The Science of the Singing Voice

Overview of the course (HC16)

Winter 2006

Pat Keating, Linguistics, UCLA

 Books
Johann Sundberg, The Science of the Singing
Voice. Northern Illinois University Press (1989)
Peter Ladefoged, Elements of Acoustic Phonetics. Second
edition. University of Chicago Pres (1996)
Richard Miller, The Structure of Singing: System and Art in
Vocal Technique. Wadsworth Publishing (2001)
Richard Miller, National schools of singing: English,
French, German, and Italian techniques of singing
revisited. Scarecrow Press (2002)
Garyth Nair, Voice Tradition and Technology: A State-of-
the-Art Studio. With CD. Singular (1999)
 Intro: Sundbergs demo
Go to: The ugly voice poster
 I. Digital audio files
Audacity tutorial on digital audio
Ripping CD tracks to .wav (Real, CDex)
Saving .mp3 as .wav (Audacity,Cdex)
Splitting and saving tracks from stereo
(Audacity)

(go to: CDEx, Audacity)

 Our week 1 lab:
A Sound Library of clips
Making 1-channel .wav files < 30 sec
Go to: Sound Library on web (logged in as
a student)
 II. Pitch
Frequencies of musical notes; each doubling
of frequency is an octave
Semi-tone = almost 6%
in tune: how close is close enough (20
cents?)
in tune: steadiness
Vibrato vs straight tone
 Vibratos
Dimensions of vibrato
Rate, range, amplitude vibrato
Supposed good vibrato
5.5 to 7 Hz, + .5 to 2 semitones
What good a vibrato does, doesnt do for
the singer
Examples of vibrato from classical, pop
 Pitchtracking
Hardest part: keeping track of F0 range
Tuning forks and thin voices: dont use
cepstral method (sample file of tuning fork)
Speech Analyzer: 500 Hz limit
Problems tracking trills: changing step size
and window length
 Our week 2 lab: F0
F0 matching
F0 steadiness
Measuring vibratos
 III. Spectrum
A bit on laryngeal anatomy and mechanism
of vibration
The voice source: F0 and overtones
Line spectrum of source, FFT of output
DVD Human Speech: speed of closing
determines strength of higher harmonics
 Partials, overtones?
Partials = harmonics
Overtones = partials above F0
 Our week 3 lab: FFT
FFT, LTAS in Pitchworks
FFT in Audacity: View-Plot spectrum (nice
for comparing window lengths)
pros and cons of Audacity/Pitchworks
Comparing spectra of different voice
qualities
Looking at strength of H1, number of
harmonics, amount of high-freq energy
 IV. Recording the source
Sundberg: All about the flow glottogram
(Ug), from inverse filtering of Uo signal
 2 key aspects
of the flow glottogram
1. the maximum amplitude of the flow is directly
proportional to the amplitude (in the source, not
in the output) of the fundamental component
and this affects the perceived strength of the voice,
though not necessarily its overall loudness, which
instead depends on the strongest partial
2. the maximum closing rate is proportional to the
amplitudes of the overtones
 Pressed, breathy, flow phonation
pressed phonation: high lung pressure combined with adducted glottis
the adducted glottis requires more pressure to get vibration, but still,
little air flows through the narrow and brief opening; low airflow = low
amplitude of the flow glottogram, so a weak F0 component.
breathy phonation: glottis is somewhat abducted so there is never
complete closure this means not only that some air flows through
continuously, but also that the maximum flow is quite high; high
airflow = a strong F0 component, but also a noise component in the
voice (usually seen instead of higher-frequency partials)
flow phonation: not so high lung pressure, and the most abducted
glottis that will still give complete closure. This means the greatest
possible amplitude of the F0 component without the noise. The
amplitude of the F0 in flow phonation can be 15 dB or more greater
than in pressed phonation.
 A different view of the source:
EGG
Ch. 13 in Nair (1999) = The Use of the
Electroglottograph in the Voice Studio by
D. Miller and H. K. Schutte
one of the primary aims of training the
classical singing voice will be to establish
the habit of complete and abrupt closure, at
least in mezzo forte and forte
Their sample sound file on next slide
Falsetto vs chest voice on [i]:
little contact in falsetto
 Our week 4 lab: EGG
EGG: recording of each individual student,
channels then split into separate .wav files
Listen to EGG signal
Spectrum of EGG signal
Compare shape of pulses to examples
 V. Resonances
A bit of source-filter theory and vowel
formants, including from DVD
Singers formant: extra energy around
3000 Hz (Sundberg says 2300-3000 Hz for
basses, 3000-3800 for tenors), which allows
a solo voice to stand out against an
orchestra, or other singers
(Sopranos dont much need a singers formant against an
orchestra, because any note above about B4 will stand out
by itself. Similarly for amplified singers.)
Miller: singers formant
 Singers formant
Not really an additional formant, but a clustering
of F3, F4, F5; when they are close together in
frequency their strengths are mutually enhanced,
giving one broad strong spectral peak.
Male singers: enlarge the ventricle (just above the
larynx), lower the larynx.
It is not known how altos produce their singers
formant.
But I made a big difference in my voice by
following male instructions
 Speakers formant
More like at 3500 Hz than 3000
Property of speaking voices judged good
Seen in some singing voices, especially in
styles that are more like speaking
 Our week 5 lab: resonances
Looking at own voice and at recordings for
singers formant; trying to increase singers
formant
Comparing vowels for the effect of different
formant frequencies on strengths of
different harmonics, esp., on strength of H1
 VI. F1 tuning
a strong voice matches H1 to F1, while a
weak voice has no formant near H1
Good illustration of this on DVD: the good
voice and the bad voice samples
Sundberg says that tuning H1 to F1 can add
up to 30dB to the sound level.
F1 is raised by opening the mouth more, or
shortening the vocal tract (e.g. smiling)
 When F0 is above F1
F0 > F1 for many soprano notes
F1 cannot match F0, and also vowel
qualities are indistinct
trained singers tend to adjust the vowel
quality so that the F1 moves up, in the
direction of F0.
(Is this what I do? No, I generally have F1
tuned to H2 - see later slide.)
Sundberg: F1 tuning when F0>F1
 The soprano challenge
Recently a study of this effect, explicitly testing
what Sundberg had said, got a lot of publicity:
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/soprane.html
(this page saved to computer but without sound)
They found that a trained soprano singing above
about 440 Hz tuned every vowels F1 to the F0.
 Miller on passagio & tuning
The crucial point in a correct execution of passaggio is to avoid pushing
the chest register beyond its natural limits by means of a forced,
shouty production. This tendency, natural in most untrained voices,
appears as a compulsion to tune the first formant to the second
harmonic of the voice source in the attempt to extend the chest register
upward. Singing teachers recognize this phenomenon in the
undesirable raising of the larynx when approaching the upper range.
[this increases the frequency of F1] The larynx raising is thus a
maneuver of last resort to get the first formant higher in order to add a
semitone or two to the chest register. (...) The typical high note which
is forced in this way has a second harmonic with a level 15 to 25 dB
higher than the first harmonic. (...) One reason for the strong tendency
to tune F1 to H2 on high notes in the chest register is that the resulting
resonance is quite powerful. (...) A compensatory adjustment for this
loss that most accomplished (opera) singers employ is the tuning of F2
to a higher harmonic.
 Our week 6 lab: F1 tuning
Mapping out a singers pitch range and F1
range; which vowels have F1 in the overall
F0 range, and which vowels would be best
to sing on a given pitch to get F1 near that
F0 (e.g. if I can sing from A220 to A880)
Trying to tune F1 to F0
Passaggio out of chest voice
 VII. Breathing in singing
Recall:
Muscles that can participate in inhalation
(expansion): external intercostals,
diaphragm
Muscles that can participate in exhalation
(contraction): internal intercostals, abs
 Breathing in singing
Normal breathing: about .5 liters 12
times/minute, with active inspiration and
passive expiration.
Singing: much longer breaths, and more
total air in a breath. More of the air in the
lungs is exhaled by professional singers.
 Subglottal pressure
Pressures generated in speech are much lower than
those in singing, but even singing pressures are
less than those used by reed and brass instrument
players, which in turn are less than those used in
lifting heavy weights (with the glottis completely
closed).
In singing, pressure is higher for louder phonation
and for higher pitches: A doubling of subglottal
pressure gives about a doubling in loudness, and
subglottal pressure also about doubles when F0
doubles.
 Oral flow
The flow of air out of the mouth depends on the
pressure in the lungs, and the size of the opening
through the larynx and vocal tract.
In pressed phonation, subglottal pressure is high,
but the glottis is nearly closed so airflow is low.
In breathy phonation, the more-open glottis lets air
leak out throughout the glottal cycle.
Airflow tends to increase for louder or higher-
pitched notes.
Vibrato uses more air than straight tones.
 Trained vs. untrained
Classically trained singers have lower subglottal
pressures than do untrained singers, and these
pressures are lower in speech as well as singing.
Trained singers have lower airflow rates in singing
than do untrained singers, but the same airflow
rates in speech.
Trained singers thus have more efficient phonation:
they use less air to get strong vocal fold vibrations.
 Loudness control with
a. phonation: the right amount of vocal fold
adduction (Sundbergs flow phonation)
b. the vocal tract: formant tuning, singers
formant
c. lung pressure: higher pressure and higher
airflow through the glottis. The power of
the glottal source increases by 6 dB for
every doubling of the lung pressure
 Sundberg: Ps vs. pitch

sound level (S), subglottal pressure (P) and oral airflow (A)
from a professional singers ascending scale, showing how
pressure increases a lot as pitch increases, even when airflow
is fairly constant and sound level increases only somewhat
 Sundberg: Ps vs. pitch

the clear relation of loudness, pressure and pitch in

these quicker triads
 Our week 7 lab: aero
Pressure and flow for each student
Did they show the relation of Ps, Uo, and
F0 (with relatively fixed loudness) as in the
Sundberg example figure?
 VIII. Consonants
2 chapters each in Miller, Nair
Nair says that trained singers have greater
amplitude, more energy in more harmonics, and
stronger resonances in their consonants, and that
this helps smooth connections between consonants
and vowels.
Nairs resonance checklist for consonants: jaw
down, proper tongue configuration, raised
velum, pharynx open and relaxed, larynx relaxed
and low in the throat. No extreme lip spreading or
rounding, because both tend to raise the jaw.
 Consonants
F0 perturbation effects from consonants
Miller is mostly concerned with agility in
consonant articulation so that consonants can be
made quickly and take up little time relative to
vowels, and he includes agility exercises
Nair mentions lengthening of glides for dramatic
effect, advises minimal noise for word-final
consonants
 Our week 8 lab: consonants
Comparing sung consonants for relative
vowel-likeness, speed
Pitch perturbations
Dramatic effect of lengthening, releasing,
etc. of consonants
 IX. Comparing singing styles
Millers book on western classical traditions
Several comparisons of genres in the
literature indicate that on various measures,
pop, Country-Western and Broadway
singing are more like speaking than is
classical (operatic) singing
Vocal tract in classical singing has wider
lower pharynx, wider oral cavity
 Our week 9 lab: final projects
Most students are comparing song samples,
either commerical or recorded by them
Projects are being constructed as webpages
Easy to combine presentation of text, graphics,
sound materials
When done, can be viewed by whole class
Class on using Dreamweaver by ITC
 X. Titze on warm-ups
Titze explains warm-up exercises in terms
of bringing all systems up gradually
Acoustic loading for respiratory warm-up
increase the acoustic loading on the vocal folds
with humming, trills, singing into a straw - lets
the vocal folds vibrate with more abduction,
and with overall lower Ps for an easy start
increase F0 so that Ps must increase