YouTube videos

Ingo Titze's tip for Tired Voices: Grab a straw! (www.youtube.com/watch?v=asDg7T-WT-0)
Dr. Titze demonstrates an easy technique that uses a simple straw for hard-working voices (mp4 file)

Vocal Registers: Some Iowa Corn (www.youtube.com/watch?v=omLs65uepEE)

Ingo Titze's poem was originally published in his classic textbook, Principles of Voice Production. It reflects a time of frustration with the field of voice science in 1980-90 when voice registers were heatedly debated with word definitions, but little science was offered.

The title of the poem, Iowa Corn, is inspired by a definition of “corn,” referring to a story or statement that is laughable, and Iowa (where Dr. Titze is a distinguished professor of voice science), being located in the cornbelt of the U.S.

The following “word science” is reflected in the poem.

Register: a distinct voice quality
Chest: the register used mostly in speech by men
Falsetto: the boyish register before puberty
Head: something between chest and falsetto
Modal: the statistical mode, or norm, in registers
Loft: the same as falsetto
Middle: something between modal and falsetto
Trachea: the windpipe below the larynx
Bernoulli: Swiss scientist who described an energy law for fluids
Chink, chinky: a gap in the vocal folds
Tessitura: the range where most pitches reside in a song
Lift: a feeling of relief when a new register is found
Passaggio: a passage through a register change
Bottleneck: a place when two registers meet and the voice has difficulty
Break: a sudden change in register
Yodel: a singing style built on stark register changes
Fry: a pulse-like register at low pitch
Creaky: a rough pulse-like sound, like a creaking door

BBC Clip: "The Voice" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNqNM6Ccck8)
Ingo Titze's voice simulation research is highlighted, including an explanation of the creation of "Pavarobotti."

Ingo Titze and Pavarobotti sing Nessun Dorma (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQw03TXZsHA)
Operatic sounds produced by a robot with pure mathematics and physics (sung with his scientist creator, Dr. Titze) in 1992.