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From:  "Lloyd W. Hanson" <lloyd.hanson@n...>
Date:  Sat Dec 8, 2001  8:04 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] balanced onset; does it really exist?

Dear Mike and Vocalisters:

"Onset" is another word for ATTACK. It is used by voice scientists
because it has less violent meanings than does the word, ATTACK.

A glottal onset occurs when one can hear and feel the initial
closing of the vocal folds after their initial opening, as found in
the disapproving expression in English, "uh, uh".

A breathy onset occurs when the passage of breath is heard over the
partially open vocal folds prior to the initial opening/closing of
the folds.

These are the two extremes of vocal onset. Each can be taken to
greater extremes. The glottal attack can be so tense and loud that
it is almost painful both for the listeners ears and the singers
throat. The breathy onset can be maintained to the exclusion of a
phonated tone.

But regardless of how extreme become the extremes, the so called "
balanced onset" is in the very center of these extremes. It is
neither glottal nor breathy in sound or feel. It represents a near
perfect coordination of the flow of breath with the beginning of
vocal fold oscillation. This can only be accomplished if the control
of breath flow is coordinated with the precise closing of the vocal
folds such that the initial pressure sustained by the vocal folds is
exactly that of the degree of breath flow. A perfect match occurs
between breath flow and initial pressure required by the vocal fold
closure, which is referred to as the "threshold pressure" of the
vocal folds.

The idea is a bit daunting and researchers have spent no little
amount of time trying to determine exactly how such a beginning of
tone can occur. In fact, at one time a well respected voice
scientist (Husson) proposed an unusual hypothesis known as the
neurochronaxic theory that postulated the vocal vocal folds are set
into oscillation by neural impulses and thus are not dependent on air
flow at all!

For singers there is no need to be so archly concerned. The
simultaneous beginning of breath and tone is their goal if they are
to obtain the most efficient and healthy oscillation of the vocal
folds for singing.

Singers who habitually use the glottal onset will usually produced a
phonation that is representative of the extreme medial pressure
necessary for the glottal onset, a tone that is usually referred to
as a "pressed" tone.

Singers who habitually use the breathy onset will usually produce a
phonation that is representative of the lack of sufficient medial
pressure and continue to produce a breathy tone. An interesting
corollary occurs when the breathy onset singer attempts to reduce the
breathiness in their resultant tone; they usually will crossover to a
pressed phonation.

However, the balanced onset will "give" a tone that is a good balance
between breath flow and oscillation. This is a tone that is free
from excessive interference oscillations in the motions of the vocal
folds. It is, for most singers, a learned response because it
requires awareness of coordination moments but it quickly becomes
habitual. Because it is more a coordination exercise than a strength
exercise it does not require great energy to develop or maintain.


--
Lloyd W. Hanson
Flagstaff, Arizona






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