How Marcelito Pomoy Actually Sings Two Notes At Once
I first heard about this guy when someone linked me a video from Asia's Got Talent back in 2019. He hit a note while simultaneously humming another one below it. My first reaction was to pause and check if it was a filter. It wasn't. Most people don't realize this technique has a name — yodeling, though Pomoy's version stretches way beyond what Alpine folk singers do. The real trick is that he isn't just switching registers. He's keeping both registers active at the same time. The The Miracle Voice Of Marcelito Pomoy The Singing Sensation That Transcends Traditional Boundaries isn't some supernatural gift. It's a combination of vocal fry control, false cord engagement, and breath pressure management that anyone with decent pitch can approximate, even if they won't sound anywhere near as clean as him.
What You're Actually Hearing
When Pomoy performs, he's layering two distinct vocal sources. The top note comes from his modal or head voice — the standard singing mechanism. The bottom note, the drone or harmonic underneath, comes from engaging his ventricular folds (the false vocal cords) while still producing a clear pitch with his true vocal folds. This creates what acousticians call a "beat frequency" — two tones interacting that your brain perceives as two separate voices coming from one mouth. I spent about three months trying to replicate this on my own voice before I understood what was actually happening. My first mistake was pushing too hard on the bottom note. What I thought was a low hum was actually just strained chest voice cracking into fry. The difference matters because strained vibration damages tissue over time. Pomoy's bottom note sounds effortless because he's not forcing it — he's letting the false cords vibrate passively while his true cords handle the melodic line.
The Technique Breakdown
Here's the practical approach. Start with a comfortable mid-range note in your head voice. Think around A3 for men, C4 for women. Hold it steadily. Now, without changing pitch, introduce a vocal fry — that creaky, rattly sound you get when you relax your throat completely and let air bubble through loosely. The key insight most tutorials miss: you don't transition from fry into the bottom note. You layer the fry underneath the sustained pitch. It's simultaneous, not sequential. Once you can maintain both simultaneously, lower the fry pitch by relaxing your larynx slightly. Don't push it down with your tongue — that's a common mistake that just creates tension. Let the larynx drop naturally, like the beginning of a yawn. The false cords will catch at a lower frequency, and you'll start hearing that overtone effect. I ran into a specific problem during this process. Every time I tried to add the second pitch, my breathing got shallow and the top note wobbled. The workaround was simpler than anything I'd read in forums: I started practicing this while exhaling on a steady "sss" hiss first, just to lock in consistent breath pressure, then added the vocal fry on top of that stable airflow. Once the breath support was consistent, the dual-pitch work became way more stable. It cut my practice time from hours down to maybe twenty minutes per session for actual progress.
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The Overtone Singing Connection
Pomoy's technique shares DNA with Tuvan throat singing, specifically the kargyraa style, which also produces two simultaneous pitches. The main difference is formant tuning. In Tuvan singing, the singer manipulates their vocal tract resonances to amplify specific harmonics of the fundamental tone. Pomoy does something similar but keeps both pitches more equally balanced rather than emphasizing one as a pure overtone. If you want to study this more deeply, listening to Kuusalu chest voice techniques and comparing them to Pomoy's live performances will show you where the approaches diverge. One counter-intuitive thing I learned: having a wider vocal range actually makes this harder, not easier. Singers who can comfortably hit very high notes tend to over-engaged their laryngeal muscles, which interferes with the passive false cord vibration needed for the bottom tone. Pomoy's strength isn't his range — it's his ability to keep his larynx relaxed while maintaining pitch accuracy. A moderately trained voice with good breath control often learns this faster than a technically polished singer.
Limitations You Should Know About
This technique doesn't work for every song. The continuous dual-pitch approach requires sustained notes with minimal melodic movement in the top line. If you're trying to sing fast passages or wide intervals while maintaining the overtone, it breaks down pretty quickly. Even Pomoy doesn't do it constantly — he uses it strategically on held notes for maximum impact. There's also a physical limit to how long you can sustain this without fatigue. The false cord engagement is fine for short phrases, but holding it for extended periods can cause vocal strain if your breath support isn't solid. I hit this wall after about forty-five seconds of continuous practice. Beyond that, the bottom pitch starts waver and the whole thing sounds forced rather than resonant. If your goal is purely to produce two audible pitches simultaneously for musical performance, you might be better off using a looping pedal with a single voice layer, or learning basic overtone singing which is less physically demanding and more musically flexible. Pomoy's approach is impressive but not necessarily the most practical path for most singers.
Learning Resources
The best way to understand this is to watch Pomoy's Asia's Got Talent semifinals performance of "Halo" by Beyoncé and pause at the sections where he adds the second voice. Compare it frame by frame to his later rounds where the technique becomes more refined. The evolution over just a few weeks is visible if you slow the video down to 0.75x speed. For the actual technique, search for Tuvan throat singing tutorials focusing on kargyraa, then adapt the approach rather than trying to copy Pomoy directly. His style is a derivative of older techniques applied to pop repertoire, which is why starting with the source material gives you a firmer foundation. The original The Miracle Voice Of Marcelito Pomoy The Singing Sensation That Transcends Traditional Boundaries content and performances remain available on official Asia's Got Talent channels and his verified social media accounts. I'd also recommend working with a voice teacher who understands vocal fry and false cord engagement before attempting this solo. Getting the mechanics wrong can lead to nodules if you push too hard for too long. The technique itself isn't dangerous when done correctly, but the temptation to force volume rather than let the secondary vibration happen passively is real, and that's where people tend to hurt themselves.
