Vocal fry register facts for kids

The vocal fry register is the lowest way your voice can make sounds. It's also called creaky voice or pulse register. It happens when your vocal cords (also called vocal folds) close loosely. This lets air bubble through slowly, making a popping or rattling sound. It sounds like a low "creak" or "croak."

When you make this sound, tiny parts in your voice box (called arytenoid cartilages) pull together. This makes your vocal cords press tightly but also become loose and compact. This creates a large, wobbly mass in your vocal cords. When air passes through, it makes that special low popping or rattling sound.

If you can control it well, vocal fry can go much lower than your normal speaking voice. Sometimes it can go many octaves lower! For example, Tim Storms holds the world record for the lowest human note. It's so low (0.189 Hz) that humans can't even hear it.

In the early 2000s, vocal fry became more common among young women speaking American English. People often see it as an informal, friendly, and city-like way of speaking.

What is Vocal Fry?

Vocal fry is a special way your voice works. It's one of several "vocal registers." A vocal register is a range of sounds your voice can make. Each register has a unique way your vocal cords vibrate. It also has its own range of pitches (how high or low a sound is) and a specific sound quality.

Scientists and speech therapists have known about vocal fry for a long time. It only became a common term for singing teachers in the 1970s. At first, some people didn't think it was a real vocal register for singing. But research, like videos of singers using vocal fry, showed how it works. This proved it should be seen as a true vocal register.

Vocal Fry in Speaking

Many books about how we speak and speech therapy talk about vocal fry. Some experts think using vocal fry too much can be a voice problem. But others say it's just one of the many ways our voices can make sounds. They believe it's only a problem if someone uses it all the time or in an unhealthy way.

In the 1900s, vocal fry in English was often heard when men spoke with a falling tone. This was common in British English, especially in a style called Received Pronunciation (RP). Famous examples include Sean Connery as James Bond and George Sanders as Shere Khan, who made creaky voice his special sound.

In the early 2000s, vocal fry seemed to become more common among young women in American English. But how much it's used and how important it is are still debated. One researcher, Ikuko Patricia Yuasa, thinks young women might use it to sound more serious. She found that college-age Americans thought female creaky voices sounded hesitant, friendly, and informal. But they also thought it sounded educated, city-like, and successful.

A study in 2014 looked at how adults in America felt about vocal fry. They found that voices with vocal fry were seen more negatively than voices without it. This was especially true when people were thinking about hiring someone. Young women with vocal fry were seen as less trustworthy, less skilled, less attractive, and harder to hire. This negative feeling was even stronger when the person listening was also a woman.

Another study with 800 listeners found that people making hiring decisions preferred voices without vocal fry. However, the vocal fry sounds in this study were made by people imitating it, not by natural vocal fry speakers. This means more research is needed. The negative reactions might be due to other things.

In American English, young women use vocal fry more often than men. When asked to read something, women used vocal fry four times more often than men.

Creaky voice is common in many languages. In Finnish, it helps show where phrases end and when it's someone's turn to speak. Some languages, like Jalapa Mazatec, use vocal fry to change the meaning of a word. So, whether vocal fry is there or not can completely change what a word means!

Social Impact of Vocal Fry

Some people seek help from speech therapists because they feel vocal fry makes them sound unsure or less confident. Researchers have found that young adult women who use vocal fry are seen as less skilled and less likely to be hired. Interestingly, listeners don't react as negatively to men's voices with vocal fry. Others argue that these ideas are part of a bigger problem with how people judge women's speech. They point out that men's vocal fry can have different, sometimes even opposite, meanings.

In English, vocal fry is often seen as a negative thing in the workplace. But a study from Duke University found that it's becoming more common and accepted in society.

In Finnish, creaky voice is a normal part of how people speak. Everyone uses it, no matter their gender. A study in Finland showed that if someone didn't use vocal fry when speaking Finnish, they were seen as less fluent.

Vocal Fry in Singing

In American country music, male singers sometimes make a croaking sound at the start of songs. This is done by moving from vocal fry to their normal singing voice. In choirs, if there aren't enough true bass singers, choirs might use singers who can "fry" the low bass notes. Singers like Tim Storms and Mike Holcomb use this technique to sing very low notes.

Some folk singing styles also use vocal fry for female voices. Vocal fry is also used in metal music. It's often combined with air from the diaphragm to create a "growl" or "scream." This makes the sound aggressive and harsh.

The main reason singers use vocal fry is to reach very low notes. These notes can't be sung in their normal voice. Sometimes, vocal fry techniques can even be used to help singers reach higher notes in their normal voice. Some singing teachers have found that vocal fry can help students who have trouble singing lower notes. Singers often lose their low notes because they use too much tension in their voice box muscles. They also might use too much breath pressure.

Some throat singing styles, like kargyra, use voice techniques that are similar to vocal fry.

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