Vocal Register and pitch

Vocal Register and Pitch

In order to fully understand the mechanisms of pitch control we must take a look at the composition of tissue in the vocal chords.

However, deeper vocal fold tissues - collagen, elastin and muscle - exhibit some resistance to stretching, but can become quite stiff.

A vocal register is a specific series of tones in the human voice that are produced as a result of one particular vibratory pattern of the vocal folds.

A person’s vocal pitch is determined by the resonant frequency of the vocal folds and differentiates with gender and age.

	Average Frequency
Adult Male	125 Hz
Adult Female	210 Hz
Children	Over 300 Hz

The greater the frequency of vibrations in the vocal folds, the higher the vocal pitch will be and vice versa. A person’s vocal frequency is determined by the thickness and length of the vocal cords as well as the tension retained in the vocal cords. Due to this, women’s voices tend to be pitched higher than men’s as they have shorter vocal cords.

The movement of the vocal folds is controlled by what is known as the vagus nerve, which is a very important part of our nervous system, and are white in colour due to scant blood circulation.

Because our vocal fold manipulate the way our voices sound, there are three types of onsets:

·         Simultaneous – both air and sound working together – this is the most common onset for a singer as it allows a better flow of sound.

·         Glottal – sound working against the air. This onset and the movement of the larynx is the vocal cords close immediately

·         Aspirate – air working against the sound resulting in a ‘breathy’ sound – this onset and the movement of the larynx are pushing out breath before sound

As performers such as singers or actors, we must make a conscious decision on which onset we wish to uses.

As performers, it is vital that we keep the vocal cords healthy and learn how to enhance their affect; they are one of the most important aspects of voice production. The folds create and generate sounds that have rich harmonics due to collisions of the vocal folds themselves. Certain singers learn to use these harmonics to their advantage and can isolate particulars of the harmonics which is often called overtone singing which is often perceived as singing in more than one pitch and tone at the same.