The Human Voice Essay

The vocal note produced by the vibrations of the vocal folds is complex and made up of periodic (regular and repetitive) and aperiodic (irregular and non-repetitive) sound waves. The aperiodic waves are random noise introduced into the vocal signal owing to irregular or asymmetric adduction (closing) of the vocal folds. Noise impairs the clarity of the vocal note and too much noise is perceived as hoarseness.

On July 28, 2015, Thom Dunn wrote about an issue that is often ignored by society today on upworthy.com. In his article, “What is 'Vocal Fry,' And Why Doesn't Anyone Care When Men Talk Like That?” Dunn analyzes the unnecessary criticism women receive due to their use of the lower register. His point is mainly addressed towards societies trying to define gender roles through this trend. Moreover, he recognizes how males aren’t panned for using the vocal fry while females continue to be punished for it. He suggests that we should worry less about the tone of a person and actually listen to the words they’re saying. While he uses strong logic and effective style in his writing, Dunn lacks credibility and fails to make an emotional appeal to his audience, causing his persuasive argument to be ineffective.

was lucky enough to have a childhood that was fairly even-keeled – I celebrated almost as much as I grieved, and laughed as much as I cried. Even though I entered into the adult world with a balanced upbringing, I still couldn’t help but to feel that I did not develop a voice properly due to one significant event.

Meister, J., Hagen, R., Shehata-Dieler, W., Kuhn, H., Kraus, F., & Kleinsasser, N. (2017). Pitch elevation in male-to-female transgender persons—the Wurzburg approach. Journal of Voice, 31(2), 244.e1-244.e5. doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2016.07.018

SPLP 635 - Voice Disorders. Voice Disorders is part of the core curriculum in the master’s degree program in speech-language pathology, approved by the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA), and the accrediting body for professional training programs in speech-language pathology, CAA-CSD. This graduate level course is designed to provide students with knowledge of normal voice including the vocal parameters of pitch, intensity, quality, resonance and flexibility. Various idiopathic, structural, resonance, neuropathologic, and congenital disorders of voice are addressed in terms of symptomatology, perceptual features, diagnosis, prevention, and intervention. The course provides a survey of voice disorders that students

Speaking in an incorrect pitch, volume, or with poor placement may be even more damaging to the larynx than singing because people speak more than they sing. In most cases, the problems include speaking in a pitch that is focused in the throat. While serious problems in this area are best resolved with the help of a licensed voice therapist, the singer can make some changes based on experience with their preferred placement when singing. Misconceptions include the idea that speaking very softly or whispering will help save voice. People who speak softly do so by blowing breath through the tone stopping the glottis from closing completely. Since the glottis' function is to close, it may compensate with a time of no closure by creating an edema or swelling to fill up the empty space (Greschner, 2017). Therefore, the singer who thinks they are protecting or reserving the voice may be creating a bigger problem threatening their vocal health. In addition, whispering is often focused in the throat. This may be particularly true when speaking on the phone or in situations they may not want to be overheard. In such cases it may be necessary to raise the volume of the speaking voice in order to raise the focus or

When we communicate, we can say a lot without speaking. Our body, our posture, tone of

CAPE-V is an auditory method of evaluating voice quality. The CAPE-V was created to provide a consistent scale and consistent parameters for professionals evaluating the voice while also allowing clinicians to identity differences among a client’s voice (Nagle, 2016, 47). Clinicians determine if a person has a voice disorder or if a person has a normal voice. Six voice qualities are specifically examined when a CAPE-V is used; however, the evaluation includes blank lines to allow a clinician to write additional voice features he or she perceives that are not originally listed on the CAPE-V form. Qualities examined by a professional utilizing a CAPE-V are overall severity, roughness, breathiness, pitch, and loudness. A tick mark is placed on a visual analog scale to denote the severity of each vocal quality; the left portion of the scale signifies a normal vocal quality, while the right portion of the scale represents an extreme deviance in voice parameters. The assessment requires the client sustain vowels /a/ and /i/, read six sentences, and speak in a conversational manner to the statement, “Tell me about your voice.” Prolonged vowels enable a clinical to hear a client’s voice with no articulatory influences, speaking the sentences permits a professional to evaluate specific voice qualities, and conversational speech allows a clinician to further assess a client’s voice for abnormalities (Kempster et al., 2009, pp. 126-127). Clinicians agree that

To answer these question, I choose a wonderful resource website called the Cleveland Hearing & Speech Center.

you listen to yourself on recording, the bone conducted pathway that is your “normal” voice

When I’m experiencing various complex and or intense emotions I often (more than need be) become annoyed due to my inability to name these feelings with one specific word. Most of the time I leave my companion clueless as I blast them with a flurry of “hmm”, “umm” and “ugh” ‘s that leave both parties overwhelmingly annoyed at my senseless talk. These very emotions cling to the tip of my tongue like a wet leaf to the pavement. Conversely, though these sounds hold no gravity, studies on how the brain processes emotions through vocalization say otherwise. They say that human sounds convey emotions better than words do and that this is due to the brain using “older” systems/structures to preferentially process emotions expressed through vocalization. It makes no difference whether or not these sounds are growls of anger, the laughter of happiness or the cries of sadness, the brains are still able to convey the meaning of these non-verbal sounds in a more immediate way than speech. According to researches at McGill University -who were investigating this phenomena- it takes one-tenth of a second for our brains to begin to process emotions conveyed by vocalization. Furthermore they hypothesize that this is due to the crucial role that decoding sounds has played in human survival throughout time. Marc Pell, Director of McGill’s

Having a voice expresses intelligence, emotion and conveys the identity and uniqueness of an individual. Each person has a unique perspective from the life experiences and brings

There are many different ways in which humans can communicate as well as animals, but it is speech that is one of the most distinguishing capabilities in which humans only possess. Speech is defined differently from language. Speech is the vocalized form of communication. It is based upon the syntactical combination of many sounds to make different words that are drawn from extremely large vocabularies. Animal communication consists of only a few distinct sounds or calls in order to communicate immediate situations for survival purposes, such as danger, hunger, and

My presentation strengths consisted of both verbal and non-verbal skills. While listening the recording of my presentation without any visual, I could hear my animated voice tone. When speaking about exciting parts of Janette’s life such as her dream to move into Finance and her current occupation at Pepsi my tone changed. This voice

The Voices is directed by Marjane Satrapi and written by Michael R. Perry released in 2015. The movie was focusing on the importance of mental illness, crime and even romance. It touches comedy to horror. There were mixed reviews in the public getting both good and bad reception.