Today’s post is my way of sharing a few free resources, as well as introducing you to voice acoustics.  In 2008, Diana Spradling at the University of Western Michigan had me sing into a computer program that analyzed the frequencies of my sound.  I know now this is called a Spectrum Analyzer.  The ability to see my voice on the screen had such a profound impact, that I felt paralyzed with awe for a hot minute.

Yesterday at one of my “Meet and Geek” classes, we used a Spectrum Anal

yzer to demonstrate how the voice produces a fundamental frequency as well as a series of overtones for each pitch.  The brain synthesizes all of these pitches into one tone, creating the perception of someone singing a single note.  By manipulating the overtones, strengthening and weakening them, the voice takes on different timbrel qualities.  To see this in real time, the folks at Sygyt Software offer a free version of their Analyzer that you can download here:

There is an acronym whizzing through the ethers of the vocology cosmos causing some people to delight and others to raise their fists in the air.  Introducing: SOVT, which stands for semi-occluded vocal tract.  Voice nerds use it to describe vocal exercises, as in “SOVT exercises.”  You see it in scientific journals and hear it on the streets, depending who you hang out with.  It is an attempt to codify the language around voice, and for this reason I’m rather elated it exists.

This post stands as a tiny, little tutorial on SOVT and SOVT exercises.  Once you get the gist, you can identify any number of vocal exercises that employ its benefits.  I’ll list a few of the most common SOVT exercises, pin links to free resources that explain it, briefly describe a few of its incredible benefits, and list videos just in case you like your coffee pixilated.  (SOVT exercises are a sort of get-up-and-go drug, afterall.)