OMG I'm in grad school for speech-language pathology. This is the first explanation that has made sense to me. The skies opened, angels are singing and the sun is shining on me. I get it now, and I can take my midterm in peace. Thanks!
I study linguistics and that helped me big time. Finally some easy explanation, step by step. It's so bloody annoying when everyone expects us to jump straight into hard stuff without explaining the basics.
I've always felt that linguists, voice teachers, and speech therapists should get together and talk, more. As an outsider to all three of those professions, but as someone who has benefited from all three, it seems like there is a fair amount of overlap between the different professions, but the research and training all happens in different silos.
This made so much sense that I started giggling and hopping like a school girl. Absolutely flawless, Karyn. Keep it up, the world of vocal pedagogy needs you
I'm an electrical engineer, and we pass the formant frequencies into neural nets to ease the training of the nets. This video is good, I'm marking it for future.
I've commented on your videos several times before and I have to say that you are the most knowledgeable and articulate voice teacher I've ever come across. In fact I would say you're the best teacher period of any subject I've ever seen! As a music school grad (Berklee/Boston) who taught music for 34 years and studied voice for several years, I'm not easily impressed, and you impress the heck out of me! You are my 'go to' voice teacher on the web! Also, I believe you mentioned you were writing a book. Any ideas when it might be available? I definitely want to purchase it whenever it comes out so please keep us up to date!
Your concept of singing as the process of matching vocal cord harmonics ( source ) with the formants of the vocal tract (resonator) is an absolutely brilliant explanation the art and science of singing. Your explanation is satisfying and useful for both physicist and singer. Thank you.
Thank you Karyn for simplifying and being bold to show this to the singing world when this fascinating topic was just beginning to be a part of the singers and voice teachers world. You are awesome!
Speech pathologist and professional singer/ vocal coach here, applauding you for providing such a thorough and yet clear explanation of these matters! I often give a rather simplified version to my students/clients (as an introduction to a formant tuning activity). But if anyone expresses interest in a deeper dive, I'll now know to send them here!
Hi, I am a university student doing the Psychology of Language" subject and you have explained Formants and Harmonics and the vocal cavity in such an easy to understand manner I feel like some of the pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place for me thus assisting me with a recording assignment thank you.
I am also a linguistic student struggling with the spectrogram, this video definitely helps in connecting acoustics phonetics and articulatory phonetics, and it puts phonetics knowledge in the context so I can know how and when to use them. It is really a wonderful video! I especially like the part distinguishing vowels according to the space of oral tract and pharynx!
Omg that's so clear, omg, I have lost my words. I hope all singers will be able to watch this video and understand what they were doing. This definitely gave me confidence after constantly losing my ideal voice almost every time I escape (stress and procrastination) from my practice. It is really saying yes you will find your voice oneday without being like an illusion.
OMG!!! I thought I was crazy for thinking all this information but never hearing it from outside. I'm so grateful for the existence of this video and now it all makes so much sense. Thank you for informing us!!
Love your use of technical terms, it helps provide an introduction to your depth of education and knowledge. I'm sure you expect to build our understanding of the science behind singing as you add more videos.
I have been singing for nearly 20 years, and have been classically trained in Bel Canto operatic technique for 11 years. I could tell from the moment you began speaking that you are well trained and versed in vocal technique because of the level of air and muscular support you give your voice, as well as the openness. This was a wonderful explanation. Thank you so much, and I hope you are being paid VERY well by Singwise, as your comprehension level is such that you could easily make hundreds of dollars an hour as a vocal teacher in NYC. I hope they realize the asset you are to their company.
As a reader of your website, I'm very glad that you plan on using this channel more in the future! I'd love to see some vocal examples and exercices to help understand some of the topics you cover on the site. Thank you for all the great information!
+Ally Adeti Indeed! My original plan was to record instructional videos related to the articles that would help clarify the topics for those who are visual and auditory learners. I still plan to do so and embed them in the articles on the SingWise website for easier reference. I just needed better equipment and lighting - I still do, but this is an improvement on the quality of the old videos!
Wow ... I feel like I learned more about singing (intellectually, at least) in this video than a 4 year degree in classical voice and almost 40 years of being a hack singer. Having just taken early retirement from my IT career, I am eagerly absorbing as much knowledge as possible about singing to launch some retirement home gigs. This video is EXCELLENT and a great addition to my other training.
Just shared your video on my FB page, as we're going over formants in tomorrow's lecture in my voice science course at OSU. Although I had an understanding, and have Dr. McCoy's book in front of me, your video helped solidify a few gray areas I still had after reviewing the topic tonight. Thank you tremendously for sharing your knowledge! You're helping so many people.
Thank you so much...I came here for the basics of Formants is supposed to be...trying teach myself English, both british and american...I thank you so much for this lesson. You're Top!
I’m in speech science. My teacher explained it like harmonics are your vocal chords and formants are the vocal tract / resonators which change the sound into what we hear(:
you are an extraordinary explainer!!!! Truly, and I have very high standards as an 11 year educator myself and also because my voice coach (Matthew Ramsey, also on RUclips) has laid such a high precedent for me! Thanks for this lesson, I stumbled across it while trying to deepen my understanding of how different vowels are affecting my singing and throat/mouth. This has really helped. All of it going towards better singing on NICU's upcoming debut album. So, your lesson means the world to me
Hi Karyn ! It´s a pleasure to meet you even on the internet. I liked so much of your explanation about the formants and harmonics and I see the super importance of them to produce a voice more powerful and beautiful and full of colorature. The best explanation so far. As a singer student I´d like to ask you some questions: 1. What vocal exercises do you recommend to practice in order to feel or find theses the formants and harmonics? 2. What kind of "subtle adjustments" in vocal tract can lead us ear the formants and harmonics? Thank you so much !
Phenomenal explanation! Thank you so much! Your blog posts and channel have done an amazing job of explaining the science behind singing even for someone who has picked up singing as a hobby. I've been really interested in the idea lately of using a spectrogram to see another perspective of my voice but was struggling with all the terminology I was hearing in other videos.
Karyn I just love how you explain EVERYTHING! It really is so helpful and Om so glad this video popped up in my feed. Thank you for all you share and do for singers and voice professionals. 🙏❤️🎵
Very good explanation! I had 4 or 5 epiphanies from this. Biggest one being we want to shape our vocal tract to resonate at the frequencies of the harmonics of the voice.
This helped me so much! I've been struggling really hard (for days) to wrap my head around vowel formants and fundamental frequency and why they changed for different vowels and how they fitted together... this was a Godsend!!!! It's so helpful that you explain things simply, in terms of what is physically happening in the vocal tract. Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!
Could you do a video example of each vowel and suggestions on how to enhance the formant? My voice has very little "ring" to it especially on dark vowels like oh, ah, and uh. Your videos are fantastic. Keep on doing the good work!
Thanks so much! I was actually just talking to a student about this topic this morning and saying that I need to record a follow up of this video that discusses the specific adjustments of the vocal tract that will yield which changes to which formants. Obviously, discussion of vowels will be a part of that. I'm trying to figure out how to make it work, though, because I feel as though I'd need to use spectrographic analysis. That would be time consuming, and I always feel so rushed with these videos. I'll figure it out soon.
I sing in a barbershop quartet so this is fundamental to the ring and "wall of sound" and concept of expanded sound. Every once in a while I hear a barbershopper talk about formants (ok actually only twice in 25 years) but it is fundamental. I have noticed the more you sing with the same group of guys the better our sound. I bet it is the microadjustments of formants to give better ringing and harmonics as your ear learns the other peoples voices.
wow cool!! I sort of know about this from synths and software...like Melodyne has a formant adjustment setting-but I wasn't sure what it did.. and the sonics of horns and woodwinds.. i think of it simplistically as filtering. Thanks great info.
Might need to come back to this, lot's of information, elegantly delivered, and I don't mind your passion for vocal science. It transfers to my mixing study, beautifully. Happy New Year (Edited: Will definitely be returning. Isn't discovery a wonderful thing)
Great video. What would have been useful is a practical demonstration of you singing a pitch, changing the resonating cavities to demonstrate the ideal arrangement for that pitch and then one which gets it exactly "wrong" and helping us to understand what you did and what to listen out for.
Thank you Karen for this clear explanation. You have inspired me to want to figure out better how to do this in my own voice and for my students. I agree that too many pedagogues throw around references to formants in the midst of other discussions without context making the whole subject they were discussing fog over. A few years ago I took a summer course on vocal acoustics that presupposed that I understood all this before I went. It was a dizzying week!
Good information, just a little objection: The first harmonic is often NOT the loudest harmonic. In fact, it does not even need to exist for us to be able to identify the pitch. Even if, say, the bottom five harmonics are muted, we can still recognize the pitch, because of the unique pattern of overtones of every tone.
That can certainly be the case, but my understanding, (based on Johan Sundberg's writings, e.g. The Acoustics of the Singing Voice, Scientific American, p.84), is that the amplitude of the harmonics decreases with higher frequency, which means that the higher harmonics in the series are generally not as loud as the lower harmonics (of course, there are the acoustic boosts that a formant might give to a higher harmonic frequency that might tip the scale) and that even H1 will decrease in amplitude with the higher phonation frequency.
This makes a lot of sense, as it's based on physics. Can you recommend any spectrum analysis apps that can help with the trial and error, and maybe even help identify how to explore the possible turnings of the vocal tract?
I own the Voce Vista software, which came with Donald G. Miller's book Resonance in Singing: Voice Building through Acoustic Feedback. You can find free software on-line, but I've never looked into them or used any of them, so I wouldn't know what to recommend.
+Le Anh Quoc Yes. It's good to be back. I needed to take a break for a while to get some other things done (and to get some better video recording equipment).
First off, very helpful video thank you for sharing! It was still a bit unclear to me what the distinction between harmonics and overtones were, so I wiki'd it and it said that basically an overtone is any frequency above the fundamental frequency (so harmonics are overtones, which is what you said I believe). Is this correct or and I still missing something? If so, I hope this helps some other viewers if that was unclear to you as well. Again, thank you for the information! You're a really passionate teacher and WE can feel that, makes the videos fun to watch. Keep it up!
Yes, the harmonic series consists of the fundamental frequency AND all the harmonics above it, (which means that the fundamental is a harmonic - the first harmonic of the sound source). Overtones are ONLY the harmonics above the fundamental (i.e., the fundamental is not an overtone). If you focus on the 'over' part of the word, that may help. 'Over'tones are harmonics that are 'over' (in frequency) the fundamental (first harmonic). I hope that clarifies things for you. Let me know if you have any further questions.
I may have stumbled upon a way to tap into feeling out your formants. Feedback would be much appreciated! Something I did growing up came back to me recently: When listening to Linkin Park I used to express my teenage angst in whispers - as to avoid offending anyone with my pubescent screeching. Soon, the possibility of changing the pitch of a whisper through manipulation of mouth and tongue occured to adolescent me. Only yesterday did the concept of combining a sung notes with the mouth shape and tongue position that would produce a whisper of the same pitch present itself. The connection to formants - a term that had been collecting dust in a cerebral stowaway chamber for years - quickly followed suit and I ultimately found myself here. Any input on this from you would be positively delightful. Thank you for this amazing video!
I'm a fan of Kenneth Bozeman's book Practical Vocal Acoustics and Donald Miller's Resonance in Singing. I also have an interview with Professor Bozeman on this channel: ruclips.net/video/dxttfvX-FRs/видео.html
::groan:: :-) Can I suggest a Part Two to this video? "Singwise in The Laboratory" I'd love to see this in action, not only have it explained. I bet there is some acoustical lab near you that would love to collaborate on using computer measurement to enhance your explanations. Have a singer actually make these adjustments and show in their software what is going on. Could be fun... As always, thank you for your work.
That was the plan, but getting it done is another story! I have spectrographic software, and I should just do some basic demonstrations of what happens when we lower the jaw, lower the larynx, laterally spread the lips, etc... Of course, most viewers would not be able to understand how to read a spectrograph, and even with explanations, it might just go over their heads. I didn't want to get any more 'nerdy' than this for the sake of those who would not understand this topic. This video - my first RUclips video on this channel! - was intended only to explain what formants are harmonics are (using the concept of the vowel cavity), not how to tune formants.
Hi, Karen. I already emailed you about a week ago. I have now read and understood virtually all of your materials, and am now looking at your RUclips videos. I sent you a link to my recent concert at a retirement home. I am interested in optimizing my formants, and have already used a trial beta Apple version of Overtone Analyzer. I also just bought VoceVista, which I expect to receive in about a week. I am seeking to optimize my resonance, although I often think that I may have already done that on my own by lots of experimentation, as you may be able to hear from my concert video. I live in Ottawa, and it's possible we may have crossed paths at some point, as you name sounds familiar and so does your face. Thanks.
Yes, I remember your first e-mail asking me about voice analysis software (if I'm thinking of the right person). I'll take a listen to your concert soon.
Maybe I'll record a video that addresses formant tuning specifically and discusses which adjustments of the vocal tract will raise or lower which formants.
I think you should show diagrams to illustrate these parts of the body . It's hard to retain all this physiological info. I thank you for taking the time to do , but when you explain complex, scientific stuff , you need to always have in mind to break it down as simply as possible.
I just found you and am thrilled. So how do we use technology to assist us with better singing? How could we use a spectograph in class or in practice at home? I know in Estill they do run their exams with a spectograph, so they have actual evidence singers can produce all the vocal qualities. How can we help ourselves understand better and master the vocal mechanism and of course our muscles, and our movements aritenoid dominant thyroid dominant and so on to affect our vocal tracts ?
Why are so many singers obsessed with strengthening their second harmonic in loud resonance strategies with high amplitude, but pay no attention to strengthening the first harmonic? The first harmonic is always going to be the loudest in the series of the human voice. Of any sound, really. So by neglecting the first harmonic, people are unwittingly making their singing voices sound thin and annoying. If the first harmonic is the fundamental, then doesn't it makes sense to make that as strong as possible so that the voice will have depth and fullness?
What about the other formants like F3-5? What's their anatomical basis and how do they sound like? How are they used for classical singing? I know these are hard questions to answer and probably a lot of research needs to be made but I literally have looked all around the internet in two languages and can't find an answer. Like I've read about the existence of these other formants but literally nobody explains them.
I can see you’re very passionate about it. I’d love to have some studies on harmonies (easy ones with the terminology please), would u send some to me?
So to apply this to our practice, we just need to experiment with mouth shape, placement, and also modifying some vowels slightly to see which one feels the easiest, most resonance and pleasing to our ears? Does it also depend on how much air or louder we sing?
Essentially, yes. If you're using spectrographic software, you'll see which harmonics are more 'present' than others. This visual representation of your resonance would inform your decisions about what to do with your tongue, lips, and jaw (assuming that you also know which movements or positions of those articulators will either raise or lower which formants). The louder we we sing, the stronger the sound source signal (from vocal fold vibration) and thus the more 'present' the overtones. You don't have to be singing fortissimo to hear the overtones, but resonance tuning will be a bit more challenging when you're singing softly.
Thank you for this video! Please, may I ask what 3rd, 4th and 5th formant mean? A formant cluster is the cluster of the 3rd to 5th formants. But what do these formants represent or mean?
Sorry. I missed your question until now. The formants are the natural resonance frequencies of the vocal tract. Because our resonator tract isn't a straight, rigid tube, it produces multiple frequencies. Think about if you were to fill a bunch of drinking glasses with varying levels of water and tap on them with a spoon. The glasses with more water in them will ring at a higher frequency because there is a smaller resonating space (above the water). So, we have several resonance frequencies, which are simply called formants, and they represent bands of heightened acoustical energy. The lowest of these resonance frequencies is the first formant. Then, the second formant is above that, and so forth. The third, fourth and fifth formants are simply higher resonance frequencies. In classical singer, especially, tenors will cluster these three higher formants by bringing them a bit closer to each other (through making slight adjustments to the size and/or shape of their resonator tracts) so that they operate almost like one huge band of acoustical energy. This makes it easier to resonate a given harmonic and it give an acoustical boost. This cluster is called the singer's formant because many elite classical singers use it to help self-amplify their voices. I hope this helps.
The thing I find difficult is how can we apply this knowledge to practice when singing? Every yeay we know more about the science of singing but I don't see singers being better or having better thecnique now than before. In fact is a little bit of the opposite thing.
It can make things more confusing and 'messy' if this knowledge is misapplied. In my chat with Professor Ken Bozeman, who is considered something of an authority of the subject of vocal acoustics, he told me that he uses spectrographic software during all his lessons, but not for resonance tuning purposes. And as I stated at the end of this video, teachers have been helping students achieve optimal resonance balance and carrying power for centuries without the aid of spectrographs. Trial and error is always far more important and effective. Playing around with different subtle adjustments to how we're shaping our resonator will ultimately yield the best results.
Question: When you say "we have no control over the harmonics", you mean we cannot change the specific over-tones of the harmonic to others, but we can increase or decrease their volume in the overall sound, right? Otherwise overtone singing would be impossible...
very cool explanation, instant SUB! :) i have one question though. if i sing higher notes, and want to track the resonance, according to this theory i would need to close my resonators more the higher i go in pitch. but when we sing, the opposite is the truth, to keep the same sound quality up high, we have to open our mouth more and more. why is that? =D
The adjustment of the ressonating frequency of the vocal track to some of the harmonic frequencies would cause the amplification of the harmonic volume, right? This wouldn't cause the "polyphonic signing" in which we car hear two frequencies being emited at the same time?
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OMG I'm in grad school for speech-language pathology. This is the first explanation that has made sense to me. The skies opened, angels are singing and the sun is shining on me. I get it now, and I can take my midterm in peace. Thanks!
That's funny I use a similar expression when I have an ahhhh haaa moment!
I study linguistics and that helped me big time. Finally some easy explanation, step by step. It's so bloody annoying when everyone expects us to jump straight into hard stuff without explaining the basics.
I'm so glad this video has helped to clarify matters! Thanks for your wonderful comment.
I totally agree!
I've always felt that linguists, voice teachers, and speech therapists should get together and talk, more. As an outsider to all three of those professions, but as someone who has benefited from all three, it seems like there is a fair amount of overlap between the different professions, but the research and training all happens in different silos.
This made so much sense that I started giggling and hopping like a school girl. Absolutely flawless, Karyn. Keep it up, the world of vocal pedagogy needs you
Thank you so much for the encouragement! And I'm so glad that it cleared things up for you!
I'm an electrical engineer, and we pass the formant frequencies into neural nets to ease the training of the nets. This video is good, I'm marking it for future.
Interesting! I'll have to read more about that. (My husband is an electrical engineer, too. Maybe he'll know something about it.)
I've commented on your videos several times before and I have to say that you are the most knowledgeable and articulate voice teacher I've ever come across. In fact I would say you're the best teacher period of any subject I've ever seen!
As a music school grad (Berklee/Boston) who taught music for 34 years and studied voice for several years, I'm not easily impressed, and you impress the heck out of me! You are my 'go to' voice teacher on the web!
Also, I believe you mentioned you were writing a book. Any ideas when it might be available? I definitely want to purchase it whenever it comes out so please keep us up to date!
I agree!!!
Awww! Thank you so much for your kind words!!!
Your concept of singing as the process of matching vocal cord harmonics ( source ) with the formants of the vocal tract (resonator) is an absolutely brilliant explanation the art and science of singing. Your explanation is satisfying and useful for both physicist and singer. Thank you.
Thank you so much for saying so.
Thank you Karyn for simplifying and being bold to show this to the singing world when this fascinating topic was just beginning to be a part of the singers and voice teachers world. You are awesome!
Speech pathologist and professional singer/ vocal coach here, applauding you for providing such a thorough and yet clear explanation of these matters! I often give a rather simplified version to my students/clients (as an introduction to a formant tuning activity). But if anyone expresses interest in a deeper dive, I'll now know to send them here!
Hi, I am a university student doing the Psychology of Language" subject and you have explained Formants and Harmonics and the vocal cavity in such an easy to understand manner I feel like some of the pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place for me thus assisting me with a recording assignment thank you.
I didn't realize how much vocal nerd I had in me until I came across your videos. Thank you!!
Well, you're part of a growing club of voice geeks and nerds. Welcome!
I am also a linguistic student struggling with the spectrogram, this video definitely helps in connecting acoustics phonetics and articulatory phonetics, and it puts phonetics knowledge in the context so I can know how and when to use them. It is really a wonderful video! I especially like the part distinguishing vowels according to the space of oral tract and pharynx!
Omg that's so clear, omg, I have lost my words. I hope all singers will be able to watch this video and understand what they were doing. This definitely gave me confidence after constantly losing my ideal voice almost every time I escape (stress and procrastination) from my practice. It is really saying yes you will find your voice oneday without being like an illusion.
OMG!!! I thought I was crazy for thinking all this information but never hearing it from outside. I'm so grateful for the existence of this video and now it all makes so much sense. Thank you for informing us!!
You are such an amazing teacher with a gift for explaining things in a way that is actually accessible to singers of all levels.
I'm not a singer, but I love sound and acoustics, and I admire your excitement, knowledge, and clarity of presentation of the topic!
Thank you so much!
Love your use of technical terms, it helps provide an introduction to your depth of education and knowledge. I'm sure you expect to build our understanding of the science behind singing as you add more videos.
I appreciate the comment!
Karyn, you are a beautiful human being. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Awww! Thanks so much for that! And you are very welcome.
I have been singing for nearly 20 years, and have been classically trained in Bel Canto operatic technique for 11 years.
I could tell from the moment you began speaking that you are well trained and versed in vocal technique because of the level of air and muscular support you give your voice, as well as the openness. This was a wonderful explanation. Thank you so much, and I hope you are being paid VERY well by Singwise, as your comprehension level is such that you could easily make hundreds of dollars an hour as a vocal teacher in NYC. I hope they realize the asset you are to their company.
As a reader of your website, I'm very glad that you plan on using this channel more in the future! I'd love to see some vocal examples and exercices to help understand some of the topics you cover on the site. Thank you for all the great information!
+Ally Adeti Indeed! My original plan was to record instructional videos related to the articles that would help clarify the topics for those who are visual and auditory learners. I still plan to do so and embed them in the articles on the SingWise website for easier reference. I just needed better equipment and lighting - I still do, but this is an improvement on the quality of the old videos!
Sounds great, looking forward to it!
Wow ... I feel like I learned more about singing (intellectually, at least) in this video than a 4 year degree in classical voice and almost 40 years of being a hack singer.
Having just taken early retirement from my IT career, I am eagerly absorbing as much knowledge as possible about singing to launch some retirement home gigs.
This video is EXCELLENT and a great addition to my other training.
Finally finished and understood this! Anything is possible with perseverance. Thank you.
Karyn, you make science sounds so easy to understand. I admire you for that! Thank You.
Aww. Thank you for saying so!
Just shared your video on my FB page, as we're going over formants in tomorrow's lecture in my voice science course at OSU. Although I had an understanding, and have Dr. McCoy's book in front of me, your video helped solidify a few gray areas I still had after reviewing the topic tonight. Thank you tremendously for sharing your knowledge! You're helping so many people.
Thank you so much, Justin, for your encouraging feedback and for sharing my video! I really appreciate it.
Hi Justin. Which of Dr. McCoy's books are you referring to?
This is the best easy explanation I have ever found on the formants.....Great job! Not an easy task whatsoever!
Thanks for the feedback. I'm so glad that I was able to make this topic easier for you to understand!
Thank you so much...I came here for the basics of Formants is supposed to be...trying teach myself English, both british and american...I thank you so much for this lesson. You're Top!
I’m in speech science. My teacher explained it like harmonics are your vocal chords and formants are the vocal tract / resonators which change the sound into what we hear(:
you are an extraordinary explainer!!!! Truly, and I have very high standards as an 11 year educator myself and also because my voice coach (Matthew Ramsey, also on RUclips) has laid such a high precedent for me!
Thanks for this lesson, I stumbled across it while trying to deepen my understanding of how different vowels are affecting my singing and throat/mouth. This has really helped. All of it going towards better singing on NICU's upcoming debut album. So, your lesson means the world to me
Thank you so much for this explanation! It cleared up a lot of confusion I had with jargon I would hear in singing tutorials.
I love your explanation and I'm definitely an artist. Thank You.
Hi Karyn ! It´s a pleasure to meet you even on the internet. I liked so much of your explanation about the formants and harmonics and I see the super importance of them to produce a voice more powerful and beautiful and full of colorature. The best explanation so far. As a singer student I´d like to ask you some questions:
1. What vocal exercises do you recommend to practice in order to feel or find theses the formants and harmonics?
2. What kind of "subtle adjustments" in vocal tract can lead us ear the formants and harmonics?
Thank you so much !
Phenomenal explanation! Thank you so much! Your blog posts and channel have done an amazing job of explaining the science behind singing even for someone who has picked up singing as a hobby. I've been really interested in the idea lately of using a spectrogram to see another perspective of my voice but was struggling with all the terminology I was hearing in other videos.
Karyn I just love how you explain EVERYTHING! It really is so helpful and Om so glad this video popped up in my feed. Thank you for all you share and do for singers and voice professionals. 🙏❤️🎵
It's wonderful to know, there are vocal teachers, wich have a serious knowledge of both vocal singing and acoustics! Brava! 😃👍
Wow, this video is so well prepared and made, with great and useful information. Thank you.
Very good explanation! I had 4 or 5 epiphanies from this. Biggest one being we want to shape our vocal tract to resonate at the frequencies of the harmonics of the voice.
Thank you! I've been working on developing more natural voice synthesis, and your video has helped a lot.
You're welcome.
This helped me so much! I've been struggling really hard (for days) to wrap my head around vowel formants and fundamental frequency and why they changed for different vowels and how they fitted together... this was a Godsend!!!! It's so helpful that you explain things simply, in terms of what is physically happening in the vocal tract. Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!
Could you do a video example of each vowel and suggestions on how to enhance the formant? My voice has very little "ring" to it especially on dark vowels like oh, ah, and uh. Your videos are fantastic. Keep on doing the good work!
Thanks so much! I was actually just talking to a student about this topic this morning and saying that I need to record a follow up of this video that discusses the specific adjustments of the vocal tract that will yield which changes to which formants. Obviously, discussion of vowels will be a part of that. I'm trying to figure out how to make it work, though, because I feel as though I'd need to use spectrographic analysis. That would be time consuming, and I always feel so rushed with these videos. I'll figure it out soon.
Looking forward to watching it!
I sing in a barbershop quartet so this is fundamental to the ring and "wall of sound" and concept of expanded sound. Every once in a while I hear a barbershopper talk about formants (ok actually only twice in 25 years) but it is fundamental. I have noticed the more you sing with the same group of guys the better our sound. I bet it is the microadjustments of formants to give better ringing and harmonics as your ear learns the other peoples voices.
Brilliant. Simple and love the conclusion that really just fool around with you voice and mouth and play. Thank you.
wow cool!! I sort of know about this from synths and software...like Melodyne has a formant adjustment setting-but I wasn't sure what it did.. and the sonics of horns and woodwinds.. i think of
it simplistically as filtering. Thanks great info.
Might need to come back to this, lot's of information, elegantly delivered, and I don't mind your passion for vocal science. It transfers to my mixing study, beautifully. Happy New Year (Edited: Will definitely be returning. Isn't discovery a wonderful thing)
Great video. What would have been useful is a practical demonstration of you singing a pitch, changing the resonating cavities to demonstrate the ideal arrangement for that pitch and then one which gets it exactly "wrong" and helping us to understand what you did and what to listen out for.
Thank you Karen for this clear explanation. You have inspired me to want to figure out better how to do this in my own voice and for my students. I agree that too many pedagogues throw around references to formants in the midst of other discussions without context making the whole subject they were discussing fog over. A few years ago I took a summer course on vocal acoustics that presupposed that I understood all this before I went. It was a dizzying week!
Very good explanation, clear and concise. Thank you.
Yeah this is a lot clearer than most vocal pedagogy books.
I'm so glad! Thanks for saying so.
Beautifully explained.
Good information, just a little objection: The first harmonic is often NOT the loudest harmonic. In fact, it does not even need to exist for us to be able to identify the pitch. Even if, say, the bottom five harmonics are muted, we can still recognize the pitch, because of the unique pattern of overtones of every tone.
That can certainly be the case, but my understanding, (based on Johan Sundberg's writings, e.g. The Acoustics of the Singing Voice, Scientific American, p.84), is that the amplitude of the harmonics decreases with higher frequency, which means that the higher harmonics in the series are generally not as loud as the lower harmonics (of course, there are the acoustic boosts that a formant might give to a higher harmonic frequency that might tip the scale) and that even H1 will decrease in amplitude with the higher phonation frequency.
Thank you for this. It cleared up basic questions that impeded my further understanding of vocal acoustics!
Well done - great job. That's not an easy concept to explain.
This makes a lot of sense, as it's based on physics.
Can you recommend any spectrum analysis apps that can help with the trial and error, and maybe even help identify how to explore the possible turnings of the vocal tract?
I own the Voce Vista software, which came with Donald G. Miller's book Resonance in Singing: Voice Building through Acoustic Feedback. You can find free software on-line, but I've never looked into them or used any of them, so I wouldn't know what to recommend.
Thank you for this fabulous tutorial.
+VIDEOHEREBOB You're very welcome!
This was clear and useful. Thanks!
thank you for this lesson
I'm so grateful for this. Thank you 😊❤️
You're very welcome!
Thank you for your very eloquent and clear explanation of this material!!!
Very clear and concise explanations. A big 'thank you'.
You explain this so good. X is now plain :) Thank you!
Amazing video!!! I'd love to see you practice e few examples in your following videos, if possible :) More videos please!!!
+Giannis VclScore That is most definitely the plan!
Fantastic explanation!
really thankful for this brilliant video
:)
You really know your stuff! Thanks for the upload!!!
Thank you! 😀
Fascinating. Thank you
Oh and you look gorgeous by the way!
Very informative, exactly what i was looking for. Thank you!
Excellent explanation.
Thank you for this video!!
thank you Karyn, finally you came back. ♡♡
+Le Anh Quoc Yes. It's good to be back. I needed to take a break for a while to get some other things done (and to get some better video recording equipment).
+singwisevocals Yes, the video's quality this time is so great, very enjoy it, so helpful tho. Thank you a lot again ;) have a great day !!
Smilesss😀...very informative
First off, very helpful video thank you for sharing! It was still a bit unclear to me what the distinction between harmonics and overtones were, so I wiki'd it and it said that basically an overtone is any frequency above the fundamental frequency (so harmonics are overtones, which is what you said I believe). Is this correct or and I still missing something? If so, I hope this helps some other viewers if that was unclear to you as well.
Again, thank you for the information! You're a really passionate teacher and WE can feel that, makes the videos fun to watch. Keep it up!
Yes, the harmonic series consists of the fundamental frequency AND all the harmonics above it, (which means that the fundamental is a harmonic - the first harmonic of the sound source). Overtones are ONLY the harmonics above the fundamental (i.e., the fundamental is not an overtone). If you focus on the 'over' part of the word, that may help. 'Over'tones are harmonics that are 'over' (in frequency) the fundamental (first harmonic). I hope that clarifies things for you. Let me know if you have any further questions.
I may have stumbled upon a way to tap into feeling out your formants. Feedback would be much appreciated!
Something I did growing up came back to me recently:
When listening to Linkin Park I used to express my teenage angst in whispers - as to avoid offending anyone with my pubescent screeching. Soon, the possibility of changing the pitch of a whisper through manipulation of mouth and tongue occured to adolescent me.
Only yesterday did the concept of combining a sung notes with the mouth shape and tongue position that would produce a whisper of the same pitch present itself. The connection to formants - a term that had been collecting dust in a cerebral stowaway chamber for years - quickly followed suit and I ultimately found myself here.
Any input on this from you would be positively delightful.
Thank you for this amazing video!
Very interesting Karyn, thanks so much for the info.
Now I know what I'm going to try on my next showers. Thanks charming teacher, that was enligthening.
Great explanations!!! Well done :)
Thanks for watching and commenting!
The greatest explanation and the teacher
Thanks for a very clear explanation
Very helpful video! Do you know where can I read (or watch) more about it?
I'm a fan of Kenneth Bozeman's book Practical Vocal Acoustics and Donald Miller's Resonance in Singing. I also have an interview with Professor Bozeman on this channel: ruclips.net/video/dxttfvX-FRs/видео.html
Bravo Karyn ! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Excellent! Thank you.
Also, I love the pun at the end👍 it resonates with me😁
Tee hee hee. :)
::groan:: :-)
Can I suggest a Part Two to this video? "Singwise in The Laboratory" I'd love to see this in action, not only have it explained. I bet there is some acoustical lab near you that would love to collaborate on using computer measurement to enhance your explanations. Have a singer actually make these adjustments and show in their software what is going on. Could be fun... As always, thank you for your work.
That was the plan, but getting it done is another story! I have spectrographic software, and I should just do some basic demonstrations of what happens when we lower the jaw, lower the larynx, laterally spread the lips, etc... Of course, most viewers would not be able to understand how to read a spectrograph, and even with explanations, it might just go over their heads. I didn't want to get any more 'nerdy' than this for the sake of those who would not understand this topic. This video - my first RUclips video on this channel! - was intended only to explain what formants are harmonics are (using the concept of the vowel cavity), not how to tune formants.
Hi, Karen. I already emailed you about a week ago. I have now read and understood virtually all of your materials, and am now looking at your RUclips videos. I sent you a link to my recent concert at a retirement home. I am interested in optimizing my formants, and have already used a trial beta Apple version of Overtone Analyzer. I also just bought VoceVista, which I expect to receive in about a week. I am seeking to optimize my resonance, although I often think that I may have already done that on my own by lots of experimentation, as you may be able to hear from my concert video. I live in Ottawa, and it's possible we may have crossed paths at some point, as you name sounds familiar and so does your face. Thanks.
Yes, I remember your first e-mail asking me about voice analysis software (if I'm thinking of the right person). I'll take a listen to your concert soon.
It would have been great if you had given some voice examples! But thank you, your analogies and explanations were very useful
Maybe I'll record a video that addresses formant tuning specifically and discusses which adjustments of the vocal tract will raise or lower which formants.
That would be fantastic: I'm studying this subject at the moment and yes it is a quite complicated matter but still fascinating!
Have you watched my recent video with Professor Ken Bozeman?
I think you should show diagrams to illustrate these parts of the body . It's hard to retain all this physiological info. I thank you for taking the time to do , but when you explain complex, scientific stuff , you need to always have in mind to break it down as simply as possible.
I just found you and am thrilled. So how do we use technology to assist us with better singing? How could we use a spectograph in class or in practice at home? I know in Estill they do run their exams with a spectograph, so they have actual evidence singers can produce all the vocal qualities. How can we help ourselves understand better and master the vocal mechanism and of course our muscles, and our movements aritenoid dominant thyroid dominant and so on to affect our vocal tracts ?
yeah Karyn, a vocal demonstration would have been good, i basically understood it, but needed an example of a tune ie you singing.
I appreciate the feedback; however, learning HOW to tune resonance was not the purpose of this video.
Thank you for this!
Really well explained- thank you.
Why are so many singers obsessed with strengthening their second harmonic in loud resonance strategies with high amplitude, but pay no attention to strengthening the first harmonic? The first harmonic is always going to be the loudest in the series of the human voice. Of any sound, really. So by neglecting the first harmonic, people are unwittingly making their singing voices sound thin and annoying. If the first harmonic is the fundamental, then doesn't it makes sense to make that as strong as possible so that the voice will have depth and fullness?
What about the other formants like F3-5? What's their anatomical basis and how do they sound like? How are they used for classical singing? I know these are hard questions to answer and probably a lot of research needs to be made but I literally have looked all around the internet in two languages and can't find an answer. Like I've read about the existence of these other formants but literally nobody explains them.
I can see you’re very passionate about it. I’d love to have some studies on harmonies (easy ones with the terminology please), would u send some to me?
Thanks, these facts are very informative
really well explained, thank you!
So to apply this to our practice, we just need to experiment with mouth shape, placement, and also modifying some vowels slightly to see which one feels the easiest, most resonance and pleasing to our ears? Does it also depend on how much air or louder we sing?
Essentially, yes. If you're using spectrographic software, you'll see which harmonics are more 'present' than others. This visual representation of your resonance would inform your decisions about what to do with your tongue, lips, and jaw (assuming that you also know which movements or positions of those articulators will either raise or lower which formants). The louder we we sing, the stronger the sound source signal (from vocal fold vibration) and thus the more 'present' the overtones. You don't have to be singing fortissimo to hear the overtones, but resonance tuning will be a bit more challenging when you're singing softly.
Thank you for this video! Please, may I ask what 3rd, 4th and 5th formant mean? A formant cluster is the cluster of the 3rd to 5th formants. But what do these formants represent or mean?
Sorry. I missed your question until now. The formants are the natural resonance frequencies of the vocal tract. Because our resonator tract isn't a straight, rigid tube, it produces multiple frequencies. Think about if you were to fill a bunch of drinking glasses with varying levels of water and tap on them with a spoon. The glasses with more water in them will ring at a higher frequency because there is a smaller resonating space (above the water). So, we have several resonance frequencies, which are simply called formants, and they represent bands of heightened acoustical energy. The lowest of these resonance frequencies is the first formant. Then, the second formant is above that, and so forth. The third, fourth and fifth formants are simply higher resonance frequencies. In classical singer, especially, tenors will cluster these three higher formants by bringing them a bit closer to each other (through making slight adjustments to the size and/or shape of their resonator tracts) so that they operate almost like one huge band of acoustical energy. This makes it easier to resonate a given harmonic and it give an acoustical boost. This cluster is called the singer's formant because many elite classical singers use it to help self-amplify their voices. I hope this helps.
@@singwisevocals amazing explanation! thank you!!
The thing I find difficult is how can we apply this knowledge to practice when singing? Every yeay we know more about the science of singing but I don't see singers being better or having better thecnique now than before. In fact is a little bit of the opposite thing.
It can make things more confusing and 'messy' if this knowledge is misapplied. In my chat with Professor Ken Bozeman, who is considered something of an authority of the subject of vocal acoustics, he told me that he uses spectrographic software during all his lessons, but not for resonance tuning purposes. And as I stated at the end of this video, teachers have been helping students achieve optimal resonance balance and carrying power for centuries without the aid of spectrographs. Trial and error is always far more important and effective. Playing around with different subtle adjustments to how we're shaping our resonator will ultimately yield the best results.
Question: When you say "we have no control over the harmonics", you mean we cannot change the specific over-tones of the harmonic to others, but we can increase or decrease their volume in the overall sound, right? Otherwise overtone singing would be impossible...
great video! 🖤
Would have been more interested to hear it, and see how you demonstrate it by singing the examples.
very cool explanation, instant SUB! :) i have one question though. if i sing higher notes, and want to track the resonance, according to this theory i would need to close my resonators more the higher i go in pitch. but when we sing, the opposite is the truth, to keep the same sound quality up high, we have to open our mouth more and more. why is that? =D
The adjustment of the ressonating frequency of the vocal track to some of the harmonic frequencies would cause the amplification of the harmonic volume, right? This wouldn't cause the "polyphonic signing" in which we car hear two frequencies being emited at the same time?