How Do We Sing and Why Do Some People Have Beautiful Voices?

There is no man-made musical instrument that can compare with the human voice as regards the fineness of its strings or its ability to change range and achieve richness of tonal quality.

The human vocal apparatus is quite a complicated mechanism.

The larynx is a hollow organ, shaped something like a box. It is really an enlarged part of the windpipe.

The larynx contains the vocal apparatus and consists of a framework of cartilages which you can feel by placing your hand in front of your neck.

Inside the larynx are two 'arytenoid cartilages' which are lined inside with mucous membrane.

At one place on each side of the larynx the mucous membranes become thicker and projects from the wall into the centre of the box. These projections are our 'vocal chords'.

Each vocal chord is moved by many small muscles and when air goes from the lungs into the mouth it passes between the two vocal chords and makes them vibrate which in turn produces a sound.

The kind of sound that is produced depends on the position and tension of these vocal chords.

Sixteen different muscles move these vocal chords, making them tense or slack, similar to a violinist being able to control the tension of his/her's strings and it is believed that the vocal chords can assume at least 170 different positions!

When a certain amount of air is blown upwards by the diaphragm and other muscles, the vocal chords begin to vibrate and this makes the column of air in the respiratory passages vibrate too.

We hear the vibration of the column of air as a sound.

The tones are determined by the resonating spaces involved in the windpipe, the lungs, the thorax and even the spaces in our mouth and nose because it is the vibration of the air in all of them that helps to decide the end tone produced.

If the vocal chords are not too tensed, long waves are produced and we hear deep tones.

If the vocal chords are tensed they vibrate rapidly so short tones are produced and we hear high tones.

The pitch of a human voice depends on the length of the vocal chords.

The range and quality of a voice depends on the form and size of the resonating spaces.

People with beautiful voices have their resonating spaces shaped in a way that they vibrate 'musically'.

When we use our voice, we are really acting like a musical virtuoso simply because you are performing on one of the most difficult and complicated musical instruments known to man and the reason that you can do it is because you learned it when you were young and have been practicing it ever since.

But just because we have a voice and we have the ability to use it when talking or singing does not mean that we have the talents of being able to make 'beautiful sounds' with our voice.

Why is it that some people have the most beautiful voices whilst the majority of us do not or do not know that we do?

It is simply a case of having the perfect resonating space that is shaped in such a way that they may be considered perfect musical instruments.

I have described above how we are able to sing, but having the perfect resonating space is not all that it takes too make beautiful sounds as a singer or vocalist must have the knowledge of being able to control their resonating space/vocal chords artistically.

To do this a singer or vocalist needs to be able to make use of the entire vocal apparatus when they sing - from the depths of their diaphragm to their frontal sinuses.

A beautiful voice is a result of being able to master your vocal apparatus (musical instrument) with perfect co-ordination.

Lucky for us that we have different tastes in music and the beautiful voices (or beautiful noises) that these vocal chords belt out because one thing that is for certain is that every single person on the planet will differ when it comes to the type of music and singing that they choose to listen to.

I truly appreciate the time that you have spent reading my Hub Article and I hope that you have found it to be beneficial.

If you think that other people would benefit from reading it then you have my permission to ...

* Leave a Comment about this Hub Article
* Vote this Hub Article Up (or Down)
* Share this Hub Article amongst your own Social Networks - just remember to give credit where credit is due please!

UrsulaRose

If you are reading this and you do not already have a HubPages Account then ask yourself WHY NOT?

If you fancy yourself as a HubPages Hubber then click on this link and you will be able to sign up for your very own FREE HubPages Account.

SIGN-UP FOR FREE RIGHT NOW!