For Football Fans: Teaching Huang Jianxiang How to Hit the Dolphin Voice!

2006/6/29 21:29:23

This task originally had nothing to do with this ID, but to spare football fans from having to endure Huang Jianxiang's atrocious vocal quality next time they're watching a late-night match -- a quality that remained terrible even when supposedly possessed by Zhang Liangying's dolphin voice -- spending a few minutes on this won't hurt. This also serves as an introduction to some basic vocal knowledge for those unfamiliar with the subject.

The sounds dolphins produce include whistles, burst-pulse sounds, and clicks, spanning frequencies from 0.25 kHz to 220 kHz. Since frequencies above 20 kHz are inaudible to humans, and certain frequencies of burst-pulse sound waves can even stun or kill prey, what humans call "dolphin voice" actually falls within the whistle range, from 5 kHz to 15 kHz.

There's a widespread misconception that pharyngeal voice is the same as dolphin voice -- this is actually incorrect. Generally speaking, dolphin voice only appears in sopranos, while pharyngeal voice can exist in all voice types. Using soprano range as reference, pharyngeal voice naturally exists in the connection between the middle and lower registers. Through training, the lower-upper to high register can all carry pharyngeal voice components, while the extreme range above the high register basically belongs to the whistle register -- that is, the dolphin voice.

In fact, with proper training, any soprano can achieve a five-octave range, but typical musical works generally don't require such a wide range. Due to stylistic constraints, classical music basically never uses the dolphin voice range. For classical music, the range carrying pharyngeal voice components is what fits classical music's elegant and pure style. Because dolphin voice occupies an extreme range, it's only occasionally used in popular music, and very few people can actually produce it. Zhang Liangying's so-called dolphin voice is actually a false whistle produced through falsetto, not yet reaching the E6-G7 so-called dolphin range.

Since Zhang Liangying's dolphin voice is already misnamed, it's not at all surprising that Huang Jianxiang's voice exhibited such terrible quality from intense false vocal cord vibration. For men, unless one is a once-in-a-generation genius like a certain Russian prodigy, or unless castrated to become a castrato, hitting dolphin voice is impossible even with spiritual possession. If becoming a castrato is not on the table, the more practical option for men including Mr. Huang is to practice pharyngeal voice. Pharyngeal voice has a stable, bright, powerful quality with metallic luster. Even without spiritual possession, it can sufficiently and passionately please football fans' ears -- this is very suitable for Mr. Huang to learn. The key to pharyngeal voice is forming a stable yet flexible vocal tube. Knowledge on this subject will be introduced when time permits.