* How your voice is created, part 1
We take for granted for so many things in life including our voices.
Our body is an amazing machine that does miraculous job every single second.
We forget to appreciate the air we breathe in, the water we drink, the trees we are surrounded by, the people serve us and most importantly our body that works non stop 24/7 constantly for us to function properly and many other things over the issues and problems we deal with throughout the day.
We use our voices everyday without thinking about how our voices are really created. But if you really think about it, your voice is generated through a complex step by step process.
Understanding how your voice is produced will be very helpful for improving your singing voice more quickly.
Your voice is created by the vibration of your vocal folds(chords) through the air(carbon dioxide) from your lungs. So the vocal folds which is in your voice box(larynx) make your unique voice with the resonators including sinus, nasal & oral cavities, larynx, pharynx, etc.(vocal resonances & resonators are explained in great details in future) and the articulators including tongue, lips, jaw, teeth, palates, pharynx, etc.(voice articulators are explained in great details also in future).
Blausen.com staff. "Blausen gallery 2014". Wikiversity Journal of Medicine. DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.010. ISSN 20018762.
Singing is an artistic sport that requires not only athletic muscle strength of the vocal folds and diaphragm but also empathy and expressions of feelings and emotions as an actress/actor.
Different techniques of using the vocal folds make different tones that work for different styles of music.
There are 2 main styles of music, one is classical and the other one is popular music which is divided into numerous categories such as pop, rock, R&B, musical, jazz, country, folk, techno, reggae, hip hop, heavy metal, heavy rock, gospel, blues, rap, alternative rock, etc.
If you want to sing classical songs, you need to learn to create very clear pure heavenly beautiful tone with positioning and closing your vocal folds precisely closed.
If you want to sing contemporary songs like jazz, country, folk or pop, you need to learn to create somewhat airy, more natural tone like speaking voice with holding the back of the vocal folds apart to have air flow(air escape) between the vocal folds.
There are 3 steps that are involved in creating your voice.
Breathing in(Respiration) -> Voicing(Phonation) -> Vibration(Resonance)
And we'll learn 'Vibration: Resonance in singing voice' in the next blog!
Much LOVE XOXO, Sunghee