1. The human voice
How are guitar strings and the human voice similar? Both rely on vibrations to make sound.
Your Instrument
What is your favorite song? To sing along to your favorite song or just say hello to friends you have to use your voice. But what exactly is a voice and where does it come from?
Just like a guitar or violin uses vibrating, or quickly moving, strings to make music, humans use vibrating body parts to make sounds.
Larynx
Take a deep breath in. You just filled your lungs with air. As you breath out, that air travels back up your windpipe, also called the trachea, the passageway in your throat for air.
At the top of your trachea is a box-shaped area called the larynx. The larynx is nicknamed the voice box because it holds the body parts that help us speak. So you could say the larynx is the source of your voice.
Have you ever noticed the small bump on the front part of your throat below your chin? That is your larynx.
Vocal Cords
Stretched across the inside of the larynx are two very thin bands of muscle called vocal cords. When we breath in, the vocal cords open to let air pass through the larynx, into the trachea, and down to the lungs.
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When we breath out and want to talk, the vocal cords close. Air from the lungs trying to pass by the closed vocal cords causes them to vibrate, which makes sound. Hum a little bit of your favorite song and touch your larynx.
Can you feel the vibrations?
Can you feel the vibrations?
SINUSES BELONG TO RESONATOR SYSTEM:
The human voice consists of sound made by using the vocal chords for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming,
etc. Generally speaking, the voice can be subdivided into 3 parts;
1-(Respiratory system) The breathing, : Lungs, trachea, diaphragm, nose, mouth.
-The lungs must produce enough airflow to vibrate vocal cords.
2-(Phonator System) :The vocal chords , the larynx lips, tongue, teeth.
2-(Phonator System) :The vocal chords , the larynx lips, tongue, teeth.
-The vocal chords are the vibrators that produce the fine pitch and tone.
-The articulators( tongue,palate ,cheek ,lips.....) articulate the sound.
-The articulators( tongue,palate ,cheek ,lips.....) articulate the sound.
3-(Resonator system) :nose, palate, soft palate , chest or rib cage ,facial cavity , cranial cavity.
- The resonators amplify and
intensify the sound
The vocal chords, together with the articulators and
the resonators, are capable of producing a lot of sounds.
The tone of voice may
be modulated to suggest emotions such as anger, surprise, or happiness. Singers
use the human voice as an instrument for creating music.
Vocal Ranges:
A
typical choral arrangement divides women into higher and lower voices and men
into higher or lower voices too.
The four main vocal ranges are:
-Soprano:
A high female (or young boy's voice)
-Mezzo-soprano:
An intermediate female voice.
-Alto or Contralto:
A low female (or young boy’s) voice.
-Countertenor :
A male voice that is unusually high, light, and agile, even for a tenor.
-Tenor :
A high (adult) male voice
A high (adult) male voice
-Baritone :
A male voice that falls in between tenor and bass.
-Bass :
A low (adult) male
3. Choral music
A choir, chorale, or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral Music, therefore, is the music written specifically for a choir to perform. Choirs are often led by a conductor or choirmaster and can be categorized by the voices:
• Mixed choirs ( with male and female voices). This is perhaps the most common type, usually consisting of soprano, alto, tenor and bass voices, often abbreviated as SATB.
• Male choirs, with the same SATB voicing as mixed choirs, but with boys singing the upper part (often called treble or boy soprano) and men singing alto (in falsetto), also known as countertenor. This format is typical of British cathedral choirs.
• Female choirs, usually consisting of soprano and alto voices, two parts in each.
• Children's choirs, This includes boys’ choirs.
Exercises:
1-Copy and complete the paragraph using the words below to fill the gaps
When men sing high notes like a soprano it
1-Copy and complete the paragraph using the words below to fill the gaps
When men sing high notes like a soprano it
is called---------------------- singing.
2-Two female singers who are singing a ----------
--------could be either---------------------,
------------------------ or .---------------------------------------
3-Four singers singing in a------------------- are
probably S.A.T.B. When there are several
singers singing each part, the group is called
a .--------------------------
4-When singers make their voices wobble(tambalearse) , it's
known as------------------------
WORDS :ALTOS, QUARTET, CHOIR,
WORDS :ALTOS, QUARTET, CHOIR,
TREBLES ,MEZZO-SOPRANO, FALSETTO
,DUET, SOPRANOS, VIBRATO
2-What type of singer ...
2-What type of singer ...
a) has a range that sits between the soprano
and tenor range?
b) sings the lowest part of all in a choir?
e) has a voice that's lower than a soprano but
higher than an alto?
3-What do the initials S.A. T.B. stand for?
4-What are the highest boys' voices called
before their voice breaks?
5-Write out these voice types in order, from
highest to lowest.
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