Singing and speaking
When you sing, you’re a musical instrument—and when you speak,
you’re not. Singing and speaking are different, even though you make the
sounds in almost the same way.
You sing and speak by making a part of your throat vibrate. The
vibrations come from a pair of small, stretchy bands called vocal cords
[(voh]{.smallcaps} kuhl [kawrds).]{.smallcaps}
When you are not speaking or singing, the vocal cords are loose and
relaxed, like an unstretched rubber band. Your breath goes in and out
between the vocal cords without making them vibrate.
When you begin to speak, you use small muscles in your throat to pull
the vocal cords tight. The air you breathe out pushes on the vocal cords
and makes them vibrate. This vibration makes the sounds you hear—and
you make the sounds into words by the way you move your tongue and lips.
When you sing, you make your vocal cords vibrate in the same way—but
you change the speed at which they vibrate. To sing high, you tighten
your vocal cords. This makes them vibrate faster. And to sing low, you
loosen your vocal cords. This slows down the vibrations. So your vocal
cords vibrate at exactly the right frequency, or rate of speed, for each
sound—and your voice makes music.
