Vocalist.org archive


From:  Reg Boyle <bandb@n...>
Date:  Thu Jun 1, 2000  4:29 am
Subject:  Lloyd W. Hanson Resend TECH: Falsetto


Dear Listers.
Apparently Lloyd is having communications difficulties and Mary
Beth resent his input, reproduced below. Because the formatting
was corrupted I've reformatted it and with the permission of Mary
Beth am resending it. Hope it works because his input is so valuable
to us all. May I stress, the FROM address is mine, not Lloyd's.
Reg. *******

from Lloyd W. Hanson DMA to Mary Beth.....
Would it be asking too much to have you send the posting I am
including below to the Vocalist. I am unable to post anything on
this list for reasons I do not understand and I would like to be a
part of the discussion.


It is helpful to keep in mind that the action of the vocal folds
determines the sonic spectrum of the phonated sound. If the folds
are thick, somewhat shortened, and internally tense as is found in
chest voice, a greater mass of the vocal fold is oscillating during
phonation.
That is, the various defined areas of the vocal folds are all in
some degree of oscillation. This includes the mucosal membrane,
the vocal ligament, and the thyro-arytenoid muscles, sometimes
called the vocalis muscle.

If the vocal folds are elongated they become less bulky and
thinner. As this occurs, the vocalis muscle must gradually release its
tension against the stretch of the crico-thyroid muscles.
As this release is accomplished, the vocal ligament must assume
more and more of the longitudinal tension support of the vocal folds in
lieu of the loss of the vocalis muscles activity. In this condition, the
mucosal membrane and the vocal ligaments are in oscillation.

This is commonly called the middle voice or, by some, the mixed
voice.

Once the vocal ligament becomes the primary support for the vocal
folds it is no longer a primary oscillating portion of the phonated sound.
When this condition is achieved the primary oscillating portion of the
vocal folds is the mucosal membrane.

This condition is most often called head voice or high voice.

An altogether different condition occurs with falsetto. In falsetto the
vocal folds do not adduct or approximate as completely as in normal
voice. More air is passed over the vocal folds with a resultant breathy
quality that is characteristic of falsetto voice. Because the vocal folds
do not complete-ly adduct there is less breath pressure below the folds,
commonly called sub-glottal pressure. Although the mucosal area is
still the primary oscillating portion of the vocal folds it is doing so
without the complete closure of the vocal folds and the resultant sound
does not achieve the richness of quality that is possible in head voice
when there is complete closing and complete opening of the folds.
Without complete closure or adducting, a fundamental and only a few
overtones are produced as the air "leaks" past the vocal fold
membranes and achieves only partial oscillation.

It is possible for any voice to create this quality by simply
increasing the breath flow past the vocal folds. The difference
between men and women in achieving this falsetto voice is that
many men, especially the lower voices, can produce ONLY this
voice in their upper ranges.
This is because only in their upper extremes are the vocal
folds sufficiently lengthened so that they can achieve the partial
closure of long vocal folds necessary for falsetto voice.

Confusion exists when male voices are able to phonate in head
voice into the highest parts of their ranges and these ranges
coincide with the lower female ranges, and when they can do
this with a quality that is much richer than falsetto.
In reality these singers are capable of, or have learned to extend
their head voice configuration. Vocal folds are fully adducted,
the vocal ligament sustains the longitudinal tension of the
vocal folds, and the mucosal membrane is the primary oscillatory
portion of the vocal folds. Because the resultant sound in some
ways resembles the quality of falsetto and because the pitch of
such phonations is above the normal range a conclusion is made
that the singer is using falsetto voice.

Such is not the case.

Many counter-tenors are capable of producing this extension of
the head voiceconfiguration. Others achieve a similar quality
through the use of the falsetto configuration.
The difference is in the functional operation of the vocal folds
themselves. As less adducted vocal folds phonated with
increased breath emission (falsetto voice) are gradually completely
adducted, the breath emission is reduced because the vocal folds
become more efficient in obtaining complete closure and developing
greater sub-glottal breath pressure. Once this condition is achieved,
the singer has migrated from falsetto into true head voice.
Many singers can teach themselves to do this, especially lyric tenors.

Then later:

In both of these quotes you have assumed that the length of the
vocal fold is shortened by the terms used. However, another
interpretation is that both writers are considering the edges of
the vocal folds. That is, the fee borders are the mucosal membranes,
not a shortened form of the vocal folds. When Brodnitz speaks of
magins he means the edges of the vocal folds, not a shortened
margin of the length of the vocal fold.

My earlier e-mail to you is a summary of the more recent research
done by IngoTitze

Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA
Professor of Voice, Vocal Pedagogy
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86004










  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
2063 Vocal power and Lloyd W. Hanson ... TECH: Falsett John Alexander Blyth   Thu  6/1/2000   4 KB
2080 Re: Lloyd W. Hanson Resend TECH: Falsetto saint james   Fri  6/2/2000   2 KB
2083 Re: Lloyd W. Hanson Resend TECH: Falsetto Reg Boyle   Fri  6/2/2000   2 KB

emusic.com