So you have no idea what the pharynx is...me neither, until now.

Have you ever heard of the pharynx? Until this past week, I hadn't really either. I knew it was part of the respiratory system as a passage for air but I had no idea of it's function and how it relates to singing. So let's learn about the pharynx together. Pictured below is a side view of the mouth to the esophagus. We will be specifically talking about the area colored in orange which is the mid pharynx. 


The mid pharynx also called the oral pharynx is a visible part of the respiratory and digestive system that can be seen when the mouth is open. Its primary function for singing is when we ascend in pitch the mid pharynx will narrow. The mid pharynx will only narrow and move back into a neutral position, no widening at all. When the mid pharynx is narrowed the sound that is produced will be brighter, where a neutral pharynx will have a more neutral sounding timbre. 

The mid pharynx is also functions to help produce twang in the voice. By narrowing the mid pharynx we introduce a twang quality that is desirable in more musical theatre, pop, or non-western classical ways of singing. In our vocal pedagogy class, we watched several different styles of singing where the vocalist used the narrowing of the mid pharynx to bring a bright brassy tone into their sound. Some singers produce this by scrunching their faces when singing higher notes in that particular style. Even while singing in my car to Sara Bareilles, I was using the strategy of scrunching my nose to produce a twang similar to her timbre for the song "Love Song", I didn't even realize that was a vocal choice I was making until we learned about it in class. The more you know, I suppose. We can take away from this week's learning are subtle changes from very specific parts of the vocal tract will inherently change our sound for whatever style we would like to produce. 

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