Back when I was a teenager, we had a guest pastor. I'll call him Dr Jones. He and his wife were a wonderful couple, semiretired, and they came up from the South to do us all a favour by being our pastor couple for a year, since Baptist pastors were hard to find in Pennsylvania at the time. Dr Jones was tall and thin (think James Cromwell), Mrs Jones was petite and lively, and they both had smiles that wouldn't quit. Dr Jones was quite erudite, but you wouldn't guess it from his down-to-earth manner. Both of them loved little kids.

The one thing that made them sad was that their grandson, who was five, was all the way down in Lima, Peru, with his missionary parents. So we let them borrow my five-year-old sister, who was a pretty good substitute grandkid. Little Sis loved old folks, and her grandparents were away off in Tennessee.

Every time we visited the Joneses in their rented apartment, there would be cookies. And Dr Jones would sing Little Sis his party piece. It involved making funny frog noises in his throat, Gung, Gung, Went the Little Green Frog. Only, unlike these limp Youtube singers, Dr Jones made a real 'gung, gung' sound in the back of his throat. We were all fascinated by this talent, which sounded a lot like Tuvan throat singing.

Khoomei, Khoomei

In Mongolia, Tuva, and Siberia, people do a lot of funny things with their throats. It's called Khoomei or throat singing. There's a variation called simply overtone singing. Whatever they call it, it's amazing, it's old, and one gets the feeling one shouldn't try this at home.

Here's an example. Notice that this guy has upped the ante by singing in a frozen lake. We believe this earns you extra points.

Mongolians, Siberians, and Tuvans have shamans. Some aspects of this throat singing have been found to have similarities with Tibetan Buddhist chanting. In other words, this is very spiritual, in addition to being totally entertaining.

We're sure the moon god or goddess would listen to your appeals if you sang this way. Nature likes it, too. How do we know? Get a load of this dog's Khoomei performance.

Praise the Lord with the Saw

I don't know any throat singing Christians, now that Dr Jones has gone on to his reward. But periodically, somebody will show up in church with a musical saw. This instrument, too, has a wonderfully ethereal sound reminiscent of the theremin. More people should take it up.

Isn't it amazing the variety of tuneful sounds humans (and dogs, and saws) can make?