In a singing and choral context, the Harmonic Series helps us to interpret and explain how pitch and resonance work when we use our voices for singing, speaking, and other vocal gestures or expressions. Spectrograms support our demonstrations and discussions of how to create a quality tone in achieving a well-tuned, well-supported sound. This video introduces the concept of the Harmonic Series by investigating spectrographic representations of the acoustic energy found in various voice types.
Video Chapters:
What are Harmonics? What is the Harmonic Series? How is the Harmonic Series useful for Singers? How can we use Spectrograms to explore the Harmonic Series?
When you have viewed the video, click on the audio extracts referenced in this video so that you can recreate these examples or interact with them in other ways.
A set of practical activities called That’s MY Voice! has been developed to help you and your singers uncover unique characteristics of your voices through interacting with spectrograms, in addition to exploring harmonics, resonance, the Harmonic Series, and timbre. Click on the ‘Activity’ button to access these materials in 3 levels of difficulty.
If you have not yet explored Sonic Visualiser or how spectrograms work, go to our introductory video Introduction to Spectrograms and download our Getting Started with Spectrograms user guide. This will make engaging with the contents of this video and the accompanying activities more fruitful.
Below, you will find a series of video resources, each one accompanied by activities and audio samples for you to practise, demonstrate and explore:
Created & Produced by Dr Barbara Dignam as a resource for the Visualising Vocal Sound using Spectrogram Technology element of the PRESTO project.
Dublin City University, Ireland
