Vocal Pitch, Volume, and Quality

Question 0

Fundamental Frequency

Answer 0

a person’s habitual pitch

Question 1

Pitch

Answer 1

Perception of frequency. Determined by mass, tension, and elasticity of the vocal folds.

Question 2

Jitter

Answer 2

Perturbation of frequency (pitch). People with no laryngeal pathology have less than 1% jitter when they sustain a vowel.
Dysphonic patients have large amounts of jitter.
individuals with hoarseness or tremor can have large jitter values.

Question 3

volume

Answer 3

perception of intensity (amplitude)

Question 4

amplitude

Answer 4

extent of waveform movement (compression and rarefactions)

Question 5

shimmer

Answer 5

perterbation of amplitude, variation of cycle to cycle amplituded

more than 1dB variation can sound dysphonic (roughness in this case)

Question 6

quality

Answer 6

Complexity of laryngeal tone modified by resonating cavities. Can be subjective.

Question 7

What are the 8 types of vocal quality?

Answer 7

1. Harshness
2. Hoarseness
3. Strain-strangle
4. Breathiness
5. Stridency
6. Glottal Fry
7. Diplophonia

Harsh Horses Strain to Breathe while Striding to the Glottal Dip.

Question 8

Hoarseness

Answer 8

breathy, low pitched, and husky. May have pitch breaks and excessive throat clearing. Caused by aperiodic vibration and Fo variation.

Question 9

Harshness

Answer 9

Rough, unpleasant, gravely. Excessive muscular tension/effort. Casued by tightly adducted vocal folds with abrupt air release.

Question 10

strain-strangle

Answer 10

patient “squeezes” their voice at the glottal level. initiating and sustaining phonation is difficult. Talking causes fatigue/tension

Question 11

Breathiness

Answer 11

Vocal folds slightly open. Can be organic (physical) or nonorganic (functional). Pt. can run out of air, decreased range.

Question 12

stridency

Answer 12

Sounds shrill, tinny, high pitched. Caused by hypertonicity (tension) of pharyngeal constrictors/elevation of the larynx. Can occur in tense patients.

Question 13

Glottal fry

Answer 13

Vocal folds vibrate slowly. Slow, discrete bursts of extremely low pitch. Sounds crackly. Often occurs at the end of the phrase/sentence. Can be helped by slightly raising pitch and increasing subglottal pressure. Often used to help stridency.

Question 14

Diplophonia

Answer 14

Double voice. Two pitches at once. Caused by vocal folds vibrating at different frequencies from differing mass/tension (e.g. polyp).