The Traditional Art of Khoomei
The wind's whistle
Rises and falls
Forever untamed
The herd's thunder
Growls and rolls
Forever the same
Ride, my horses—Ride!
Fly, my sadness—Fly!
Across and beyond
The plains of Altai
Music recommendations
Here are some of my favorite groups and some song recommendations. These aren't just from Mongolia but also the Tuva/Altai regions of modern-day Russia.
- Altai Kai - [Kai Kozhong, Kara-suu]
- Huun-Huur-Tu - [Live]
- Khusugtun - [Ballads]
- Altyn Tuu - [Word of Batyr, Kara-suu]
- Shu-de - [Voices from the Distant Steppe]
- Yat-Kha - [Yenisei Punk]
Learning
It's possible to learn throat singing, or overtone singing. The fundamental idea is that you produce a root note with your voice and then position your tongue, lips and jaw in such a way that the the overtones naturally occurring in your voice are brought forth. Slightly varying these positionings then lets you control exacly which overtone becomes audibly and which ones do not. For some styles of throat singing, different kinds of throat tension will also be applied. Here is a good overview of the theory and different styles.
After learning the fundamentals it becomes a matter of practicing and listening, both to yourself and others; I find that imitation is the best teacher in this regard. I won't attempt to teach you here how to do it, as I believe the resources below do it better than I could. Good luck, my friend!