Finding your voice through the body

We likely don’t pay attention to it when we sing, it seems innate, but to reach the ears of your listeners (and in the best of cases, their heart), the sound that you emit has had to cross paths with your entire body and has been shaped by it. Ready to follow the circuit?

The Body is an Instrument

Contrary to what you might think, sound isn’t just born from the mouth to then jumps to reach the ears of the listener. Its birth is more complex with several factors intervening that allow the singer to control and modify it.

In order to first understand the mechanism of sound production, we must consider our body as an instrument. There are three components to take into account:

• mechanical energy is triggered
• a generator that then transforms this energy into sound energy
• and finally, the sound box.

Think of the guitar for example: the finger activates the string (directly or through the plectrum), then via the strings’ vibrations, it’s transformed from mechanical energy into sound energy. Lastly, the body of the guitar serves as a resonator. The mechanics of our body, which can be likened to a wind instrument, work according to the same principle:

• the respiratory system provides mechanical energy in the form of powered air
• the vocal cords (helped along by teeth, tongue, lips, etc.) turn the air into sound energy
• the amplification comes through the pharynx and mouth (before the voice is eventually artificially amplified through a microphone).

The Wind Tunnel

In the center of the respiratory system, are the lungs which can be thought of as air generators. The capacity of the lungs to create air depends in part on the rib cage and the diaphragm. The latter is a large dome-shaped flat muscle, attached to the spine, ribs and sternum. It is the most important of the respiratory muscles, as it’s the one that allows air to enter the airways by contracting the muscle.

When we ignore how this mechanism operates, we unintentionally bypass its force. Allow us to explain: in order to inhale, the diaphragm pushes up and down then from the center and on to the sides. Our natural reflex is to allow more breaths to enter the belly and tighten the ribs, but in doing so, we actually exert a force that opposes that of the diaphragm and thus generate bad synergy.

The Great Escape

Air escapes from the two lung sacs, continues its way through the bronchial ducts and joins the trachea. It goes back through the larynx and crosses the vocal cords. The vocal cords are muscles covered with a mucous membrane that serve to protect the trachea and can be tightened. They act directly on the nature of sound.

Next, it's on to the pharynx. There, air is at a crossroads with two paths that open up to it: exhalation comes from the mouth or by the nose. The path through which air travels is provided by the soft palate that closes the passage to the nasal cavity or, on the contrary, the air sticks against the back of the tongue to be driven up and through the nose.

Throughout this journey, the quality of generated sound depends on two complementary energies: the primitive one of the creation of the breath on the larynx and the modulating one between cords and resonators which will regulate the quality of the vibration and the oscillatory rhythm of the cords.

Image source: www.giphy.com

Published on: 1 de maio de 2019