The voice, and speech mechanism is one of the most extraordinary systems in the human body (except for the human eye, of course). The way it works is truly incredible: sound comes out of the lungs, pushed upwards by a large sheet of muscle called the diaphragm and that sits just below the lungs and neatly separating the lungs and heart from the lower abdomen, intestines, etc. This large muscle, in tandem with our core muscles, intercostal muscles (the muscles between our ribs), and our core muscles push the air upwards at great speed, at the same time these tiny folds of muscular tissue, coated with mucus to keep it smooth and safe close against the air flow, and vibrate. When singing a middle ‘A’ note, a woman’s vocal folds will vibrate at the astonishing rate of 440 vibrations per SECOND (for men this rate will drop to half that – hence their deeper voices…).
And all of this happens without we even being aware of it. Cool, huh?
I’m putting up this post with the intent of opening up a questions forum, I will be taking in any and ALL questions you may have about the voice, about singing, speaking in public, projecting the voice, voice technique questions, etc, etc, etc. I will be creating videos to answer your questions and will be posting them on You Tube.
In the meantime I thought I’d leave you with an extraordinary example of the capacities of the human voice, when used to its fullest potential… Oh, and as food for thought – this man’s voice box looks like yours, like mine, like your neighbours, like your friends’.
Here’s the incredible Michael Winslow!
