cern ourselves here with only the first two, the lower or first formant being controlled by the throat space, and the What Happens In Singing? higher, second formant, being controlled by the size and shape of the mouth. Learning to control the formants which provide us with NUMBER 3 - RESONANCE many different vowels begins during our infancy. By the time one is about a year old he has learned to produce most J. LOREN JONES of the vowels with fairly good discrimination. In fact, we have learned the skill of manipulating the spaces of our Music Department vocal tract at such an early age that we do not recall ever Michigan State University having learned it. The disciplines of the singing voice, with a much wider range than speech and much more specific There are some who believe that a beautifully resonant and more sustained pitches, demand a much greater degree voice is a pure gift from God and that there is little a teacher of proficiency in controlling the spaces of the vocal tract or choral director can do for the student who does not sing and the resulting formants. well. While it may be true that some are better endowed Fonnants and Overtones with vocal abilities and musical aptitudes than others, it is In spoken English we will use 12 or 13 different vowels, also true that our vocal mechanisms are more nearly the each with its own unique set of overtones or formants. If some than they are different and that poor singers can, and a male singer were to sing a series of vowels on the pitch do, learn to sing well. The great difference between a good C 128 Hz., the C below middle C, he would be able to use singer and a poor singer is not in the basic equipment. It any of the overtones for C 128 Hz. as vowels formants. The is in the way the equipment is used. Almost anyone (any first overtone would be an octave above the fundamental at normal person) can master the skills necessary for good sing- 256 Hz., which is middle C. The second would be G 384 Hz. ing if they are willing to devote enough time and energy to The third would be C 512 Hz., and so on up the series of the project. Resonance in the voice is perhaps the single overtones. quality contributing most to vocal beauty. It is the result of skillful handling of the vocal equipment. It is a skill that CHART I is, can be, and must be learned. There are teachers and choral directors who refer to a 2176 resonant voice as one which is "well focused", "properly ..... ~ ~ I- • I-- -I-- placed", "in the masque", or one which has "proper nasal 2048 -- -HJ.':l -r--- -I-- I-- "':11920 I-- ~ l- I--I- .1-- -I-- -I-- resonance". Most of these terms are descriptive of certain o -- - a. - 10- 1- Q I-- physical sensations or certain concepts experienced either ~ 1792 -- - -- I-- -- by the listener or the singer. Such terms are sometimes ~1664 I-- I--- ~ I-- I-- -- - ~a -- - given as specific teaching directives. The student may be ~1536 -I-- I--- I-- I-- I--- told to "place the tone in the masque", or to "focus the tone". -- - -- - ~ -I-- ~ -I-- I-- I--- Such instruction may, indirectly, bring about a change in 1408 -- ~ - ~ 1280 -I- I--- -I-- ~ .1-- I-- I-- the vocal quality; however, there is no relationship between .-< -- these directives and the actual cause of vocal resonance. 1152 -- -I- 1- -I-- I--- ~a.I-- I--- -- Resonance is brought about by specific physical and acousti- 1024 -- -I-- 1- -I-- I---- ~ -I-- -- cal functions and the directors and teachers who understand -I- -I-- ~ these functions are in a better position to help students dis- 896 - - - -- -- -r- -I- I-- -~ ,- 768 - - - cover and use more beautiful and more efficient voices. ~ .Jt a - The Vocal Instrument at Work 640 y""T 'it 512:::11 tI ""X '" ;;pr ~ ~ R .,. Before there can be resonance of any kind there must 384 be something to generate a tone and something to vibrate ... r in sympathy with that tone. With the voice the vocal folds 256 '* .~* are the generator, creating the fundamental pitch, and the A' .. air mass in the oral and pharyngeal cavities (mouth and ... I II I 128 7 a ,. ,. ,., n ,. n "J rJ '7 t' throat> vibrate, "in resonance" sympathetically. The oral and '" pharyngeal cavities make excellent resonators, despite the L:t e E.~a et r:>, OVLA. soft tissue of the walls, because they are variable in size and lee lid laid led lad lamb lot law lord load look loot can thus be "tuned" to many different frequencies. The posi- )( PRODUCED BY RESONANCE IN THE PHARYNX (THROAT) tion of the tongue and its point of division between the two a PRODUCED BY RESONANCE IN THE ORAL CAVITY (MOUTH) cavities, along with the motion of the jaw and lips, deter- mines the size and shape of the vocal tract. When a person is enunciating an Ii! vowel, as in lee, Chart I illustrates how a male singer would be able to the base of the tongue moves forward creating a large space produce some 12 different vowels while singing the same in the pharyngeal cavity. This degree of space makes it pitch. The phonetic symbols below the bass clef are from possible for a frequency as low as perhaps 200 Hz. to be the international phonetic alphabet and there are key words initiated through sympathetic resonance. During the enuncia- to illustrate the vowel sound of each symbol. The lower line tion of an Ial vowel, as in lot, the base of the tongue moves of formants, represented by an x, are attributed to changes back toward the phraynx, reducing the space of the throat. in the size of the throat cavity. As the singer moves from Ii! In this position a resonant frequency of about 800 Hz. will to III to Ie! to lEI and la! the first formant moves higher be resonanted. and higher, and with each new vowel the formant is related The mouth is a bit more variable in size and shape and to the next overtone. When the singer moves from the /a! is capable of tuning in frequencies from about 2200 Hz., in toward the lUi, the lips begin to round more and more. This its most diminished size, to about 400 Hz. when the jaw is closing of the mouth aperture lowers the frequency of the lowered and the lips rounded. For those who are interested resonating space and we see the formant return to its ori- in a thorough presentation of specific alterations of the mouth ginal location, the first overtone, utilizing each of the over- and throat cavities for the several vowels, see The Science tones in the series as it steps back down. of Vocal Pedagogy by D. Ralph Appelman, Indiana Univer- The second formant region lies, for the most part, above sity Press, 1965, pges 297-348. the treble clef. There are fourteen overtones which the singer The Ingredients of Vowels may select as formants, the highest being 2176 Hz., which The quality of a vowel may be compared to the mixing is the 16th overtone of C 128 Hz. As the mouth space begins of certain colors in order to attain different shades. A mix- to grow larger, moving from the ;iI to the III to the lei ture of yellow with blue will result in some shade of green, to the IE/ and finally to the la/, the second formant gradually for example. A small amount of yellow and a large amount moves down through the overtone series. As the singer con- of blue would produce a dark green. If one would reverse tinues from the la/ toward the lu/ and lip rounding begins, the proportions a rather light green would emerge. we see the formant continue to assume the lower overtones In addition to the fundamental pitch, a vowel has cer- of the series until it arrives at ,u/, the lowest formant used. tain "tuned in" overtones or partials which are called for- Vocal Resonance mants. Vowels will vary in their quality and recognition as When the singer has his vowel formants absolutely tuned different formants are selected and tuned in to the cavities in to the proper overtone, by the careful manipulation of of the mouth and throat. While there are a number of for- the spaces of mouth and throat, he will have attained his mants present in the spectrum of a sung vowel, we will con- maximum resonance. Under these conditions the singer will OCTOBER 1975 13 RESONANCE ... only when every singer in the choral group is producing the same exact vowel formants. Since different sections are have greater volume with less effort, soft ones will have assigned different pitches (at least a good bit of the time) greater carrying power, less breath will be required to pro- perfect blend becomes next to impossible. On the other hand duce the same amount of tone, and he will have a tone since most parts of a given piece are harmonically related: which has beauty, brilliance and "ring". Conversely, the it should follow that the overtones of each part being sung singer who does not know how to tune in his formants to will be closely related and that many of the overtones will overtones will produce a weak, dull, uninteresting tone, will be on the same frequency. When such is not the case then need to use much effort to attain the "forte" volume level we must compromise and take the nearest formant tuning will become physically tired while singing, will not be easil; possible.