Where does my voice come from?

As professional or amateur voice users, it is important to understand how the voice is created.

The tricky part of voice production is: the muscles and organs used to speak/sing are not visible to the naked eye, making it hard for us to understand what actually is happening inside our body when we speak.

What many don't know is there are three systems that work together to create our voice:

1. Respiratory System, or what I call “breath support”, contains: the lungs, ribcage, chest muscles, diaphragm, and the windpipe.

2. Phonatory System, or what I call "voice box" or larynx, where sound is produced, contains, specifically, the vocal cords/folds which are technically located within the larynx.

3. Resonance System, or what I call “vocal tract”, contains: the throat, mouth, sinuses and the nasal passages.

System 1: "Breath Support"

As mentioned above, the breath support comes from our respiratory system. To make it simple, we produce sound through our breath, more specifically, our exhalation: when we speak or sing, we take a breath, inhalation, and we create sound (vocalizing in speech or song), exhalation.

The air moving up the windpipe and through the vocal cords is what triggers and maintains the vocal cords' vibration. The vibrations keep going until we stop speaking or run out of breath.

System 2: "Voice Box"

The source of our sound is the vocal cords' vibration, also called the phonation system. Located within the larynx, the vocal cords are two small muscles that open when you breath allowing the air to pass from your upper airway into your trachea and lungs, and close when you want to swallow or exhale and speak: this causes an increase in pressure that triggers their vibration (cyclic opening and closing) producing a buzzing sound.

System 3: "Vocal Tract"

The human voice is reached from the buzzing sound through the resonance system. the resonance system shapes and amplifies the sound waves of that buzzing sound. The length and shape of the vocal tract, as well as the structures or cavities that sound waves may bounce off of, determine the tone's shape. Its best if the resonance happens in the front of the face. The resonance can be felt in the front of your face if you take a breath and hum on a steady tone for a few seconds. When you growl, on the other hand, the resonance is felt further down, in the back of your throat.

Lastly, once the sound waves reach your mouth, you "articulate" the sound into speech using your lips, teeth, and tongue.

The "task" of producing voice must be shared across these vocal sub-systems. Most people acquire an appropriate balance naturally, and a voice problem never occurs. However, a vocal problem can develop if the system is out of balance or if the use of the voice is excessive. As a result, voice training to develop optimal vocal techniques is critical for professional voice users (actors, singers, teachers, news anchors, etc.) given the frequent high demands placed on their voices.

Did you know about the three vocal sub-systems?