extended vocal technique

Spoken text is frequently employed. The Italian term "parlato" has a similar meaning.

{{main|Rapping}}

{{main|Sprechgesang}}

Sprechgesang is a combination singing and speaking. It is usually heavily associated with Arnold Schoenberg (particularly his Pierrot Lunaire which uses sprechgesang for its entire duration) and the Second Viennese School. Schoenberg notated sprechgesang by placing a small cross through the stem of a note which indicates approximate pitch. In more modern music “sprechgesang” is frequently simply written over a passage of music.

Singing is produced while a singer is inhaling. It is used in experimental contemporary classical compositions, such as in the 2006 chamber opera Ursularia by Nicholas DeMaison, for its ability to produce a variety of extreme high and low pitches impossible to create in typical exhaled vocals.{{Cite thesis |last=DeBoer |first=Amanda R. |title=Ingressive Phonation in Contemporary Vocal Music |date=2012 |publisher=Bowling Green State University |url=https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/etd/r/1501/10?clear=10&p10_accession_num=bgsu1353356284 |language=en}} In popular music styles, ingressive singing can be combined with vocal distortion techniques for extreme metal vocals like death metal growls. In beatboxing, it is used to create certain percussion sounds (like the "inward K snare"). A careful mixture of ingressive and egressive sounds allows a beatboxer to sustain a rhythmic phrase indefinitely without needing to pause for breath.{{Cite web |title=Blumenfeld & Blaylock - Beatboxing Airstreams |url=https://reedblaylock.com/beatboxing/airstreams.html |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=reedblaylock.com}}

{{Main|Falsetto}}

A vocal technique allowing the singer to sing notes higher than their modal vocal range.

{{main|Vocal fry register}}

A "frying"-type sound may be produced by means of the glottis. This technique has been frequently used by Meredith Monk.

{{main|Yodelling}}

Yodelling is performed by rapidly alternating between a singer's chest and head voice.

{{main|Ululation}}

A long, wavering, high-pitched vocal sound resembling a howl with a trilling quality. It is produced by emitting a high-pitched loud voice accompanied with a rapid back-and-forth movement of the tongue and the uvula. Ululation is practiced in certain styles of singing, as well as in communal ritual events, used to express strong emotion.

Squeaking

The thyrohyoid muscle can be tensed when speaking to shorten the vocal cords, allowing the use of an extremely high pitch but with a different timbre and resonance compared to a typical falsetto. This technique was originated and named by the rapper 645AR.{{Cite news |last=Muggs |first=Joe |date=2021-06-08 |title='This sounds like a human synthesiser': the evolution of rap, one verse at a time |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jun/08/evolution-rap-dizzee-busta-nicki-minaj-kanye-beasties-snoop |access-date=2025-05-20 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web |title=Gather 'round, children, for it's time to learn about "squeak rap" |url=https://www.avclub.com/gather-round-children-for-its-time-to-learn-about-sq-1841796203 |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=AV Club |language=en-US}}

A vocal tremolo is performed by rapidly pulsing the air expelled from the singer's lungs while singing a pitch. These pulses usually occur from 4–8 times per second.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}

A vocal trill is performed by adding singing vibrato while performing a vocal tremolo.{{Clarify|date=October 2018}}

{{main|Rekuhkara}}

{{main|Overtone singing}}

By manipulating the vocal cavity, overtones may be produced.David Pariser and Enid Zimmerman, "Learning in the Visual Arts: Characteristics of Gifted and Talented Individuals," in Handbook of Research and Policy in Art Education, edited by Elliot W. Eisner and Michael D. Day (Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004): 388. {{ISBN|978-0-8058-4972-1}}. Although used in the traditional music of Mongolia, Tuva, and Tibet, overtones have also been used in the contemporary compositions of Karlheinz Stockhausen (Stimmung),Gregory Rose and Simon Emmerson, "Stockhausen 1: Stimmung". Contact, no. 20 (Autumn 1979): 20–25, citation on 20. as well as in the work of David Hykes.Charles Madden, Fractals in Music: Introductory Mathematics for Musical Analysis, InMusic (Salt Lake City, Utah), no. 1 (Salt Lake City: High Art Press, 1999): 85–89, 95. {{ISBN|978-0-9671727-5-0}}.

By carefully controlling the configurations of the vocal cords, a singer may obtain "undertones" which may produce period doubling, tripling or a higher degree of multiplication;{{citation needed|date=October 2017}} this may give rise to tones that fairly coincide with those of an inverse harmonic series. Although the octave below is the most frequently used undertone, a twelfth below and other lower undertones are also possible. This technique has been used most notably by Joan La Barbara.[http://www.lovely.com/albumnotes/notes3003.html].However, undertones may be generated by processes that include more than the vocal folds.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}} For instance, the ventricular folds (also called the false vocal folds) may be recruited, probably by solely aerodynamic forces, and made to vibrate with the vocal folds, generating undertones, like those found, for instance, in Tibetan low-pitched chant.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}

By overstressing or by asymmetrically contracting the laryngeal muscles, a multiphonic or chord may be produced.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}} This technique features in the 1968 composition Versuch über Schweine by the German composer Hans Werner Henze. In voice pathology, there are various descriptions of somewhat similar effects, such as those found in patients with diplophonia, a condition that produces a "double voice", i.e., two or even more simultaneous pitches.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}

{{main|Screaming (music)}}

{{main|Death growl}}

{{main|Donald Duck talk}}

A form of alaryngeal speech that has a high pitch that can be used for speaking and singing. It is most familiar as the voice of Donald Duck.

Besides producing sounds with the mouth, singers can be required to clap or snap their fingers, shuffle their feet, or slap their body. This is usually notated by writing the appropriate word over a note. These gestures are sometimes written on a separate one-line staff as well.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}}

Inhaled helium is occasionally used to drastically change the timbre of the voice. When inhaled, helium changes the resonant properties of the human vocal track resulting in a very high squeaky voice. In Salvatore Martirano's composition L’s GA the singer is required to inhale from a helium mask.

Conversely, an unnaturally low voice may be achieved by asking the singer to inhale sulfur hexafluoride. This technique carries higher risk than helium inhalation due to the gas's heavy weight causing it to settle in the lungs, where it displaces oxygen.{{cite web|title=Sulfur Hexafluoride|url=http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+825|work=Hazardous Substances Data Bank|publisher=U.S. National Library of Medicine|accessdate=26 March 2013}}

During the production of the album Eternal Atake 2, the rapper Lil Uzi Vert was recorded in the studio inhaling a gas that appeared to be nitrous oxide, an anesthetic that is used recreationally and that creates an unnaturally deep voice when inhaled.{{Cite web |last=Cummings-Grady |first=Mackenzie|date=2024-08-27 |title=Video Shows Lil Uzi Vert Inhaling Balloon Allegedly Filled With Nitrous Oxide |url=https://www.xxlmag.com/lil-uzi-vert-inhales-balloon-nitrous-oxide/ |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=XXL Mag |language=en}} The album heavily uses low-pitched vocals which sound identical to the effects of nitrous oxide on the voice,{{Cite web |last=Attard |first=Paul |date=2024-11-05 |title=Lil Uzi Vert 'Eternal Atake 2' Review: Microwaved Leftovers |url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/music/lil-uzi-vert-eternal-atake-2-album-review/ |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=Slant Magazine |language=en-US}} though it is unconfirmed if these were created by inhaling gas, or through digital manipulation to give a similar effect.

Amplification, such as microphone or even megaphone, possibly with electronic distortion of the voice, is frequently used in contemporary composition. Through the use of various electronic distortion techniques, vocal enhancement possibilities are nearly unlimited. A good example of this technique can be found in much of the music written and performed by Laurie Anderson.

Since its invention in the 1990s, Auto-Tune and other digital pitch correction methods have been widely used in commercial music genres to create expressive effects, popularized by artists in many genres including the pop singer Cher, the R&B singer T-Pain, and the hip-hop artist Future. Contemporary raï and Berber folk music, which historically placed emphasis on glissando, embraced Auto-Tune to enhance the beauty of vocals.{{Cite news |last=Clayton |first=Jace |date=2009-05-05 |title=Pitch Perfect |url=https://www.frieze.com/article/pitch-perfect |access-date=2025-05-20 |work=Frieze |language=en |issue=123 |issn=0962-0672}}

There are a number of pieces which require a singer to lean over a (sometimes amplified) piano and sing directly into the strings. If the strings are not damped, the effect is to start audible sympathetic vibrations in the piano. By far the most famous piece to use this technique is Ancient Voices of Children by George Crumb.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}}

• George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher
• Laurie Anderson
• Gelsey Bell
• Cathy Berberian
• Yma Súmac
• Iva Bittová
• Thomas Buckner
• Jill Burton
• Jan DeGaetani
• Paul Dutton
• Diamanda Galás
• Roy Hart
• Imogen Heap
• Shelley Hirsch
• David Hykes
• Nicholas Isherwood
• Sofia Jernberg
• Joan La Barbara
• Phil Minton
• Fatima Miranda
• Meredith Monk
• David Moss
• Sainkho Namtchylak
• Yoko Ono
• Mike Patton
• Carol Plantamura
• Vahram Sargsyan
• Alice Shields
• Demetrio Stratos
• Michael Vetter
• Jennifer Walshe
• Trevor Wishart
• Alfred Wolfsohn
• Savina Yannatou
• Pamela Z
• Jim Morrison

• Throat singing

{{Reflist}}

• Blatter, Alfred (1980). Instrumentation/Orchestration. New York: Schirmer Books.
• Read, Gardner (1969). Music Notation. 2nd ed. Boston: Crescendo Publishing Co.
• Edgerton, Michael Edward (2005). The 21st-Century Voice: Contemporary and Traditional Extra-Normal Voice. Lanham: Scarecrow Press.- {{ISBN|978-0-8108-5354-6}}
• Fuks, Leonardo; Hammarberg, Britta; Sundberg, John (1998): "A self-sustained vocal-ventricular phonation mode: acoustical, aerodynamic and glottographic evidences", KTH TMH-QPSR 3/1998, 49–59, Stockholm

• [http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=1111 Vox Humana: Alfred Wolfsohn's Experiments in Extension of Human Vocal Range] (Folkways Records, 1956)
• [http://evtlexicon.com/resources.html Lexicon of Extended Vocal Techniques]{{Dead link|date=August 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• [https://music.destinymanifestation.com/lexicon-of-extended-vocal-techniques/ Lexicon of Extended Vocal Techniques]([by Arthur Kegerreis])

{{Extended techniques}}

Category:Extended techniques

Extended vocal