Understanding How Resonance Works

There are a lot of different factors involved in speech production and voice quality.

One of those factors is resonance.

Resonance refers to the vibrations in your throat, nose, and mouth that can affect the quality of your voice.

These parts typically balance resonance to produce clear and effective speech.

However, structural or behavioral differences can impact your resonance, and as a result, your speech.

At Sol Speech And Language Therapy, a speech language pathologist can work with you to address any concerns you have related to your resonance.

This can help you communicate more effectively.

In this article, we’re taking a closer look at voice resonance.

We’ll explore what resonance is, how it works, and how resonance disorders can affect your speech.

From there, we’ll talk about how speech therapy can help.

Keep reading to find out more.

What Is Resonance?

Resonance refers to how sound is changed due to the vibration of your vocal folds.

Speech sounds are produced by your vocal folds, which go through your vocal tract.

The size and shape of your vocal tract, as well as its various parts, can have a significant effect on your resonance.

This impacts your speech.

The different aspects of the vocal tract that can affect resonance include:

• Your larynx
• Your pharynx
• Your oral and nasal cavities
• The extent to which your mouth opens
• The position of your tongue

When you speak, you use and balance different resonances to produce specific speech sounds and communicate more effectively.

Most of the time, you’ll do this without thinking about it.

Using too much or too little oral or nasal sound energy when producing speech can result in a resonance disorder, but we’ll get into that shortly.

What Are The Different Types Of Vocal Resonance?

When you speak, your voice will resonate in parts of your body.

When it resonates in different areas, it can change the way your voice sounds.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the different types of vocal resonance.

Chest Resonance

Chest resonance refers to how your chest cavity vibrates when you speak.

It’s also sometimes referred to as dark resonance.

This form of resonance generally produces lower pitched speech sounds.

Chest resonance is commonly used by males when speaking, as well as singers when they sing lower notes.

It’s also how you can “project” your voice.

Chest resonance tends to be the loudest.

You can identify if you’re using chest resonance by paying attention to your chest.

If you can feel it vibrating when you speak, that’s chest resonance.

Nasal Resonance

Nasal resonance refers to the amount of resonance, or amount of flowing air, provided by your nose when you speak.

There are two different types of nasal resonance.

Hypernasality occurs when the majority of speech sounds are produced by air passing through your nose.

Think of the English sounds ‘m’, ‘n’, and ‘ng’

All other sounds in English are oral sounds that are produced when exhaled through the mouth.

However, different languages have different resonant qualities.

For example, French, Portuguese, and Hindi are considered to be more nasal languages.

This means more of their sounds resonate in your nose.

However, with hypernasality, some oral sounds in English are produced through your nose as well.

This can be the result of physical differences, such as a cleft, fistula, or weak soft palate or velum.

It can also be the result of habit.

For example, if you learned to allow air to pass through your nose rather than your mouth when speaking.

Another form of nasal resonance is hyponasality.

In hyponasality, nasal sounds are produced by passing air through the mouth rather than the nose.

It typically sounds less severe than hypernasality since only the 3 speech sounds mentioned above are nasal sounds.

Hyponasality can be caused by any kind of blockage that prevents air from existing in your nose, like a deviated septum.

Keep in mind that anything that disrupts nasal resonance can affect the quality of your voice.

Laryngeal Resonance

Laryngeal resonance occurs when there’s more vibration in the laryngeal area, otherwise known as your voice box.

It’s hard to determine the presence of laryngeal resonance because your vocal folds naturally vibrate in order to produce sound, which is what allows you to speak.

Using too much laryngeal resonance can cause you to overexert your voice box.

This can result in making speech production more tiring.

Head Resonance

Head resonance occurs when there are vibrations in structures situated above the neck, including:

• Nasal resonance
• Oral resonance
• Sinus resonance
• Pharyngeal resonance

Head resonance can result in a lighter or brighter resonance.

This tends to be higher in pitch than chest resonance.

However, it’s a myth that “head voice” is always high pitched.

Head resonance is commonly used by women and singers hitting higher notes.

Pharyngeal Resonance

Pharyngeal resonance refers to the vibration of your pharyngeal cavities, or pharynx, when speaking.

The pharynx is a tube-like structure in your throat.

It acts as a passageway for air to travel into your lungs.

It also allows food and liquid to enter your esophagus.

There are three parts to the pharynx, including the nasopharynx, oropharynx, and hypopharynx.

Resonance in your pharynx are typically centered on an area below the lower nasal and upper oral region.

Having imbalances in how your pharynx vibrates can lead to differences in producing typical resonance.

Oral Resonance

When we talk about oral resonance we’re referring to the resonance of the oral cavity, which is also known as your mouth.

Any oral sounds you produce use oral resonance.

Overusing or underusing oral resonance can lead to the development of hyponasality or hypernasality.

Again, having the right balance of oral and nasal resonance helps produce effective speech sounds.

Sinus Resonance

You have 4 paired sinuses, which are air filled cavities located in your nose, forehead, and cheek area.

The 4 sinuses are:

• Maxillary
• Ethmoid
• Sphenoid
• Frontal

While not significantly, the vibration of these sinuses when speaking can have an effect on the quality of your voice.

How Do You Control Your Resonance?

Can you control your resonance?

Yes, absolutely.

It involves changing the size and shape of your vocal folds.

It also involves coordinating air flow when producing speech sounds.

You can feel for vibrations and listen to the sound and quality of your voice to have an idea of what type of resonance you’re using more of.

But how exactly do you control and change your resonance?

There are a number of different strategies for controlling your resonance when it comes to speaking or singing.

Some of these strategies include:

• Breathing exercises
• Vocal exercises
• Mindfulness exercises
• Modifying sounds
• Maintaining good posture
• Adjusting your tone

What Are Resonance Disorders?

One thing to keep in mind is that resonance disorders aren’t voice disorders.

Resonance disorders occur when the airflow through the nose and mouth are imbalanced and change the quality of your voice.

They can be caused by structural issues in one or several of the parts involved in speech production.

They may also be the result of articulation errors reinforced by habitual use.

There are various signs of resonance disorders, depending on the type and severity.

Some general symptoms can include:

• Muffled speech
• Omitting sounds
• Weak articulation
• High pitched voice that’s hard to understand
• Having a short utterance length
• Nasal sounding voice

Resonance disorders can affect your ability to produce speech sounds correctly.

As a result, they can also be considered speech sound disorders.

There are few different common types of resonance disorders.

We’ve already looked at hypernasality, in which oral sounds are produced through the nose.

As well as hyponasality, in which nasal sounds are produced by passing air through the mouth.

There is also cul-de-sac resonance disorder.

With this one, sound becomes trapped in your nasal, oral, or pharyngeal cavity.

That blocks it from being fully produced.

Additionally, there is mixed resonance, in which more than one of these other three types of resonance disorders are present.

Finally, while not specifically a speech disorder, transgender voice training also typically involves resonance training.

Learning to better control your resonance can help you better control the perceived gender of your voice.

How Can Speech Therapy Help With Resonance?

If you suspect you have a resonance disorder, speech therapy can help.

An adult speech therapist can do an initial screening to determine the presence and extent of your resonance disorder.

They’ll conduct an assessment of your speech and resonance to determine the best course of action for your needs and condition.

Speech therapy treatments for resonance disorders are aimed at improving resonance for more effective and clear speech.

Speech therapy addresses behavioral and articulatory issues related to resonance, not structural causes that may require surgical intervention.

Your speech therapist will create a tailored approach to address your particular challenges and type of resonance disorder.

This can include implementing articulation and breathing strategies for more effective communication.

In the event you do need surgical intervention for your resonance disorder, pre and post surgery speech therapy can help optimize your outcomes.

It’s worth noting that kids can have resonance disorders as well.

If you suspect your child has one, a pediatric speech therapist can help in a similar way.

Book Your Appointment With Our Speech Therapy Clinic Today

Have you noticed your or your child’s speech sounds high-pitched, nasally, or maybe even muffled?

It may be indicative of a resonance disorder.

The good news is that speech therapy can help.

At Sol Speech And Language Therapy, our team of speech pathologists can work with you and/or your child.

We’ll help to assess and address any speech concerns through personalized treatment options.

Based in central Texas, we have two clinic locations to serve you – a speech therapy clinic in Austin and a speech therapy clinic in Round Rock.

Book your appointment with Sol Speech And Language Therapy today.