Voiced obstruents and phonation into tubes are widely used as vocal exercises. But the effect is strong only when the epilarynx tube is also narrowed. Study focused on the effects of a'resonance tube' on vocal tract reactance.
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Original Title
[Kati] Alargamiento Del Tracto Vocal y Economia Vocal
Voiced obstruents and phonation into tubes are widely used as vocal exercises. But the effect is strong only when the epilarynx tube is also narrowed. Study focused on the effects of a'resonance tube' on vocal tract reactance.
Voiced obstruents and phonation into tubes are widely used as vocal exercises. But the effect is strong only when the epilarynx tube is also narrowed. Study focused on the effects of a'resonance tube' on vocal tract reactance.
Can vocal economy in phonation be increased with an artificially
lengthened vocal tract? A computer modeling study INGO R. TITZE 1,2 & ANNE-MARIA LAUKKANEN 3 1 Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA, 2 National Center for Voice and Speech, The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Denver, CO, USA, 3 Department of Speech Communication and Voice Research, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland Abstract Voiced obstruents and phonation into tubes are widely used as vocal exercises. They increase the inertive reactance of the vocal tract in the 2001000 Hz range and thereby reinforce vocal fold vibration. But the effect is strong only when the epilarynx tube is also narrowed. The present study focused on the effects of a resonance tube (27 cm in length, 0.5 cm 2 cross-sectional area, hard walls) on vocal tract reactance and the accompanying economy of voice production (defined as maximum flow declination rate (MFDR), divided by maximum area declination rate (MADR)). The vowel /u/ and phonation into the tube were simulated with a computer model. Three values were given to the cross-sectional area of the epilarynx tube (0.2 cm 2 , 0.5 cm 2 , and 1.6 cm 2 ), which is at the opposite end of the vocal tract from the artificial resonance tube. The degree of glottal adduction was varied in order to find the economy maximum for each epilarynx tube setting. Results showed that the resonance tube lowered F 1 from 300 Hz to 150 Hz and doubled the vocal tract inertive reactance at F 0 100 Hz. The largest economy with the resonance tube was obtained when the epilarynx tube was narrowed (relative to the rest of the vocal tract) and sufficiently tight adduction was used. Most importantly, the intraoral acoustic pressure (calculated at 0.8 cm behind the lips) was tripled with the tube. The results suggest that by optimizing the vibratory sensations in the face that are attributed to increased intraoral acoustic pressure, phonation into a tube may assist a trainee in finding an optimal glottal and epilaryngeal setting for the greatest vocal economy. Key words: Airow, breath control, computer modeling, epilaryngeal narrowing, vocal economy, voice training and therapy Introduction Voiced fricatives like /v, z, b/, lip and tongue trills, nasal consonants, and phonation into tubes have been widely used in voice training and therapy (15). Beneficial effects have also been reported when a person phonates against a hand nearly covering the mouth (6). Lessac (7) has proposed the use of a y-buzz as a vocal exercise, which is a closed front vowel produced with a slight protrusion of the lips and with so narrow a constriction between the tongue and the palate that it almost sounds like the semivowel /j/. This y-buzz exercise and other components of a series of energy principles described by Lessac have been crafted into the Lessac-Madsen Resonant Voice Therapy method by Verdolini (8). Also, Stemples Vocal Function Exercises (9) utilize the vowel /o/ as a primary vocal tract configuration for practice. Collectively, we refer to all of these exercises as semiocclusive vocal tract exercises (10). Some authors have suggested that exercises on voiced fricatives also increase breath management in singing (3) and for general improvement of breath- ing (11,12). Phonation into tubes has been used in speech therapy for the treatment of hypernasality (4,13,14), in voice therapy for the treatment of both phonasthenia and hyperfunctional voice disorder (4,1318), and in voice training to improve voice quality and projection (19). Phonation into glass tubes (2528 cm in length, 8 9 mm inner diameter), called resonance tubes, has been used in Finnish voice training and therapy practice (5,13,1518,20) and in Norway (21). In Correspondence: Ingo R. Titze PhD, National Center for Voice and Speech, The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, 1101 13th Street, Denver, CO 80204, USA. Fax: 1-303-893-6487. E-mail: ititze@dcpa.org Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology. 2007; 32: 147156 (Received 2 February 2006; accepted 9 February 2007) ISSN 1401-5439 print/ISSN 1651-2022 online # 2007 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/14015430701439765 Germany, Gundermann (14) and Habermann (4) mention a method of humming on /m, n, l/ into a glass tube (B12 cm in length, 1 cm inner diameter) proposed by Spiess (22) and later recommended by Stein (23). The name resonance tube comes from the strong sensations of vibrations that are felt in the lips and face during phonation into these tubes. A resonance tube is used either so that one end of it is sunk into a cup filled with water (water resistance therapy, see e.g. Sovijarvi (20), Rauhala (15)) or so that it is free in the air, pointing straight out of the subjects mouth as a natural extension of the vocal tract. The other end is kept firmly between the lips. The subjects are instructed to produce a vowel-like sound (/u, y/ are the most natural choices) into the tube. The aim is the most comfortable, effortless phonation that produces maximum vibratory sensa- tions in the lips and face. According to subjective sensations of many trainees, phonation feels easier and the voice sounds louder immediately after exercising with the tubes (clinical observation by author A.-M. Laukkanen, who has administered the therapy often). According to Tapani (16) and Sim- berg (18), patients suffering from functional and other voice disorders seem to have derived benefit from the therapy. Some studies of the instantaneous effects of vocal tract occlusions on vocal fold vibration have been carried out on human subjects. Bickley and Stevens (24), using acoustic analysis in combination with electroglottography, reported an increase in the open quotient and a steeper spectral slope in the glottal source function as a consequence of vocal tract constriction. These results have recently been con- firmed with a computer model (10). However, Laukkanen (19,25) obtained opposite results with electroglottography (EGG) during and immediately after phonation on /b/ and into resonance tubes with subjects that had received training in the use of the semiocclusive. The relative open time was reduced during and after semiocclusion with a bilabial fricative and a tube. Also, the average laryngeal muscle activity was the same or lower during phonation into a resonance tube or on /b/ compared to vowel phonation (26,27). Decreased glottal re- sistance due to increased flow has been observed immediately after 1 minute exercising on /b, m/ and the resonance tubes (28,29). These studies suggest that vocalists can learn to compensate for the semiocclusion and perhaps utilize it to their advan- tage in training the vocal fold adduction and the related musculature. All the above-mentioned exercises imply that semiocclusion of the vocal tract (steady or time varying as in a lip trill) or an artificial lengthening of the vocal tract increase the source-vocal tract inter- actions. Modeling studies have shown that vocal tract input impedance (and particularly the inertive reactance) increases with a tube that lengthens the vocal tract (30), and the glottal flow amplitude and pulse shape change with increased inertive reactance (3133). Furthermore, oscillation threshold pressure is reduced by increased vocal tract inertance (34). A study with a singer also suggested an effect of vocal tract inertance on the oscillatory characteristics of the vocal folds (35). Inertive reactance in the vocal tract can also be increased by narrowing the epilarynx tube area instead of semioccluding the mouth (36). This also lowers phonatory threshold pressure and increases maximum flow declination rate (33), leading to strengthening of the higher harmonics and even to an increase in sound pressure level (SPL). This increase in maximum flow declination rate (MFDR) would imply a more economic voice production (more sound output with less mechanical stress imposed on the vocal fold tissue), provided that the maximum area declination rate (MADR) in the glottis does not increase proportionately. We have suggested the use of the ratio MFDR/MADR as a measure of vocal economy (33). Phonation into narrow straws, as opposed to longer and wider tubes, may add another benefit. High subglottic pressures are possible without ex- cessive collision of the vocal folds. Titze et al. (37) observed lower amplitude and a lower relative closed time of the glottis on an EGG signal when phonation into straws was compared to vowel phonation. It was concluded that, with narrow straws, it is possible to exercise the use of the high subglottic pressures needed in singing, while having minimal collision of the vocal folds. During phonation into a narrow straw, the intraglottal air pressure rises, causing the vocal folds to abduct, thereby diminishing the collision force during voice production. The current study focused on the use of one specific resonance tube used in Finland. First, the effects of the tube on vocal tract reactance were calculated. Second, the effects of the tube on self- sustained vocal fold oscillation were studied with a computer simulation model. Methods The three-mass body-cover model of Story and Titze (38) was used for simulation. The model allowed inputs in the form of laryngeal muscle activation (39). The vocal tract was simulated with the wave reflection algorithm (40,41), including frictional air losses, kinetic losses, wall vibration losses, radiation losses, and glottal losses. The supraglottal tract was modeled with 44 sections, 148 I. R. Titze & A.-M. Laukkanen each 0.398 cm in length, and cross-sections for the /u/ vowel determined experimentally with magnetic resonance imaging by Story et al. (42). The total length of the supraglottal vocal tract was 17.5 cm, which corresponds to an average male vocal tract. A subglottal tract (36 sections, 14 cm in length) was included, with the area function also modeled after Story et al. (42). Sound radiation from the lips was modeled as a circular piston oscillating in a spherical baffle, which has become a standard in speech simulation (43), but can be challenged for frequencies above 5000 Hz. In fact, many aspects of the wave reflection algorithm as detailed by Liljencrants (40) and Story (41) begin to lose accuracy for frequencies above 5000 Hz because they are based on a one-dimensional wave equation. Waveforms were simulated with this model, typi- cally 200 ms in length to show about 20 cycles of vibration at around 100 Hz. From these waveforms, the following variables were calculated: peak glottal area, mean glottal area, MADR, peak glottal flow, mean glottal flow, MFDR, vocal economy (MFDR/ MADR), and glottal efficiency (acoustic output power divided by the product of mean airflow and subglottic pressure) (44). In addition, several values of peak and mean vocal tract pressures were com- puted. Results are shown in Table I. Finally, the combined reactance of the subglottal and supraglot- tal vocal tract was calculated with and without the tube, and with three epilarynx tube diameters. The reactance calculations followed the procedure de- scribed by Story et al. (30). It must be pointed out that the accuracy of any simulation depends on many factors. Some para- meters in the model are known to better than 0.1% accuracy (e.g. density of air, sound velocity), but other parameters are known only to an order-of- magnitude (e.g. tissue viscosities and elasticities). Thus, the results that are about to be shown may have error in an absolute sense, but the relative changes with parameter variation, which are of primary importance, are less susceptible to error because the uncertainties usually cancel out. Results The vowel /u/ was first simulated as a control case. The vocal tract shape is shown in Figure 1 (top left). This vowel has a small lip opening, making the radiation losses comparable to those of the tube. Simulated laryngeal muscle activity (20% thyroar- ytenoid, 20% cricothyroid, and 50% lateral cricoar- ytenoid) produced an F 0 of about 100 Hz. The epilarynx tube cross-sectional area was 0.5 cm 2 (the first eight supraglottal sections), and the lung pressure was 0.8 kilo-pascals (kPa). The value 0.5 cm for Ae is typical on the basis of measurements made by Story et al. (45). Several studies of how vocal efficiency and vocal economy vary with Ae have already been conducted (4648). Results follow the basic principles of maximum power transfer in electrical and acoustic circuits. If Ae is such that the vocal tract input impedance matches the glottal impedance (which is a time-varying nonlinear quan- tity), the output power of the simulator is max- imized. Efficiency of conversion of aerodynamic power to acoustic power, on the other hand, is not maximized when the impedances match. As an alternative to glottal efficiency, we have been at- tracted to a quantity called vocal economy, which is presently defined as the ratio of maximum flow declination rate to maximum area declination rate (10). In the current study, the value of Ae allowed vocal economy to reach a peak with various glottal adjustments. Values of AeB0.1 prevented vocal fold oscillation because the input impedance was too high and values of Ae2.0 greatly reduced the oscillation range because no benefit was obtained from vocal tract coupling. Returning to Figure 1, the following output wave- forms of the model are shown on the left panel, top to bottom: contact area (ca) of the vocal folds in cm 2 , glottal area (ga) between the vocal folds in cm 2 , glottal airflow (ug) in L/s, and glottal flow derivative (dug) in m 3 /s 2 . On the right panel, we see vocal tract pressures in kPa from top to bottom: lip-radiated output pressure (Po), intraoral (mouth) pressure (Pm) at a location 0.8 cm behind the lips, epilarynx tube input pressure (Pe), intraglottal pressure (Pg), and subglottic pressure (Ps). To observe their relative sizes, all pressures are scaled equally between 2.0 and 2.0 kPa. Note the relatively small lip- radiated pressure (top right) in comparison to the pressures below, within, and above the glottis (bottom three). The intraoral pressure (second from top) is also relatively small for the vowel /u/. Effects of vocal tract lengthening with a tube Figure 2 shows the same set of simulated waveforms when a resonance tube is added at the lips, 27 cm in length and 0.5 cm 2 in cross sectional area, the same as the epilarynx tube. With ordinary speech airflows, little air turbulence was noted when a subject phonated through this tube. Hence, no turbulence was simulated with noise sources. The most out- standing visible feature in Figure 2 is the large intraoral acoustic pressure (second from top on the right). This pressure (Pm) is increased by a factor of three over the vowel /u/ without a tube. We believe that this large mouth pressure can be felt as a Vocal economy study with artificially lengthened tract 149 Table I. Results for simulations of /u/ in the top row, and with a resonance tube in the remaining rows. For each of three cross-sectional areas of the epilarynx (Ae) there are several degrees of adduction. Vocal economy is dened as (MFDR/MADR) and efciency as (SPL/mean ow mean subglottic pressure). In bold: Values for the degree of adduction (in % LCA) giving the highest economy. Vocal tract configuration Peak area (cm 2 ) Mean area (cm 2 ) MADR (cm 2 /ms) Peak flow (L/s) Mean flow (L/s) MFDR (cm 3 /s 2 ) Peak Pg (kPa) Mean Pg (kPa) Peak Pe (kPa) Mean Pe (kPa) Peak Pm (kPa) Mean Pm (kPa) Economy (cm/ms) Efficiency /u/; Ae0.5 cm 2 ; LCA50% 0.67 0.23 0.45 0.87 0.33 4.12 4.80 0.48 3.27 0.29 0.48 0.017 9.09 0.0003150 Resonance tube Ae1.6 cm 2 46% LCA 0.41 0.24 0.09 0.66 0.51 0.23 0.99 0.53 0.59 0.38 0.32 0.080 2.56 0.0000001 47% 0.42 0.23 0.17 0.64 0.43 0.30 1.05 0.58 0.62 0.33 0.55 0.073 2.80 0.0000027 48% 0.40 0.20 0.12 0.61 0.38 0.44 1.08 0.59 0.69 0.30 0.70 0.059 3.85 0.0000057 49% 0.54 0.20 0.29 0.68 0.29 1.65 1.02 0.39 1.02 0.22 0.92 0.040 5.66 0.0000272 50% 0.34 0.15 0.11 0.61 0.31 0.61 1.19 0.68 0.78 0.24 0.75 0.041 5.51 0.0000119 51% 0.48 0.17 0.30 0.67 0.24 1.73 1.10 0.38 1.14 0.18 1.04 0.032 5.77 0.0000471 52% 0.44 0.14 0.29 0.65 0.22 1.69 1.06 0.38 1.11 0.16 1.02 0.030 5.75 0.0000426 53% 0.19 0.057 0.12 0.43 0.15 0.57 1.04 0.61 0.63 0.11 0.60 0.021 4.70 0.0000158 Ae0.5 cm 2 46% LCA 0.43 0.24 0.10 0.59 0.47 0.14 1.07 0.55 0.63 0.44 0.30 0.071 1.48 0.0000007 47% 0.44 0.24 0.12 0.58 0.39 0.44 1.19 0.61 0.74 0.39 0.70 0.057 3.80 0.0000064 48% 0.43 0.21 0.14 0.56 0.33 0.54 1.14 0.65 0.82 0.32 0.81 0.052 3.94 0.0000099 49% 0.61 0.22 0.37 0.56 0.26 2.53 2.74 0.42 1.80 0.25 0.99 0.041 6.93 0.0000484 50% 0.63 0.21 0.36 0.72 0.29 2.76 3.20 0.51 2.17 0.26 1.33 0.029 7.65 0.0000844 51% 0.56 0.19 0.38 0.57 0.21 2.77 3.00 0.39 2.04 0.20 1.12 0.028 7.29 0.0001179 52% 0.26 0.10 0.13 0.49 0.21 0.73 1.16 0.60 1.05 0.20 0.85 0.032 5.67 0.0000250 53% 0.18 0.053 0.12 0.41 0.14 0.61 1.12 0.63 0.82 0.13 0.69 0.019 5.17 0.0000251 Ae0.2 cm 2 51% LCA 0.51 0.15 0.31 0.33 0.16 2.61 5.00 0.59 4.13 0.25 0.78 0.022 8.53 0.0000933 52% 0.46 0.12 0.30 0.33 0.14 2.59 5.24 0.46 4.02 0.22 0.75 0.016 8.76 0.0001388 53% 0.45 0.12 0.35 0.33 0.13 3.09 5.44 0.47 4.30 0.20 0.78 0.014 8.95 0.0001497 54% 0.43 0.08 0.31 0.33 0.11 2.57 4.91 0.51 3.79 0.18 0.76 0.017 8.28 0.0000971 55% 0.45 0.12 0.37 0.33 0.11 3.27 5.60 0.43 4.43 0.17 0.74 0.015 8.92 0.0002841 (56% does not phonate) Notes: MADRmaximum area declination rate; MFDRmaximum flow delination rate; LCAlateral cricoarytenoid activity; SPLsound pressure level; Pgpressure in the glottis; Pm pressure in the mouth (behind the lips); Pepressure at the epilarynx tube entry. 1 5 0 I . R . T i t z e & A . - M . L a u k k a n e n buzzing in the lips and other facial tissues when a person phonates into a tube. Effects of combined epilarynx tube narrowing with vocal tract lengthening on vocal tract reactance Figure 3(a) shows the shapes for the vowel /u/ again without a resonance tube, but this time with three different values of epilarynx tube cross-section from top to bottom: 1.6 cm 2 , 0.5 cm 2 , and 0.2 cm 2 . Figure 3(b) shows the corresponding reactance curves of the vocal tract shapes. Reactance is expressed in units of dyn-s/cm 5 , where 1 dyn-s/ cm 5 10 5 Pa-s/m 3 . Thin solid lines are for supra- glottal reactance, dashed lines for subglottal reac- tance, and thick solid lines for the combined reactance. It can be seen that narrowing of the epilarynx tube area from 1.6 cm 2 to 0.2 cm 2 (top to bottom) approximately doubled the reactance at frequencies below 300 Hz (e.g. from 10 dyn-s/cm 5 at 100 Hz to 20 dyn-s/cm 5 at the same frequency). This increased reactance gives rise to greater re- inforcement of vocal fold vibration due to delayed feedback from this reactive load (34). Figure 4 shows similar results when the resonance tube is added to the vocal tract. The tube lowered F 1 from about 300 Hz to 150 Hz. This further increased the positive (inertive) reactance below F 1 . For example, 100 Hz is increased from 20 dyn- s/cm 5 to 40 dyn-s/cm 5 (210 6 to 410 6 Pa-s/m 3 ). But negative reactance occurred from 150 Hz to about 250 Hz. This is an area where vocal fold vibration is not enhanced by the vocal tract. The region of negative reactance can be shrunk, however, Figure 1. Example of some outputs of the model (vowel /u/, 50% simulated lateral cricoarytenoid (LCA) adduction, 0.5 cm 2 epilarynx tube). Left column from top: Schematic picture of the cross-sectional area of the trachea, glottis, epilarynx tube and mouth cavity; vocal fold contact area (ca); glottal area (ga), glottal airow (ug); rst derivative of glottal ow (fug, negative peak shows the maximum ow declination rate). Right column from top: oral radiated air pressure (Po); mouth pressure 0.8 cm behind lips (Pm); epilarynx tube input pressure (Pe); intraglottal pressure (Pg); subglottic pressure (Ps). Vocal economy study with artificially lengthened tract 151 by narrowing the epilarynx tube, as is shown in the lower panels of Figure 4. Due to second formant lowering with the tube, positive reactance also increased in the 400600 Hz region. This effect on higher (singing) fundamental frequencies and their harmonics will be left as a follow-on study. Here we are concerned only with reactive effects at normal speaking fundamental frequencies. Effects of epilaryngeal narrowing and the resonance tube on vocal economy in voice production As stated earlier, vocal economy is still in the process of being developed. Our current definition is MFDR/MADR, based on a simple glottal geometry that does not include anterio-posterior variation (33). MFDR is the maximum flow declination rate and MADR is the maximum area declination rate. As it presently stands, the ratio MFDR/MADR has dimensions of velocity (m/s), which has no strong physical interpretation. It does, however, relate abruptness of airflow change to abruptness of tissue velocity change, the first being desirable for acoustic excitation and the second being undesirable for tissue stress. Thus, the higher the ratio is, the greater the economy of production (in theory). As more sophisticated vocal fold models are used, three- dimensional glottal kinematics may be needed to refine the definition. For the present investigation, the definition is adequate. It has been shown that vocal economy (however defined) is likely to be a function of vocal fold adduction (10,49). Hence, a third experimental variable, vocal fold adduction, was included in the simulation. For each value of epilarynx tube area, as well as for the tube versus no-tube condition, a group of values for simulated lateral cricothyroid (LCA) muscle activity was chosen to find the optimum value of adduction. The highest value of vocal economy was the function to be optimized. Figure 2. Outputs of the model for the vowel /u/ with a 27-cm tube attached (top left). All waveforms are comparable to those of Figure 1. 152 I. R. Titze & A.-M. Laukkanen Table I summarizes the results obtained for selected variables calculated from the waveforms. These variables are labeled across the top. The rows are divided into four groups, the /u/ vowel being in row 1 as a control case (with 50% LCA and 0.5 cm 2 epilarynx tube), followed by three groups of reso- nance tube cases for different epilarynx tube cross- sections Ae. Each group of Ae contains several simulated LCA activities. Simulated LCA activity was varied such that a peak value in vocal economy was established, with values dropping off on either side. The row with bold numbers shows the max- imum economy case. Note that for Ae1.6 cm 2 , the peak economy value is 5.77 cm/s, while for Ae 0.5 cm 2 it is 9.65 cm/s, and for Ae0.2 cm 2 it is 8.95 cm/s. These optimized economy cases yield the primary numbers for comparison. When the opti- mum economy cases with the resonance tube are compared to the /u/ vowel, both peak and mean glottal areas (first two columns) and glottal flows (fourth and fifth columns) generally declined slightly, suggesting greater steady back pressures on the vocal folds and smaller vibrational amplitudes when the resonance tube is attached. MADR and MFDR are also lower with the resonance tube. Acoustic pressures along the vocal tract (Pg intraglottal pressure, Pe epilaryngeal tube pres- sure, Pmmouth pressure behind the lips) are likewise generally lower with the resonance tube. There is one major exception: Pm. This mouth pressure behind the lips increased dramatically for all cases with the resonance tube, which is perhaps the most significant result of this study. The highest economy value with the resonance tube (8.95 cm/s) was obtained with the narrowest epilarynx. It was very close to the value for /u/, 9.09 cm/s. Efficiency is more difficult to compare because the tube radiates energy differently than the lips. Figure 3. (a) Vocal tract shape for the /u/ vowel and (b) with the corresponding reactance curve for three epilaryngeal settings: 1.6 cm 2 (top), 0.5 cm 2 (middle), 0.2 cm 2 (bottom). Thin solid linesubglottic reactance, dashed linesupraglottic reactance, thick linetotal vocal tract reactance (1 dyn-s/cm 5 10 5 Pa-s/m 3 ). Vocal economy study with artificially lengthened tract 153 Vocal efficiency, traditionally defined as the ratio of radiated power from the mouth to aerodynamic power at the glottis, has limited use because it is so highly dependent on mouth opening. Every vowel has a different efficiency. Vocal economy, as defined here, is less sensitive to vowel because the computa- tion involves glottal variables only. Discussion It is known on the basis of earlier results (33) that a relatively narrow laryngeal vestibule (epilarynx tube) can increase the maximum flow declination rate (MFDR) while simultaneously lowering the mean glottal airflow. Since a narrowed epilarynx tube causes some steady backpressure in the glottis, it also diminishes the maximum area declination rate (MADR) and thus leads to higher economy. This increase in vocal economy can be linked to an increase in vocal tract inertive reactance, which assists the vocal folds in self-sustained oscillation. In this study, a resonance tube added to the vocal tract at the lips in and of itself increased the inertive reactance in the 100200 Hz region, which could then be further increased if the epilarynx tube was also narrowed. But the economy was not greater than that of an /u/ vowel, which has a lip opening comparable to the tube diameter (between 0.2 and 0.5 cm 2 ). Thus, the tube seemed to offer no more than any other oral semiocclusive. In particular, there was no new resonance at speaking pitches. Remarkable, however, was the finding that the mouth pressure just behind the lips was three times higher with the tube than with an /u/ vowel. There- fore, it seems plausible that the rationale of using a tube with vocal exercising is that it guides the trainee to the sensation of facial tissue vibration, which is sensitive to impedance matching between the glottis, Figure 4. (a) Vocal tract shape for the /u/ vowel combined with a resonance tube and (b) the corresponding reactance curve for three epilaryngeal settings: 1.6 cm 2 (top), 0.5 cm 2 (middle), 0.2 cm 2 (bottom). Thin solid linesubglottic reactance, dashed linesupraglottic reactance, thick linetotal vocal tract reactance (1 dyn-s/cm 5 10 5 Pa-s/m 3 ). 154 I. R. Titze & A.-M. Laukkanen epilarynx, and the vocal tract. It is likely that the most beneficial epilaryngeal setting cannot easily be found without this lip buzz amplifier. Regarding the concept of narrowing the epilarynx tube, a note of caution is offered. If not carefully conceptualized and executed, epilarynx tube nar- rowing may be interpreted as hyper-adduction of the false folds. The opposite is true. Narrowing of the epilarynx tube should take place only by anterio- posterior movement of the epiglottis, not by medio- lateral movement of the ventricular folds, which could easily be set into vibration. This vibration would be rough, with a strained voice quality. Traditionally, voice coaches and singing pedagogues have stressed the importance of a wide pharynx (e.g. Appelman) (50). The mental image of a yawn (or, at least, an anticipation of a yawn) is promoted as a means of freeing up the voice. Widening the pharynx (and perhaps the entire vocal tract) effectively narrows the epilarynx tube, if held constant. Acous- tically, narrowing and widening are relative concepts. What matters from the point of view of impedance matching is the relative size between the mean cross- sectional area at the entry of the glottis and the cross- sectional area of the vocal tract. This can be obtained in a variety of ways. Conclusion Phonation into a so-called resonance tube, although not providing any new resonance conditions other than what is predicted from an artificially lengthened vocal tract, appears to have therapeutic value in that it provides acoustic pressure feedback from the lip area. Relatively strong pressures are felt at the lip- tube junction, which increase when the epilarynx tube area above the glottis effectively narrows. Thus, as has been claimed in earlier studies (10), altering the acoustic load at the mouth with a tube may facilitate a better impedance match at the glottis. 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