sound

Voice – Episode 116

 in Podcasts  tagged communication / larynx / singing / sound / speech / talking / throat / voice / words by

A black and white photo looking directly at the metal-grated end of a microphone on a stand, as if it's ready for you to use your voice and speak or sing. The microphone is clear and in focus, while the background is blurred to the point that nothing pasted the microphone is recognizable.

Voice Anatomy

Larynx: a structure on top of the trachea (windpipe) and holds the vocal folds

Vocal Folds: also known as vocal cords; the soft tissue that vibrates and creates sound when air passes through them.  There’s one on each side.

Vocal Box: the structure that surrounds the vocal cords.  It’s made of 3 parts – a cover that is made of epithelial cells (similar to the inside of your mouth), vocal ligaments that hold it all in place, and the thyroarytenoid muscle that is responsible for relaxing the vocal cords into place.

Glottis: the opening in the middle of the vocal folds where they sperate for breathing and closes for talking and swallowing.

Voice Production

There are 3 levels of sound production to equal talking.

  1. Voiced Sound: this is the basic vibration of the vocal cords and creates a “buzzing” sound.  This is the first step of babies learning to talk and communicate.  We say the baby is “discovering their voice.”
  2. Resonance: the “buzzing” sounds are amplified by resonating chambers that include the throat, mouth, and nasal cavity.  The sound produced by these chambers is what give you your distinct voice. To produce sound without using one or more of these resonating areas alters your voice significantly.
  3. Articulation: movement of the tongue, soft palate, lips, and jaw modifies and changes the sound to produce words and intelligible speech.

Singing

Singing adds the breathing system to regulate the air pressure that vibrates the vocal cords.  The rhythm of putting words to music to create singing changes the pattern and length of words and syllables, and the strength of the diaphragm plays a big part in that.

Just like guitar strings, the tighter the vocal cords, the higher the pitch.  More relaxed vocal cords produce a lower pitch. *If you listened to this episode, I’m so sorry for your ears!*

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Music Credits: Up In My Jam (All Of A Sudden) by – Kubbi https://soundcloud.com/kubbiCreative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported— CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…Music provided by Audio Library https://youtu.be/tDexBj46oNI

Ear Anatomy [Show Notes]

 in Podcasts  tagged brain / cochlea / ear / ear drum / episode / frequency / pitch / sound / vertigo by

Ear Basics

The auricle is the part of the ears you can see. It is made of cartilage (flexible tissue that doesn’t have a large blood supply).  Everything else requires a tool for the doctor to see inside.  And the doctor can only see to the ear drum.  The stuff behind the ear drum isn’t visible because of the membrane that blocks it.  The middle and inner ear are surrounded by your head bones.

Science of Sound

Sound is created when the air around us is compressed and then expands.  They move away from the source in circles (think radar or sonar or throwing a pebble in a pond).

The ear canal directs the sound waves towards the ear drum.

Sound gets translated in 2 main ways

  1. Identify the sound
  2. Identify if the sound has meaning

Inside Your Ears

The ear drum (tympanic membrane) vibrates according to the intensity of the sound and trigger the Hammer-Anvil-Stirrup cascade.

  • The ear drum vibrates the handle of the Hammer (Malus bone – yes, it’s a real bone).
  • The Hammer bangs on the Anvil (Incus bone).
  • The Anvil has a tail that is connected to the Stirrup (Stapes bone).
  • The Stirrup looks like the spurs on the back of boots.  It is connected to a membrane on the Cochlea and works like a plunger.

All of these bones are surrounded by air and the pressure is controlled by the Eustachian tube.  This is the access point for ear infections or congestion due to allergies or a cold.

The Cochlea is a bone full of fluid and lined with hairs and shaped like a spiraled sea shell.  The hairs pick up different frequencies of sound (sound wave frequency determines pitch).  If certain levels of hairs get damaged, then you will not be able to hear pitches in that range anymore.  If you unrolled the cochlea, it would be laid out low pitch to high pitch like a piano.  And these hairs are connected to the auditory nerves and turn sound signals into electrical signal to send it to your brain.

Semicircular canals of the cochlea are little bone chambers full of fluid and they control balance.  This works like a leveling bubble to help you stay upright.  If it becomes dysfunctional, then it may trigger vertigo.

The middle ear (the area behind the ear drum) is where most of the trouble happens – whether allergies causing stopped up ears, or colds leading to ear infections.

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Music Credits:  “Radio Martini” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/