In response to the recently posted Cecil classic:
Can one person sing two notes at the same time?
I can whistle two pitches at the same time, and this has nothing to do with my vocal cords, yet Cecil fails to mention its possibility. I think anyone can do it, really. Try it yourself:
-
Pucker your lips and blow very hard. This makes a pitch, correct?
-
Whistle a constant note. This also makes a pitch.
-
Now do both at the same time. It should sound kind of like a train whistle, with two different pitches being heard at the same time.
I know this doesn’t really qualify as a “vocal ability”, but I consider whistling to be singing.
I’ve always heard that Cyndi Lauper was one of the people that could sing two pitches at the same time, although that does have a high UL factor.
jon, I thought puckering your lips is whistling.
On on of the Starlight Express’s CDS, there is a song called Engine of Love sung by Earl Jordan. He can sing three notes at once, and it does sound remarkably like a train whistle, which is why composer Andrew Lloyd Webber had him record the single.
I can whistle two notes at once as well (although one of them is extremely piercing, and not very pleasant to listen to) Don’t think I could whistle a tune like that, but I can certainly do a single blast (recordings available by request :D)
Actually, one of the tones is probably more accurately defined as “humming.” A friend of mine, however, is capable of whistling two tones. He does by curling his tongue (producing a higher tone as some of the air flows through the gap at the end of the tongue, while all the air goes through the gap in the lips.
Don’t forget about throat singing! For details, go to Scientific American’s webpage at
and search for The Throat Singers of Tuva, also found in the September 1999 issue of the magazine.
yeah, it is for me, too. however, you know how you can whistle with your fingers, so you get a VERY loud tone? some people can do this by curling their tongue back alone. (This sounds like what saoirse is talking about.) the sound produced is pretty much identical to the fingers-in-mouth whistle. i suppose if you combine this with the puckering, you’d get two different notes.
I can? I can? Really? How do you know? 
Sorry, I can’t. I can barely whistle with my lips, actually using my tongue more than my lips, and it’s soft and in a higher pitch than typical whistling.
Well there’s also the harmonic overtones deal.
Sing constant at a low/medium pitch. Form your mouth like you want to say an “R” sound. Now, as you’re making that constant note, move your mouth as if you want to say “Aaaaaaoooooooowwwwwrrrrrrraaaaaooooowwwwwrrrr”. If you do it right, and practice, you’ll be able to hear a very high, fluctuating pitch along with your other note.
Quite cool, actually.
Yeah, but that’s not really two pitches in the usualy sense is it? If I’m thinking about your example correctly, you’re sorta getting that funky digerdoo sound, or an effect that you can get on the harmonic based on how your mouth is shaped. It’s a bit like altering the cutoff frequency. But, yeah, you’ll affect the timbre of your tone, and get different overtones, but the base pitch is still in effect the same. If you pluck a guitar string with the flesh of your thumb you’ll get a different sound than with a pick (where you’ll get higher-pitched overtones, and a sharper attack to boot,) but it’s not quite the same as two-pitches at the same time. Or, if you pick at different parts along the same string on a guitar, you will notice a change in the high-pitched overtones.
In otherwords, these sorts of effects are more commonly refered to as “timbre” rather than multiple pitches. On a piano, when you play a single note, you will have several overtones playing do to the oscillation of the string. The 7th overtone (the one you should avoid since it’s dissonant) is erased, as the piano’s hammer is located so it hits where the 7th overtone would be vibrating along the string (thus cancelling it.) That’s why piano strings are arranged the way they are.