How do vocal cords work, anyway?
When I sang in choirs as a girl I had an image in my mind of a kind of harp-like arrangement in my throat. When I sang, I thought my breath played across the multiple vertical strings and caused them to vibrate, thus producing the sound. Where that came from I have no idea!
It wasn’t until I was an adult that I found out how they really operate.
Simply, the vocal cords are a pair of fleshy muscles, with some cartilage attached, that act as a valve in the throat. Vocal fold is actually a better description than vocal cord. They are shaped like a V, fixed at one end, and sit horizontally in the larynx. Find your Adam’s Apple, and there is the larynx.
They have two functions: to prevent food from going into the windpipe, and to produce sound. When we exhale with the intent of speaking or singing, the back of the V closes and vibrates rapidly on whatever pitch we “hear” in our brain. The folds are stretched or shortened by the larynx according to the height or depth of the pitch produced. That’s it!
Vocal folds all by themselves, without the resonance that the mouth and throat add, apparently sound tiny and squeaky—but resonators are the subject of another blog!
Want to see them in action? Travel down the throats of four singers in this short YouTube video as they sing the Kyrie from a Victoria Mass.
Vocal folds can do amazing things, create all manner of sounds. Just watch Mel Blanc in action!
Mum-mum-neep-mum-mum-neep-mum-mum-neep…th-th-th-that’s all, folks!
Linda Gingrich
Conductor, Master Chorus Eastside
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