vocal.guru / masterclass
耳根圆通法 (Ergen Yuantong) is a listening method for advanced singers, voice teachers and speakers, developed by vocal coach Fan Yafu. It pairs the acoustics of your own voice with an old contemplative instruction: turn the hearing back on itself.
01 / what science already says
Your voice reaches you through the air, around your head and into the ear canal, and also directly through the bones of the skull. Listeners only receive the air-conducted sound. A recording does the same, which is a large part of why your recorded voice sounds unfamiliar (Orepic et al., 2023).
For a singer, this means the sound inside your head is not a reliable guide to the sound in the room.
When researchers shift the pitch a singer hears in headphones, the singer automatically corrects in the opposite direction within a fraction of a second, without meaning to (Burnett et al., 1998). When the altered feedback continues, speakers gradually adapt their articulation to it (Houde and Jordan, 1998).
Hearing is not a passive check after the sound is made. It is part of the control loop that produces it.
02 / harmonics
The vocal folds produce a fundamental frequency plus harmonics at whole-number multiples of it. The shape of your throat and mouth then boosts some harmonics and softens others. Overtone singers tune that shape so finely that single harmonics become audible as a second melody.
Learning to hear individual harmonics is one of the first listening exercises in the masterclass. Type a pitch to see the series you are already singing.
03 / the method
初于闻中，入流亡所。
"At first, in hearing, I entered the stream and forgot the object."
Avalokiteshvara's account of the ear faculty, Shurangama Sutra, fascicle 6 (our translation)
反闻闻自性，性成无上道。
"Turn the hearing back to hear your own nature."
Manjushri's verse in the same fascicle (our translation)
In the sutra, twenty-five practitioners each describe the faculty through which they reached awakening. Manjushri selects Avalokiteshvara's practice through the ear as the most suitable for ordinary people, and 耳根圆通 means complete penetration through the ear faculty.
The instruction is to move attention away from the sounds being heard and back to hearing itself. Fan Yafu's method applies that shift to singing: instead of monitoring and correcting the throat, the singer rests attention in hearing while the voice runs.
We teach the text as the source of an attention technique. You do not need to share its religious framework to practise it.
Attention on the air-conducted sound and the space, using recordings to calibrate what the audience hears.
Attention on bone-conducted vibration and harmonics, sung at low volume so subtle changes are audible.
Attention on hearing itself rather than on any sound, held while singing repertoire.
The research basis of the method is set out in the book Turning the Hearing Inward (5D Library, 5DL-B-002), free to read online.
Many advanced singers carry extra effort in the throat that comes from trying to control the sound directly. Because hearing is already part of the voice's control loop, we think changing where attention rests can let the singer drop that compensating effort while the feedback loop keeps the pitch and tone on target. With practice, the new pattern becomes habit.
This is a teaching hypothesis, not an established finding. It has not yet been tested in a published study.
Cohort results: none published yet.
04 / masterclass
For singers with solid technique, voice teachers, speakers and meditation practitioners. Group size, number of sessions, format, dates and fee are announced with each cohort. Apply below and we tell you when the next one opens.
New to singing lessons? Start with foundations at singingasia.com. For reading on acoustics and tuning, see 5D Library.
Fan Yafu coached the finalists of the televised singing competition 《心动好声音》 in 2021 (Oriental Daily, WOAH.MY).
Published monographs · 研究专著与公开方案
A Bioacoustic Study of the Ergen Yuantong Listening Method · 耳根圆通法的生物声学研究
The Śūraṅgama Sūtra's passage on turning the hearing inward, read beside bone conduction, the stapedius reflex and vocal-tract resonance, with a four-week practice and a protocol published before any data are collected.
《楞严经》耳根圆通与听觉科学、嗓音声学并读：声学解耦、反闻、零点发声三阶段，附四周练习与预先公开的实验方案。
Disclosure: the author teaches singing based on the Ergen Yuantong method on this site, so he could benefit from a favourable result; the protocol is published first and results will be reported whether positive or negative. 说明：作者在本站以耳根圆通法教授声乐，与研究结果有利益关系；方案先公开，结果不论正负都会发表。
Myoelastic-Aerodynamic Theory, the Singer's Formant, Auditory-Motor Feedback and External Focus of Attention
How airflow keeps the vocal folds vibrating and what sets the phonation threshold pressure, how a narrow epilarynx in a wide pharynx gathers the singer's formant near 3 kHz, why a delayed feedback loop makes pitch wobble when it corrects too hard, and what the evidence on external focus of attention does and does not show, with jitter, shimmer and HNR, a four-step acoustic assessment in Praat and a pre-registered trial of a tactile anchor with an external focus.
气流如何维持声带振动与起振阈压、喉前庭与咽腔如何形成 3 kHz 附近的歌手共振峰、带延迟的反馈为何在纠正过度时使音高摇晃，以及外部注意焦点的证据能说明什么、不能说明什么，附 Praat 四步声学评估与「触觉锚定 + 外部焦点」预注册试验。
Not medical advice; persistent hoarseness needs a doctor. Disclosure: the author teaches singing on this site, including the touch-and-external-focus cue tested in the book, so he could benefit from a favourable result; the trial is designed to be run by independent researchers and reported whatever it shows. 非医疗建议；持续声音嘶哑请就医。说明：作者在本站教授声乐，包括书中检验的「触觉 + 外部焦点」提示，与结果有利益关系；试验设计为由独立研究人员实施，结果不论正负都会发表。
5-HT2A Receptor Kinetics, Pineal Calcite Microcrystals and the Computational Neuroscience of Meditative Attention
The resting brain's energy budget and network hubs, the Kuramoto model of synchrony, the entropic brain hypothesis with the risks and limits of the clinical trials, meditation and mind-wandering, the pineal gland, and the evidence on 40 Hz stimulation and binaural beats, read beside the Diamond Sūtra and the Platform Sūtra, with a pre-registered trial comparing breath-focused listening with binaural beats.
大脑静息能量预算与网络枢纽、库拉莫托同步、熵脑假说及临床试验的风险局限、禅修与走神、松果体，以及 40 Hz 与双耳节拍的证据，与《金刚经》《坛经》并读，附专注听息对照双耳节拍的预注册试验。
Not medical or legal advice. Disclosure: this site and 5D Library are run by the same group, founded by the author, who teaches the listening method discussed in the book. 非医疗或法律建议。说明：本站与 5D Library 同属作者创办的集团，作者教授书中讨论的聆听方法。
Pitch Contours, Pause Entropy and Listener Autonomic Coupling in Public Speaking and Leadership
What the voice adds to the words: what Mehrabian's 7–38–55 figures did and did not show, surprisal and uniform information density, a limited-capacity listener model of pauses and fillers, declination and final rises, Kuramoto models that separate a shared acoustic drive from mutual coupling in listener synchrony, vocal roughness, and the microphone proximity effect, read beside the Record of Music, the Guiguzi and the Analects, with a four-step acoustic checklist and a pre-registered double-blind trial.
声音在文字之外还带来了什么：梅拉比安 7–38–55 数字的真实适用范围、惊奇度与均匀信息密度、停顿与填充词的有限容量听者模型、句末下倾与上扬、用库拉莫托模型区分听众同步中的「共同声学驱动」与「相互耦合」、嗓音粗糙度与麦克风近讲效应，与《礼记·乐记》《鬼谷子》《论语》并读，附四步声学核查表与预注册双盲随机试验。
Not a technique for manipulating listeners; voice problems need a doctor. Disclosure: this site and 5D Library are run by the same group, founded by the author, who teaches voice and live-streaming and produces content; the trial does not recruit from his students, clients or followers. 不是操纵听众的技巧；嗓音问题请就医。说明：本站与 5D Library 同属作者创办的集团，作者从事嗓音教学、直播培训与内容制作；试验不从其学员、客户或粉丝中招募。
From Stochastic Gradient Descent and the Zone of Proximal Development to Spaced Repetition, Read Beside Classical Chinese Learning Theory
Where 'just hard enough' lies: the Eighty Five Percent Rule (an optimal training error of ½ erfc(1/√2) ≈ 15.87% for gradient-descent learners under Gaussian noise, and why it is not a universal constant); what deliberate practice really explains (about 12% of the variance on average); activity-dependent myelination and cable theory; forgetting, spacing, retrieval practice and an SM-2 scheduler; interleaving and desirable difficulties; and the timing of feedback, read beside the Analects, the Record of Learning and Zhu Xi, with a four-step deliberate-practice checklist and a pre-registered randomised trial.
「刚好够难」在哪里：85% 法则（高斯噪声下梯度下降学习者的最优训练错误率为 ½ erfc(1/√2) ≈ 15.87%，并非普适常数）；刻意练习的真实解释力（平均约 12% 方差）；活动依赖性髓鞘化与电缆理论；遗忘、间隔、检索练习与 SM-2 调度器；交错练习与必要难度；反馈的时机，与《论语》《礼记·学记》、朱熹《读书之要》并读，附四步刻意练习核查表与预注册随机对照试验。
Not a diagnosis of, or treatment for, learning difficulties; 85% is the optimum of a specific model, not a universal constant. Disclosure: this site and 5D Library are run by the same group, founded by the author, who uses these books as a methodological reference for his community courses, the 5D Ascension Cards (Dimensional Shift Card Decks) and the Yafu AI knowledge base. 不是学习障碍的诊断或治疗建议；85% 是特定模型下的最优值，不是普适常数。说明：本站与 5D Library 同属作者创办的集团，作者以这些书作为其社群课程、升维牌卡（5D Ascension Cards）与 Yafu AI 知识库的方法论参考。
From Titze's Self-Sustained Vocal Fold Oscillation and Vocal-Tract Inertance to the Lombard Effect, Read Beside Classical Chinese Vocal Aesthetics
How the vocal folds vibrate by themselves in an airflow, how the air column of the vocal tract pushes back on them, and how singers hear themselves through a delayed loop of air and bone: phonation threshold pressure (with a corrected formula), what the hydration evidence really shows, non-linear source–filter interaction, straws and semi-occluded vocal tracts, the singer's formant, register bifurcations, the pitch-shift reflex and the limit a delay sets on self-correction, and the Lombard effect, read beside the Record of Music, the Zhuangzi and the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, with a four-step voice checklist and a pre-registered randomised trial.
声带为什么能在气流中自激振动，声道空气柱怎样反过来推拉声带，歌者怎样通过有延迟、经由空气和骨头的回路听见自己：起振阈压（附公式核正）、水化证据的真实范围、非线性源—滤波耦合、吸管与半封闭声道、歌手共振峰、音区分岔、变调反射与延迟造成的校正下限、隆巴德效应，与《乐记》《庄子·齐物论》《楞严经》耳根圆通章并读，附四步嗓音核查表与预注册随机对照试验。
Not medical or speech-therapy advice, and it cannot diagnose a voice disorder; hoarseness lasting more than about two weeks needs an ENT or speech-language assessment. Disclosure: this site and 5D Library are run by the same group, founded by the author, who uses these books as a methodological reference for his community courses, the 5D Ascension Cards (Dimensional Shift Card Decks) and the Yafu AI knowledge base. The author teaches singing at vocal.guru and singingasia.com and founded the 耳根圆通法 (Ergen Yuantong) auditory-feedback method, so he has a direct commercial interest in this subject; the book's experiment does not recruit from his students. 不是嗓音医学或言语治疗建议，不能诊断嗓音疾病；声音嘶哑超过约两周应就医（耳鼻喉科或言语治疗师）。说明：本站与 5D Library 同属作者创办的集团，作者以这些书作为其社群课程、升维牌卡（5D Ascension Cards）与 Yafu AI 知识库的方法论参考。作者在 vocal.guru 与 singingasia.com 教授声乐并创立「耳根圆通法」，与本书主题有直接商业利益；书中的试验不从其学员中招募。
From Stevens's Power Law and the McGurk Effect to Sensory Substitution, Read Beside Classical Chinese Thought on the Six Senses
How physical intensity becomes sensation, and how the brain fuses several noisy senses into one judgement: Weber's law and internal noise (and the extra assumption Fechner needed), Stevens's power law and cross-modality matching, maximum-likelihood cue integration and the ventriloquist effect, causal inference about whether two signals share a source, the McGurk effect and the temporal binding window, inverse effectiveness, and sensory substitution and cross-modal plasticity, read beside the Liezi, the Zhuangzi and the Śūraṅgama Sūtra on the interchange of the senses, with a four-step checklist and a pre-registered trial of vibrotactile feedback in vocal pitch training.
物理强度怎样变成感觉，大脑又怎样把几种带噪声的感官合成一个判断：韦伯定律与内部噪声（以及费希纳多出的一条假设），史蒂文斯幂定律与跨模态匹配，最大似然线索整合与腹语效应，判断两个信号是否同源的因果推断，麦格克效应与时间整合窗，逆效能原则，感官替代与跨模态可塑性，与《列子》《庄子·人间世》《楞严经》的六根互用之说并读，附四步核查表与振动触觉反馈辅助发音音高训练的预注册试验。
Not medical advice; it cannot diagnose any sensory or neurological condition. Disclosure: this site and 5D Library are run by the same group, founded by the author, who uses these books as a methodological reference for his community courses, the 5D Ascension Cards (Dimensional Shift Card Decks) and the Yafu AI knowledge base. The author teaches singing at vocal.guru and singingasia.com, founded the 耳根圆通法 (Ergen Yuantong) auditory-training method and develops perception-training courses, so he has a direct commercial interest in this subject; the book's trial does not use his course material or recruit from his students. 非医疗建议，不能诊断任何感觉或神经系统疾病。说明：本站与 5D Library 同属作者创办的集团，作者以这些书作为其社群课程、升维牌卡（5D Ascension Cards）与 Yafu AI 知识库的方法论参考。作者在 vocal.guru 与 singingasia.com 教授声乐，创立「耳根圆通法」并开发感知训练课程，与本书主题有直接商业利益；书中试验不使用其课程材料，也不从其学员中招募。
Singers with solid basic technique, voice teachers, public speakers and meditation practitioners who want to work on how they listen while they use their voice.
The method takes its name and its core instruction from the Shurangama Sutra, and we explain that source openly. The practice itself is attention training; no belief or affiliation is required.
No. It is voice training and contemplative practice. If you have pain, persistent hoarseness or loss of voice, see an ENT doctor or a speech-language therapist.
We do not promise outcomes. Participants record before and after each module and rate their own effort, so you can judge the change for yourself.
Places are limited so each participant gets individual feedback. Tell us about your voice and what you want to change.
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