Soprano-Formants on Lloyd W. Hanson

The Soprano Voice in Choral Music

Sat, 31 Jan 2015 19:31:20 +0000

The Soprano Voice in Choral Music

The soprano voice can easily overcome any choral sound especially if it has a basically flute quality. Consider the orchestra; 2 or 3 flutes against 30 to 45 strings. That has become the accepted balance of sounds yet the flute does not produce a tone louder than a violin. Why are so few flutes needed to be heard easily against a literal army of strings?

Extending the Range of the Female Voice

Fri, 03 Jan 2014 00:05:26 +0000

Extending the Range of the Female Voice

I suggest work on balanced onsets until the student can do them easily and consistently . The onset exercises in Miller’s “The Structure of Singing” works for me but I more often now make up my own as seems to be needed by the student. Keep in mind that a balanced onset is neither a breathy onset nor a harsh attack onset; it is a an onset that is neither breathy nor preceeded by a glottal stroke but somewhere in between these extremes.

Female Vowels Above the Treble Staff

Thu, 02 Jan 2014 23:41:41 +0000

Females Voice Reduced Vowel Usage Above Treble Staff.

About soprano high Cs. This would be designated as a C6 if middle C is designated as a C4. No voice can sing the vowel in “Tod” on a pitch that high. The only vowel available to any voice on that pitch is the vowel “ah” (In IPA /a/).

The reason? All vowels are recognized by the listener hearing two emphasized harmonics particular to each vowel or vowel modification. These harmonics are emphasized by the vocal tract resonances called formants. From A5 and higher the singer finds that all formants which are needed to identify vowels are lower than the pitch they are singing. Therefore the singer must emphasize the fundamental by using the vowel with the highest first formant and that vowel is /a/. The singer is able, within some restrictions, to raise the resonance pitch of the first formant to match the high fundamental. She does this by opening the mouth and jaw and in some cases spreading the lips in a kind of opened mouth smile. This is the reason that all female voices assume some form of open mouth posture when singing these high notes.

Soprano Formant Change

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:03:19 +0000

If the soprano wishes to maintain or increase vocal intensity on an /a/ vowel in the range from about E5 and up, all-the-while keeping a vocal quality that closely matches her quality below these notes, she must gradually open her mouth as she ascends above E5. Acoustically she is tuning the first formant of her vocal tract to the fundamental and as the fundamental rises above E5 she must raise the first formant resonance to match the fundamental which she does by opening the mouth. Most female singers will do this instinctively. Middle voice notes below E5 will tune the second formant to one of the overtones of the fundamental.