1994

Electroglottogram recordings during overtone singing

Gerrit Bloothooft, Guus de Krom, Susan Jansen, Allard van der Heijden

Research Institute for Language and Speech (OTS)
Utrecht University
Trans 10, 3512 JK Utrecht, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT

Overtone singing involves careful articulation, resulting in a closely spaced formant pair (F1/F2 or F2/F3) that enhances the amplitude of the intended overtone considerably. Apart from this articulatory explanation it is likely that the glottal sound source plays an important role during overtone singing, but this has never been explicitly investigated so far. To this end we have made electroglottograms (EGG) from an experienced singer from the Tuva Republic and from a Dutch teacher of overtone singing. Khargira and sygyt techniques and some variants were recorded, for the authentic singer during songs, and for the Dutch singer as systematic scales of overtones. Whereas normally sung vowels showed standard shapes of the EGG, the shape of the EGG deviated considerably during overtone singing, for both singers. Instead of a single full wave per period, the EGG showed modulations during a period with higher frequency components. We will present an analysis of these modulations in relation to the frequency of the amplified overtone. A comparison is made between the two singers and the different and comparable overtone singing techniques they recognized.

Contact:

Dr Gerrit Bloothooft
Research Institute for Language and Speech (OTS)
Utrecht University
Trans 10, 3512 JK Utrecht, The Netherlands
Phone: +31.30.536042
Fax: +31.30.536000
Email: bloothooft@let.ruu.nl