Download The voice

The voice
How respiration is controlled and its function in the formation of sound.
The lungs are situated on either side of the chest. The left lung is smaller
than the right to leave room for the heart.
Just below the lungs is a large sheet of muscle called the diaphragm. This is
a wall between the lungs and the rest of the trunk. Like the rib muscles, the
diaphragm tightens and relaxes as you breathe in and out.
The lungs are protected by the rib cage. This is formed by twelve pairs of
ribs, which curve round from your backbone to meet up at the front.
Muscles between the ribs tighten and relax to allow the rib cage to move.
The lungs are like two large sponges as the fill up with air. The air enters
the body through the nose or mouth and reaches the lungs through two
tubes called bronchi, which fork left and right of the windpipe.
Inside the lungs, the bronchi branch off into smaller and smaller tubes. The
smallest tubes are called bronchioles.
The bronchioles end in bunches of tiny, bubble shaped air sacs called alveoli.
Each sac is covered in a mesh of fine thread like blood vessels. There are
300 million air sacs in each lung.
Oxygen is essential to live and is one of the gases in the air. When air is
breathed into the lungs, oxygen passes through the thin walls of the air sac
and into the blood. The heart then pumps the blood and oxygen around the
body.
Glucose is formed by sugar in the body and when this is mixed with oxygen it
produces energy. When energy is made water and carbon dioxide are formed.
The body does not need these products so the blood carried them back to
the lungs and out of the body when breathing out.
Breathing in.
When a breath is taken the diaphragm tightens and moved down. The rib
muscles also tighten forcing the ribs to move up and out leaving no space so
the air rushes in to fill it.
 Air is sucked in through nose or mouth
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The air travels down the throat into the windpipe
It moves through the bronchi and bronchioles into the air sacs
The air sacs fill up with air
The lungs expand.
Breathing out.
When breathing out the diaphragm relaxes and arches upwards. The rib
muscles also relax so that the rib cage moves down and in. The space inside
the chest becomes small again,
Unused air, carbon dioxide and water are then pushed out of the body.
The functions of the organs of articulation; how and where different sounds
are formed.
Breathing is used for making sound such as talking, singing and laughing.
When breathing air is pushed up the windpipe and into the voice box.
Across the opening of the voice box are two ridges. These are the vocal
chords.
When air flows between the chords they vibrate and make sounds. The
chords can be stretched or loosened to make higher or lower sounds.
The harder the breath taken in the louder the sound made. The more
breathe taken in the longer the sound can be held on for.
Taking a deep breath and letting out short small breaths makes laughing
sounds.
The different positions of the tongue, teeth, cheeks and lips form the
sounds into words.
About 30 muscles produce facial expressions, from a smile to a frown and to
form words.
Branches of the facial nerve control the movements.
Even when the face looks expressionless the muscles are working to hold the
face steady.
There are six muscles that come together at the corner of the mouth. Their
ends are linked with strong fibres and are attached to a muscle junction in
the corner. When stretched outwards this produces and e sound. The
muscle called the zygomaticus major lifts the mouth up to produce a smile
and the orbicularis oris pulls the lips against the teeth.
The masseter and buccinator muscles are used when moving the lips and
mouth to chew or talk. These create an ooh sound.
Whenever we talk or chew the masseter and the temporalis muscles pull
shut. The lateral ptergoid muscle pulls the rear of the lower jaw forwards,
This tilts the front of the lower jaw bones down which opens the mouth.
The importance of relaxation and posture to the vocal process.
Relaxation and posture are very important to an actor as they help to
prepare the body before acting, this makes the whole performance more
believable.
The body must be aware, relaxed, in control and breathing properly. Not
holding the breath. The body must be in control of the tensions, which will
help the breathing even if upside down. Getting the correct breathing
techniques will help an actor’s performance making the body more aware and
responsive.
The voice and vocal chords need to be completely warmed up before a
performance so that the actor can change the dynamics, pitch and level of
the voice with ease and can be confident that they will not loose their voice
especially if they are performing several times.
Different voices respond to different demands and it is essential for the
actor to realise what there individual needs are.