I love to sing. I am by no means an accomplished singer, but I find it’s a hell of a way to pass time and turn something as mundane as a walk to uni or a shift at work into something pretty entertaining. I’m stoked that it’s an instrument I will hopefully have and enjoy until the day I die. On a weird hungover buzz in the shower this morning, I started to ponder how it all works. I had an inkling that it all works on vibrations, like a guitar string, so I set out to find out a little more.
While there is a part of the body colloquially termed “the voice box” (the larynx), singing and speaking rely on a number of organs. The larynx is basically a muscular organ, and part of the respiratory system, that holds the vocal chords. It is part of a tube in the throat that carries air in and out of the lungs. It is made up of tough cartilage, which sticks out at the front to form your Adam’s apple. Vocal chords (medically termed “vocal folds”) are composed of twin foldings of membrane stretched across the larynx. The vocal chords are like two elastic bands.
When humans exhale, the diaphragm (the dome-shaped sheet of muscle extending across the ribcage that separates the chest from the abdomen) contracts, which causes the lungs to expand, drawing in air. When we exhale, the diaphragm relaxes and moves upwards, which expels air. As air moves over the vocal chords, they vibrate at about the same rate a hummingbird flaps its wings. The interruption of air passing over the vocal chords creates sound.
How fast the vocal chords vibrate determines the pitch, or the frequency (how high or low a note is). The vocal chords adjust their length by opening and closing when we speak or sing. The looser the chords, the less they vibrate, producing lower pitches. The tighter the chords are, the more they vibrate, producing higher pitches. Depending on the octave, the musical note A is produced by vibrations of the vocal chords at a rate of 440 vibrations per second.
These vibrations then travel through the throat, mouth and nose, which are called the “resonating cavities”. Every voice is unique depending on the size and shape of these cavities and the organs involved in the process of singing or speaking. The more you sing, the more control you have over these processes. Keep singing!