Self Reflection on Vocal Fold Mass

     In my years of singing and teaching, there have been a lot of different techniques and topics to cover. There has never be a time when I felt like "ah yes, I know everything about singing" and this past week I had a major revelation about how I was not feeling or body mapping the function of the vocal folds in their relation to my singing. The idea that I can have intention and control the length of my vocal folds is absolutely baffling because I believed it was just an arbitrary movement done by the body, similar to the function of the diaphragm. I knew the vocal folds opened and closed for vibration but didn't know the degree that I could decide what intentions they were able to move. So let's do some explanation of the vocal folds and they ways you can affect their position. 

Photo used from: cvsurgicalgroup.com

    Above is a side view drawing of anatomy of the lips to the esophagus, on the left we see a piece labeled as the vocal cord. On the right, the top of the vocal cords are shown in greater detail. We will mainly be focused on the white parts of the image on the left and how as singers we can consciously make choices about vocal fold length. In order to sing higher pitches our vocal folds will elongate and thin out, while to sing lower pitches they would shorten and become thicker. But these qualities don't have to happen with just high and low pitches, as singers we can create different vocal qualities but thinning or thickening the vocal folds. To feel and hear how the vocal folds think out a thicken, try humming on a low note and sliding slowly up to a high note. As you sing a low note, notice how your voice feels; low notes are thick vocal folds. As you slide up the scale, do you notice how your voice sounds or feels? Higher notes are thinner vocal folds. Continue to experiment with this and notice different feelings or sounds that you may not be used to. We will continue adding to our knowledge of vocal folds as we incorporate laryngal tilt and placement in the next blog post. 




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