The Voice Production Process

Presented by: Group 3

Introduction
You are how you sound!Yes, the sound of the human voice tells your listeners an enormous amount about your personality, emotions, confidence and feelings about yourselves, as well as what you are really thinking. Your voice divulges a great deal about your educational background, social status, health and mental alertness. The way in which you use your voice also has the power to make your teaching interesting or deadly dull, to make your students trust you or view you suspiciously, and to make students listen intently or nod off to sleep! Unless you have a major physical disability of the voice mechanism, everyone is capable of producing the type of voice that works well in teaching, one that helps to get your message across, is vibrant and engaging.

Fundamentals of Voice

Breathing
Our intention to produce voice is signalled to the parts of the body involved by impulses from the brain. The first response of the body to these impulses is to breathe in so that there is enough air in the lungs to power the voice. The breath is taken in through the mouth and nose, passes down the trachea (or windpipe), and is inhaled into the lungs. For air to be inhaled into the lungs, the ribcage needs to expand and the dome-like diaphragm which forms the base of the chest, needs to flatten downwards. When we breathe in effectively, we feel most of this expansion in the area of the lower ribs. Once the air has been inhaled into the lungs and they reach capacity, the elastic tissue of the lung recoils and the air is exhaled or breathed out. The exhaled air then returns up through the trachea and then through the larynx where it encounters the closing vocal folds.

The basic tone of the voice can be varied in many different ways, depending on the way in which we use the vocal folds\ and other parts of the voice mechanism. The main aspects of the voice that can be varied are: pitch loudness quality

Pitch
Pitch refers to how high or low the voice sounds. It is determined mainly by the speed of vibration of the vocal folds, the thickness of the edge of the folds, and the length of the folds. The higher the voice, the faster is the rate of vibration of the vocal folds. The more elongated and thinner the edges of the vocal folds become, the higher the pitch will be. On the other hand, if the vibrating edges of the vocal folds become thicker and shorter, and the vocal folds vibrate at a slower rate, the pitch will be lowered. We use variations in pitch during speech to signal meaning and emotion and this is referred to as intonation.

Loudness
Loudness refers to how loud or soft a voice is. It is dependent on the amount of air pressure from the lungs and the muscle tension in the vocal folds. The greater the air pressure and the more tense the vocal folds, the louder the sound will be. The lower the air pressure from the lungs is and the slacker the vocal folds are, the softer the voice will be. We also use variations in loudness during speech to signal meaning and emotion and this is referred to as stress. To emphasis the importance of a particular word, for example, we increase the loudness of voice on that word.

Quality
Quality refers to how clear the voice sounds. Voice quality is determined by many complex factors including how relaxed the muscles of the larynx are, how moist the cover of the vocal folds is, how smoothly the vocal folds vibrate, and whether or not the vocal folds are able to close sufficiently during phonation. If the muscles of the larynx are excessively tense, the cover is dry, the folds move in an irregular way, and/ or the folds cannot close together, the voice quality will sound rough, strained and/or breathy.

Resonance
The sound waves produced by the vocal folds in the larynx are too weak to be recognised as voice and so this basic tone must be amplified or resonated as it travels up through the spaces of the throat, mouth and nose. The shape, size and muscle tension of these spaces will determine the eventual sound of the voice we will hear. Because every person is built differently in the throat, mouth and nose, the basic voice tone is modified differently in each of us so that we will all have a recognisably unique timbre of voice. This process of resonance in our voices is similar to the way in which the shape and size of a musical instrument such as a trumpet gives the basic tone produced by the reed its unique sound. Just as the resonance process in a trumpet makes the sound of the trumpet carry throughout a concert hall, resonance in the human voice gives us the ability to control its carrying power or projection.

Articulation Articulation is the final phase of voice production. It involves changing the shape and dimension of the oral cavity in the mouth, which produces sounds in speech or singing. Properly pronounced syllables, formed by consonants and vowels, automatically make these changes. Teachers generally use syllables to get students to form good mouth positions before going into details of placement, such as consciously moving the jaw up and down, raising and lowering the tongue or moving the corners of the lips away and toward the center of the mouth to produce desired results

 Larynx

The human voice is made up several parts. The larynx also, called the voice box, houses the vocal chords, which are located in the respiratory tract where air passes from the lungs and when it strikes the vocal chords sound is produced. The larynx is a two-inch-long narrow organ located between the trachea and the pharynx. The larynx is an essential part of how we talk, sing and produce sound in general. The larynx is also used when breathing or swallowing and its outer cartilage forms the "Adams Apple" on the front side of the neck.

 The Tongue and Teeth

Talking and singing would be much more difficult a task if not for the tongue and teeth. The teeth and tongue work together to form words after the vocal chords produce sound. We have all heard the tongue is a muscle but it's actually made up of several groups of muscles. The front of the tongue is flexible and works closely with the teeth in forming some words.

Stages of Voice Production (Speech Mechanisms)

Compression
Speaking starts with the movement of the air out of the body through the process of exhalation. The air we inhale is compressed for exhalation. The movement begins from the lungs, the place where the air eventually goes after inhalation. The air then passes through a pair of bronchial tubes, a pair of canals which are connected to the lungs at one end to the windpipe or trachea at the other end. The windpipe is the canal inside our neck. Muscles contract and expand the space occupied by the lungs. This compression is done with the aid of a membrane separating the lungs from the intestines. This membrane is called the diaphragm.

 Vibration

When the air hits the windpipe or the trachea, it passes through the larynx or the vocal box, situated somewhere in the upper part of the windpipe. The larynx is known as the vibrator. Inside the larynx are the vocal folds, a pair of thin membranes which vibrate when air passes through. The vibration results in the production of the initial sound of the voice. This is not the actual sound of the voice. It is only the beginning of the sound.

 Amplification

The initial sound is made loud and amplified into our true voice by the air chambers in our body called the resonators. When the sound enters an air chamber, the sound reverberates and is consequently multiplied before leaving the air chamber.

The air chamber of our body that serves as resonators are:

a. the vestibule the first air chamber located above the larynx b. the pharynx or the throat the second air chamber located at the inner end of the mouth c. the nasal cavities the chambers of the nose d. the mouth a very important resonator

Modification The sound made loud by the resonators is carved out into intelligible sounds, the vowels and consonants, by the modifiers or articulators, those parts of the body that form speech sound. The modifiers or articulators are: a. lips enunciate the bilabial sounds p, b, w, hw, and cooperate with the teeth in the f and v sounds b. teeth are used for the s. Together with the tongue, they articulate the soft and hard ths. c. tongue - is a key modifier. The tongue shapes out the vowels and helps consonants. d. jaw - does not produce specific sounds but it is an important modifier. If we do not use our jaw, we tend to mumble. We are then said to be eating our words. e. hard palate - the ceiling of the mouth f. soft palate the cave-like extension of the hard palate

Mechanism of Voice Production: Air Flow and Vocal Fold Vibration

The diagram to the left shows a vertical cross-section through the larynx (voicebox). Below the vocal folds is the trachea, or windpipe, which leads to the lungs. The vocal folds are actually folds of tissue, described in more detail below. In this diagram the vocal folds are separated, as they would be during breathing Just above the vocal folds is a second fold of tissue called the false vocal folds. The false vocal folds are important in preventing substances from entering the trachea during swallowing. They do not play a major role in speech, and, unlike the true vocal folds, they should not come in contact with each other during speech.

Above the vocal fold is a floppy cartilaginous tongue-shaped structure called the epiglottis. The epiglottis folds over the opening into the larynx when we swallow, which helps prevent material from getting into the lungs. The position of the vocal folds during speech depends on the type of sounds being made. One grouping of sounds is called "voiced", because their production relies on vibration of the vocal folds. Another grouping is called "voiceless", and for these sounds the vocal folds are usually opened and the sound is produced by another part of mouth and throat. Examples of voiceless sounds are the early parts of the "f" and the "s" sound. These sounds are not produced by the larynx but rather by turbulent air flow in parts of the mouth.

Vocal Fold Vibration To make sounds for speech, the vocal folds are first brought together by the muscles of the larynx. While they are closed, the action of the respiratory muscles and the chest wall cause the air pressure immediately below the vocal folds to increase. Eventually the pressure beneath the vocal folds exceeds the pressure holding them together, and a burst of air escapes through the folds. As the air rapidly flows through the larynx, it creates a decreased pressure ( a phenomenon called the Venturi effect) and the vocal folds are brought together. The pressure beneath the folds rises again, and the process repeats itself. The process of rapid opening and closing produces vocal fold vibration that we can see with a stroboscopic examination. Each time the vocal folds open they produce a jet of air which creates a rapid changes in air pressure that produces the sounds we use to make speech.

It is important to realize that the vocal folds do not produce sound by vibrating like guitar strings. Instead, the sound is produced by the pressure changes created as small jets of air pass through the moving vocal folds.

 A Close Up of the Vocal Folds

The microscopic structure of the folds is extremely important both in terms of the way in which sound is produced and in the medical and surgical techniques used to treat voice disorders. The picture to the left shows a close up view of a cross section through one of the vocal folds. You can see that it really is a fold of tissue, and the term "vocal cord" can be somewhat misleading. The vocal fold is covered by a thin layer of tissue called the epithelium.

Underlying the mucosa is a second layer called the lamina propria, and under this is the muscle that makes up the body of the vocal fold (it is called the thyroarytenoid muscle; the most medial portion of this muscle is also called the vocalis muscle). The lamina propria is in turn made up of three layers. In the healthy vocal fold the most superficial layer of the lamina propria is quite loose, so that the epithelium can vibrate in a wave-like fashion over the underlying layers.

The Mucosal Wave: The diagram to the left shows a schematic of a cross section of the opening and closing of the vocal folds. Notice that the folds do not open all at once, but rather the lower part first begins to open and at a later point in time the upper portion of the folds separate. This complex manner of opening and closing produces what is called the mucosal wave.

A good mucosal wave is necessary for the folds to open in a uniform and symmetric fashion. Anything that interferes with this mucosa wave, such as a swelling or a cyst on the folds, disrupts the mucosal wave and causes a worsening in voice quality. When we examine the larynx, the mucosal wave can be studied using a special light source called a strobe light.