The voice is an instrument which the artist must learn to use with suppleness and sureness, as if it

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Resonance
The voice is an instrument which the artist must
learn to use with suppleness and sureness, as if
it were a limb. Sarah Bernhardt Speech is
the voice of the heart. Chinese Proverb
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RE-SOUND

• Resonant means literally to sound again. This
  implies that there is a sound to resound. In
  voice this sound is phonation created at the
  larynx through the oscillating vocal folds.
• Resonance is the quality or state of being
  resonant. and the ringing quality of an
  instrument or voice. Encarta World English
  Dictionary. What about resonance creates this
  ringing quality in the voice? In order to
  answer that question we need to examine sound.

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SOUND

• Sound is defined by Daniloff, Shuckers and Feth
  as a disturbance travelling through an elastic
  medium elastic meaning having an ability to
  vibrate.
• Sound can be subdivided into simple and complex
  tones.

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SIMPLE SOUND

• Simple tones consist of one frequency, or cycles
  of vibration per second.

documents.wolfram.com/.../SimpleSound.html
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SIMPLE SOUND
home.iprimus.com.au
A simple sound consists of one wave
herbergeronline.asu.edu/dan521/images/dig1.gif
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COMPLEX SOUNDS

• The second type of sound is called a complex
  tone. It is the sum of multiple simple
  tones/waves.

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COMPLEX SOUNDS
spot.colorado.edu/jonesdc/EMUS1832/complex-wave.j
pg
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SOUND

• Sound can also be periodic, having a repeatable
  wave pattern, like a note on a piano
• And aperiodic, having a non-repeating wave
  pattern, like a metal plate hitting the floor

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PERIODIC WAVE (REPEATING)
csis.ul.ie/staff/CiaranCasey/CS5631_Sound_synth/Wk
2_Lec2_files/image002.jpg
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APERIODIC WAVE (NON-REPEATING)
sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/05/jiwon/e12/cleanCannon
.jpg
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RESONANCE

• All sound resonates. Place a vibrating tuning
  fork against the body of a violin and the violin
  will resonate that note. When the violin is sung
  into, several notes will be resounded. Which
  begs the question, what is about the nature of a
  violin that allows resonance?

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RESONANCE

• As stated above resonance is reaction to sound
  that is, a resonator does not initiate the sound
  but responds to it. Sound is vibration and
  vibration is energy.
• Anything that can vibrate, vibrates at natural
  frequencies when the energies of an initial
  sound match the objects natural frequencies, the
  objects material vibrates in sympathy.
• In addition, if the object contains a cavity of
  air, that air will vibrate at frequencies based
  on its size and shape. This air filled cavity is
  known as an acoustic resonator.

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When we feel the vibrations of the violin
tactilely, we are feeling the resonant quality of
its material, its natural frequencies, but what
we hear is the acoustic resonant quality of the
air vibrating inside it, its acoustic resonator.
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Vocal Tract

• The vocal tract has material (tissue) and air
  filled cavities, (pharyngeal, oral and nasal)
  that resonate.
• These resonators are excited into vibration by
  phonation. So voice is a product of the larynx
  (source) resonated by the vocal tract (transfer
  function).

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Vocal Tract and Phonation
Phonation is a complex tone, it is made up of a
fundamental frequency or Fo (the number of times
the folds open and close per second-CPS) and
harmonic multiples of the Fo (two times the Fo,
three times, four times etc.) that fall in
intensity (volume) in an inverse relationship as
the harmonics rise in frequency (pitch) or as
the pitch rises the volume falls.
columbia.edu/itc/psychology/rmk/T1/VTract.GIF
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• Picture a seesaw one seat is pitch the other
  volume, when one seat is up the other is down.
  Now picture a whole row of see-saws where the
  first see-saws (Fo) pitch seat is on the ground,
  and the last one, its volume seat on the ground
  in-between, the pitch seats rise and the volume
  seats lower in evenly spaced steps like a set of
  stairs.
• Resonators bend the volume seats louder. They
  dont affect pitch, but amplify it by adding
  their vibration to the source vibration. If the
  resonator amplified all notes equally the shape
  would change in volume equally for each seesaw.
  But resonators do not uniformly resound all
  vibration they do so only near their natural
  frequencies. In this playground picture, the
  pitch sides remain the same, but the volume sides
  rise selectively only when they match or are near
  the natural frequencies. So the vocal tract
  bends the seesaws of harmonics louder.

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FORMANTS

• The human vocal tract is an open-ended tube, and
  the resonant qualities of a tube can be predicted
  if its size is known.
• Daniloff, Shuckers and Firth write, that
  depending on the length of the tube energies
  build in the tube at certain select resonant
  frequencies of vibration pg. 15, 1980 and they
  further state that if you know the length of the
  open-ended tube you can predict these
  frequencies.
• These natural frequencies in voice are termed
  formants.
• Where the materials and cavities of the vocal
  tract amplify the frequencies of phonation are
  the formants

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FORMANTS

• Bunch cites Ladefogeds definition of formants
  as
• The peaks in the spectrum of vowels correspond to
  the basic frequencies of the vibration of air in
  the vocal tract. The region of the spectrum in
  which the frequency corresponds are relatively
  large and known as formants. The formants of a
  sound are those aspects of it which are directly
  dependant on the shape of the vocal tract, and
  are largely responsible for the characteristic
  qualityit is the presence of formants that
  enables us to recognize the different vowels
  which are associated with the different positions
  of the vocal organ. Dynamics of the Singing
  Voice, pg.15, 1997

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FORMANTS

• Formants change with and depend on different
  articulatory settings. Because the vocal tract
  is different in each of us and able to change
  shape, the formants are ever shifting. Longer
  tubes resonate at lower frequencies and the
  opposite is true, different configurations,
  resulting tensions and shapes create
  constrictions that change energies.

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Phonation Frequencies for /i/ Male
Fo 136 cps
INTENSITY (VOLUME)
40th overtone 5440 cps
FREQUENCY (PITCH)
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Fundamental Frequency Plus Vocal Tract for /i/
(vocal transfer) Male
Fo 136
F2 2290
F1 270
F3 3010
INTENSITY (VOLUME)
FREQUENCY (PITCH)
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Vocal Tract and Resonance

• The dynamic character of the vocal tract allows
  potentially infinite degrees of shape. In
  addition, the material that defines and shapes
  the vocal tract has an affect on the vibration.
  The relationship between the resonant material
  and the air filled acoustic resonator it
  surrounds is intimate. Going back to the analogy
  of the violin, its material, wood, imparts a
  quality to its acoustic resonator. If the violin
  was made of mink, the sound would be perceived as
  less sharp, there would be less ringing
  quality. The reason for this is that the mink
  absorbs sound-the wood reflects it. This is
  called damping.

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Vocal Tract and Resonance
When the materials sympathetic range is narrow
like wood, the sound tends to be perceived as
bright and sustaining, if wide like mink, the
sound will be hollow, build and die quickly. The
more finely tuned the material surrounding the
cavity, the more desirable the quality of sound
it produces.
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RESONATORS

• The outcomes of resonance training have been
  succinctly termed by Clifford Turner in Voice
  Speech in the Theatre
• In training the resonator our initial aims are
• 1. Expansion of the cavities in order to impart
  full sonority to the note.
• 2. The achievement of balanced resonation, so
  that no one cavity predominates to the detriment
  of the total effect.
• 3. Perfection of the shapes which mould the tone
  and give it particular character in the form of
  the vowels.
• pg.27

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The Vocal Tract Variable resonators and sound
source

• Includes all of the air passages above the larynx
  from the glottis to the lips and has three main
  air filled cavities (acoustic resonators)
• Oral
• Pharyngeal
• Nasal
• Musical Instruments - The remarkable thing about
  the human resonator is that it can change shape

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(No Transcript)
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Pharynx

• Posterior part of the vocal tract is formed by a
  tube of muscles known as the pharynx
• Muscles divide into three groups
• Inferior constrictor muscles
• Middle constrictor muscles
• Superior constrictor muscles
• Constriction of these muscles narrows the
  pharyngeal cavity
• Relaxation widens it!
• Parts of the pharynx behind the oral, nasal and
  laryngeal cavities are called
• Nasopharynx
• Oropharynx
• Laryngopharynx

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levelfive.com/.../pharynx.html
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Pharyngeal Muscles

• Thin muscles that wrap around the sides and back
  wall of the pharynx
• Superior Constrictor Muscle
• Most complex and the weakest
• Wraps around the upper pharynx, almost reaching
  the base of the skull
• Middle Constrictor Muscle
• Overlapped by the Inferior constrictor, it
  attaches to the horns of the hyoid bone
• Inferior Constrictor Muscle
• Lowest and strongest
• Arises from both sides of the Thyroid cartilage

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The superior, middle and inferior constrictors
rest within one another like flower pots.
dentistry.ouhsc.edu/intranet-web/Courses/DH3342/im
ages/lat_pharcon.JPG
med.mun.ca/anatomyts/head/hnl2b.htm
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Nasal Cavity

• Functions in speech only as a resonator.
• Resonance
• Too much (Hyper-Rhino or Hyper-Nasal)
• Too little (Hypo-Rhino or Hypo-Nasal)

training.seer.cancer.gov/module_anatomy/images/ill
u_nose_nasal_cavities.jpg
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Oral Cavity

• Soft Palate Velum
• Elevators
• Depressors
• Tensors
• Jaw
• Hard Palate
• Tongue

/training.seer.cancer.gov/ss_module06_head_neck/im
ages/illu02_lo_cavity.jpg
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Soft Palate (Velum)

• Flexible muscular flap forms the hard palate
• Muscles determine the velums position and
  thereby how voice escapes and sounds
• Depressors (open the airway to the nose)
• Elevators (close the airway to the nose)
• Tensors (stretch the Velum)

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• 1. Tensor Palati
• 2. Levator Palati
• 3. Palatoglossus
• 4. Palatopharyngeus
• 5. Superior Constrictor

yorku.ca/earmstro/journey/images/palat1.gif
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Oral Cavity

• Hard Palate
• Bounces sound
• Jaw/Tongue/Lips
• Shape the Oral Cavity
• Changes the Formants

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Vibration

• When we come on to voice we vibrate
• Body-the materials of our body vibrate in
  sympathy to phonation (natural frequencies)
• Bones/muscles/cartilages/membranes
• Air-the materials of our body surround air-filled
  cavities that also vibrate (acoustic resonators)
• Pharynx/mouth/nose
• The relationship between the two is a dance of
  body and breath.

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• All beauty, resonance, integrity,Exist by
  deprivation or logicOf strange position.
• John Ashbery