Music lesson on the topic “Properties of musical sound: timbre, duration” (grade 1)

Voice timbre, types

The most pleasant timbre is considered to be a voice that has the correct modulation, both in high and low tones. In fact, any voice can be cast with the right approach. This means giving it a professional sound. To do this, you need to learn to control the frequency of your voice, as well as the emotional coloring. This is easy to do with the help of a vocal specialist. To determine your own timbre, you need to know what voice timbres there are in general. There are several main types:

1. Men's. There are three types of timbre of a man's voice:

• tenor. This is the highest male voice. It can be lyrical or dramatic.
• baritone;
• bass. The lowest voice timbre in comparison with the above. It can be central or melodious.

2. Women's. The timbres of the female voice also have 3 types:

• soprano. This is a very high pitched voice. There are lyric soprano, dramatic and coloratura.
• mezzo-soprano;
• contralto. It's a low voice.

The timbres of singing voices are divided in the same way.

How to hear your real voice

A person cannot objectively determine the timbre of his own sound due to the fact that he hears himself differently from the way others hear. Sound waves travel internally and are therefore distorted in the inner and middle ear. The technique captures the real sound that others hear - which is why it is sometimes difficult to recognize it on the recording.

To more accurately hear the real timbre of a voice, you can hold one ear with your finger and speak a few words - the sound will go into the ear, which means it will not be distorted so much.

You can also take 2 sheets of cardboard (sometimes a stack of sheets or a folder) and then apply it to both ears. The paper shields sound waves, so when pronouncing words in this position, a person will hear the real sound, since this shielding affects the audible tone of the voice.

The timbre of female and male voices is an important characteristic of voice and speech for singers. It also matters to ordinary people. The timbre can be corrected with specially selected exercises or gymnastics, since often for an ordinary person it is not quite correct.

How to change your voice tone

Many people would like their voice to sound different. This is especially true for singers, actors, TV presenters and all those who have to communicate for a long time.

The timbre of the voice largely depends on the characteristics of the human body. The volume, shape of the trachea and oral resonator, as well as the tightness of the closure of the vocal cords are of great importance. Therefore, it is not possible to radically change the sound of the voice.

However, you can give the timbre the necessary coloring by adding low or high overtones and achieving their ideal balance. There are various exercises for this, for example, pronouncing the soft fricative “r”.

The shape of the lips and the position of the tongue have a great influence on the timbre. You can experiment, for example, changing the position of the jaw and talking with a fixed lower lip.

At the age of three, a person’s voice pattern changes and he becomes more constrained. We diligently control volume and intonation, strain our ligaments and, as a result, use only a small part of our capabilities. How to restore your natural voice, how to expand your vocal range? Exercises and techniques will also help you with this. You can find out more detailed information about them by watching the video:

Features of the singing voice of children of primary school age

The singing position (straight position of the body and head during singing) creates favorable conditions for the natural movements of the respiratory organs and vocal apparatus. Often the child raises his shoulders and strains his neck when inhaling because he does not know how to prepare for singing. These unnecessary movements interfere with the calm work of breathing, which should occur unnoticed. When the child straightens his body, his chest assumes an inhalation position and the inhalation is done imperceptibly, silently, without tension.

Children gradually learn to stand upright, the correct position becomes a habit, but if you constantly remind and monitor this. Children learn to use their breathing in an organized manner, to avoid forcing, unnecessary and harmful pressure on the larynx. The muscles get the opportunity to develop normally and strengthen. With disorganized breathing, quickly and forcefully displaced air from the lungs disrupts the proper functioning of the vocal cords. A relaxed, sluggish position of the body also indicates that the student is not ready to sing and has not collected his attention. With a relaxed body position, movements in the respiratory organs and vocal apparatus will be incorrect, because they are all coordinated, and one violation leads to another. Children often stretch their necks, or lower their heads, or raise them too much because they feel uncomfortable and find it difficult to sing. With an active, straight position of the body and with free movement of the head, when the neck is not tense, the vocal apparatus is freed from tension.

It happens that when children sing, the sound is interrupted, they sing several sounds quite correctly and suddenly, as if tired of such tension, they begin to go out of tune. The reason for incorrect singing is incorrect breathing. In this case, it is useful to give syllables or words that should be sung silently, without whispering, but articulating and pronouncing all the syllables with the lips. At the same time, children can feel the work of breathing. The following exercises and movements are also useful for developing breathing skills:

1. Calm inhale (comparison - smell a flower) and calm short exhale, later add breath holding.

2. Inhale calmly and smoothly and exhale for a longer period of time while counting, so that the students themselves can count as they exhale (or, in comparison, blow on a candle so that it goes out). It is important that children do not take in too much air when inhaling.

3. Holding your breath, for example, to an exclamation of surprise - Ah!

4. Imitating a machine - “br”, helps develop a long exhalation, like a game - a counting competition.

When singing, it is important to teach children to produce sound. This promotes vocal development and equalization of intonation. To do this, you need to learn how to correctly distribute breathing and sound intensity.

What affects voice timbre

1. First of all, smoking should be noted. The longer the experience of this addiction, the lower the timbre of the voice.
2. Poor nutrition, chronic lack of sleep. You need to understand that any mood, be it good or bad, affects the timbre of your voice.
3. Hypothermia, cold. Everything is obvious here. You need to protect yourself from the cold, try not to drink ice-cold drinks and give up ice cream.
4. The period of growing up. During adolescence, the timbre of the voice becomes rougher. Of course, it is impossible to change this process.

Flight of the singing voice

Table of contents

Singers intuitively achieve good audibility of their voice, developing in it the quality of flight and range.
It has long been known that there are singing voices that do not have much power, but fly perfectly into the hall and are clearly audible even through the sound of the orchestra. All the mechanisms described above, with the help of which a singer can increase the audibility of his voice, boiled down to the creation of greater sound strength at the exit from the mouth opening, i.e., the greatest intensity, sound power. But the quality of flight, which we want to talk about, depends little on the strength of the sound emitted from the mouth opening. There are powerful voices that amaze with their strength in the immediate vicinity, in a small room or classroom, but turn out to be completely flightless in large rooms. They disappear, get lost in large spaces and do not penetrate the sound of the orchestra. Research has shown that the quality of flight is related to the timbre of the voice, and not with its strength, and this is explained by the presence of high overtones in the voice. A singer with a ringing, flying voice is able to shape the sound in such a way that a large percentage of the energy is concentrated in the sound in the zone of high singing formant. Why is there a sound in which a large percentage of the energy is concentrated in high-frequency region, has better flightability, When all frequencies of the spectrum are distributed in space equally? As it turned out, this quality of flightability is associated with the peculiarities of the perception of sounds by our hearing. Our ear has unequal sensitivity to different frequencies. Sounds of the same strength (amplitude) in different parts of the sound range are perceived by the ear as sounds of unequal volume. In some parts of the range they are perceived as sounds much louder than in others. If you offer to listen to a sound of equal strength, changing its pitch over the entire range of frequencies that the ear can perceive, then in the zone from 600 Hz to B000 Hz it will be perceived as the loudest sound. Up and down the sound scale from this zone of best audibility it will become weaker and weaker for the ear and finally disappear altogether, reaching the lower and upper thresholds of audibility. With sufficient sound strength, the hearing perceives from 116 Hz at the bottom to 20,000 Hz at the top. Beyond these limits lie infra- and ultrasounds, respectively, which we do not hear (only some species of animals hear them). The zone of best audibility of the ear includes the area in which all speech and singing formants are located. It is in this zone that weak sounds are perceived as quite loud. The ear is especially sensitive to the region of 2500-3000 Hz, i.e., to the region of high singing formants. This area resonates with the external auditory canal of the ear, and therefore it strongly transmits these vibrations to the eardrum. This explains the quality of sound flight, its ability to “fly through the orchestra”, to be clearly audible in large rooms. When there are many high frequencies in the sound spectrum that fall into zone of best audibility of the ear, especially frequencies in the region of 2500-3000 Hz, then even with a small force of sound delivery, i.e., its insignificant energy, it is perceived as a loud sound. This sound is well audible in the hall, and we say that it is flight If there are few frequencies in its spectrum that fall into the zone of best audibility, then it is poorly captured by the listener’s ear, even if the singer tries to give it greater strength.This means that the quality of flight of a singing sound does not depend on how the sound flies and spreads (all sounds travel equally ), but from how it is picked up by the ear. Rice. 33. Ear hearing curve. Sound of the same intensity is perceived at different frequencies as unequally loud to the ear. The zone of greatest volume falls at 2000-3000 Hz (the top of the curve), from where it falls to both low and higher frequencies.

Rice. 34. Curve of increase in sound pressure in the external auditory canal due to resonance (according to Bekesy). In the region of 2500 Hz is the highest point of the resonance curve. In this zone, even weak sounds are perceived as loud.

The ability to correctly form the timbre of the voice, to make it fly, fly, is an extremely important point in order to be clearly heard in the hall. Let us imagine, conditionally, that two singers sing, producing a sound of equal energy, i.e., the total strength of all overtones is equal. The first singer forms the timbre (case I) so that the main energy of his sound goes in the area of ​​the fundamental tone and low-frequency overtones. In male voices, for example, the fundamental tones of the voice do not exceed 500 Hz, i.e., they never fall into the zone of best audibility of the ear. A sound formed without effort on the part of the singer in such a timbre quality, i.e. with such a spectrum, will be perceived as a low-power sound. In order to be loud to the ear, you need to greatly increase the energy of the sound, that is, give the vocal apparatus a large load. Rice. 24. However, the timbre can be formed in a completely different way (case II). It can be formed in such a way that the main energy is contained in high overtones, in the region of high singing formant. This sound, with a different distribution of energy along the spectrum, will be immeasurably louder for the listener than the first one, since the main part of the energy will be perceived by the most sensitive area of ​​the ear, where even mild sounds are perceived as loud sounds. In a trained voice, in a well-formed singing timbre, the energy is always distributed so that approximately 30% of it is concentrated in the area of ​​high singing formant. This ensures good flight of such sound (see Fig. 25 and 27). If we consider from this point of view, for example, the spectrum of Chaliapin’s singing sound (see Fig. 27), we can see that its fundamental tone at 220 Hz constitutes an insignificant part of the total sound energy, where the largest areas of “amplified” overtones fall at frequencies of 500 Hz and especially in the group 2400-2600 Hz, i.e. in the region of best sensitivity of the auditory organ. The correct formation of a singing timbre provides it with good flight (i.e., the best perceptibility by the ear) with minimal expenditure of muscle energy of the singer’s vocal apparatus.

Rice. 35. Distribution of energy in speech (1) and singing (2) sound (according to V. Morozov). In the singing voice, spectral energy is “pumped” from the low frequency region to the high frequency region, namely, to the region of greatest sensitivity of the ear.

Construction of a spectrum with a maximum concentration of energy in the high frequency region of the order of a high singing formant is the most important physiological adaptation of the vocal apparatus to obtain maximum audibility with minimal energy expenditure, which in practice is called a high position of sound. Vocal teachers know this well, working mainly on shaping the timbre of the voice, on the high position of the sound, and not on developing its strength. It has been known for almost a long time that audibility in the hall depends much less on the absolute strength of the sound than on the correct formation of the singing timbre. A correctly timbre-formed voice always flies well into the audience. In addition, as we remember, a singer with a voice that has a large percentage of high-frequency overtones in the spectrum can better “send” it in the desired direction, that is, towards the audience. The task of each student is to clearly understand this pattern and not to chase the strength of the sound, but to work on identifying the best timbre, on the sound of the voice in the so-called high position.

Acoustic conditions of the performance

Speaking about the audibility of the voice, we should touch in a few words on the acoustic conditions in which the singer has to sing. These conditions can be quite different: an open space or open stage, a concert or theater hall, a classroom, a recording studio or a radio studio. As you know, on open stages, as in a field or in a forest, the singer is hard to hear and it is difficult for him to sing. The voice spreads freely in all directions, without stopping and reflecting almost nothing, and easily dissipates. Decreasing in inverse proportion to the square of the distance, it reaches the listener's ear with only a very small percentage of its energy. To reduce such dispersion and create a preferential direction of sound towards the audience, a shell is usually placed behind the stage, reflecting sounds towards the listeners. It is difficult for a singer to sing, since under these conditions his ears do not receive the usual loud response; Wanting to overcome this, the singer begins to force the sound. This tires the voice, so it is not recommended for singers, especially inexperienced ones, to sing outdoors. In halls and auditoriums, walls (if they are not made of special sound-absorbing materials) reflect sounds, preventing them from leaving the room, returning them to the hall. Walls, ceilings and floors prevent sound energy from escaping. If the shape of the reflective surfaces of the room is calculated correctly, sounds reach all rows evenly; if incorrectly, then places in the hall with poor audibility appear - sound dips. You can often hear the expression that a particular room has a good or bad resonance. In this case, the word resonance refers to that echo, that echo of the room in which we speak or sing. This phenomenon has nothing to do with resonance in general and is only a residual sound, the so-called reverberation, which owes its origin to the repeated reflection of sound waves from large surfaces of the room. In everyday life, the reverberation of a room is often mistakenly called resonance. Meanwhile, resonance, which resembles an echo, has, as we know, a different origin and a different essence. If the obstacle that the sound wave encounters is one and large (the border of a forest, the slope of a gorge, etc.), then the reflected wave returns, bringing in a weakened form the sound that we sent. This phenomenon is called echo. If there are many obstacles (walls, ceiling, floor, objects in the room), then multiple, different-time reflections occur, the waves overlap each other, forming a hum. Both in the phenomenon of echo, and with any reverberation, the same pitch of sound is always preserved in the echo , which we published. If there are a lot of soft things, curtains, carpets in the room, the sound is easily extinguished and the residual sound is small. In empty rooms, the sound, repeatedly reflected from large free areas, creates a long-term residual sound, a humming, which makes it difficult to hear your voice and interferes with sing. A room with very little residual sound also makes singing difficult, since the ear does not hear the usual strength of the response to the sound produced. For singing practice, it is most advantageous to use a class with moderate reverberation, but sometimes it is useful to change the acoustic environment so that habituation does not occur to a specific room. Since the singer has to sing in different acoustic conditions, his perception of the strength of his own voice is always different. You should not succumb to auditory deception. We must try to maintain the usual manner of sound production.

Conclusion From an acoustic point of view, the vocal apparatus is a kind of horn, where above the source of vibration (glottis) there is a system of resonator cavities (larynx, pharynx, mouth), which open into the outer space with their mouth (oral opening). In the resonator cavities, the voice acquires characteristic amplifications - formants that determine its sound. In a correctly delivered singing voice, high and low singing formants are constantly present, as well as vibrato of a certain frequency, on which the singing timbre of the voice depends. Each singing sound is, in addition, characterized by its own vowel formants, by which one vowel differs from another. The efficiency of the vocal apparatus is small, and the sound emitted from the mouth opening quickly decreases in strength as the distance increases. Voice production should be considered as finding the best relationship between the phonating glottis and the system of resonators of the larynx, pharynx and mouth. With the resulting interconnected system of oscillations of the resonators and the glottis, the efficiency of the vocal apparatus in singing increases greatly. In addition, with the correct voice production, the singer forms the timbre in such a way that the largest possible percentage of sound energy goes to the area of ​​high singing formant - the area that is best perceived by our ear. The main task of a singer and teacher working to improve their voice is to correctly form the timbre and find the best conditions for the natural free functioning of the vocal apparatus.