Page 15 - INSIDE ACCESS MAY 21 3RD EDITION

FUN FACTS
10Throaty Facts about
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Vocal Chords
Your voice is basically
a reeded instrument. Speaking and singing depend on the larynx (voice-box) in your neck. In order to produce sound, adductor muscles provide resistance
to the air you exhale.
Your vocal cords are actually folds.
The stretchy fibrous tissue inside the larynx which we call “chords,” which vibrate as you breathe air out over them, are more accurately “folds” of skin, rather than cords.
They vibrate multiple times per second.
This vibration of your vocal chords being “blown” apart and then "sucked" back together repeats hundreds (the average male hits about 110) and even thousands of times per second, producing voice.
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They may make sound, but
your mouth makes speech.
Speech or song may begin in its basest form in the vocal cords,
but it’s shaped by muscular changes in the mouth and jaw, particularly the lips and tongue (although some languages have sounds that bypass the vocal cords entirely for instance, certain African languages have a “click” sound made exclusively by the tongue).
One of the most basic sounds of your vocal chords is “zzzz.” The sound that the vibration of vocal chords produces is called a “voiced sound”
and is usually a kind of hum.
The easiest way to experience this yourself is to wrap your hand around your throat and say: sssssssszzzzzzzzsssssssszzzzzzz. You should be able to feel the vibrations of the z sound and the calmness of the s.
Your vocal chords are the most unique “musical” instrument. According to Ingo Titze, director of the National Center for Voice and Speech at the University of Utah, it would be nearly impossible
to create an instrument that could elongate and vibrate exactly the way human vocal chords do.
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They look like a nightmare
out of a horror flick.
If you didn’t know what you were seeing in this laparoscopic video of the opening and closing of these mucous-laden vocal chords, you might be tempted to gather your children and flee from the alien invasion.
Are the vocal cords of singers different from regular vocal cords? Opera singers and pop stars work hard to develop their singing power the way athletes train
for their sport. So while Adele’s vocal chords were probably not much different from yours at birth, she’s trained them, her diaphragm, and her lungs to produce the power that comes with her songs.
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The widest vocal range
of any human is 10 octaves.
On August 1, 2008, Tim Storms of Missouri set a Guinness World Record by demonstrating the widest vocal range of any human, 10 octaves, ranging from G/G#-5 to G/G#5.
In comparison, famed pop star Mariah Carey, renowned for her range, reportedly can only sing in five octaves. Mr. Storms also holds the record
for the lowest vocal note.
Here's why boys'
voices crack at puberty. Boys’ vocal chords are the same length as girls’ until they are teenagers around 13, at which point they grow longer, making a boy’s voice "break" and get deeper.
PAGE 15 INSIDE ACCESS | MAY 2021 3RD EDITION