Understanding the Anatomy of Your Axe

As you study voice, one thing that is really helpful is to understand the physiology of your voice - how it works, what it needs, and the mechanism (and physics) behind the production of sound waves that we refer to as 'singing'. There is a wealth of information on the Internet, and I will add some links here to start with. (If you're already studying Vocal Technique, please bear with me!)

There are three elements to singing:

1. Air pressure (from the lungs and diaphragm)
2. Vibration (from the vocal folds and larynx or voice box)
3. Resonance (from the pharynx, oral cavity, and nasal cavity)

We usually think first about our vocal folds.

Most of us are used to calling them 'vocal cords', but the little flaps that come together and pull apart, vibrating to create sound waves, are actually called 'vocal folds'. When you look at a picture of them you'll see why. Before I saw the pictures and videos, I thought they were actually like violin strings. But there's much more to them.

If you look at the photo on the top right, you'll see the vocal folds (white) and the small cartilages that open and close them called the arytenoids, which somewhat resemble pink Q-tips. The arytenoids are in the back, and they are braced in the front by the larger muscles that are attached to the thyroid cartilage. These two groups of muscles and cartilage are in charge of what pitch you sing - when a high note is sung, the arytenoids stretch the vocal folds back so that they are thinner, tighter and longer, with a smaller open space between the two folds. A low note is produced when the muscle in the thyroid mechanism called the thyroarytenoid muscle or vocalis (which forms the body of each vocal fold) contracts, making the vocal folds shorter, thicker and looser. Check out this video for a comparison between the vocal folds on a low note and on a high note.
You can see that the high note is considerably longer and thinner than the low note. As the vocal folds are stretched to reach high notes, there is more tension, and the muscles have to work harder to maintain their position. You can also see that if the gap in between the flaps (or glottis) is narrower as the pitch gets higher, then less air is required to carry a tone, not more. The aim of our exercises is to strengthen and coordinate the front and back groups of muscles so that they support and balance each other out, enabling the singer to maintain tone and control that is consistent from bottom to top.

If the vibratory system produces the initial 'raw' pitch and volume (frequency and amplitude), then the resonant system refines it. The resonant areas determine the quality of the tone. The resonators include the mouth or oral cavity (for the lower register), the nasal cavity and sinus areas, and the pharynx itself (which is the conduit for air flow.) The resonators are further shaped by what we do with vowels. The vowels are not only a sound but a shape, which is why it's so difficult to change or modify speech patterns - you are actually 're-shaping' the inside of your mouth when you modify a vowel or word. When we exercise for resonance, we are aiming our tone towards the areas where there are natural 'echo chambers' inside our face and head. The hard and soft palates are facilitators of the resonance for the different registers - you sing toward the hard palate for your lower notes, and direct your sound back, up through the pharynx and over the soft palate to reach the pharyngeal and head registers. You can tell immediately whether you are in the proper area because your voice will be free, strong and comfortable, with a 'ring' that you can sense as vibrations in different parts of your head. The Italian language is considered to be the most effective language for singing, as the combination of open vowels and the free flow of air inherent in spoken and sung Italian lends itself to natural projection and resonance, so we use the Italian vowels to exercise with.

The free flow of air is a necessity for singing, and that brings us to the air pressure system, delivered by the lungs and diaphragm. There are many different opinions about the role of diaphragm support, but when you boil it down to its essence, I think the idea is to make sure you have an even and steady forward flow of air to 'carry' the vibrations into the resonators. I think, though, that many people are confused about what air is supposed to do, and that's where you end up damaging yourself vocally. Air pressure is extremely strong, and too much air pressure pushed through the vocal folds can tire or hurt the muscles (which are under strain to maintain their proper tension) or irritate the folds themselves by too much friction, causing pain, swelling, and eventually nodules. It is not the job of air to produce the tone; it is its job to carry the tone produced by the vibration of the vocal folds. Many singers use air to 'shove' the tone out instead of using the folds themselves to produce the tone and allowing the air to direct it. A good singing breath is the same as a speaking breath - left to its own devices, your body knows exactly how much air you need. You don't think abut sucking in a huge lungful of air if you have a long sentence to say - you simply say the words and the lungs and diaphragm take care of the rest. This is why I always exercise at a soft-to-medium level. It's more difficult to sing softly with control than loudly, and you can't make up for lack of cord and muscle control by the 'cheat' of pushing the note out with volume.

For me, learning about how all the parts of the 'singing system' work together made it easier to visualize my own placement and 'road map' for traveling smoothly and clearly between the high, middle and low sections of my voice. The anatomy of your axe is miraculous - something so small and so fragile, yet able to make such a staggeringly broad range of sound.

Vocal Resources:

If you type in the words "vocal folds" or similar search terms into Google, you'll be overwhelmed at all the information that's out there for singers - both technical/medical/mechanical, and resources for voice production as well. Here are some links to get you going:


Voicedoctor.net and ENT-USA have lots of videos of the vocal folds in action, and also the answer to the question "What's so bad about smoking?" (Warning - not for the faint of heart, but very very educational.)

Wiki on Vocal Folds - start on Wiki, end up anywhere!

Total geekitude about the 'Singer's Formant', which is the 'ring' you get in your tone when it's placed just exactly right. If you're a math or science freak, you'll like this.

Anyway, that should be enough to get you started. Take charge of your axe - knowledge is power!