I can do a little throat singing. Not nearly as good as the example. The technique I’ve worked out is basically using my mouth in whistling configurations while engaging a fundamental using the false vocal cords like the Buddhist monk chanting drone thing.
It pretty much sounds like me growling with vowels on top, or if I’m lucky, I can get some pure harmonic whistling. In any case, I’m really bad at it. But it’s a hell of a lot of fun making noises most people have no idea how to make. I used to do a lot of beatboxing as a kid, and was pretty good at that. And now that I’ve figured out how to do a false vocal cord drone, that’s made beatboxing interesting.
Around 2000 I formed a Yahoo Throat-Singing group, which led to meeting Ondar and Huun Huur Tu several times. I had a rather amazing night with HHT getting drunk and playing the didgeridoo after one of their shows at McCabe’s in Santa Monica. I wrote about it here, if anyone’s curious.
Sadly, Ondar died of a brain hemorrhage in July 2013. He was one of the most joyful people I’ve ever met. I highly recommend the documentary Genghis Blues to anyone who wants to learn more about Ondar or Tuvan overtone singing
Myself, I have a Tuvan nephew. When he came into the family (we are very big on adoption) I wanted to learn everything I could about Tannu Tuva, and the first thing I found was Leighton’s transcription of Feynman’s “Tuva or Bust”. That led to me reading all of the Leighton/Feynman books, and buying a half dozen Tuvan CDs (still haven’t seen Genghis Blues though) and driving up and down the East Coast to see Huun-Hur-Tu in concert.
