Fundamental frequency disturbances in female and male singers' pitch glides through long tube with varied resistances

Abstract

Source-filter interaction can disturb vocal fold vibration frequency. Resonance frequency/bandwidth ratios (Q-values) may affect such interaction. Occurrences of fundamental frequency (fo) disturbances were measured in ascending pitch glides produced by four female and five male singers phonating into a 70 cm long tube. Pitch glides were produced with varied resonance Q-values of the vocal tract + tube compound (VT + tube): (i) tube end open, (ii) tube end open with nasalization, and (iii) with a piece of cotton wool in the tube end (conditions Op, Ns, and Ct, respectively). Disturbances of fo were identified by calculating the derivative of the low-pass filtered fo curve. Resonance frequencies of the compound VT+tube system were determined from ringings and glottal aspiration noise observed in narrowband spectrograms. Disturbances of fo tended to occur when a partial was close to a resonance of the compound VT+tube system. The number of such disturbances was significantly lower when the resonance Q-values were reduced (conditions Ns and Ct), particularly for the males. In some participants, resonance Q-values seemed less influential, suggesting little effect of source-filter interaction. The study sheds light on factors affecting source-filter interaction and fo control and is, therefore, relevant to voice pedagogy and theory of voice production.