You can create a small buzzing sound there, but that noise needs to be amplified if you ever want to be heard.

To continue the musical analogy, the vocal folds are basically the mouthpiece of your body’s vocal instrument. You can think of the vocal folds as dynamic guitar strings thinner strings with more tension vibrating more rapidly produce a higher pitch, while thicker strings with less tension vibrating less rapidly produce a lower pitch. The pitch is manipulated by the tension placed on the vocal folds, as well as their length and thickness. This variable rate depends on what pitch of sound that we are attempting to make when singing or speaking. This vibration happens very quickly, ranging from 100-1,000 times per second. These vocal folds are membranous tissue that open and close depending on what we are doing with our respiratory system (e.g., swallowing, breathing, speaking, singing, etc.).ĭuring exhalation, when the airstream passes through the voice box, these vocal folds begin to close slightly, and the moving air causes the soft tissues to vibrate.

Inside the voice box is the crux of this whole topic, the vocal folds.

The trachea is also known as the windpipe and sitting on top of that pipe is the larynx, also known as the voice box. The lungs contain the air that we breathe in, but when we exhale, the diaphragm rises, the lungs begin to contract, and a powerful stream of air is formed that moves through the trachea. The human respiratory system (Photo Credit: OpenStax College / Wikimedia Commons)

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