National Center for Voice and Speech

12/19/2025

Sounds about right.

12/17/2025

This week, we publish the last of our 2025 NCVS Insight columns with an article from Dr. Ingo Titze entitled, "The Power of the Question." Here is a brief excerpt:

"The scientific method of investigation is built on asking questions and testing hypotheses. Many of us have questions about how something works, how applicable or valid it is, or how it can be implemented economically. Those of us who obtained a post-graduate degree were likely asked to write a thesis or a dissertation. This assignment often began with a question. It may have been stated in colloquial terms at first, but eventually it was written in scientific language with terms that could be quantified with measurement or theory. How powerful was that question – to you and the entire world? Looking back, did it put you on a course of future investigations, make you more inquisitive, increase your thirst for better understanding – or was it simply to satisfy your advisor and your academic research committee? Were the letters you received (MS, PhD, DMA, MD, EdD) more important than the discovery?"

12/16/2025

Available now.

Sing and Shout for Health explores the remarkable impact of vocalization on human physiology, health, and well-being. Edited by renowned physicist Ingo R. Titze and vocologist Elizabeth C. Johnson, this groundbreaking book delves into scientific discoveries that reveal how singing, shouting, and oth...

12/15/2025

"It is clear that the average speaking fundamental frequency may not be an accurate predictor of either average, most comfortable, or maximum attainable fundamental frequency (pitch) in singing. Nevertheless, the monotonic decrease of fundamental frequency with increasing age during childhood leads one to speculate about a size principle. It would be relatively easy to develop an empirical relationship between some aspect of body size and fundamental frequency, provided one understood which body dimensions are the crucial ones. Would they be body height, volume, neck circumference, neck length, or some combination of external measurements? A quick reflection on a number of speakers and singers of our own acquaintance will reveal that measurements based on external sizes are not reliable indicators of average speaking fundamental frequency. The often espoused belief that tenors are shorter in stature and basses have longer than average necks may be supportable in very broad statistical terms, but predictions for a given individual must be based on other size criteria."

From "Fundamental Frequency Scaling and Voice Classification" by Dr. Ingo Titze. Journal of Singing, Sept/Oct 1980, pp. 21-22

11/06/2025

Join Dr. Brad Story and Chris Johnson for a fascinating conversation on the anatomy of a vocal tract. Click the link to register for the free seminar.

Login to TeachVoice.com community via email or SSO today.

10/03/2025

Preliminary dates for SVI 2026 are up!

We have preliminary dates for SVI 2026!

Please hold these dates on your calendar if you plan to attend all of SVI 2026. We cannot wait to get started on launching into another wonderful year of the Summer Vocology Institute at the Utah Center for Vocology and our with our colleagues at the National Center for Voice and Speech.

If you are considering applying, now is a good time to connect with mentors and colleagues and start gathering those 2 letters of recommendation, preparing your resumé/cv, and gathering your academic transcripts. Application will open late November/first week of December.

(Please note: this is a preliminary date. Administration may adjust by one day, either starting one day later or ending one day earlier. Final conformation will be communicated when we release our application form on our website.)

07/18/2025

Sounds like envy to me.

07/17/2025

Interesting research at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

A new study shows that automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems trained on speech from people with Parkinson’s disease are 30% more accurate in transcribing similar speech patterns.

07/16/2025

🎤 Where does your voice really go?

When you speak or sing, sound doesn’t just pour evenly in all directions. It radiates outward in specific patterns. Let's look at a study that laid those patterns out in remarkable detail, especially looking at the high-frequency energy (HFE) that’s so crucial for clarity and intelligibility.

🔍 So what was in the study?
• 📈 High-frequency energy (8 & 16 kHz) is highly directional — it projects most powerfully straight in front of you. Move off to the side by just 45°, and HFE drops by around 3 dB, which is enough for the human ear to notice.
• 🗣 Soft vs loud? As people get louder, their voices do become slightly more directional, especially in those higher frequencies — probably thanks to changes in mouth shape and vocal effort.
• 🎶 Singing vs speaking? Surprisingly, singing isn’t more directional than speech overall. Even though singers often open their mouths wider, the effect isn’t large enough to change how sound radiates in a meaningful way across styles.
• 🚻 Men vs women? Tiny differences showed up at high frequencies (male voices being a touch more directional), likely due to anatomical differences like mouth size — but overall, gender didn’t dramatically change sound radiation.

💥 But the biggest surprise came from individual sounds.
Certain phonemes — especially voiceless fricatives like /s/ and /ʃ/ — are far more directional than others. They beam high frequencies forward much more strongly than, say, /f/ or /h/. This means the type of sound you’re making shapes where your voice energy goes.

🎧 Why does it matter?
• It helps explain why you’re easier to hear (and locate) when facing someone. That sharp, clear high-frequency content they rely on to understand speech is aimed right at them.
• It also shows why mic placement matters so much in recording or amplification — getting even slightly off-axis can cost you those crisp details.
• And it hints at how our ears use HFE directionality to solve the classic “cocktail party” problem: picking out one voice in a noisy room.

🧬 Bottom line:
Your voice is a beautifully complex directional instrument, especially at high frequencies. Understanding these patterns helps with everything from acoustic design to hearing aid tech — and might even help you be a more intentional communicator.

Text adapted from "Horizontal directivity of low- and high-frequency energy in speech and singing" by Dr. Brian B. Monson, Dr. Eric J. Hunter and Dr. Brad H. Story, published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, May 2012. Full text here:https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3407162/pdf/JASMAN-000132-000433_1.pdf

07/15/2025

Register here: https://www.dianeowensvoice.com/july-28-webinar-vocal-readiness-relief-rescue

07/14/2025

🧬 Your lungs and your voice are more connected than you might realize — and not just because air is the power source.

When you speak or sing, there’s a complex dance happening between your brain, your breath, and your vocal folds. Some of it is conscious, like choosing words or shaping vowels. But a surprising amount happens automatically — built right into your nervous system.

💡 Consider this:
• As you breathe in, your vocal folds reflexively move apart.
• As you breathe out, they move together (even if not fully closed).
This isn’t just a habit you learned to speak. It’s part of how your body manages airway resistance to keep breathing smooth and balanced.

🐾 Animal studies make this even clearer.
Researchers have shown that cats and dogs can keep vocalizing purely through brainstem stimulation — no higher brain input. But if you suddenly reverse airflow during that phonation, their vocal folds will instantly open, even with the brain still telling them to phonate. It’s a powerful reflex loop between the lungs and the larynx.

🎤 So what does this mean for singers, speakers, and teachers?
Some pedagogies lean into this natural connection. They argue that if you set up the breath right, the vocal folds will follow — snapping open and closed in sync with the airflow, no extra laryngeal fuss required. Just “ride the breath,” and the glottis responds.

Other schools of thought are more larynx-focused. They teach the vocal folds to operate with some independence, so that small hiccups in breath don’t automatically disrupt phonation. In this view, training the voice means giving the larynx control even when the breath gets messy.

✨ Either way, it’s clear:
• Your respiratory and phonatory systems are hardwired together by deeply rooted reflexes.
• Understanding this relationship can help unlock healthier, more efficient voice use.
• And it’s a rich area for continued voice science research.

Pretty incredible how your body’s built-in systems handle so much coordination — often before you even think about it. 🧠💨🎶

Text adapted from "Coordinated Breathing and Phonation" by Dr. Ingo Titze, published in the Journal of Singing, Sept/Oct 1985. Full text by subscription available at the website for the National Associate of Singing Teachers.

07/11/2025

The relationship seems strained.