It is no wonder many consider that the voice is the most complex organ in the human body: its many parts include muscles, membranes, acoustics, perception, and something as abstract as self-expression. Much of this complexity has been wrapped up into a neat package called the source-filter theory, a conceptual tool that is not only great for speech science, but for understanding and grasping the integrated voice for advanced pedagogy in singing.
In high-resolution, 3D animation, The Human Voice explicitly lays out the theory specifically for singers, in clear, step-by-step scenes, which, in tandem with Resonance, builds a robust visual foundation for advanced vocal pedagogy.
The film begins a tour of how to understand partials and their relationships to differing pitches. The normally static concepts spring to life in 3D, allowing the viewer to understand later such things as formants and vowel tracks and registers. It helps answer such things as why we can produce multiple vowels on the same pitch, or why vowels have pitch, or why high notes of sopranos always sound like ah. All these core understandings of the voice are described in visual detail.
The film then goes on to describe the larynx in 3D, showing not only the air moving through the vocal folds, but how the larynx and folds can vary the shape of the air coming through, all while maintaining the same pitch, resulting in very different registers. It then relates these changes to changes in the spectrum of partials all visually.
The Human Voice works in tandem with Resonance, another film that helps understand the whole, integrated vocal system, to lay a complete visual foundation for advanced vocal pedagogy. As such, it is the film to accompany the challenging sections of acoustics in Beginning the Process and to give a complete understanding underlying the whole of Advancing the Technique. A teacher's pack is also available for this film.
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