So, today, I went to the tooth pulling consultation to fill out the forms. After filling out the forms, I went into another room and the lady ushered me to the scale. I didn’t really know what my weight had to do with my teeth but I’m sure it was applicable. Anyway, after covering the formalities, he said that I would probably be knocked out when they pull the teeth. Boy, that’ll be fun! It’s better than being awake through it. Normally, I would say that getting the gas for the tooth pulling would be the sissy approach but I’ve already got teeth pulled while awake so I already know about it feels.
Afterwards, they ran up the bill. whooowee! $2000+! For taking out teeth! I’m paying them lose teeth. I mean I think paying $2000 to get teeth would be more worth it than to lose ‘em. Oh well, it better be worth it.
A real signature part of the throat singing (at least Sygyt or Khoomei) is the high whistling harmonic that is made with the tongue, jaw and lips. Well, after a bit of experimenting, I got a very quiet whistly sound and I could somewhat change the pitch. I can’t get it quite loud yet. I have to experiment by tightening and loosening my throat, jaw, lip, etc.
I’ve barely practiced an hour and I’m doing pretty good!
I think I figured out how to do Khoomei throat singing! Not the whistling kind but the rumbling kind. After listening to a bit of the tape, I decided to try it. I tried, I got it sounding almost just like the CD, unfortunately, about 5 seconds later, my throat got sore and I couldn’t do anymore that day. In any case, it sounded exactly like the singers! Well, it doesn’t sound exactly but it’s in the ball park. Nothing practice won’t fix.
Do you know how to make your voice sound like a moterboat? You know, by using very little air and saying “aaahh” in a low grumbly tone? If you know how to do that, you can throat sing. You have your throat in the same position and add more air with your diaphram (spelled something like that). It’s easier to show in person. Also, you have to get it just right so your throat isn’t too wheezy/tight and isn’t too loose/normal. Just right so it’s edgy.
This is sooo cool!
A friend of mine watched this documentary called Genghis Blues. It’s about this blind blues player going to Tuva and he learned Tuvan Throat Singing. I got it at the library and watched it. It was very good.
Throat singing seems kinda neat and fun but it seems a little intimidating ’cause it seems hard to do the rough throaty thing and whistling. It sounds like something elite and that you need to be born with the voice or something but actually, after watching the movie, it was inspiring ’cause I saw all the kids ‘n all doing it (which makes it seem not as hard). Another neat thing about it is even if you can’t speak Tuvan, you can just go “oooooohh.” I hear Japanese singing, Greek singing, etc and it’d be neat to sing it but it sure is hard if you can’t speak the language. But Tuvan, you can just go “oooohhhaaahoooeee,” you know. The whole Tuvan genre seems just like western music and even the simple “people music.” you know, the non-proffesional music that everybody can play. Why? Well, apperantly, Throat singing is not as hard as it seems, there isn’t complex chord changes and the instruments seem pretty simple. Plus, the melodies seem related to western old time bluegrass. Of course, it doesn’t sound like any Bluegrass song I know but there is the same feeling in the songs.
After watching it, I decided to look online for some online overtone Khoomei singing and found a guy selling proffesional throat singing lessons for 30 a pop. Well, after looking some more, I saw another guy who had MP3’s on how to learn basic Khoomei (throat singing) for free. I heard a bit of the lesson just now and he said that your voice doesn’t have to be special and it doesn’t hurt. It could be pretty fun.
I cut out the tuning pegs today. I have to make ‘em into hexagons to make ‘em all cool. It’d sure be easier to make the circles (the part that goes in the wood where the string goes) with a lathe but, hey, that’s the sissy approach (but more ’cause I don’t have a lathe)
