Kierstin M. Berry - Home Page



Kierstin BerryMUSE258 Voice TechCitationTeaching Kids to Sing: Chapter 7Kenneth H. Phillips2014Summary Outline A beautiful voice is rich in resonance. Voice can be characterized as having uniformity about vowels, depth and fullness of tone, and projection or ring.Resonant Tone Production Resonance may be defined as constructive interference of sound waves within the vocal tract. As energy is generated from the vocal folds, a complex soundwave is produced. A portion of the wave, is reflected at the lips back into the vocal tract Interference of waves within the vocal tract that transforms a sound at the laryngeal level into a resident tone. Vocal tract has acoustic properties.Formants Formant is used to identify the resonance frequencies of the vocal tract. Fundamental frequency is the pitch as heard. Every sound of the human voice is a combination of fundamental frequency informant frequency. Overtone is a fixed set of frequencies above the fundamental. Fundamental multiplied by two, three, four, etc. When dampened or strengthened by the shape and size of the instrument, it determines the quality timbre and resonance of the instrument. Formants are not fixed. Formants are regions or bands of frequencies. These regions can be changes according to the configuration of the vocal tract. Instruments produce fundamental pitches in a fixed set of overtones. Voices produce fundamental pitches and accompanying formant regions that can be varied by changes in the articulatorsVowel Production The various vowels of the languages are determined by distinct patterns of formant frequencies. Formants first four, lowest, are the most important to vowel identity and quality. The lower 2 formants enable the listener to distinguish one vowel from another. The upper 2 formants determine the quality, enabling the listener to distinguish one voice from another Longer vocal tracks shift all formant frequencies lower. Each vowel is determined by its formants frequencies. The changing shape of the vocal tract determines the shifting of formantsUniform Vowel Colors By associating a particular vowel sound with a certain color of the spectrum, students gain a visual and aural comparison for the vowels. Students tend to sing all vowels with a rather small, narrow, and horizontal, east-west, mouth opening. Is is not as important to open the mouth wide as it is to drop the jaw from the rear, at the hinch. Uniformity of vowels is a major objective of resonant tone production. Singing diction requires a more uniform, open mouth- jaw position for all vowels. All vowels or taught with a vertical, flared position of the lips. With the lips slightly forward, there is a less chance of a mouthy, thin sound, because the vocal track is lengthened, thus lowering the vowel formants. Lower vowel formants produce a slightly darker, more mature sound. Fuller, richer vocal resonance depends upon a longer, open vocal tract with jaw relaxed, larynx at rest, lips slightly forward for all vowels.Resonator Physiology Pharynx and mouth are the major resonators of the voice. Chest cavity, larynx, nasal cavity, and sinuses to play some parts in the resonance. The pharynx is the cavity above the larynx that extends upward behind the mouth and nose. It is comprised of three parts: Laryngopharynx, the area below the level of the tongue, oropharynx, area behind the oral cavity and tongue, nasopharynx, area above the soft palate behind the nasal cavity. Nasopharynx can be closed off by arching of the soft Both the laryngopharynx and the oropharynx can be constricted and made smaller by the action of the tongue moving to far back in by the tensing of the pharyngeal swallowing musclesThe Tongue The tongue gives shape to both the oral cavity in the pharynx. Carried too far back, it causes a loss of resonating space. Tip of the tongue should rest on the fleshy ridge at the base of the lower front teeth. Back of the tongue is to be kept forward and arched high enough to keep it out of the throat. The tongue should not be grooved or flattened for any vowel. The muscles of the tongue that often tend to interfere with phonation and resonant tone production are the genioglossus, hyoglossus, styloglossus, and palatoglossus. All of these muscles are used in the swallowing process and in varying ways help to constrict the pharynx. A rigid or trembling tongue signals that swallowing muscles are being used to compensate for poor breath support and control. Two muscles under the tongue, the geniohyoid and mylohyoid, connect the base of the jaw to the hyoid bone. Tension in these muscles elevate the hyoid bone, which elevates the larynx. This action shortens the vocal tract and restricts the openness of the pharynxThe Pharynx Singers lack proper breath support, vocal strain is common. Stain results in a raised larynx, which negates the natural residents of much of the pharyngeal areas. The less the pharyngeal area is used as a vocal resonator, the weaker the formants and the weaker the vocal sound. Singing with the larynx elevated activates the swallowing process, which in turn causes throat construction.The Singer’s Formant Singers formant is an extra formant produced in the vocal track at a frequency of approximately 2800 Hz. This formant resonates in the pyriform sinuses. This Formant adds brilliant and substantial carrying power to the voice.Developing Resonance In addition to uniform vowel position, two other characteristics of the resident tone or Depth, richness, and projection, ring. These qualities can be developed through proper tuning of the vocal formants The closer the fundamental pitch interacts with the formant frequency of any vowel, the clearer and more resonant the vowel and it’s pitch will sound. For a richer sound with more depth, formants must be lowered. This is accomplished by the lengthening of the vocal tract, either through lip extension, flair, or rounding and/or keeping the larynx at rest. Rounded lips, while also darkening the sound, tend to discourage the second objective of resident voice: projection, or ring For a brighter sound with more ring, formants must be raised. Lip spreading and a greater jaw opening accomplishes this. Projection or strength of voice is increased with the fundamental pitch frequency closely interacts with the first formant frequency. When this is done, output of sound could be changed as much as 30 dB without increasing pressure or effort. When vocal tract positions differ widely among singers in a group, resonance is weekend because vowel formants are not closely matched. This also can affect intonation. The development of resonant voices in one of the greatest challenges for the vocal music instructor. The ear of the music instructor must determine the correct sound for each voice. Vocal tracts of children and adolescents, are not as long as adults, and therefore are not as capable of producing as rich and resonant vocal sound. On the contrary, young voices produce a quality that is unique to their age.Instrumentation in Resonance Analysis Vowelometer, an instrument that plotted the optimum residence for vowels at fixed points. VocaVista, visual feedback for instruction and singing. Vowel Spectrum Analyzer is an instrument for studying the complexity of vocal waveforms Ingo Titze developed a Myoelastic aerodynamic theory of phonation, a computer program that models the vibratory patterns of the vocal foldsVowel Modification It is difficult to sing pure vowels, especially on pitches above F2 in adult female voices. This is an acoustical problem that happens when the frequency of the sung fundamental is higher than the first formant frequency of any vowel. The vowel that is sung migrates, it is modified and heard as another vowel When the fundamental pitched frequency is lower than the first formants of any vowel, the vowel integrity is maintained. Formant frequencies of children’s voices are so much higher than those of adults that vowels modification is not a problem.Vocal Vibrato Vocal vibrato is heard as a slight undulation of pitch at between five and 6 cycles per second. Good breath management and a relaxed throat seem to be essential to it's emergance. When vibrato becomes excessively fast, it is called a tremolo. A wobble arises from a change of amplitude accompanied by a slowing of the vibrato cycle. Vibrato enhances vocal tone quality and gives it a certain luster, the tremolo and wobble interfere with the tone and corrupt its beauty. Source of the wobble seems to be either weekend abdominal musculature, lack of support , Or tension in the laryngeal pharyngeal areas. The tremolo can be traced to excess of tending of the abdominal muscles.Articulator Physiology Eight articulators are responsible for the pronunciation of language: jaw, tongue, teeth, lips, soft palate, hard palate, upper gum line, and a glottis.Classifications Vowels are classified according to the amount of jaw opening. There are two classes: open vowels [a, o, )], and closed vowels: [e, i, u]. Vowels are also classified according to natural darkness or brightness. Dark long vowels are: [u, o, )]. Bright long vowels are: [i, e, a] 2 classification systems for consonants, one based on physical origin and another on the similarity of sounds. Physical origin classification is: bilabial, labiodental, linguodental, linguo-alverolar, glottal, linguopalatal, velar. The second classification, similarity of sound, is more useful for singers. The sound of classification has three subdivisions: voiced, tuned, and voiceless. Within the subdivisions some consonants are considered to be plosives, continuance, sibilants, and aspirates. The sound classifications of consonants are: voiceless plosives, voiced plosives, voiceless sibilants, tuned continuance, voiced continuants, and aspirates.Diction for Singers Diction is the manner in which a language is spoken. Diction and involves the areas of pronunciation, enunciation, and articulationInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Diction is made easier if students understand the symbols of the international phonetic alphabet, IPA. IPA designates one symbol for each vocal sound, regardless of the spelling. It’s a universal system.Rhythmic Diction vs. Sung Speech Two schools of thought concerning consonant articulation. Sung speech diction preserves the continuation of song production in the legato phrasing that are vital to effective vocal music performance. Rhythmic dictation argues that without an underlying rhythmic application of speech sounds maybe seriously impoverished. Sung speech diction, the end of each word or syllable is joined to the beginning of the following word for syllable. It’s a melted pronunciation. Melting one word to the next tends to blur the rhythmic nature of music. Rhythmic diction separates every sound in every syllable within a metered rhythmic structure. The result is singing that is alive, vital, and buoyant Phonological studies, psychoacoustical research, and the listener preferences tend to support the rhythmic diction approach. Rhythmic diction is not appropriate for all styles singing. One persistent problem in the rhythmic dictation technique, is when double consonants appear between words, and both are articulated, there is a tendency to create false rhythmsSinging in Foreign Languages Singing in foreign languages should be encouraged for students of all ages. Instructor must provide a good vocal modelDiscussion Voices rich in resonance can be characterized as having uniformity of vowels, depth and fullness of tone, and projection, or ‘ring’. Resonance is the constructive interference of sound of waves within the vocal tract. As energy is generated from the vocal folds, a complex soundwave is produced. A portion of the wave, is reflected at the lips, back into the vocal tract. A formant is the resonance frequencies of the vocal tract. Formants are regions or bands of frequencies. These regions can be changed according to the configuration of the vocal tract. The various vowels of languages are determined by distinct patterns of formant frequencies. The first four, lowest, formants are the most important to vowel identity and quality. The lower 2 formants enable the listener to distinguish one vowel from another. The upper two Formants more determine the quality, enabling the listener to distinguish one voice from another. Longer vocal tracks, like men’s voices, shift all formant frequencies lower. The shorter vocal tracks of women shift all about frequencies 17% higher and children’s shorter vocal tracts shift 25% higher.The pharynx and the mouth are the major resonators of the voice. The chest cavity, larynx, nasal cavity, and sinuses do play some parts in the resonance. The pharynx is the cavity above the larynx that extends upward behind the mouth and nose. It is comprised of three parts: Laryngopharynx, the area below the level of the tongue, oropharynx, area behind the oral cavity and tongue, nasopharynx, area above the soft palate behind the nasal cavity. The arching of the soft palate, referred to as a transversal tension of the valum, results in a feeling of a raised soft palate. Some recommend that the soft palate be lowered for singing so the pharynx remains open. The sensation of a stifled yawn can be recommended to help raise or arch the soft palate for singing. Movement of the soft palate is involuntary, so it is best not to call attention to it with children. The laryngopharynx and the oropharynx can be constricted and made smaller by the action of the tongue moving too far back, and by the tensing of the pharyngeal swallowing muscles. The pharynx must be open and relaxed without undue you constriction from the swallowing muscles, which are a major source of interference and singing. The tongue gives shape to the oral cavity and the pharynx. When to far back, it causes a loss of resonating space. Ideally, the tip of the tongue should rest on the fleshy ridge at the base of the lower front teeth. The back of the tongue is to be kept forward and arched high enough to keep it out of the throat. If the tongue is grooved or flattened it places the tongue too far back into the pharynx, diminishing resonance. The muscles in the tongue that often tense and interfere with phonation are the genioglossus, hyoglossus, styloglossus, and palatoglossus. All of these are used in the swallowing process in various ways to constrict the pharynx. Classically trained singers tend to have a larynx at rest position, which is lower than pop singers. Pop singers tend to unconsciously lift their larynx, and generally use their mouth as the major vocal resonator. They also lacked proper breath support, would strains the voice resulting in a raised to larynx, which negates the natural resonance of the pharyngeal area, making weak formants and a weak sound. When the larynx is low the sound is too dark and often blurs diction. The closer the fundamental pitch interacts with the formant frequency of any vowel, the clearer and more resonance of the vowel and it’s pitch will sound. For a richer sound with more depth, formants must be lowered. This is accomplished by the lengthening of the vocal tract, either through lip extension or rounding and/or keeping the larynx at rest. For a brighter sound with more ring formants must be raised. Lip spreading or greater jaw opening accomplishes this. This can also be accomplished in the upper soprano range by singing with a slight smile. The singers formant is an extra formant produced at a frequency of approximately 2800 Hz. This formant adds brilliant and substantial carrying power to the voice. This explains how many professional singers achieve optimum projection. It is difficult to sing pure vowels, especially on pitches above F2 in adult female voices. This is an acoustical problem that happens when the frequency of the fundamental is higher than the first formant frequency of any vowel. The vowel that is sung migrates, and is modified and heard as another vowel. Children do not need to modify because their voices have higher formant frequencies. Vocal vibrato is heard as a slight undulation of pitch between five and 6 cycles per second. Good breath management and a relaxed throat are essential to its emergence. Children and adolescents are capable of producing vibrato. They can do this through proper vocal production, because vibrato should not be taught, but should rather be the outcome of vocal training that frees the voice allowing it to pulse naturally. When vibrato becomes excessively fast, it is called a tremolo. A wobble arises from a change of amplitude accompanied by a slowing of the vibrato cycle. Vibrato enhances vocal tone quality and gives it a certain luster, the tremolo and wobble interfere with the tone and corrupt its beauty. The source of the wobble seems to be either weakened abdominal musculature, lack of support, for tension in the laryngeal-pharyngeal areas. The tremolo can be traced to excessive tensing of the abdominal muscles. Diction involves the area of pronunciation, the manner in which a word is spoken, enunciation, the manner in which a vowel or syllable is spoken, and articulation, the manner in which a consonant is spoken. Corrective vowel enunciation requires uniformity of vowel and diphthong production, deep set quality, which gives depth and warm to the voice, and forward placement that gives projection and ring. Distinct consonants articulation requires flexibility of the articulators, exaggeration of consonants, and rapid consonant production. Together vowels carry the resident tone, and consonants convey the message of the language. By associating a particular vowel sound with a certain color of the spectrum, students gain a tool of visual and aural comparison for the vowels. Beige [e], green [i], blue [u], gold [o], aqua [a]. A diphthong is 2 vowels in one syllable. For most diphthongs the first vowel is held for as long as possible, and the second vowel is very short.The bilabial originates in the upper part of the lips, labiodental is inthe lower lip and upper teeth, linguodental is the tip of tongue and back surface of upper teeth. The linguo-alveolar is the tip of the tongue and the upper gum line and the sides of the tongue against the upper back teeth and gums. The glottal is the space between the vocal folds, and linguopalatal is the tip of the tongue against the hard palate, side of tongue against upper back teeth and gum line, and front side of tongue against hard palate. The velar is the back of tongue and soft palate to the tip of the tongue to the jaw. The voiceless plosives are P, T, K, and CH. The voiced plosives are B, D, G, and J. Voiceless sibilants our F, S, TH, and SH. Tuned continuance are M and N, and L or R. Voiced continuance are V, Z, TH, ZH. And finally, Aspirates are H, and WH. A ‘W’ consonant should be sung with a quick oo vowel in front of it. To correctly lower the jaw student should lower from the hinge, close to the ears. Lowering from the hinge creates more backspace in the mouth. Lowering just from the chin down create space only in the front of the mouth. Be careful not to push jaw/chin foreword. Two muscles under the tongue, the geniohyoid in the mylohyoid, connect the base of the jaw to the hyoid bone. Tension in these muscles elevate the hyoid bone, which then elevates the larynx. This action shortens the vocal tract and restricts the openness of the pharynx. When singing, consonants must not destroy a uniform vocal line, but lack of proper articulation results in poor singing. Consonants convey the message of the language.Sung speech diction is when the end of each word or syllable is joined to the beginning of the following word for syllable, like melted pronunciation. Rhythmic diction separates every sound in every syllable within a metered rhythmic structure. The result is singing that is alive, vital, and buoyant. Phonological studies, psychoacoustical research, and the listener preferences tend to support the rhythmic diction approach, although rhythmic diction is not appropriate for all styles of singing. One persistent problem in the rhythmic dictation technique, is when double consonants appear between words, and both are articulated, there is a tendency to create false rhythms ‘The’ should precede words starting with a consonant, and ‘thee’ should be pronounced before a word beginning with a vowel. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download