The Transient Theory of Human Voice Production with Dr Julian Chen
Sunday 16th April 2023, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)
This event is free-to-attend as part of our World Voice Day celebrations.
In 1957, French physiologist Philippe Fabre invented the electroglottograph, which can accurately determine the closing and opening instants of the glottis in vivo. In 1984, Donald Miller and Harm Schutte further placed two pressure sensors immediately above and below the glottis, measured the air pressures across the glottis.
This experimental evidence enabled a scientific understanding of human voice production.
And so a refined version of the transient theory of human voice production, the timbron theory, initially proposed by Leonhard Euler in 1727, is established. In this lecture, experimental output and the timbron theory of human voice production are presented in an easy to understand graphical format.
Content:
According to that theory, the time between two adjacent glottal closing instants accurately defines the pitch period, and the sound waveform in each pitch period contains full information on the timbre. A method of extracting glottal closing instants from sound waves and a graphical display, the pitch-synchronous spectrogram, are presented.
Among the samples of human voice, the sound recordings of Luciano Pavarotti are analyzed. Some characteristics of the master singer are shown, and hints of how to improve the quality and volume of voice are presented.
Finally, the theory and parametrization method for human voice developed in early 20th century, the source-filter theory and linear prediction coefficients (LPC), are outlined.
Comparing with the more accurate timbron theory and pitch-synchronous parametrization method, the deficiencies of the source-filter theory and the LPC method are discussed.
Dr Julian Chen
Julian Chen received a PhD in Physics from Columbia University in 1985, then joined IBM Research Division as a Research Staff Member...
World Voice Day
World Voice Day takes place on 16th April annually. It is acknowledged across the globe, with the main goal being to increase awareness of voice and voice issues.
Sorry, this is an archived short course...
We have plenty of upcoming short courses coming soon. See details of some of them below or look at the full list of short courses.
Tuesday 22nd April 2025
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday 23rd April 2025
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Thursday 24th April 2025
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Friday 25th April 2025
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Monday 28th April 2025
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday 29th April 2025
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
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Wednesday 23rd April 2025
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
(London Time)
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Michele Capalbo
Perceptual motor learning (PML) theory is characterised by the convergence of perception and action. PML focuses on how we teach, not what we teach, in order to optimise learning and ultimately, performance! This short course will outline strategies for teaching and coaching with both long- and short-term goals in mind. These strategies have been adapted for the voice from motor learning theory and the Alexander Technique.
Thursday 24th April 2025
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Friday 25th April 2025
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
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