From: patriot-AT-mip.net
Date: Fri, 06 Dec 1996 12:54:16 -0200
Subject: Re:  Puppet Voices


Hee, hee, I've been biting my tongue to keep quiet during this exchange.  I
am a professional Speech Pathologist, licensed and certified and I practiced
for a long time helping those who had done things TO their voices while
doing things WITH their voices, both singers and actors.

Both of you seem to have quite a good understanding of the mechanics and
even of the anatomy, with the exception that you both failed to mention the
sini as resonators, which indeed they are and the size of the head and
"shape of the face" (and the hollow spaces therein, i.e. sini) are what
gives individual voices their distinctive character.

One other error is that the vocal "folds" <g>, do, indeed change "tension"
to increase pitch as does the air pressure from the lungs.  One uses a lot
"more" (volumn of) air with more relaxed vocal folds to make low pitched
sounds, but less air, at a much higher pressure and higher tension of the
folds for the high pitched sounds.  That's what the aratynoid bones and
muscles are for, to rotate to bring the vocal folds into approximation for
making sound and to control the tension for the changes of pitch.

Victor Morell, an opera singer/teacher of "yesteryear" used to tell his
pupils when they were striving for a high note, that it only takes "thisa
mucha air" with his fingers showing about a half inch of space, and he was
right.  You actually "blow" the vocal folds to produce sound, much like you
blow a read (or vibrate the lips) to play a woodwind or a brass instrument.
And the "effort" should be from the "gut" or diaphragm and not from the
throat.  

Anyone who has played a clarinet, for example, knows that the "ombrachure"
or tension of the mouth on the reed is necessary for the higher notes as is
much more pressure of the air being blown through.  A lot of vocal coaches
(singers) say you must sing from the diaphragm (you really should speak from
there as well if you want to project well) which means that you "set" the
chest and USE the diaphragm as the bellows it's supposed to be.  Many are
what are called in singing palance, "necktie tenors" when they put the
pressure and tension only in the throat and try to "squeeze" out the high
notes - very bad ! <g>  If you're not sure that you know what I mean, lie
flat on your back and sing or speak and you'll find it very difficult not to
use the diaphragm !  Babies are natural "belly breathers" (just watch them
in their cribs, the belly rises and falls, not the chest), but as we get
older, we get lazy and most become chest breathers.  No wonder the operatic
divas and divos (examples, Pavarotti, Traubel and others!) have big "guts".
They need them for the control of their "big" voices.

I'm surprised that the advice was not given that FIRST you must decide what
kind of "character" you are trying to create before you even try to give
it/him/her a "voice".  It should fit the character as to size (small
puppets, smaller voices unless for comic effect) and the "personality" you
wish to create.

One of you said that you must "close off the mouth" to get a nasal voice.
Not true, if you actually could or did, you wouldn't be able to articulate
the voice that you produced.  What happens in order to "nasalize" a voice is
that the soft palate (you know, it has that little "hangy-down" thing in the
back of the mouth attached! <g>) needs to be more relaxed than in normal
speech so that MORE of the sound and air excape through the nose rather than
begin directed and "aimed" at the hard palate so as to be projected through
the mouth.

Just try to make any of your character voices easy and relaxed and as
"strain free" as possible and you'll avoid not only sore throats but bouts
of laryngitis as well, not to mention that the quality of the voices you
create will be more pleasing !

Cheers,
David

David M. Adams
591 Old Stage Road
Frederick, Maryland, 21703



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