title: What happens during vocal warm-up?
abstract: Most singers prefer to warm up their voices before performing. Although the subjective effect is often considerable, the underlying physiological effects are largely unknown. Because warm-up tends to increase blood flow in muscles, it seems likely that vocal warm-up might induce decreased viscosity in the vocal folds. According to the theory of vocal-fold vibration, such a decrease should lead to a lower phonation threshold pressure. In this investigation the effect of vocal warm-up on the phonation threshold pressure was examined in a group of male and female singers. The effect varied considerably between subjects, presumably because the vocal-fold viscosity was not a dominating factor for the phonation-threshold pressure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech Communication and Music Acoustics, KTH, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Elliot
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sundberg
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gramming
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010699:Phonation / Q000502:physiology*; D014827:Vocal Cords / Q000502:physiology; D014831:Voice / Q000502:physiology; D014834:Voice Training