Dear Taylor:
On 24-Jan-01, you wrote:
> An excellent study regarding the exact muscular activity of
> the laryngeal muscles can be found in: "A Series of Four
> Electromyographic Studies" by Bill Vennard, Minoru Hirano, John
> Ohala, and Bjorn Fritzell, 1971." The Journal of Singing has info on
> how to obtain them. These studies alone can clear up a world of
> confusion regarding muscular activity of the Vocalis(TA),CT, and LCA
> muscles in falsetto, head-voice, and chest-voice. Sometimes, to find
> the right information- you need to dig a bit:)
COMMENT: Any study that dates from 1971 is, by definition very dated. A
lot more recent research has been done on this phenomenon since that time.
Titze's book for example.
> The other day I described how when the TA(Vocalis)is active,
> the voice emits a 'chesty' quality. Ingo Titze describes the
> importance of the cross-sectional shape of the vocal folds.
COMMENT: Titze does discuss this at some length in his book.
> Basically, Titze discovered that when the TA contracts, the underside
> of the vocal fold is rounded, or bulged(you may liken this to the
> bulging of the biceps when you make a muscle).
COMMENT: This "liken to" does not necessarily hold. The bicep muscle does
not equate with the very different muscle fibre found in the vocal folds.
One is a slow muscle and one a very fast muscle.
When vocal folds with
> a bulged, rounded underside are in phonation, the spectrum is
> characterized by high levels of acoustic energy in the upper-
> partials, giving it a richer, fuller sound.
COMMENT: It would be of some help if you would give us the source and
location of this information from Titze. I do not know of this conclusion
from Titze that a rounded muscle produces high levels of acoustic energy.
It is common knowledge, however, that a thicker vocal fold opens in stages
as a wave from the bottom of the vocal fold to the top but this is a
function of the vocal fold that occurs in low or chest voice because the
vocal fold is shorter and more bunched together, not because it is a
bulged, bicep type of muscle.
> From the above statement it is logical to propose that
> through guided exercise, we can increase the endurance and strength
> of the CT(Cricothyroid) for high pitches AND strength and bulk of the
> TA. Thus, creating a 'rounded' vocal fold (which Titze described as
> having high levels of acoustic energy- RING!!) which produces a voice
> that is more powerful, and fuller in quality. Singers will often do
> ANYTHING to create sounds like this- even if it means singing with a
> lot of artificial weight in the voice.
COMMENT: Your first statement is not supported. Why and how is it logical
that "through guided exercise, we can increase the endurance and strength
of the CT(Cricothyroid) for high pitches AND strength and bulk of the TA.
Thus, creating a 'rounded' vocal fold.
It is also necessary to keep in mind that the thyroarytenoids are not solely
responsible for the low voice and cricothyroids for the high voice. It is
the antagonistic action between the thyroarytenoids and the cricothyroids
that creates the oscillation rate of the vocal folds; both sets of muscles,
and others, are in use during phonation and the antagonistic action between
them gives the longitudinal and medial tension that creates the oscillation
control of the vocal folds.
Your second statement is also not necessary logical. The increased levels
of acoustic energy which you define as an outcome of a thickened vocal fold
does not, necessarily, mean RING as you state. The singers formant is the
cause of ring and it is an acoustic energy in a particular frequency range
which does not necessarily indicate an overall increase in levels of
acoustic energy.
>
> Another valuable source quote:
>
> "As we have said, the chest register is generally denied or
> rejected by teachers, not that one could not draw from its
> application an immense advantage, nor that the supression of the
> range whivh it embraces would not deprive the singer of the most
> beautiful dramatic effects or the most favorable contrasts, but
> because one can approach the study of this register only with the
> help of profound knowledge, under the threat of ruining the student's
> voice, and because the blending of this register with that of the
> falsetto can be secured only by a long and ably directed labor. It
> has therefore been judged simpler and more natural to free oneself
> from the difficulty of studying it."
>
> No, this quote is not from a current source. It's Garcia II
> in 1841.
COMMENT: You do not address the most puzzling portion of this quote from
Garcia II (1820, 1824, and 1868) which states "the chest register is
generally denied or rejected by teachers." It is difficult imagine any
teacher denying the existence of chest register in today's world. Why did
Garcia speak this way?
Any of Garcia's writings are most confusing and reflect a particular view he
had toward the world of singing in his day. Although he invented the
laryngoscope, the conclusions he made from experimenting with it were, in
most cases, extremely incorrect because of the distended positions of the
vocal mechanism required to use the laryngoscope.
Garcia's use of the term falsetto is also most unclear. In some of his
writings he uses the term to define the male voice between the chest voice
and the head voice. In other of his writings he uses the term in a generic
way to mean any voice quality that is not chest voice in quality.
Also, it is interesting to note that in Mancini's book
> (Practical Reflections on figured Singing) there were no examples of
> vocal exercises given. Most likely he didn't think it was necessary
> to include them. Many of the principles were much better understood
> then and to write them out would have been to state the obvious.
> Open many voice books today and what do you see-- pages and pages of
> vocal exercises- interesting huh?
COMMENT: Mancini's book (1774, 1777) was concerned more with the climate in
which the singer could learn and the broad technical concepts about how the
voice should be approached (Singers should be taught according to the
nature of their voices, use of sustained tones, mouth positions,
portamento, etc.) which did not require the inclusion of exercises. The
same is true for most 18th century books on singing. The intent of their
books was to establish a philosophical basis for teaching voice rather than
as a practical "how to do it" type of book.
> We as voice teachers don't need to reinvent the wheel. We
> need to find out how the heck the wheel was made.
COMMENT: I would correct the last statement to "how the wheel IS made."
Regards
--
Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA
Professor of Voice, Vocal Pedagogy
School of Performing Arts
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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