Wednesday 16 June 2021

Chapter 24 The membranophone Source of energy in treating Puberphonia

 


Chapter 24

The membranophone Source of energy in treating Puberphonia

In order to change the frequency of sounds, always need three things: A source of energy, a source of vibration, and a resonating chamber. This is true for all acoustic (non-electronic) instruments, including the human voice. The voice is fundamentally a wind instrument. The human vocal apparatus is like other kinds of musical instruments at once: a wind instrument and a string instrument. This apparatus includes a source of wind (the lungs), components that vibrate (the vocal cords in the larynx), and a series of resonant chambers (the pharynx, the mouth, and the nasal cavities). Here is how all these components work together when you speak. We use air to make sound, rather than vibrating strings or hitting objects to change the pitch.   The larynx produces the vibrations without which you would have no voice, it is these other parts of your vocal apparatus that make your voice so flexible and versatile.  Actually "cords" is not really a good name, because they are not string at all, but rather flexible stretchy material more like a stretched piece of balloon.

 

A water bottle and a paper tube make a membranophone—an instrument that produces sound from a vibrating stretched membrane. It is similar to catch a talking toy and put it in a bottle.

 

 


 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The finger holes can be opened along the length of the tube to increase the effective length, thereby in decreasing the frequency in puberphonia.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 




The term percussion instrument refers to the fact that most idiophones and membranophones are sounded by being struck, although other playing methods include rubbing, shaking, plucking, and scraping.

We provide membranophone to puberphonia boys for learning andrecognisingthe positive low pitch of vocal production. It is a positive learning process.  It is a active voicing, during novel voiced vocal production in puberphonia. Membranophone activation was successful  after few exposure, precluding that it developed out of training or conditioning. Indeed, within one hour of practice, individuals tailored their voice duration and frequency insomuch that showed major differences to the novel vocalizations from which they originally deprived.

Percussion is commonly referred to as "the backbone" or "the heartbeat" of a musical  instruments. Drumming releases endorphins, enkephalins and Alpha waves in the brain, which are associated with general feelings of well-being and euphoria. When drummers play with an open mouth or make a funny face, it's because they get lost in the music, and they feel it. Those are uncontrolled movements that one is not aware of doing, called movement coordination patterns or mannerisms. CHILDREN ESPECIALLY WITH ADD, ADHD and other challenges seem to be drawn to these drums and may benefit interacting with them under adult supervision to increase their creativity and motor skills. We are confident that puberphonia boys will love these or we will be happy to perform membraphone drumming. It work as an  ART. 

Thappattam

 Parai means 'to speak' or 'to tell'. A hollow drum made of a wooden ring, with cow skin stretched on one side and played with two unequal sticks, the percussion sticks used are two in number and named after the quality of the sound they generate. The thin slender percussion stick is called “sunddu kucchi” (high pitch) and the other thick relatively shorter stick is called “adi kucchi” (base note). In current times, Parai is considered a musical art to express freedom. 

The sound of drumming generates new neuronal connections in all parts of the brain. The more connections that can be made within the brain, the more integrated our experiences become.  This leads to a deeper sense of self-awareness.

Drumming also appears to synchronize the lower areas of the brain (non-verbal) with the frontal cortex (language and reasoning). This integration produces feelings of insight and certainty.  

For these reasons therapeutic drumming may be a powerful tool in helping retrain the brains of people who have some level of damage or impairment, such as with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), after a stroke, or where there is neurological disease such as Parkinson’s.

Finally, drumming can induce a natural “high” by increasing Alpha brain waves.  When the brain changes from Beta waves (concentration) to Alpha waves, you feel calm and relaxed.

As such, Alpha waves can also produce feelings of well-being and even euphoria, which may help people who suffer from mental illness, such as depression and anxiety.

This same Alpha activity is associated with meditation and other integrative modes of consciousness.

 

Health Reasons to Start Drumming

Drumming can have positive effects on your health and may help with many conditions from stress, fatigue, and anxiety, to hypertension, asthma, chronic painarthritis, mental illness, addiction, and even cancer.

Here’s why drumming is good for you:

1.Makes you happy. Participate in a drum circle or take a cardio drumming class and you will see how happy it makes you. Drumming releases endorphins, enkephalins and Alpha waves in the brain, which are associated with general feelings of well-being and euphoria.

2.        Induces deep relaxation. In one studyblood samples from participants who participated in an hour-long drumming session revealed a reversal in stress hormones.

3.        Helps control chronic pain. Drumming can certainly serve as a distraction from pain. And, it promotes the production of endorphins and endogenous opiates, which are the body’s own morphine-like painkillers.

4.        Boosts your immune system. Studies show that drumming circles boost the immune system. It has shown that group drumming actually increases natural T-cells, which help the body combat cancer as well as other viruses, including AIDS.

5.        Creates a sense of connectedness. Drumming circles and group drumming classes provide an opportunity for “synchronicity” in that you connect with your own spirit at a deeper level while also connecting with other like-minded people.

6.        Aligns your body and mind with the natural world. The Greek origin of the word “rhythm” is “to flow.” Drumming allows you to flow with the rhythms of life by simply feeling the beat.

7.        Provides a way to access a higher power. Drumming as a means to integrate mind, body and spirit. They focus on the whole body and then integrate the healing at both the physical and spiritual level by drumming, which connects spiritual forces.

8.       Releases negative feelings. The act of drumming can serve as a form of self-expression. Puberphonia  can literally drum out their feelings. When held, negative emotions can form energy blockages. The physical stimulation of hitting the drums can help remove those blockages. Drumming has even been used therapeutically to help addicts deal with their emotions.

9.        Puts puberphonia in the present moment. While drumming you are moving your awareness toward the flow of life. When you are flowing with the rhythm of life you cannot be caught up in your past or worrying about your future.

10.     Allows for personal transformation. Drumming stimulates creative expression. When one drum in a group, thay not only get to self-express, but  get feedback from the other drummers.  It’s the equivalent of talk therapy! Drum circles provide a means of exploring your inner self, and expanding your consciousness while being part of a community.

 

These two stretchy things are what vibrate. How much your vocal cords are stretched makes your voice higher and lower - the looser your vocal cords, the lower the sound, and the tighter, the higher. Then as the sound goes up into your mouth, the shape of your mouth (and the shape of your sinus cavities in your face and nose) change the sound even more, to create a wonderful flexible instrument capable of speech sounding.

Each musical instrument has both a vibrating mechanism and a resonating mechanism. The vibrating mechanism is the source of the sound waves, and the resonating mechanism refines, augments and amplifies those sound waves giving the instrument its unique tonal character. A few things that make the voice vastly different from every other instrument include the fact that the vocal folds can simultaneously be stretched, thickened or thinned, changing the nature of the actual source of the sound waves; in addition, the vocal tract of the human voice can change shape on a dime which enables to talk/ sing a huge amount of different vowel sounds, give their voice a seemingly unlimited number of colors, and also adding the dimension of language to the instrument. The fact that the human voice is vastly more complex than any man made instrument gives speakers a lot of options, but this complexity also makes it an instrument that is extremely difficult to “play.”

Wind instruments usually have a reed that you blow across, a mouthpiece that you blow against with the lips, or a mouthpiece that you blow over and across. A wind instrument needs…..wind..as in breath being blown into it. Pitch is controlled by using a sometimes complicated fingering system (think clarinet or flute) using, many times, all 10 fingers, to lengthen and shorten the inside of the instrument’s air column to produce notes. The exception to this is the slide trombone which physically makes the wind column longer and shorter. String use strings….wind instruments use wind. Every note has its own fundamental frequency. In string instruments, you control the frequency by putting your finger on a fret usually. In wind instruments, you control the frequency by which holes you cover

 

There are multiple theories behind the origin of Sa-Re-Ga-Ma-Pa-Da-Ni. They're believed to be originated from the sounds of animals with each of the 7 swaras corresponding to the 7 chakras of the body.
Sa - Shadyamam - Originator of the 6 swaras. Shadya means 6. This is the most basic sound that requires minimum effort, a  Peacock sound.
The sound of the peacock is called 'Agaval'. We call the 'peacock' a sweet sound that the male peacock makes when it even seeks its mate. Similarly, when a benefactor mingled with the Lord, they named it 'Agaval' to express their blissful bliss / state through Tamil songs.
Re - Rishabham - As powerful as a bull
Ga - Gandharam - Melancholic,Goat
Ma - Madhyamam - The middle swara,Heron
Pa - Panchamam - The fifth swara, Koel
Da - Daivatham - Sensitive, Horse
Ni - Nishadam - That closes. Since this is the last swara. Elephent

 

The Science Behind it . .

How does instruments make sound? Instruments produce a sound when a part of it vibrates, producing sounds that are loud enough to be heard by the human ear. These sounds, or musical notes, are produced differently in each of the four main families of instruments: Woodwind, Brass, String, and Percussion. Air is blown across the reed attached to the mouthpiece of the instrument, vibrating the air down the tube of the instrument to produce sounds. Different notes are produced by covering or opening holes in the instrument tube, changing  the  size of the instrument tube.   Air is blown into the instrument by ‘buzzing’ lips across the cup shaped mouthpiece, producing a vibration and sound through the instrument. Different notes are produced by changing the length of the instrument or the size of the bell-shaped end. Material is stretched over a hollow container and struck by a hand or stick, producing a vibration that produces sound. Different notes are produced by tightening the material stretched over the container or the size of the hollow container.

We follow the wind instruments music guideline. In a wind musical instrument a column of air enclosed in a wooden tube on metal tube vibrates and produces  speech sound.  Air is blown vibrating the air down the tube of the instrument to produce sounds. Different notes are produced by covering or opening holes in the instrument tube. Changing the reed, and size of the instrument tube will not change the frequency. Vocal folds vibrate when excited by aerodynamic phenomena; they are not plucked like a guitar string.

When you speak, air rushes from your lungs and makes your vocal cords vibrate, producing the sound of your voice. If you've ever plucked a small, thin rubber band, you've heard the high-pitched twang it makes when it's stretched. A thicker rubber band makes a deeper, lower-pitched twang. It's the same sort of thing with vocal cords.  As your body adjusts to this changing equipment, your voice may "crack" or "break."

 

Reference

1. Ingo Titze, Tobias Riede, Ted Mau. Predicting Achievable Fundamental Frequency Ranges in Vocalization Across Specie

sPLOS Computational Biology, 2016; 12 (6): e1004907 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004907

2.       Design methodology and material evaluation criteria for membranophone shells, Applied Acoustics

Volume 169, 1 December 2020, 107449, Author ManuelIbáñez-ArnalLuisDoménech-BallesterFernandoSánchez-López

 

Wednesday 9 June 2021

Chapter 22 Puberphonia differentiate “spiritually naked" and “physically naked”

 

 Chapter 22

Puberphonia differentiate “spiritually naked" and “physically naked”

 “The larynx is a sexual organ, because it’s very different between one sex to the other and that has to do with how much testosterone there is compared to other hormones that balance it out,” Titze told Fatherly, adding that testosterone levels shape the length and musculature of the vocal folds, which vibrate to produce sound and ultimately dictate pitch.

Puberty and adolescence are two terms interlinked to each other representing certain changes and period of such changes. Puberty refers to the physical changes leading to sexual maturity in a boy or a girl. Adolescence refers to the transition period when psychological and social changes take place in a boy or girl.  Puberty is the reason for the adolescence and this period may vary from one person to another. During puberty, surprising cracks and unexpected squeaks can signal changes in your voice. Your adolescent's relationships with others

In male adolescent begins to struggle for independence and control, many changes may happen. The following are some of the issues that may be involved with your adolescent during these years:

·         He wants independence from parents.

·         Peer influence and acceptance is very important.

·         Peer relationships become very important.

·         He may be in love.

·         He may have long-term commitments in relationships.

Creation of Adam's apple in male and breaking of voice.

Sex is identified and recognized and got ashamed of one’s nakedness

 Adam’s apple: The protruding part of the throat is called Adam’s apple. It is the enlarged voice box or larynx which gets enlarged and visible from outside in boys at the onset of puberty. Adam's apple in your throat will start to become more noticeable. This makes the voice of boys hoarse.  The larynx, specifically the laryngeal prominence that joins the thyroid cartilage, in the human throat is noticeably more prominent in males and was consequently called an Adam's apple, from a notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit getting stuck in Adam's throat as he swallowed it.  increasing in prominence as a secondary male sex characteristic in puberty, It is a secondary sexual characteristic: meaning it appears around the time of puberty and helps distinguish between the sexes, as it is more prominent in men than it is in women. The increase of the laryngeal prominence takes place during puberty and is logically thought to play a role in the voice maturation that also occurs in this period. However, no work has yet been done to prove this relationship decisively, only small reports of cadaver studies. They become aware of their "nakedness" and make fig-leaf clothes, and hide themselves when God approaches.



It's interesting to note that Adam and Eve made themselves coverings with the appearance of voice/ Adams apple. After eating the forbidden fruit the eyes of both Adam and Eve were opened, they now knew they were naked, and immediately after formation of Adams apple the Adams voice break and changed. This made them to recognize their sex. they made coverings for themselves. This verse gives us some idea as to why they decided to sew leaves together for clothing: They understood their condition, which was both "spiritually naked" and physically naked, and they made a vain attempt to cover what they had done by fabricating some rudimentary clothes out of materials that were readily available to them.
What does it mean when a guy has a high pitched voice?

The most important secondary sex characteristic in humans is the deeper voice. Puberty, with its voice changes among other things, can be a stressful time for teens, but understanding more about the process can help everyone cope with the situation. If he is concerned about how his voice sounds, you can reassure your son that the squeaks and changes are normal growing pains and that they won't last forever. The good news is that when his voice changes, he'll be getting the growth spurt he has been wishing for.

 Our study is the first to investigate attributions of infidelity as a function of sexual dimorphism in male and female voices. We found that men attributed high infidelity risk to feminized women's voices, but not significantly more often than did women. Our data suggest that voice pitch is used as an indicator of sexual strategy in addition to underlying mate value. Voice changes do not happen in a vacuum. Increases in testosterone during puberty make many changes in the body, not just to the voice.

However, the timing of the voice changes during puberty is significant because it does so at a certain point during the overall changes that are occurring. Voice changes happen when boys are between Tanner stages 3 and 4.1

The Tanner stages describe the physical changes in a boy's genitalia during puberty. Your doctor assesses your son's Tanner Stage, so feel free to ask where your son is at—puberty-wise—after his next checkup. It may give you an indication if a voice change is on the horizon.

The age at which voice changes begin varies widely between boys. Most often it begins between the ages of 12 and 13 and the changes are mostly complete after ages 15 to 18.

When your son's voice begins to change, this often marks the beginning of his “growth spurt.” This growth spurt is a time during adolescence where height increases rapidly.

Once boys voice stops changing, his growth spurt starts to decrease. This process can last two to three years.

At birth, boys’ and girls’ vocal folds are similar lengths, measuring about 2 millimeters long, but they continue to grow as the child grows. Girls' vocal folds grow 0.4 millimeters in length each year, but boy's vocal folds grow 0.7 millimeters in length for the same time period – almost twice as much.

This growth eventually slows down, leaving girls with a maximum vocal fold length of 10 millimeters and boys with a length of 16 millimeters. A longer vocal fold means a deeper voice, which is why males tend to have a deeper voice than girls.

Changes in the larynx are related to the increasing amounts of testosterone in boys during puberty. The increase in testosterone leads to a lengthening of the cartilage of the larynx and of the vocal folds, as well as the thickening of the vocal folds.

 

Unlike the boys (where the most significant growth in the larynx is front to back), in a girl’s larynx, the most significant growth is top to bottom. This means her pitch range will not change much, although her gear changes will almost certainly move. The biggest change you’ll hear is in her vocal weight and the timbre of her voice.

Study History


Creative legend Brothers, film composer, singer, ... Widely regarded as one of the greatest Indian music composer,... as well as music group headed by his elder brother  At the age of 14,  the junior brothers joined the musical troupe owned by his elder brother, for singing in child voice with the seniors in adult male voice. 


 

Four National Awards, 19 Filmfare awards, a Padma Bhushan and innumerable classics that placed Indian cinema on the global map,  innocent Kamal Haasan, then just four years old , Veteran Payback singer MS Rajeswari given voice to Kamal Hassan. A brilliant performance

The stages of voice change in puberphonia

There seem to be four stages of change for girls, matching their menarcheal state. For singing and drama teachers it helps to know how these might manifest:

Stage I: Prepubertal. Average age 8-10 or 11

Listen for their average speaking pitch – Stage I girls will speak around Middle C or D (C4 or D4) although there can be variations of up to a third either side. The quality of the sound is clear and childlike with no apparent changes or breaks

Stage IIA: Pubescence/Pre-Menarcheal. Average age 11-12 or 13

You may notice the first signs of physical development including increased height and breast development. Their average speaking pitch drops a little to B3 or C#4, although conversely, their singing may start to suffer as some girls lose their lower notes.

During this stage, the arytenoid cartilages and the muscles that close them may be growing at different rates. This causes temporary problems with closing at the back of the vocal folds, so there may be breathiness in the tone. The breathiness can occur across the pitch range and may cause problems with volume, especially in the middle and upper range. Despite the breathiness, a girl’s voice quality can become thicker or slightly weightier during Stage IIA

Stage IIB: Puberty/Post-menarcheal. Average age 13-14 or 15

Again, the girl’s average speaking pitch may drop, this time to between A3 and C#4
The lower pitches can feel more comfortable to sing, and the sound is more mature. Be careful at this stage not to keep her singing solely in the lower register (even if she likes it) as her voice will not yet be settled enough to produce volume and weight on the lowest notes. Keep working the girl’s range, even if you let her “sit” at the lower pitches more often.

The sound can still be breathy and the range can move up or down, or shorten dramatically, or change by the week! You’ll find it helpful to monitor each girl’s voice frequently during this stage – make it part of the lesson to find out how everyone is doing.

Often girls have a more full-bodied sound in the lower register but shift into a breathier sound higher up. There may be noticeable gear changes at G4 to B4 and again at D5 to F#5

Stage III: Young adult female/Post-menarcheal. Average age 14-15 or 16

Things start to settle down in Stage III – her vocal range may increase again and the tone is more even across the range. You may also notice that there is more ability to sing comfortably lower AND higher.

Male puberphonia voice change can be characterised by

1.     Increasing of average speaking pitch area (mean speaking fundamental frequency)

2.     Voice “cracking” and abrupt register “breaks” (abrupt voice quality changes)

3.     Increased breathiness, huskiness, or hoarseness in voice quality

4.     Decreased and inconsistent range capabilities (tessitura tends to fluctuate)

5.     Uncomfortable singing or effortful and delayed starting sound (note onsets)

6.     Heavy, breathy, “rough” tone production and/or colourless, breathy, thin tone quality

7.     Insecurity of pitch intonation.

Although voice change in females is not as dramatic as that observed in males, it does occur. In comparisons of male and female adolescent voice change, many characteristics are found in both sexes.”

Voice pitch, in particular, has been associated with indirect measures of reproductive fitness in both men and women—men with “masculine” low-pitched voices and women with “feminine” high-pitched voices tend to be rated more attractive and have more sexual partners. The deep timbre of a male voice may sound attractive, but low-voiced men actually tend to have lower sperm counts, a new study says. Multiple studies have found that women usually favor masculine features, such as prominent jaws, high muscle mass, and low-pitched voices. The theory is that these traits signal a high-quality mate—for instance, it's been proposed that masculine men generally have more robust amounts of sperm. But the new research revealed that, while deep voices are attractive to women, low-pitched men actually tended to have lower concentrations of sperm in their ejaculate.

Voice analysis

Voice recordings were analyzed using the free voice analysis software PRAAT version 5.2.35 [56]. For each voice recording the pitch of each of the first four vowels ("a", "e", "i", & "o") was extracted, and an average pitch calculated across the four vowels. The vowel "u" was not included in the analysis because of the tendency for participants to intonate this vowel with a downward inflection. PRAAT calculates pitch using a noise-resistant autocorrelation method. We used PRAAT's standard settings: pitch floor of 75 Hz and ceiling of 600 Hz, window length 0.04 s and time step of 0.01 s. There were no significant relationships between voice pitch and men's height (r = −0.027, P  =  0.850), weight (r  =  0.018, P  =  0.896), testes volume (r  =  0.031, P  =  0.826), or age (r = −0.167, P = 0.227) so these variables were not considered further.

7 Sneaky Things Your Voice Can Predict About Your Personality and Health

It's not just what you say—it's what you sound like when you say it.

Your authoritativeness

 Those who were given more power raised the pitch of their voices more, varied how loud their voices were, and became less monotone. This is just one of the bizarre things you never knew about your own voice.

Your marriage’s stability

Researchers recorded couples in marriage therapy sessions for two years and then used a computer to analyze voice features like jitter, loudness, and pitch in a study  Looking at the couples’ marital statuses five years later, researchers found that a computer’s analysis of tone of voice was better at predicting whether the relationship got better or worse than an analysis of the words therapists used to describe the sessions. Plus, the way you speak to your partner is one way to have a happier marriage.

If you’re “just friends”

When talking to someone they’ve been romantically involved with for less than a year, people tend to sound sexier and more pleasant than when talking to a same-sex platonic friend. The differences were obvious enough that independent raters were able to identify if the caller was talking to a friend or lover. The researchers say this might be because people change their voices to communicate their relationship status.

Your career success

Vote for political candidates with lower voices, regardless of the nominee’s gender. The researchers stress that their findings are correlation—not causation—and done in a lab setting, respectively. But a lower voice could (wrongly or rightly) signal strength and trustworthiness to listeners. If your job calls for giving presentations.

Your trustworthiness

Rate  the voices on personality traits like trustworthiness and dominance. While the study couldn’t verify how accurate the ratings were, the researchers found that most people rated the voices similarly. For instance, men who raised their pitches were seen as more trustworthy, while women whose voices went up at the end of a word were seen as less trustworthy. Although you can’t change your voice, you can adopt these habits that make people trust you.

Your fertility

Women’s voices are higher pitched before ovulation than when their fertility is low. Researchers think men have evolved to find higher-pitched voices more attractive because feminizing hormones and youthfulness are associated with indicate high fertility.

Your height

Tall people typically have larger lower airways, including lungs, which gives them a lower voice than shorter people usually have, the researchers say. Voice out these bizarre ways your height affects your health.

Reference
1. J Speech Lang Hear Res2006 Apr;49(2):448-59. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2006/035).Voice training and therapy with a semi-occluded vocal tract: rationale and scientific underpinnings

Ingo R Titze 1PMID: 16671856 , DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2006/035)

2.  Gangai  Amaran an Indian music composer, singer, lyricist, writer, film director and actor interview with Chithra Lakshmanan in Touring talkies YouTube channel, "Illayaraja: Gangai Amaran get together again". Behind woods. 12 March 2005. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2012.