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Question...
Jennifer
Brigham writes: I'm
a bit confused about the terms 'thin fold' and 'thick fold'
and how they relate to vocal quality. I understand that opera
quality uses thick folds but I thought opera quality was quite
'cry-like' and hence with thin folds. And belt voice uses
thick folds but it's often on high notes. I find this a bit
confusing! If would be great if you could enlighten me!
Gillyanne
Kayes replies: The vocal fold is a complex structure,
able to change thickness or mass, even before increasing tension
to make the pitch, hence ‘thin’ or ‘thick’ fold phonation.
This is what enables vocalists to make adjustments to volume
on the same pitch, and also contributes to changes on voice
quality. In her definition of voice quality, Estill described
cry/sob as being ‘thin’ fold. Moving on to her definition
of opera quality, as I understand it, the thicker fold component
is a result of twang – a tightening of the aryepiglottic region,
which leads to back-pressure, causing the vocal folds to stay
closed for longer.
Question...
I would
like to know about the pyriform sinus. As a true geek and
voice anorak, I quite often look on the Vocalist web site
in the USA, and someone there was talking about the involvement
of the pyriform sinus in twang quality. This is again something
from Ingo Titze. According to this info, the pyriforms should
be closed to maximise twang. How is this done?
Gillyanne
Kayes replies: This may seem rather obvious but it seems
to me that the salient point is simply that pyriform sinuses
are found to be closed when the epilarynx is narrowed. In
other words, this is a result of other muscular behaviours,
rather than an active involvement.
Question...
Can you please recommend any exercises
(or books with them in) that help overcome difficulties with
the passagio? Are there exercises that help overcome breathy
tone?
Gillyanne Kayes replies: The
term passaggio literally means passage and refers to the point
where any of the registers meet. Singing and the Actor contains
several exercises that target the passaggio: Chapter 5, ‘Developing
the three octave siren’; also Chapter 7, ‘Dynamic control
and projection’. For dealing with breathy tone I suggest Chapter
2, ‘My voice won’t come out at auditions’, Chapter 4, ‘What
exactly is support’, and Chapter 7 as above.
Question...
Sylvia Lowry writes: I
am a high school choral director. I always encounter students
who cannot roll r. Is this something that can be taught? We
are investigating the physical processes that we can see and
feel. We are looking for approximations and have thus far
come up with the German sound at the back of the throat.
Jeremy
Fisher replies: A colleague told me he always has success
by getting students to practising a fast repeated d (d-d,
d-d, d-d-d and so on) or d-r (d-d-r, d-d-d-r and so on).
Question...
James Grimsey writes: I have
a question relating to both the vocal folds and larynx in relation
to pitch. I understand that the frequency at which the vocal
folds operate directly affects the pitch that you vocalise.
However, clearly larynx height also has a bearing on pitch.
I would appreciate any input on this problem.
Gillyanne Kayes replies: There
is confusion here between the functions of resonator and oscillator.
In the voice, the vocal folds act as an oscillator to make the
pitch. The laryngeal tube (larynx) acts as a resonator for the
vocal folds. Changing the length of the tube as such cannot
alter the pitch, only the resonance.
Question...
1) I have been doing lots of reading
around technique, and I have a question about cricoid tilt.
I have read - in Ingo Titze's Principles of Voice Production,
I think - that the cricoid tilts up and back (during 'cry' tilt)
to elongate the vocal folds at the other (vocal process) end.
Is that right? I am also thinking about the musculature, does
the cricothyroid muscle tilt the thyroid forward?
2) Which muscle tilts the cricoid
forward in 'belt'?
Gillyanne Kayes replies: Tilting is a colloquial term
used to describe the movements of the thyroid cartilage in relation
to the cricoid cartilage (or vice versa). I have used the term
myself in Singing and the Actor as it is helpful in teaching.
As I understand it, the thyroid can be tilted forward by the
action of the cricothyroid muscles, or the cricoid can be tilted
up and back. It all depends on which structure remains fixed.
The vocal folds are attached at the front to the inside surface
of the anterior part of the thyroid cartilage; and attached
at the back to the arytenoid cartilages, which rest on the shoulders
of the cricoid cartilage. Therefore any postural changes to
thyroid and cricoid relationship will affect the vocal folds.
Again, depending on which structure is moving, and which is
fixed, the movements may assist the vocal folds either in lengthening
or shortening, front to back.
Not everyone agrees that the cricoid is moved during belting.
It may be that on videoendoscopy it appears to move because
there is a change in the head/neck posture. We asked Meribeth
Dayme (formerly Meribeth Bunch), author of Dynamics of the Singing
Voice, to offer some comments on ‘cricoid tilting’:
“I have never really seen this for myself in a video or in the
clinic so I am not qualified to discuss it in that way. Somehow
the thyroid cartilage would have to be stabilised so that it
is the cricoid that moves. Remembering that there are seven
pairs of muscles that attach to the thyroid cartilage, you would
need to look at the ones that would need to contract to make
that happen. They might include: the sternothyroid, the thyrohyoid,
the inferior constrictor; and possibly, the two pharyngeal muscles,
the stylopharyngeus and palato pharyngeus. As to which ones
of those would do the work, one could only venture a guess,
or look at the habits of the particular singer being observed.”
Question...
Felicity Cook writes: A
colleague recently recommended to me a practice of what appeared
to be gargling DEEP in the folds. He demonstrated and I could
hear it dangerously close to the windpipe!!! I'm really concerned,
especially as his voice seems hoarse at the moment. Apparently
he has been doing it for about 18 months and that normally,
after doing it, he says it clears the sound extremely well.
This surely can’t be healthy?
Moshe Harell (ENT Surgeon and Laryngologist, Israel)
replies: The described gargling seems quite impossible, as
normal human beings are equipped with a protective device
called ‘cough reflex’, which is set in motion as soon as any
foreign object tries to enter the respiratory tract (the
latter begins at the level of the laryngeal inlet, above the
vocal folds). As soon as any foreign object approaches the
area, a violent explosive cough is generated, intending to
expel the intruder, so it will not reach the lower respiratory
tract (trachea, bronchi and the lungs).
Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary
defines the Cough Reflex as follows:
The sequence of events initiated by the sensitivity of the lining
of the airways… and mediated by the medulla [part of the Central
Nervous System, MH] as a consequence of impulses transmitted
by the Vagus Nerve, resulting in coughing, i.e. the clearing
of the passageways of foreign matter.
I imagine that your colleague gargles as deep as the lower part
of the base of tongue. If, for some obscure reason the gargling
solution does reach the vocal folds, it would cause damage to
their lining (just as reflux of acid contents from the stomach
regurgitating back up to the folds causes both chronic cough
and chronic damage). Normally, the only substance that is supposed
to reach the folds (and lower) is AIR!
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