Observation of the laryngeal movements for throat singing

Throat singing is a traditional singing style of people who live around the Altai Mountains. Khöömei in Tyva and Khöömij in Mongolia are representative styles of throat singing. The laryngeal voices of throat singing is classified into (i) a drone voice which is the basic laryngeal voice in throat singing and used as drone and (ii) a kargyraa voice which is very low pitched with the range outside the modal register. In throat singing, the special features of the laryngeal movements are observed by using simultaneous recording of high-speed digital images, EGG, and sound wave forms. In the drone voice, the ventricular folds (VTFs) vibrate in the same frequency as the vocal folds (VFs) but in opposite phases. In the kargyraa voice, the VTFs can be assumed to close once for every two periods of closure of the VFs, and this closing blocks airflow and contributes to the generation of the subharmonic tone of kargyraa. Results show that in throat singing the VTFs vibrate and contribute to producing the laryngeal voice, which generates the special timbre and whistle-like overtone.