Summary
Voice registers are assumed to be related to different laryngeal adjustments, but
objective evidence has been insufficient. While chest register is usually associated
with the lower pitch range, and head register with the higher pitch range, here we
investigated a professional singer who claimed an ability to produce both these registers
at every pitch, throughout her entire singing range. The singer performed separated
phonations alternating between the two registers (further called chest-like and head-like)
at all pitches from C3 (131 Hz) to C6 (1047 Hz). We monitored the vocal fold vibrations
using high-speed video endoscopy and electroglottography. The microphone sound was
recorded and used for blind listening tests performed by the three authors (insiders)
and by six “naive” participants (outsiders). The outsiders correctly identified the
registers in 64% of the cases, and the insiders in 89% of the cases. Objective analysis
revealed larger closed quotient and vertical phase differences for the chest-like
register within the lower range below G4 (<392 Hz), and also a larger closed quotient
at the membranous glottis within the higher range above Bb4 (>466 Hz), but not between
Ab4-A4 (415-440 Hz). The normalized amplitude quotient was consistently lower in the
chest-like register throughout the entire range. The results indicate that that the
singer employed subtle laryngeal control mechanisms for the chest-like and head-like
phonations on top of the traditionally recognized low-pitched chest and high-pitched
head register phenomena. Across all pitches, the chest-like register was produced
with more rapid glottal closure that was usually, but not necessarily, accompanied
also by stronger adduction of membranous glottis. These register changes were not
always easily perceivable by listeners, however.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 30, 2022
Accepted:
February 11,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofFootnotes
Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no financial conflicts of interest to disclose.
The work was supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GA CR) project no. 19-04477S. The stipend for doctoral studies of HL was provided by the Palacký University internal grant IGA_PrF_2021_017.
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© 2022 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
