UNSW Sydney
Abstract :
The first resonance of the vocal tract (an impedance minimum
when measured at the lips) is tuned by some singers: all of the
sopranos we have studied, whether trained or not, tune R1 to fo
over the range roughly C5 to C6; altos and tenors sometimes
tune it to one of the lower harmonics in their upper range.
Sopranos who practise the range substantially above about C6
tune the second resonance R2 to fo. The first purely acoustic
impedance maximum is tuned by saxophonists and clarinettists
under some conditions. This paper introduces a public version of
software that can be used in a system to teach vocal tract
tuning using a nearly real-time display and a graphical user
interface. Our first use of it was to teach R2:fo tuning to
sopranos. In a one-hour session, some subjects learned tuning
over a limited range, but only with the interface running, while
others did not learn tuning. One of the authors (MJ) spent
several hours with the system and learned to extend her range
of R2 variation and could use R2:fo tuning over from F5 to
E6, with and without the visual feedback. Training resonance
tuning on saxophone is also proposed.