
    You may also find this interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oxe4mlsQos&t=120s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oxe4mlsQos&t=120s
  - divan 3y ago
    Thanks for sharing! Didn't know human voice can do this.
  - mkesper 3y ago
    Or maybe this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxMmaygEYP8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxMmaygEYP8
- AlecSchueler 3y ago
  A lot of great music has been written with this in mind, I would highly recommend Stimmung, for six vocalists and six microphones, by Karlheinz Stockhausen. Really the whole piece is created from a framework of phonetics, loose vowel sounds as well as names taken from the "magical of otherworldly" traditions of various cultures as well as words taken from the composer's own poetry.
  - lioeters 3y ago
    Ooh nice. I'd heard of Stockhausen - attended a performance of his works once - but this is new to me. Very strange music with a wide range of harmonics produced by vocalizations of vowel sounds. Sometimes nasal, other times chant-like, machine-like, and even reminiscent of insects at night. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hPkJW95jsw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hPkJW95jsw
- kevindamm 3y ago
  Reminds me of pink trombone. https://dood.al/pinktrombone/ https://dood.al/pinktrombone/
- kmarc 3y ago
  Funnily, this is how Hungarian appends suffixes at the end of the words. The "brightness" of the suffix has to match the brightness of the stem. We'd call e/i/ö/ü "high" tone class while a (as in the word calm) / o / u "low" tone.
klysm 3y ago
Is this related to formants? I don’t actually know what that term means but I’ve heard it used in this context
- Perenti 3y ago
  As I understand it, the formant is the difference between the interval from the harmonic series, and the interval using whatever temperment you're in. Piano-notes are in equal temperment. String players, and some wind instruments allow you to play the "in-between" notes selectively (like a true major third, unlike the horrid thing a equal temperment produces) giving you a powerful emotional tool
  - klysm 3y ago
    I wouldn’t go as far as to say the major third from equal temperament is a horrid thing, but it sure doesn’t hit as well as a true major third
srcreigh 3y ago
90 second video demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnC8I3d2MXQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnC8I3d2MXQ Lots of different notes present. Perfect 5th, major 2nd, major 3rd, major 7th are all found in the harmonic series. In addition there's some beautiful non-piano intervals, notably the 7th harmonic (slightly flat minor 7th) and the 11th harmonic (flat tri-tone)
- waqf 3y ago
  Strictly speaking they're all non-piano intervals, just some are more non-piano than others. (Or you can retune your piano …)

lioeters 3y ago

That reminds me, I saw a video recently of a choir practice where they sang "brighter" and "darker" based on the conductor's hand position. It was fascinating how the singers could control the brightness of their voice while holding the same note and frequency. When they went bright, it sounded closer to "eee" or "iii". When they went dark, it sounded like "uuu" and "ooo". From that, I learned that the lyrics of a song, in particular the vowels, can be chosen consciously (or not) for their harmonic effect.

xeonmc 3y ago
You may find this interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC9Qh709gas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC9Qh709gas EDIT: also this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdldD0-kEcc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdldD0-kEcc
- brk 3y ago
  You may also find this interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oxe4mlsQos&t=120s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oxe4mlsQos&t=120s
- divan 3y ago
  Thanks for sharing! Didn't know human voice can do this.
- mkesper 3y ago
  Or maybe this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxMmaygEYP8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxMmaygEYP8
AlecSchueler 3y ago
A lot of great music has been written with this in mind, I would highly recommend Stimmung, for six vocalists and six microphones, by Karlheinz Stockhausen. Really the whole piece is created from a framework of phonetics, loose vowel sounds as well as names taken from the "magical of otherworldly" traditions of various cultures as well as words taken from the composer's own poetry.
- lioeters 3y ago
  Ooh nice. I'd heard of Stockhausen - attended a performance of his works once - but this is new to me. Very strange music with a wide range of harmonics produced by vocalizations of vowel sounds. Sometimes nasal, other times chant-like, machine-like, and even reminiscent of insects at night. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hPkJW95jsw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hPkJW95jsw
kevindamm 3y ago
Reminds me of pink trombone. https://dood.al/pinktrombone/ https://dood.al/pinktrombone/
kmarc 3y ago
Funnily, this is how Hungarian appends suffixes at the end of the words. The "brightness" of the suffix has to match the brightness of the stem. We'd call e/i/ö/ü "high" tone class while a (as in the word calm) / o / u "low" tone.

klysm 3y ago

Is this related to formants? I don’t actually know what that term means but I’ve heard it used in this context

Perenti 3y ago
As I understand it, the formant is the difference between the interval from the harmonic series, and the interval using whatever temperment you're in. Piano-notes are in equal temperment. String players, and some wind instruments allow you to play the "in-between" notes selectively (like a true major third, unlike the horrid thing a equal temperment produces) giving you a powerful emotional tool
- klysm 3y ago
  I wouldn’t go as far as to say the major third from equal temperament is a horrid thing, but it sure doesn’t hit as well as a true major third

srcreigh 3y ago

90 second video demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnC8I3d2MXQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnC8I3d2MXQ Lots of different notes present. Perfect 5th, major 2nd, major 3rd, major 7th are all found in the harmonic series. In addition there's some beautiful non-piano intervals, notably the 7th harmonic (slightly flat minor 7th) and the 11th harmonic (flat tri-tone)

waqf 3y ago
Strictly speaking they're all non-piano intervals, just some are more non-piano than others. (Or you can retune your piano …)