Experiments led by doctors and musicians have often shown that there was a connection between mental or physical health and music. Khoomei, and more generally all types of overtone singing, is also supposed to have therapeutic virtues. But khoomei also extended to other areas sometimes really far from Khovd. Besides Ganbold worked as sound operator on the original soundtrack of the famous movie “Queen Mandukhai the wise”. The four most famous khoomei singers of Mongolia are Suindui Jajaa, Tserendorj, Ganbold, and Odsuren, and they all come from Khovd.

Khoomei is said to come from the area of Khovd, in the Altai range, western Mongolia.

The difference lies in the technique used. But it’s divided into six categories: khamrin khoomii (nasal khoomei), bagalzuuriin khoomii ( glottal khoomei), tseejnii khondiin khoomii ( chest cavity khoomei), uruulin khoomii (labial khoomei), khosmoljin or turlegt khoomii ( khoomei combined with long song), tagnain khoomi ( palatal khoomei). So, khoomei is nothing but an overtone singing. This third sound seems more to look like the mouth harp’s counterpoint.

Some have noticed that a third sound could be produced with Tuvan techniques, but it’s still impossible to know if this third sound can be controlled. Overtone singings have been sung for a long time in many cultures across the world, especially in Asia, by Mongolians, Tuvas, Bachkirs, Altai people, and Tibetan people, but also in Italy by Sardinian people, in India by Rajasthan people, or in South Africa by Xhosa people. Good khoomei singers can modify their own frequency by adapting the volume of the oral cavity, the opening of the mouth, and the position of the lips. This singing can be related to the mouth harp, this small instrument that also produces several different sounds: drone, singing, and counterpoint.Ī khoomei singer must know the different organs very well to use them with precision: pharynx, vocal cords, oral cavity, tongue, lips, and nasal cavity. The singer uses his/her throat to give out a continuous deep sound, and, at the same time, using his/her tongue to control the breathed out air, he/she manages to modulate the resonance in more high-pitched harmonics. An overtone singing is characterised by a vocal technique that allows to make simultaneously several sounds with a single vocal organ, combining different voices and different ways to place the tongue or the lips. The “ khoomei” or throat singing is an ancestral overtone singing that consists in reproducing natural sounds like the flow of water, the breath of wind, the echo of the mountains, the rumble of thunder, the singing of birds, etc.

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