German Musician Goes Viral By Singing Two Notes At Once

Some folks have a hard enough time carrying a tune as it is without the added complexity of balancing a second note on top of the primary tone/pitch — but not Anna-Maria Hefele.

The German vocalist and multi-instrumentalist dabbles (read: is an expert) in the field of polyphonic overtone singing, which is a type of singing commonly found among traditional throat singers that utilises a single breath to form two distinct harmonic notes.

"You can sing the overtone scale on one fundamental," Hefele explains in the video. "Another fundamental has its own overtone scale, so in order to have more overtones to sing nice melodies, you can use different fundamentals and change them while singing."

In layman's terms, it's not much good for songs with lyrics, but it's a crazy impressive talent nonetheless, as the second note is breathed to life on top of the first, wavering around the central pitch almost like a DIY theremin.

Hefele recently posted a sort of introductory video to the technique on YouTube, which is currently hitting fever pitch around the web. It's staunchly instructional and efficient (read: not that colourful), but thoroughly fascinating all the same.

To see a slightly more practical application of the technique as Hefele uses it, check out this video of the singer performing in Munich back in 2012.