Facts about your voice:
98.5% of the population can learn to sing
Only 1.5 % have congenital amusia
Singing is a learnt skill like swimming, riding, playing tennis & learning to drive
Women’s voices resonate from 165 Hz to 255Hz
Men’s voices resonate from 85 to 155Hz
We take on average 20000 breaths per day that’s 7.3 million breaths / year
The average adult can hold up 6-7 litres of air in their lungs but in fact we only use 2.5 litres to breathe.Generally men have larger vocal folds than women
Singing releases 2 chemicals…endorphins which makes us feel pleasure and Oxytocin which reduces anxiety and stress.
The vocal folds are two, small, tiny bundles of tissue that stick out from the walls of the larynx, they are 4 cm wide. The human airway above the larynx is 17 cm in size.
So your lungs push air into your larynx, the sound source are the two little vocal fields, the resonator is the airway and your mouth is the radiator… that radiates out the sound.
Air pressure system
Diaphragm, chest muscles, ribs, abdominal muscles and lungs
provides and regulates air pressure to cause vocal folds to vibrate.
Vibratory system
Voice box (larynx)
Vocal folds vibrate, changing air pressure to sound waves producing “voiced sound,” frequently described as a “buzzy sound” and it varies the pitch of the sound.
Resonating system
Vocal tract: throat (pharynx), oral cavity, nasal passages
Changes the “buzzy sound” into a person’s recognisable voice
Voice Quality = vocal tract configuration + laryngeal anatomy + learned component
The total volume of air that an average adult can hold in his/her lungs is around 6-7 litres.Around 2 litres of that is always present in the lungs, and is called residual volume. This air can’t be expelled unless the lungs collapse.
The remaining volume of 4-5 litres, the tidal volume, is usable for respiration or voice use. However, we rarely use all of this capacity.
