Human voice is an expressive musical instrument as people use their own voices to perform pieces or songs with or without any other instruments. If the voice is damaged to a serious stage, it can be lost forever. Therefore, vocal health is important to singers to take care their voices. In the following discussion we will discuss what the vocal health is, why it is relevant to contemporary singing from vocal anatomy, physiology and voice function. Vocal health Vocal health is the ideal operating of the vocal mechanism (Hughes, 2002). The voice is created from interaction among numerous parts of the body. (Benninger & Abitbal, 2006) The vocal mechanism has five components includes breath energy, larynx, resonating tract, articulators, and mind (Hughes, 2014). The lungs are as the activator that supplies air with breathing for the vocal folds to vibrate. It is an excellent command of the movements of the vocal folds, and it is flexible for speaking and singing. And the resonator that includes pharynx, oral and nasal cavities give the tone and style for the voice (Benninger & Abitbal, 2006). And those can be taken care by vocal care strategies. All parts are needed to protect and take care to avoid injury. The following information are the useful methods to take care the voice. 1. Warm-up before singing To get the best voice of singing, breathe properly and deeply, with the expanding outward diaphragm, as breathing is in the respiratory system of the vocal instrument. Then, sing the scales, go up to the voice range and go down. It can relax the vocal folds and expand the capacity of the lungs (McCoy, 2004). For example, start warm-up exercises with ‘br’ in different notes and sing ‘nor’ in 5-note scales with different range. 2... ... middle of paper ... ... And many of them are forced to halt a tour to have a rest or have a surgery for their voices because many problems such as stresses, smoking, voice overuse and noisy environments, etc. For example, Adele who is a British singer has cancelled her tours and undergone a laser surgery for the vocal folds because of the great pressure of the tour. This lead to a long period to fully recover and she cannot get back to work in a short period. Another singer John Mayer needed to have surgery because of a granuloma that created by irritation of the vocal cords and he stopped the album work until his voice has recover also (Hatschek, 2012). Therefore, we can see that vocal health is so important to contemporary singing and when once your voice is hurt, the damage is permanent. Prevention and vocal care strategies are serious important to keep the voice in great health.
When in Choir, performers tend to learn a lot towards teamwork. Also, people stated that the the basic requirements for being in choir is to participate in the performances. Some performers often participate in concerts while others make singing an exercise. Choir brings the best out of people not only in harmonization but in obtaining good health. According to Harvard University, studies show that singing can decrease stress levels. Choir exercises the body and singing is particularly beneficial for improving breathing, posture and muscle tension. Performers in Choir say that it is a good way to communicate, participate and work together. Being able to sing in a group decreases one’s performance
Session #1: The speech language pathologist (SLP) modeled and role-played different types of voice tone. According to Jed Baker (2003), when demonstrat...
Seikel, J. A., King, D. W., & Drumright, D. G. (2010). 12. Anatomy & physiology for speech,
Laughter is often involuntary. In fact, it is very difficult to fake it because it requires so many muscles. The main two muscles used in laughing are the zygomaticus major and minor anchor located at the cheekbones and go down towards the jaw. They both pull the face upward and the zygomaticus major also makes sure to pull the top lip upward and outward. Whenever we laugh, we also produce a sound. Whether it be a chuckle or a whole hearty laugh, we are still using the same methods as we do whenever we cough or speak. We use the lungs and the larynx, also known as a voice box, to make the sound of laughter. We don’t ever realize it, but whenever we breathe, air from our lungs passes through the open vocal cords in the larynx. Whenever the voice box is closed, air cannot travel. However, when the larynx is just barely open, it produces sound. When...
In the first place, from our complex personalities, why focus on voice? According to Barbara McAfee, the voice is: “the way you sound when you speak or sing, an
After her country wide tour she was both mentally and physically exhausted and under doctor's
There has to be an understanding of how the ear works, what hearing loss is before looking at the treatments for hearing loss. Hence the essay will go through how the ear works and what causes hearing loss first. Then it will explain the diagnosis process before focusing on the treatments. the essay will be exploring the past, current and the possible future treatments. The essay will also touch upon other ways in which hearing impaired people cope with hearing loss.
The role of respiration in speech is to provide a column of compressed air so we can produce sounds by pushing it through tightly compacted or nearly closed structures of the vocal tract. We need to be able to breathe in order to speak or else no sound would project and we would be dead without breathing. The compression of air allows us to make three basic sounds that resonate through our vocal tract. It allows us to make sound, phonation, make plosive sounds, sounds that we trap air to build up pressure then release which results in a popping sound, and then a fricative, when we force air through a constricted place which results in a hissing sound.
The voice and its signification have been in question since Roland Barthes first published his seminal work “The Grain of the Voice” in 1972 (published again in English in 1977). For Barthes, the “grain” appears at the precise moment in which sound and language converge; the exact moment when the actual physiological production of both become audible. To illustrate his point, Barthes discusses the differences between two singers, Charles Panzéra and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Barthes comes to the conclusion that he prefers Panzéra, but not because of any technical superiority over Fischer-Dieskau. Instead, Barthes prefers Panzéra’s voice and singing because Panzéra’s voice provides the “grain.”
Noise (Noise induced hearing loss NIHL): Another occupational hazard that contributes to workplace injury is excessive noise. Excessive noise may have adverse effects, which include, high blood pressure, stress, reduced performance and noise induced hearing loss. While there are other factors contributing to NIHL, the shortage of prevention is a high contributor. Engineering controls is one way of reducing noise at its source (Nelson et al. 20...
Evaluation: We will make a scoring system, containing a scale from 0 to 5 (0 means bad pronunciation, 5 means good pronunciation). Before the treatment started, we had recorded the voice of mrs. K while reading a text. After treatment we are going to record her voice again and judge whether her pronunciation improved or not. We will also ask her family and to mrs. K herself. In this way, we consult the family and mrs. K which goal...
The voice is our primary mean of communication and expression. We rarely last more than a few minutes without its use whether it is talking to someone else or humming quietly to ourselves. We can use the voice artistically in many ways. For example, singing carries the rhythm and melody of speech. It creates patterns of pitch, loudness, and duration that tie together syllables, phrases and sentences. We use the voice for survival, emotion, expression, and to reflect our personality. The loss of the voice is a severe curtailment to many professions. It is affected by general body condition which is why we need to consider the location of the larynx and how that organ produces voice. Surprisingly, this complex biological design is mechanical in function. It is mechanical to the point that when it has been excised from a cadaver and mounted on a laboratory bench, the larynx produces sounds resembling normal phonation. (Titze, Principles)
Puberphonia is a condition affecting males predominately, in which an unusually high voice pitch exists beyond puberty (Stemple et al, 2000). Around the age of twelve, males experience a sudden increase in the size of their larynx. Vocal cords increase in length resulting in the vibration of the vocal cords at a lower pitch or frequency. Males who experience Puberphonia, also known as Mutational Falsetto or Juvenile Voice, do not experience any physical differences in their vocal cords or larynxes, but rather, the issue arises from the individual not making the transition into “using the deeper voice which their larger vocal dimensions would normally produce” (Harisinghani, 2009). It is less likely for females to experience Puberphonia, as they do not experience these physiological changes, however it is still possible for females to present a child-like or very juvenile voice (Stemple et al, 2000). The reasons for the symptoms of Puberphonia are seen to be psychological, and are fairly easy to modify (Carlson, 1994). Other symptoms of this condition include hoarseness, breathiness, pitch breaks, inadequate resonance, shallow breathing, muscle tension and lack of variability. Patients also often describe the inability to shout, as well as vocal fatigue (Stemple et al, 2000).
Music has been many different things to people, an escape, a revolution, an experience, a feeling, a message, a memory, a single moment, peace, class, etc. Music has played a large role in the lives of many. The story of music and it’s evolution is beautiful, from ancient melodies being plucked on a harp, to the british invasion and the popular revolution. Music has changed, and it has effected so much. In the recent decades popular music has manipulated humanity into acting inappropriately.
The target audience for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association includes audiologist, speech-language pathologists, speech, language, and hearing scientists, students and general public. To attend all this different community, the website has specific information divided by sections, and according to the specific audience; also, the webpage is easy to navigate and has a variety of articles and characteristics mentioned by Hargis, Hernandez, Hughes & Ramaker “accuracy, clarity, completeness, concreteness, organization and visual effectiveness in order to make the communication accessible” (Hargis, Hernandez, Hughes & Ramaker, 1997, p.2).