The Voice

The human voice combines the basic principles of the other instrument families in a unique way. It is fundamentally a wind instrument, since it is operated by air under pressure, but it does not depend on well-defined resonances to determine frequencies, as the woodwinds and brasses do. Instead, it operates much like a string instrument; vibrations are produced by pieces of tissue whose vibration frequency, as in the strings, can be adjusted by changing their tension. The tones these vibrations produce have many harmonies. The relative amplitudes of these harmonies are altered by the resonances in the system, which thus determines the quality of the tone that finally emerges. The distinguishing feature of the human voice is the fact that these resonances are instantly adjustable, so that harmonic structure of the voice tone can be changed quickly over a considerable range. A sketch of the vocal tract is shown in Fig. 21. Air under pressure from the lungs is forced through the windpipe or trachea, which is terminated at its top by the sound-producing structure called the larynx. This contains the vocal cords, which are set into vibration by air flowing through them from the lungs. The vibration frequency of the vocal cords is varied by changing their tension by means of attached muscles. Above the larynx is the oral cavity the space inside the mouth, which can be connected to the outside by opening the mouth and the nasal cavity the space behind the nose, which is connected to the outside through the nostrils. The space between the vocal cords is called the glottis. The area of the trachea, below the vocal cords, is considerably larger than the area of the glottis; hence, when air flows from the lungs through the larynx it speeds up considerably in going from the trachea into the glottis. It follows that the pressure in the trachea is larger than the pressure in the glottis, to provide the force necessary to accelerate the air into the glottis. Similarly, the air above the glottis, moving more slowly again, is back at (lie higher pressure. This reduction in pressure in a fluid, when it moves from a region where it moves more slowly to one where it moves faster, is called the Bernoulli effect. The air flow through the glottis when open therefore produces a partial vacuum which tries to pull the vocal cords together. The glottis will then narrow down by an amount depending on the tension in the vocal cords, and may close completely. The pressure in the trachea then pushes the glottis open again. The Bernoulli effect thus essentially supplies a force which maintains vibrations in the vocal cords at their natural frequency. This discussion is verified by motion picture photo-graphs of vibrating vocal cords, which show that the glottis opens up and closes down once each cycle of the vibration, and usually closes completely during part of the cycle.30 The air flow through the glottis is then in the form of discontinuous puffs, much like the air follows that through the reed opening into the
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clarinet when it is blown, It follows that the tone the vocal cords produce is composed of a considerable number of harmonics. The nasal and oral cavities above the larynx have resonance frequencies that depend on the volumes of the cavities and the areas of the openings to the outside. The resonance frequency for the nasal cavity is fixed, but that for the oral cavity can be changed by varying the volume of the cavity with the tongue and by changing the area of the mouth opening with the lips. Those harmonics of the tone from the vocal cords that have frequencies near the resonances of these cavities will be reinforced by these resonances. The nasal and oral cavities thus provide formants in the vocal tract. We discussed formants earlier in Ch. 6 in connection with the quality of musical sounds. As stated there, voice quality is definitely determined by formants. The subject of voice quality is of considerable importance to the communications industry, which has done a great deal those voice qualities that we associate with vowel sounds are determined by the formant frequencies. For example, the vowel as in "eat" has formants in the neighborhood of.300 and 2300 hertz; the vowel as in "ate" has formants around 500 and 1900 hertz. The way the formants reinforce harmonics in the tone of the vocal cords is illustrated in Fig. 22. The higher formant of the vowel rein-forces harmonics in its neighborhood, as is evident from Fig. 22. The harmonic structures of tones of several different fundamental frequencies are shown, and in each case a group of harmonics in the region around 2300 hertz shows up strongly. The importance of formants to voice quality can be demonstrated by an amusing experiment. The speed of sound in helium gas is about 2.7 times that in air, as we may see from Table I, Ch. 3. Helium is an inert gas, and the lungs may be filled with it for a short time without harm, If Ibis is done, the oral and nasal cavities will also be filled witch helium, and their resonance frequencies will go up more than an octave. This displaces the formant regions upward by this amount. The frequencies of the vocal cords, on the other hand, are not affected Spoken sounds under these conditions will have a startling and amusing Donald Duck quality that shows in a stinking manner the effect of formants on speech sounds. In contrast to the extensive work done on speech sounds, much less research work has been done n the singing voice, however, recent work is beginning to give a better understanding of the acoustical and physiological factors involved. The male singer, by training, can develop a singing format which is rather independent of pitch and vowel quality, and which occupies a frequency region in the neighborhood of 2.8 kilohertz. The long time average spectrum of a symphony orchestra shows that in this frequency region its sound output is some 25 decibels below its maximum value at lower frequencies. The singing formant thus

emphasizes the frequencies for which there is not much competition from the orchestra, and so helps the singers voice to stand out and not be masked by the orchestral accompaniment. The female singer does not have this problem to the same degree, since for the higher ranges her voice is already in the frequency region where the orchestral accompaniment is deficient. However, for the high notes of the female voice, the fundamental frequencies are above the lower format frequencies associated with the vowel speech sounds, and so would not normally be reinforced. For example, a note such as G has a fundamental frequency of about 784 hertz, and would not be strengthened by a formant of frequency 300 hertz. (This fact makes it more difficult for the soprano to enunciate words clearly.) To compensate for this, the female singer, again by training, can learn to move the lowest formant frequency up to match the fundamental frequency for high notes; in the above example, she would move the lowest formant up to around 784 hertz when singing the note GD.S3 The physiology of the voice is becoming fairly well established." In normal singing, subglotic pressurethe pressure developed in the lungs to force air through the larynx ranges from about two to sixteen inches of water (to use the organ builder's unit of pressure). The corresponding air flow ranges from 70 to 500 cubic centimeters per second. The maximum pressure and flow the singer can generate are some ten times the higher values given above, so the singer does riot need to overexert to produce loud tones. In fact, such overexertion can lead to injury to the voice, as can attempting to sing during respiratory infections. The range of the voice is not increased by repeatedly practicing the high notes; this can also lead to injury. In going from one end to the other of the vocal range, the singer moves through several regions called vocal registers. There are commonly thought to be three registersthe chest, middle, and head registers. In moving from one register to the next, the singer's voice may perhaps break, undergoing a sudden change in quality. With practice, the singer learns to eliminate such breaks and produce a smooth transition between registers. The physiological basis for the existence of vocal registers is not definitely known. The maximum power output of the voice has been measured and appears to be about one watt, which makes the voice somewhat louder than the average brass instrument. The vibrate in the voice is a frequency modulation, like that in the violin; the modulation rate is about six to seven cycles per second. Accompanying this is an amplitude modulation at the same rate. The frequency range covered by the modulation is greater than one might expect, amounting sometimes to as much as a semitone; however, the ear averages out this variation and fixes the pitch as halfway between the two extremes. A good even vibrato one whose amplitude and frequency are constantappears to be essential to a good voice.

The pitch of the voice has to be predetermined by the singer, without any auditory clues lo indicate what the pitch will actually be when the voice sounds. The singer must therefore learn by practice how to adjust ahead of time the respiratory and laryngeal cavities and muscles so that the tone will have the desired pitch, intensity, and quality when actually sounded. Once thoroughly learned, the.se adjustments become so ingrained as to be essentially unaffected by auditory monitoring; in simpler terms, a singer can sing off key without being AWARE of it. The research results summarized above are a promising beginning. However, more is needed; the qualities necessary to a good voice, like those necessary to a good violin, are still not well enough established.