# Can women do the "tibetan monk chant" voice? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 9, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639 "2013-01-09T16:29:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/1 "2013-01-09T16:29:14Z")
[see example here.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpXFzhjBUUo&feature=player_detailpage#t=39s) Are women also capable of exhibiting this odd, ultra-low-and-rumbly voice that is similarly far below their normal register? ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/2 "2013-01-11T02:44:44Z")
Recordings I’ve heard of female Buddhists chanting do not sound as if they’re trying to do that. But some version of it should be possible. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/3 "2013-01-11T04:17:41Z")
When I lived in a zen buddhist monastery I tried to match pitch and it hurt my voice (I am a soprano with a lyric range). I should have just gone up an octave but at that time I was too sheeplike. It still would have been below my comfortable range. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/4 "2013-01-11T04:28:27Z")
Here’s a video from [Mongolia](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNFSB4PnVPI) of a women. BTW, I love the throat singing stuff. My most magical memories in life was staying in Tibetan monastaries. Being awoken pre-dawn as long horns echoed the wake up call across the valley with stars overhead. Going into the monastery with row after row of monks sat crosslegged, weaving back and forth and throat chanting the Tibetan Buddhist prayers, steam rising from their closely cropped heads, the monastaries lit by hundreds of yak butter lamps, and then dawn slowly breaking. It was magical and spell binding. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/5 "2013-01-11T04:45:47Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > When I lived in a zen buddhist monastery I tried to match pitch and it hurt my voice (I am a soprano with a lyric range). I should have just gone up an octave but at that time I was too sheeplike. It still would have been below my comfortable range. Are you talking about the pitch of the fundamental (the low, raspy drone)? Because then it would be all the more difficult, if not impossible. I don’t know the power laws and other data in the sounding of the harmonic (and I’m not sure if I could apply the data correctly, anyway), but the whistle tones generated begin at the seventh overtone, four octaves above. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/6 "2013-01-11T16:23:24Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Are you talking about the pitch of the fundamental (the low, raspy drone)? Because then it would be all the more difficult, if not impossible. I don’t know the power laws and other data in the sounding of the harmonic (and I’m not sure if I could apply the data correctly, anyway), but the whistle tones generated begin at the seventh overtone, four octaves above. yep, the drone. I was young and stupid. In my recollection, it was not as low as the Tibetan drone, just in the baritone range somewhere. Long ago. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/7 "2013-01-11T16:38:09Z")
Ann Coulter could. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/8 "2013-01-12T14:57:45Z")
[Mechanics of how a female throat singer does it](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNb2ZDjeiU4) ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/9 "2013-01-12T15:05:03Z")
[Inuit throat singing is done exclusively by women.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnGM0BlA95I) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/10 "2013-01-12T18:50:45Z")
There are a bunch of different type of throat singing, and [some of them use droning high notes instead of low notes](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY1pcEtHI_w). The average woman will have a higher voice than the average man, but they would still be able to create high and low harmonics with their own voices. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/11 "2013-01-14T07:23:27Z")
Women can clear their throats, right? From what the lady described, that seems to be all this is, letting your epiglottis vibrate, like you would for a low evil voice. I used to do it, thinking I was singing bass. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/12 "2013-01-14T07:24:55Z")
Women can clear their throats, right? From what the lady described, that seems to be all this is, letting your epiglottis vibrate, like you would for a low evil voice. I used to do it, thinking I was singing bass. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/13 "2013-01-14T07:26:30Z")
Also, canon. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/14 "2013-01-14T08:31:39Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > [Inuit throat singing is done exclusively by women.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnGM0BlA95I) Thanks for turning me on to this singing. However, the singing does not employ the excitation of overtones, the part of Tuvan (Mongolian) singing which is, in a way, its point: not the startling deep, raspy tone, but the startling, soft whistles that sound simultaneously (are part of, actually) with that deep tone. The higher tones in Inuit singing are by a shortening of the vocal cords, as in common voice production, as explained in: > [@astro](#): > > [Mechanics of how a female throat singer does it](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNb2ZDjeiU4) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/15 "2013-01-14T08:39:30Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Thanks for turning me on to this singing. However, the singing does not employ the excitation of overtones, the part of Tuvan (Mongolian) singing which is, in a way, its point: not the startling deep, raspy tone, but the startling, soft whistles that sound simultaneously (are part of, actually) with that deep tone… But see the woman in: https://www.youtube.com/embed/qNFSB4PnVPI?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque I’ll have to think about that. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/16 "2013-01-14T08:43:37Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > There are a bunch of different type of throat singing, and [some of them use droning high notes instead of low notes](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY1pcEtHI_w). The average woman will have a higher voice than the average man, but they would still be able to create high and low harmonics with their own voices. “Low” or (“sub”) harmonics do not exist, unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![Omi\_no\_Kami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Omi\_no\_Kami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omi_no_Kami)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/17 "2013-01-14T14:16:11Z")
Women are anatomically capable of producing the kagra (the low-pitched grumbly throat-singing), and Tibetan nuns can perform the exact same chanting techniques as the monks. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/18 "2013-01-14T15:16:30Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > There are a bunch of different type of throat singing, and [some of them use droning high notes instead of low notes](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY1pcEtHI_w). The average woman will have a higher voice than the average man, but they would still be able to create high and low harmonics with their own voices. > [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > “Low” or (“sub”) harmonics do not exist, unfortunately. Perhaps you mean lower or higher harmonics, in which case, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/19 "2013-01-14T15:36:50Z")
My ignorance has been fought, thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639/20 "2013-01-14T21:49:05Z")
There was an early string bass instrument that became obsolete centuries ago: the triangular _tromba marina_ or ‘marine trumpet’. It had one string, and that string was played with bowed harmonics. It was called a trumpet because like the valveless trumpets of centuries ago, it played only the overtone series. So if this has any relevance to the OP question—well, if a stringed instrument can do all its playing on harmonics like valveless brass, why not a woman’s voice produce the overtone series same as men’s voices, all the more so, since they’re made on the same design and function, unlike brass and stringed instruments? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-women-do-the-tibetan-monk-chant-voice/646639.md?page=2)