Tibetan Overtone Chanting As Vocal Technique

Tibetan overtone chanting, sometimes loosely called throat singing though distinct from the Central Asian tradition of that name, is a vocal technique in which a single singer produces two or more audible pitches simultaneously, a low fundamental drone and one or more higher overtones shaped and amplified by careful control of the mouth, throat and vocal tract.

Practiced most distinctively within certain Tibetan Buddhist monastic lineages, particularly in ritual chanting associated with the Gyuto and Gyume tantric colleges, the technique produces an unusually deep, resonant fundamental tone, achieved partly through specialized vocal training and partly through a chanting register pitched well below a singer's ordinary speaking voice, over which a second, higher tone can be heard as a distinct melodic line seemingly independent of the drone beneath it. The chant is used specifically within tantric ritual contexts, accompanying the recitation of particular texts and prayers, and monks trained in the technique typically undergo years of specialized vocal practice to develop and sustain it, since producing a clear, stable overtone over an equally stable low fundamental for extended ritual passages requires considerable control that is not part of ordinary monastic chant training more broadly.