Singing this Note is IMPOSSIBLE!

Try to sing the impossible note! Singers try to sing into a pipe, and find certain notes are impossible to sing, even for professionals. WHY?!
You can learn more about CuriosityStream at curiositystrea...
Surprise KZbin education guests:
Grant Sanderson from 3blue1brown at 0:50
Derek Muller Veritasium at 1:19
This edition of the Physics Girl Everyday Mysteries series is a physics experiment uses a quirk of the voice and your vocal cords. Try it at home!
Prof Joe Wolfe’s acoustics website: newt.phys.unsw....
Intro chapter on the voice: www.animations....
Wade et al paper on soprano singing through resonances: asa.scitation....
More on vocal tract resonances: newt.phys.unsw....
www.ncbi.nlm.n...
More facts: Most objects have a number of different resonant frequencies. The first resonance of the pipe were were using was around 70 Hz, which was lower than any of us could sing. A bass singer could hit that note, but were were singing in the range of the second and third resonances of the pipe.
No longer compiling your pipe singing submissions, but feel free to tweet me your attempts! @thephysicsgirl
physicsgirl.org/
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Creator: Dianna Cowern
Editor: Levi Butner
Research: Imogen Ashford

[@AtharvaVaidya]

No one: Absolutely no one: Dianna: So the other day, I was holding a tube and I thought to myself, "hey, I can find it's resonant frequency"

[@AtharvaVaidya]

Physics Girl omg thank you ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@physicsgirl]

Thank YOU! Fun comment

[@AtharvaVaidya]

@@physicsgirl an even bigger thank you. I want to reply with a physics joke but obviously my mind is just like the energy levels above Fermi level at 0K, empty.

[@Velvetspoonful]

You'd be surprised x ) I'm a musician, I'll notice when a room resonates to someone's voice or something. Narrowish tunnels do it a lot, sometimes on an octave. Resonant frequencies are a lot of fun, consider including them in your daily life, they will freak out unexpectant people. Nothing like a whole place echoing real time to some tone you're singing to have people wonder wtf is happening. Just don't over do it, there always is the matter of things not necessarily being very appreciative of pushing their resonance. That's one of the reasons why soldiers break march when crossing a bridge. Tesla apparently had an interesting experience with a tower's steel frame and a gadget of his invention too... Don't go making people weird or outcast just because you... Well... Don't personaly have weird reality tests, like... verifying resonance on objects. S'natural. At least I expect it's natural, specially for human beings. Thinking and testing reality is our equivalent to claw sharpening, basically. Edit : couple of wrong strokes

[@cmontano1989cm]

Since our vocal cords can't cope with this then why not try a speaker thru the tube and see what happens

[@smartereveryday]

I propose we call this "The Dianna Effect".

[@zionstudios9080]

Yis

[@ethansearls1996]

@BaronVonHeinrich Congrats; you just invented the early french horn. I see your point though; horns are weird.

[@ProactiveYellow]

@BaronVonHeinrich that's what she was trying to do. The difference is that her vocal chords were forcing vibration out of tune with the harmonics which provided no resonance and therefore no back pressure, but the sudden increase in back pressure around the harmonics pushes on the vocal chords in a way that is difficult to maintain. You can get a similar effect by trying to sing a note through your trombone (or French horn in my case) and you'll notice a pushing sensation in your larynx. As musicians, we supply a constant pressure forward to stabilize the wave with our embouchures, but the vocal folds aren't accustomed to it, which is why I suspect the very notes she can't sing would probably be the harmonics easiest to play on the same pipe if you buzzed on the end instead of sang.

[@plingket]

APPARATUS THROWERS LANZADORES

[@ap1jpanimations920]

YES

[@ruby_wired]

I'd be interested to see what happens if you sweep through the natural frequency of the tube with a speaker.

[@realcygnus]

My 1st thought exactly. There should have been a comparison.

[@AlejandroFerrariMc]

THIS!! Thanks, that was also my first thought. Please, Diana, Try it!!

[@SirBoden]

Richard Mullan Sound engineer here: The Interaction in the tube (constructive and destructive) would change because when the tube is against the mouth the volume of air in your sinuses and mouth is different than if you set a speaker on one end. This is really basic acoustic science.

[@LaughterOnWater]

Our vocal cords rely on a volume of pressure behind the cords. The interaction is at the crux of the vocal cords and how they interact with the immediate change between the pressure in our lungs against the pressure created by the resonance in the pvc pipe. I suspect that since a speaker does not require a volume of air to _create_ the sound and there are no vocal cords mediated by said pressure, there probably won't be a feedback interrupt because there is no volume of air (lungs) behind the speaker to have its pressure suddenly deflated when resonance is hit. The tube will "ring" like a wine glass at the natural frequency of the pipe.

[@rrrosecarbinela]

Or an oscillator.

[@Tabula.rasa.abracadavra]

as a musician, I can confirm: our job is indeed wiggle air in a pleasant manner

[@miinyoo]

That is a wonderful way to put it. Very much like bakers and their ovens bombarding their cakes with just the right speed of air for just the right amount of time. Resonant confectionary... wow that actually is a pandora's box of cooking magic.

[@marcoottina654]

"all you need to do is just to wiggle a bit" - cit

[@Carbon2861996]

As an aristocracy masseur, I can confirm: our job is indeed wiggle heir in a pleasant manor

[@saltysoyman6908]

As my music teacher likes to say, all sound is just sine waves (with different frequencies, amplitudes, and phases) all on top of each other.

[@Tabula.rasa.abracadavra]

@@saltysoyman6908 that reminds me of the harmonic series video Andrew Huang did a bit ago, every sound it's coloured by the intensity of its harmonics and subharmonics

[@cheeseeits]

tube: exists Dianna: "let me sing into it to find its frequency"

[@otesunki]

tube: wait thats illegal

[@mikechilders]

This is a whole new definition of you-tubing. :)

[@MCAndyT]

+

[@vatershep]

*tube* ing Sorry

[@pinchecookie]

you nailed it

[@cameronc7403]

you do you...tubing

[@benditlike5433]

This makes me wonder..Why did they name it youtube in the first place?

[@asad210]

Every singer, classically trained ones especially, know this as the passaggio. It's the point at which this happens with your vocal tract, causing a change in muscular function in the larynx. In fact, many voice teachers encourage warming up while singing through a straw.

[@jessicaguel]

Yes! While watching this video I was thinking, how do we avoid the cracks while singing through the straw? I mean, I’m an opera singer and I can do it without cracking, so, I’m suspicious that my body actually knows what to do and when to change positions in the muscles to avoid the cracks without me even realizing. What do you think?

[@ttp513]

@@jessicaguel Not sure, but it could be like the phenomena of the best athletes tend to make the worst coaches. That is due to them being unable to explain the things they do because they do them without thinking about it. the feeling that it happens reflexively or naturally. Not saying they didn't work hard to get where they are. They were just able to, one day, get it. Or it just clicked. Especially if they began doing the thing at a young age. For me it's singing. My mom was a semi-famous singer in Mexico (singing in a group and on television a couple times). She's really really good. But I struggle with it even though I love to sing. Breathing, timing, pitch, belting, control, staying on the right notes, etc. And my mom can't really help me. She can't describe how to do these things better, she just knows when I'm messing up. I've resorted to recording myself and playing it back.

[@darktangent10]

The straw is just to increase the pressure on your vocal cords; it doesn't really have anything to do with this phenomenon since the resonant frequency is much higher than anyone can sing. I don't think passagio has much to do with this either as transitions between registers aren't due to resonance. Another point is that every singer has their register transitions at different notes, but this phenomenon always happens on the same note.

[@intercat4907]

A year later, still a perfect comment. I refer to you in a later post but you'd never see it, so I'm thanking you here.

[@dr.rolanddavis]

this 👆 (see darktangent10 comment above)

[@nchiley]

This is how a bugle works, and if you have ever messed with a brass instrument you have experienced this.

[@andrewrj2123]

Nigel Hiley gotta do those lip slurs man

[@Travelinmatt1976]

Exactly, I played French Horn from 6th grade through high school.

[@andersonkurk3976]

Trombone is the best, sorry but it's true.

[@storm14k]

Yep I was just about to say this lol.

[@AeroCraftAviation]

Yup. I play tuba, and was taught that first too. I still do all my major and minor scales on the mouthpiece every day as a warmup.

[@jfield524]

This reminds me of the nodal point on a drum. There’s certain points on them (usually the center) that you shouldn’t hit because the vibrations of the drum head start colliding with each other and canceling out, making the drum sound dull and lose lots of resonance. This is especially noticeable on a timpani because the drum head is so large and we’re use to its sound being sustained instead of just an percussive articulation.

[@gregalexander8189]

That's why there is so many drums. Brute nuance. Drums. Maybe since Jaco bass gets a solo in popular music. Drums the original concert solo. Yeah?

[@robertweekes5783]

Cool!! I distinctly remember percussionists always playing timpanis near the edge. Now I know why 😉

[@CityBeautiful]

I love that you find these weird physics problems in every day life! Everyone sings into tubes as a part of every day life, right? :)

[@physicsgirl]

Yah, everyone does right?! I think that’s why I’m so excited about this video because I found a weird phenomenon that was fun to show people and made me think for a while about WHAT is happening.

[@srgscience]

Actually did it 2 years ago

[@FryingPan76]

@@physicsgirl I think, Prof. Helmholtz found this phenomenon (or something similar) almost two centuries ago. ;)

[@malavoy1]

@@physicsgirl It sound like the same effect that mens voices go through when singing from low to high at the point where we have to switch to falsetto. Professional singers spend a lot of time learning to control how much air they use as they approach the note so that the transition is seamless, without their voice cracking.

[@lordgarion514]

Probably a bit more common than you realize actually. Just Google "vuvuzela"

[@gormauslander]

I know what happens when you try to sing through the resonant frequency of your vocal tract. Yodeling

[@gregorybrian]

I remember doing this when I was a kid and finding the “crack” fascinating. Glad to see it explained.

[@OurPastSecrets]

Omg Alicia is a smaller but identical Dianna

[@SheeplessNW6]

Kind of a higher-frequency Dianna!

[@cet6507]

Her laugh at 0:54 is infections!

[@thebeststooge]

Agree.

[@frzstat]

She is REALLY cute :)

[@akshaychaturvedi3071]

omg! you read my mind😱

[@RumbleLab]

Immediately paused video, ran out to garage and tried all the different pipes I had. So cool Dianna!

[@MarcelEvers1]

I love this: singing through a trumpet is similar: you cann't sing certain notes, but you can if you use the valves (if you use the right ones to prolong the tube) could you as a physicist look into this/ Can you make a cool out of it (or maybe with a trombone?)

[@savvivixen8490]

Video concept: bugle/trombone concept solution: slides/valves Good talk! 😊👍🏿

[@Omnifarious0]

You mix the experimentalist side of physics with public education really well. I really like the videos you make. This is one of the gems. I also experiment with finding the resonant frequency of things in just the manner you used, though I've never tried it with a tube. That result is nifty and surprising.

[@HelloKittyFanMan.]

This reminds me of moving from full voice into falsetto; it's like stopping to "shift gears" in your voice!

[@linkkid185]

I was just thinking this, too! Switching from chest voice to head voice requires me to breathe in or something- otherwise, my voice cracks and it’s so embarrassing lol

[@MartinManweiler]

You can’t push through the passagio :)

[@HelloKittyFanMan.]

Yeah, @@linkkid185, I agree, it's just like that (what Holden and I've said, falsetto, and ya gotta pause for some reason)!

[@HelloKittyFanMan.]

@Holden Mcgroine: Yeah, thanks!

[@HelloKittyFanMan.]

Haha, what's that, @@MartinManweiler?

[@sarabaker9150]

I am a soprano singer and an aspiring physicist, and I found this so interesting! I (and I believe everyone else) have a couple spots in my range that are extremely difficult to sing without breaking, the only way I can explain it is it feels like flipping a switch - like something physically changed, but I can't tell what. Music and science are my passions, and I am so glad I found this explanation! I'm off to find a PVC pipe and try it myself!

[@davidphilipsmusic]

You need to learn to adjust your vowels (and therefore you vocal tract shape) properly for the range you are singing in. Something physical has changed, you're right. But it's a physical reaction to an acoustic phenomenon. Go to the root of the problem (vocal tract shape/tuning) and you will learn to sing through these trouble areas in your voice.

[@loqkLoqkson]

I was about to suggest that, when Dianna is feeling better, she find a soprano, and match a pipe frequency to their voice frequency, and see what happens when a tuned vocal tract and pipe match in their frequencies, but you may have gotten there before me, how did it go?

[@beauty-quark]

I'm both training in school as a physics major and outside as an opera singer, and I have ALWAYS wondered about this exact thing ! Opera singers are able to project their voices over orchestras of sometimes 100+ instruments, and the training in opera can really be boiled down to being able to consciously change the shape of the mouth and throat, and how to support this change with breath. I always had a suspicion the incredible resonance produced had to do with possibly resonating frequencies in the bones of the face, but being able to change the resonant frequencies of the actual muscles makes much, much more sense. thanks for answering this question I've been thinking about !

[@livedandletdie]

It is just as you think it is, it's also why no one can sing at the resonant frequency of their normal voice. Or any of the Harmonics of it. Which is why Throat control is so important. And projecting is a really good skill for a singer... An Opera singer hardly requires any Microphone to be heard over a 110 dB orchestra. While someone singing without projection in their normal voice will need a microphone to be heard.

[@jc.1191]

I didn't know that one either. That is interesting.

[@emilyjanet455]

Have you learned about formants yet? It's one of my favorite things about the human voice and explains how we singers are able to be heard above an orchestra! I won't launch into an explanation here but you can find material about it online 😁

[@Jonathan_Doe_]

That’s actually why Pavarotti basically had to stay the weight he did. The big man didn’t want to affect his resonance.

[@DanPerezSax]

It's neither the resonant frequency of the bones, nor the muscles, but rather the cavity.

[@joelhollingsworth1926]

I love this! Nobody ever seems to appreciate spontaneous curiosity. I ask these kinds of questions ALL THE TIME and people just look at me with what I've come to call "the blank stare" lol. This made me smile so big to watch, thanks so much for sharing!!

[@73124doug]

YES! I know, right.

[@abbieclement]

[@arnhelmkrausson8445]

Same here, although my spontaneous curiosity spurts are in the linguistics and semantic field. I know that blank stare intimately

[@cheesecakelasagna]

I know the blank stares all too well too! But I learnt to even push people's buttons (or their reaction gauge) by going even further with my thought experiments. lol, at this point I enjoy gathering reactions as much as gathering weird ideas.

[@jf2801]

And then there is the slow blink...as if processing your wild musing has broken them.

[@G8TIC]

Basically you're experiencing a "standing wave" - at the point of resononance the pipe is going its going to have a maximum but at other frequencies there is a minimum - depends on the half-wave versus quater-wave. We have exactly the same affects when driving radio transmitters into antennas if the antenna does/does not match the radio frequency. In radio we refer to a "voltage standing wave".

[@MozartJunior22]

As a musician and physicist who has already learned plenty about the music-physics relations, the opera singer fact blew my mind. It explains why they are able to sing so powerfully

[@Markle2k]

It's what I was taught in the intro voice class in college. You pay attention to what your body feels like when you sing a particular note. This is why you'll see singers with a hand resting over their diaphram. You also are to pay attention to the resonance you can feel in your sinuses when you sing a particular note with a certain mouth shape.

[@analorena6832]

As a soprano, that fact blew my mind. It's like I for sure was doing that, and I for sure knew I was doing *something* but I didn't know what it was until I watched this

[@caitlunsford2440]

PiaNoONE was thinking the same thing!!!!!!!!!!! frequency physics have always been interesting to me, and i happen to be a musician too so seeing how physics is involved in music always blows my mind!!

[@rjk7104]

It seems to me that what is happening is this: When you hit the resonant frequency of the tube, it sets up a standing wave which dramatically changes the impedance of the tube, making it more difficult to sing through. I want to see the following experiment: First, record the actual frequency of the notes above and below the "cracking" effect. Next, choose a frequency between those, and sing it. Finally, while singing this magic note, bring the tube up to your mouth and see if you can either power through it, or if it causes your note to shift.

[@robertherndon4351]

That would certainly also rule in or rule out the possibility that the tube is mode-locking around its resonant frequency and/or the resonant frequency of the singer.

[@brianwhite7686]

Bang! That's it.

[@eyvindjr]

No. The first "natural frequency" of a closed tube is the frequency of the corresponding wavelength. For that to be 70hz, the tube would have to be over 4m long, so that is wrong. From there, fractions of that wavelenght make the harmonic series (1/2, 1/3, 1/4 etc.) The impossible notes happen BETWEEN the notes in the harmonic series, as the wavelenghts are in conflict with the length of the tube. You can even hear the voice "slip" into a note in the harmonic series. We brass players use this to our advantage all the time.

[@213edu]

Im currently in Switzerland doing at the EPFL a master semester project on this specific problem. The problem that you faced is that the input impedance (average of pressure divided average of velocity) at the eigenfrequencies (there are always multiple because of the harmonics) is very very high and it makes for you impossible to put that pressure into the tube. If asked I’ll share here my research. :)

[@apollo_5795]

I can’t believe I finally know why this happens!!! I play in band and I do this into my trombone. It does the same exact thing

[@SailingQuicksilver]

Super neat

[@lujee-8908]

It’s called growing

[@longlivetnt]

If i sing through my bugul I can even bend the note

[@yeeturmcbeetur8197]

Trombone gang

[@martinkuliza]

@@lujee-8908 BACK IN THE 90S WE HAD A MOVIE CALLED THE HOWLING Now we can make a new one............... THE GROWING LOL

[@josephjackson1956]

How physicists come up with stuff to research: start playing with some tubes and singing into them until something weird happens

[@Esablaka]

Then throw some electrons and protons in there and tadaaaaa ya got the Higg-Boson and Anti-Matter

[@vk2ig]

Hmmm, maybe someone needs to organise a performance of Turandot in the tunnels of the Large Hadron Collider?

[@jumpman8282]

Or listening to people (like for example didgeridoo players who experience difficulties when trying to play certain tones)

[@teredude]

You absolutely right. Phase is so important. All my Audio Mixers have "Phase" reverse switches on Mic inputs. A five position switch was added to Fender Stratocaster's to connect 2 pickups together out of phase. Then you get the "Eric Clapton Sound" and you hear how much more bass and full sound with the 1-3-5 settings on the switch opposed to "Out of phase" settings 2-4 with a pair out of phase. Out of phase settings 2-4 with a pair of pickups then cancels "noise". Les Paul put two guitar pickups in phase with a nickel chrome cover and this cured the ever changing hi-impedance noise. Hence the first Gibson Patent Applied For Humbucking Guitar in 1957. All Guitar players still play with these pickups today.

[@jordansmall1578]

You just solved a huge mystery I have been having in my singing career. When I get kind of congested in my throat, sometimes I have the issue where I can't sing a certain note and my voice skips just like you with the tube. Now I know that all the stuff from my allergies must be changing the resonant frequency of my throat and therefore not allowing me to sing at that frequency. This is MINDBLOWING to me.

[@HarryPotterTrio91]

Jordan Small I get this too! I have a deviated septum and I always wondered if it was affecting my singing. Guess so! :)

[@meggowaffles8721]

So the tube screams back at you at its favorite frequency...?

[@livedandletdie]

As Dianna hits the resonant frequency the tube resonates which compresses the air in the tube which causes the sound waves to intersect each other and 2 sound waves of the same length moving towards each other cancels out. This is also why Harmonics can be cancelled out as well by having the same Harmonics intercept it, and doing this you can remove any frequency in the harmonic to only hear that frequency. Welcome to Wave Mechanics: 101.

[@WELLINGTON20]

No it doesn’t.

[@richardwelsh7901]

@@WELLINGTON20 yes it does

[@russellszabadosaka5-pindin849]

I discovered the resonant frequency of my bathroom while singing in the shower as a kid. I had no idea what it was (until I studied music in college) but loved to sing that note because it made my head vibrate.

[@nil2k]

This is so oddly predictable to a trombone player.

[@brettzolstick989]

Yeah düde, I sing into my trombone all the time. Its insane

[@nil2k]

@@brettzolstick989 take the mouthpiece out, you can buzz any note you want.. put it in the trombone and you can't without making making the trombone the right length for the note.. but singing while playing is a nice party trick.

[@200378820]

As a trombone player I immediately understood this "phenomenon" to simply by the harmonic series. Just like in each harmonic on a trombone you can bend the pitch, in this tube they are bending the pitch with their voice thill the next harmonic pops out.

[@brettzolstick989]

@@nil2k Yeah dudé, I believe the technical term is Multiphonics. Heres a video from a pretty cool dudê explaining it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eITWZoaHZst6nLs

[@Mechness]

Should come as no surprise to a player of any brass instrument really.

[@mcbhomis]

Don't stop being pedantic. It's one of the reasons I like your videos.

[@custos3249]

Exactly. Empirical pendantry is literally what science is built on.

[@JohnRaschedian]

I had to look up the word pedantic. :)

[@ShadabGhafar]

Meaning? I don't want to open a browser and Google

[@group1896]

Pedantic -Being showy of one’s knowledge, often in a boring manner; -Being finicky or fastidious, especially with language.

[@ShadabGhafar]

Finiky Fastidious 🙄😥😯😮

[@ericfielding2540]

It was great to catch up on this older video after seeing the short. I hope Dianna recovers soon and can make videos again, but this deep catalog of videos can hold us over for a while longer.

[@huluvublue112]

Something interesting I noticed: The space of the notes between the skip was always a minor third, except with Derek, who skipped a second.

[@robertlozyniak3661]

I don't know how to identify those by ear, so I'll just take your word for it.

[@joelluth6384]

I know I'm thinking "these people all know each other??"

[@bennemann]

Spotted the perfect pitch guy...

[@Exgrmbl]

@@bennemann nothing to do with perfect pitch, he's just able to identifiy the interval. Which any skilled musician should be able to.

[@Krittera]

I am definitely going to be having people try this with no context. Thanks diana!

[@EtzEchad]

As singers learn to sing, they need to train themselves to avoid places where the resident frequency causes certain notes to be difficult to sing. There are places where they have to change which resodent chamber in their body they are using, such as their chest, throat, or sinuses. Their voice will "crack" at certain notes. I don't know if this is the same phenomenon as you noticed, but I wouldn't be surprised.

[@davidphilipsmusic]

You can never use your chest as a resonant cavity in singing. It is full with lungs which are spongy and not resonant. The vibration you feel in your chest is sympathetic vibration of the sternum. Not the chest cavity. What needs to be learned is not to "avoid places" in the voice but to skillfully tune the vocal tract by vowel adjustment in order to adjust the resonant frequency of the tube to align with the pitch being sung and it's harmonics. Regarding sinuses, some nasal resonance will adjust vowel formants and tune the instrument but the nasal cavity is not an effective resonator and it's not a technique I recommend relying on.

[@derekcoiner5946]

"Something NOTABLE about natural frequencies" missed pun opportunity

[@thecraftyphysicist8349]

Maybe music puns aren't her forte

[@mastershooter64]

@@thecraftyphysicist8349 missed opPUNtuity

[@420sincerely]

Smh

[@mastershooter64]

@@jarnsus2038 lmao

[@jarnsus2038]

@@mastershooter64 what can i say? seeing such a bad pun hertz

[@MrBinthestudio]

This is fantastic! I teach audio engineering, and it's hard to find good video content that explains resonance and other audio-related phenomena. Thanks!

[@yeeturmcbeetur8197]

As someone who played trombone for many years, I experienced that moving the slide will change what note (frequency) this will happen at when singing into the trombone.

[@200378820]

Clearly your musician friends aren't brass players. As a Trombonist, I recognized this "phenomenon" as the harmonic series.

[@hunteralexander9791]

Finally another comment that is competent in this simple field.

[@MinkDaddy]

T-Bone players unite! This kind of reminds me of when a native language speaker understands why you say something in their language only when a foreigner points out "the why." They're like, "Oh, that's why you say it that way. I just speak the language bruh. That's how it's supposed to sound."

[@mr.swedishfish12]

it's similar for string instruments as well because if you think about it, for trombone and string instruments are pretty similar because notes are played chromatically with vibrations. I play the violin and we also have a harmonic series. It's not exactly the same but the concepts are almost alike.

[@prodbyblake4408]

Yeah because the tube is literally just splitting into the 5th

[@livedandletdie]

As a throat singer I knew it as well... because you cannot literally sing at the resonant frequency of your throat, however by changing the throat's width and other properties it is possible to sing at was previously the resonant frequency.

[@OhMissAllie]

Hi! My husband just showed me this video as it intersects with our interests. I studied voice in college and singers are taught to sing through our break, which is a "break" in sound where it cracks like the note in the tube does. It's well known among vocalists that singers all have unique notes where their breaks are. For many female vocalists it's somewhere between an e and f, if I remember correctly (don't quote that😬,) but still varied among singers. I'm assuming that's due to our differing shapes in (maybe?) the trachea (or other section of the throat.) Anyways, we tested this with a paper tube and I mostly sing through the "break" in the tube. It doesn't stop the sound, but I can physically feel my throat changing shape to accommodate for it. It's also interesting because I didn't know where the break would be, but I naturally anticipated it. It's harder for me to find the break. It feels like rewiring an unconscious habit. I have to be careful not to change my mouth shape at all to make the break happen. It's fascinating! I'm by no means a great vocalists, but I was excited to test it out and see how it went!

[@GoToMan]

I like how excited you are about this

[@joshgorton3843]

I also studied voice in college and had a hard time "finding" were the voice would potentially crack. As a tenor, my tessitura calls for me to sing through my "break" (passagios). I almost didn't notice any change as I slid up and down through scales like a siren. I could notice a slight drop in pressure as I approached certain pitches, and at one point was able to allow my voice to "break" - something that I can't normally do when I try to imitate that particular comon pop style of allowing the voice to break. This could actually be a really great training strategy for singers, haha!

[@GeorgeGeorgalis]

The straight bore flute, tapered bore piccolo, narrow middle bore clarinet, flared bore saxophone all capitalize on this acoustic impedance for their respective timbres. Thanks for laying out all the parameters and references, so we can experiment with our vocal and mechanical transducers!

[@Abrikosmanden]

MAN, that is cool! I love how you stumbled upon this random phenomenon and then found just the right scientist to explain it. And it just makes so much sense with resonant frequency and phase, but i'd have never guessed it!

[@Xzyum00]

Sounds a lot like the harmonic series is involved too. If you buzz your lips into the pipe, the different pitches you can play are part of the harmonic series. That's the entire idea behind brass instruments. Singing into it is really just like buzzing except it's your vocal cords instead of your lips doing the vibrating. As a musician I know a lot about the application and how it works less about the why it works because I'm not actually a physicist.

[@backbeat3254]

As a music teacher, physics geek/amateur, this was AMAZING. Love love love your videos. Thanks so much.

[@deborahlee8312]

Thanks for the great video! I used it in class today. I had some PVC, and we loved playing with the resonances and hearing the dying animal noises.

[@thesunreport]

That's an interesting experiment...A lot of this type of work about back-pressure and resonance will have been done over the years in the development of 'expansion chamber' style exhausts for two-stroke motors. :)

[@mbsevans]

Was thinking same thing! 👍

[@jdtransformation]

Love these. Old-school speaker design used cylindrical ‘ports’ to help boost/cut certain bass frequencies. Acoustic engineers understand the back-pressure well (call it ‘impedance’), and either avoid or use to their advantage to ‘tune’ a cabinet. Similarly, on the singer-side: check out the “Tenor’s Formant”… just like you mentioned regarding sopranos pitch-tuning, tenor voice box can access a particular range of frequencies where the sound resonates *very* loudly (for very little vocal effort or air). Seems that only Tenors (and some sopranos) have the resonance, which seems particular to resonance between their folds’ particular aspect ratio and human hearing.

[@aleleeinnaleleeinn9110]

I did my best siren voice and went thru the frequencies. I did the scales with and without the pipe. The pipe had these dead zones, like I had stopped singing, but I hadn't. I repeated without the pipe and the breaks were not there. COOL!!! Nice experiment. I loved all my physics classes we always got to play with toys in the labs. I had a physics teacher who was shooting a ball bearing thru a tube and dropping a second ball bearing from a magnet on the ceiling. Proving horizontal velocity is independent of gravity. That has been a very long time ago. He actually got the balls to collide. He was my favorite teacher in HS. You could ask him absolutely anything about any subject.

[@SaneAsylum]

Your resonant pipe is acting as noise cancellation for those notes.

[@aleleeinnaleleeinn9110]

@@SaneAsylum The sound just died. Not just in the pipe, but in my throat. I did the whole scale without breaks when I didn't use the pipe. With it the resonance was magnified, the notes were totally killed. That really was a fun experiment.

[@ethanl886]

WAIT i wonder if thats why a lot of singing teachers say to sing through a straw?? maybe it kinda mimics the tube on a lighter scale? (it may just be about breath though lol)

[@aleleeinnaleleeinn9110]

@@ethanl886 I saw a video with the straw. It was about training your larynx to sing in extended vocal range in belting to higher notes. Here is the link kzbin.info/www/bejne/mKezo5WrgtN-rqc The woman doing this channel is pretty good. I do like this woman's videos. Lots of instruction.

[@InimicalWit]

I remember noticing this when I switched from woodwind to brass in grade school. With a brass mouth piece alone, I could adjust the vibration smoothly up and down, but as soon as I put the instrument to it (trumpet and French horn mostly), I was limited to the notes that were indicated by my fingering. I never followed up on this question tho. Thank you! lol

[@theseventhgeneration6910]

I've been making weird sounds in tubes my whole life, making my dogs look at me, heads tilted. I never once considered that I was changing phase every time by voice cracked. I sing, play guitar, drums, some brass, etc. I record and produce music, acutely familiar with getting all of the sounds "in phase" Totally blind to this, the ENTIRE TIME! I've done a lot of tube singing too. Yes, I am too easily entertained. So, in my oblivious studies of practical phase shifting applications, I have learned that a longer tube produces a more dramatic phase switch. A wider tube causes a phase switch at a higher note. Tube materials have an effect on how the phase changes as well. All of these facts I've ascertained without putting 2 and 2 together... 🤦‍♂️

[@ArtesaDrendora]

I love how excited you are about all this🤣

[@MissOdango]

Also I'd love to see you cover Overtone singing!! It's something fun anyone can try and falls under the whole resonating frequency topic!

[@DanielWSonntag]

Yes! Overtones are awesome

[@blink4122]

Subharmonic are even better and more usable in singing.

[@stephenolan5539]

Inuit throat signing is making a comeback.

[@jerrymichaels8447]

I had to try this with a one-inch internal diameter 15-inch long piece of PVC pipe I found in my garage. Amazing! The sound broke down repeatedly at the same frequency every time. Love your videos, Physics Girl. Keep them coming.

[@BrunoSantos-sb6vh]

I love it that I was about to ask a question (about the resonance of the vocal tract) and you already answered it!

[@mikecoshan3752]

Bruno Santos perhaps Dianna has precognition

[@umkm2k]

Isn't this the entire idea behind brass instruments?

[@alexbeshay7965]

Yes, look into the harmonic series

[@emimagran7520]

Tuba gang

[@tawhneebaby]

Yes

[@disanthropi]

Yeah. I like to to sound autotuned by singing into my trombone.

[@juangaytan888]

@@emimagran7520 trombone gang

[@chrisroode]

Back in college, in my voice class, we learned about and studied this kind of stuff. In vocal lingo, the point where two types of voice meet is called your break. The scoop sound in the tube is kind of what it sounds like when you're practicing. You will hear voices having trouble singing a note or two near their personal break. Often times, we learn to control the break with added tension on our voice. This is what ultimately gave vocal cord issues with singers like Jordan Sparks or Adele, and also explains the mess up Idina Menzel had on New Years Eve (Not to single out ladies, it's just what I remember off the top of my head). My voice teacher (Dr. Mary Logan Hastings) had me go through a tension detox, and literally, when you truly relax your vocal cords, your pitch goes out of control, but if you bring the tension back and try to control it, it's like putting your feet down when learning to ride a bike. You need to just keep the breath moving, and let whatever comes out come out, and eventually you will learn how to ride along with it. I spent that semester locking myself in the soundproof practice rooms singing scales and sounding like a tone-deaf yodeler, and after a few weeks of that, suddenly I had a real good handle on my voice. It was amazing. I have since gone on to teach instrumental music, and when I sing, it's loaded with the same tension I had before I took the voice class. So, from a musical standpoint, I see you extending a critical part of your vocal tract. If you want to try singing scales daily into the tube, you might get better at it in a few weeks.

[@fakherhalim]

It is the stretching of vocal cords that changes pitch not the throat wind pipe that only amplifies the note amplitue. Your throat muscles had full pitch control until you were linearly stretching them comfortably toward tube's resonance. At PVC tube's resonance frequency, however, you became a just a component of a larger externally resonating system which would then overpower your carefully increase of muscular stretch. Imagine at 440 Hz, you were singing "A". While approaching the vicinity of A, e.g. 1 Hz below -- there would be a beat frequency of one cycle per second thumping your vocal cord stretching system confusing the perfect neural control (not aware of external thumping) cracking your voice. An inaccurate but more intuitive way to describe would be by imagining that for some reason one of the prongs of tuning fork attempting to oscillate at a frequency slightly different than its physically/inertially entangled pair. It would experience the beat frequency and would experience massive resistance for trying to defeat the mutually agreed "resonance inertia" -- breaking the contract. The tiny muscles stretching your vocal cords with delicate neural control feedback control loop (involving your ear) are not match to overpower the energy of a very stable meter long external oscillating column of PVC tube. Perhaps it has larger, more stubborn momentum, and could easily crush the feedback control loop involving the tiny muscles at beat frequency! Have fun!

[@fakherhalim]

​@@SISSYPUSS Sure, I agree -- the tuning fork analogy is very inaccurate, as she was singing at many octave higher than one meter long tube. While singing with a delicately controlled pitch, a sudden outburst of a very low frequency/beat frequency/standing waves with varying phase and many times more energy in the wrong direction would overwhelm her delicately balanced pitch control loop with its sudden insertion. That unexpected injection of pressure waves of sub-sonic frequency would collapse her otherwise stable note! LOL!

[@fakherhalim]

You gave the best explanation, it is just "BACKUP". Since resonance frequency is so low, the mechanical pressure waves created while approaching towards resonance must be well below the audible range, yet invisibly collapsing the tiny vocal muscles because their dominant amplitude. I find your logic most pervasive, leading into a more probable explanation. I would also think of a sudden turbulence erupted by this unexpected destabilization backup pulses at hard to hear subsonic pressure waves (at certain beat frequency.) Thanks for helping understand this worried phenomenon!

[@MelaniePhoenix]

Weird! I just discovered this last month while using a PVC pipe for a cheap didgeridoo option, and had no idea why this kept happening. Thank you for the awesome video explanation!

[@joshmaner4430]

This is probably how brass instruments work! It is extremely difficult to bend a pitch up or down even a few cents (or hertz) without jumping to the next note in the instrument's overtone series. For instance, a trombone in first position jumps up from the fundamental B-flat to F, which is a perfect fifth interval (a 50% increase in frequency for you physicists). However, when the tube is shorter (i.e. just singing through your hand or buzzing through a mouthpiece), the resistance to hitting certain frequencies is minimal, so it's much easier to slide through the full range. It was nice to learn how it works! Thanks!

[@joshmaner4430]

Also, happy birthday if Wikipedia is correct! I looked you up because I couldn't remember where I had seen you before.

[@Vasharan]

"Every soprano we ever measured... ... exploded like a wine glass." "It was very messy."

[@samarendra109]

When ever Grant began to talk it always gets me. I will be expecting a high pitched young guy voice and very deep mature voice would come out.

[@shoam2103]

Before I saw him on a Q&A on 3b1b, I was imagining a much more plump guy

[@xaraun]

Fascinating. Just a few weeks ago, I noticed that there were certain notes I would sing in my shower that would resonate more than others, that literally "felt" like they filled the entire space. I figured it had something to do with frequencies, but I never really extrapolated that this might apply to all sorts of things, or that it was the same as blowing/whistling across a bottle. Awesome video!

[@JSAcousticJuice]

As (somewhat) of a musician, the only times I refer to notes or music using the terms frequency or resonance is when I'm explaining how or why music works as opposed to playing or writing. Regardless, this video was neat.

[@reshpeck]

Yeah, musicians refer to frequencies. 440 hertz is the frequency of A in standard tuning (some advocate for changing the standard to 432). Notes are just shorthanded for frequencies.

[@Bregylais]

Completely random 3blue1brown face reveal, lol.

[@leochang3328]

I ALWAYS TOT HE'S AFRICAN AMERICAN LMAO

[@kalazakan]

@@leochang3328 What made you think that?

[@naif277]

He did reveal his face in a recent Q&A

[@leochang3328]

@@kalazakan idk his tone sounds like one to me haha

[@NJL401]

I always assumed he looked like a giant pi.

[@ItsMrFresh]

If pre-gcse & gcse science students were asked to do this before moving onto the resonance and phase parts of the curriculum, I feel like a lot more students would be deeply interested in learning the science behind it. Answering fun questions with science I think is a fantastic way to motivate kids in schools. I love this video man!

[@Charles-id8ni]

Would've love to see you try this with Simone Giertz, I love watching the 2 of you together

[@12up4down]

I thought this said "signing this note is impossible " I thought we had some magic ink.. I'm sad

[@mynameisnothere9465]

Me too, exactly. I'm pretty disappointed. :(

[@tprime2702]

Ahaha! My dyslexia kicked in too.

[@clearz3600]

I thought it was about using the s-pen to sign on a Samsung Galaxy Note phone. :s i need to stop watching phone videos

[@markmandel6738]

I'm a linguist and I specialized in American Sign Language, so I wondered how you can skip notes when you're not making a sound 😉😁

[@intercat4907]

Fantastic comment below about passagio (Bravo, Asad, a year ago and still great). As a baritone, I have a good falsetto, and the "clickover" spot between my two "voices" or "phases" is inaudible if I have practiced and stayed on top of it. Without practice, the "click" comes back, and I haven't tried yet to see if the pipe will thwart my efforts to hide it. Mariachi singers do a wonderful deliberate "click" at full power to get that cool "Ah-ya-AAAAH". Now go sing the Phantom of the Opera's arias into a PVC pipe; science is fun.

[@Sam-xk8on]

1:00 that one kid in your class that does this everytime someone gets in trouble

[@supercon20]

Lol

[@GoEvenHarder]

It's 4 am and now I want to stick a pipe in my mouth to try this thing... What is wrong with me?

[@RAFMnBgaming]

Nothing.

[@pasko9461]

"pipe"

[@SailingQuicksilver]

I thought there was a hair on my screen

[@GoEvenHarder]

@@SailingQuicksilver I thought there was a rope on mine!

[@SailingQuicksilver]

Hehe yeah but it's called line

[@christinefischer2137]

thanks for this video! i had experienced resonance by accident when playing the guitar.. but you just provided an easy to understand explanation for the immense forces behind that!

[@LaFayVerte]

This was awesome. Could we have more on frequency and singing, music.. In training we called this 'tuning', overtones and undertones, extra sounds (vibrato). throat singers are masters at this and opera singers

[@ahawks81]

I get so ridiculously excited when I see there's a new video up from you! Your enthusiasm is contagious!

[@Oranos2115]

hadn't seen this one before, but was happy to watch after seeing the KZbin short

[@carolcoates3750]

This sounds exactly like a wolf howling and if you listen to a wolf, it's howl also misses a note or two. Is this the same reason for a wolf's voice?

[@livedandletdie]

Indeed, it's just like when you try to sing normally and going from base to high register, at some point you'll definitely have a voice break due to hitting the resonant frequency of your throat, and since it's possible to sing notes above it and below it although higher notes in your normal voice is still pretty hard... hence falsetto is a thing, and Wolf's howls skips at the resonant frequency.

[@Pencil0fDoom]

No, it’s just that the wolves that never shut up, like their human counterparts, are the ones going thru puberty. Cracking voices? No? Whatevs...

[@paavobergmann4920]

I would think so, yes, except it´s happening in their vocal tract.

[@gabrielcornea9119]

interestingly enough, when a stringed instrument has bad resonance frequency interferences that cause certain notes to sound like an out of tune instument, with "beats" on certain notes, the problematic notes are actually called "wolf notes" and they are corrected by adding weights to the strings so the resonant frequencies are changed

[@zakuraayame5091]

@@livedandletdie ha! i just thought it was because I never used to sing and it was something you had to practice through, not something that happens to everyone :p I'll be far less annoyed now that I know it is something you really can't control :)

[@bug5327]

What would happen if you projected the frequency through the tube another way? Like a speaker fitted to it?

[@maccychee3858]

Well there isn't a vocal cord to get stressed

[@steve42lawson]

@@maccychee3858 But there is a diaphragm. It's an intriguing question!

[@bermchasin]

the speaker would work just fine.

[@bacicinvatteneaca]

You'd get the amplification she was looking for, because it's just hard to do such an unusual thing for our vocal tract, it's not something magically impossible

[@indianasb59]

I do sound for a band for a living. You are soooo correct!! Just like wine glasses, even rooms and buildings have a residence. From there I can pull out frequencies that hang too long, and prevent feedback frequencies.

[@BlunderMunchkin]

Would the same thing happen if you use a speaker instead of a human voice box?

[@drulli6]

I was just about to ask the same!

[@physicsgirl]

I suspect it depends on the strength of the speaker, but probably not with most speakers. I thought about trying it. I’m still trying to come up with a way to connect a speaker to the tube with no gap. Thanks for the question!

[@vaibhavverma6286]

I don't think so as the problem we are facing is due to human limits.

[@jasonharrison25]

@@physicsgirl hot glue

[@krzysztofsoja5301]

Mmm the effects might be interesting: from nothing particular, through lowered power consumption at resonant frequency to... damaged suspension of the speaker :)

[@ritiktyagi1926]

When i saw Derek 1:22 it felt like a superhero Cameo 😂😂

[@anuvette]

Me when i saw grant

[@moosedraw3731]

Reck it was a Stan lee cameo type feeling.

[@loqkLoqkson]

When Dianna is feeling better it might be worth revisiting this. if she can find a soprano, and match a pipe frequency to their voice frequency, to see what happens when a tuned vocal tract and pipe match in their frequencies. In signal transmission, a lot of effort goes into matching the impedance of incoming and outgoing lines, to prevent signal reflections bouncing off cable joins, this may be similar in principle. Sara Baker, who commented a year ago, may have already tried this

[@SharkyQt]

Me: Watches the video Also me: *GRABS A TUBE AND SINGS INTO IT*

[@roymariano7116]

As she sings into the tube and raises her pitch, there will eventually be a point in the resonance that cancels out vibrations of the sound waves, forcing the voice to sing at a higher pitch. These points are the border intervals of "partials" of the harmonic series. Brass instrument players demonstrate this whenever they play arpeggio intervals involving partials of the fundamental tone. They can manipulate a pitch up or down from the center of its natural tone to a certain limit that then crosses over to the next higher or lower partial of that particular length of brass tubing. Playing intervals along a group of partials is how a trumpeter can play the bugle call, "Reveille".

[@rick4electric]

Cycles per second became frequency in Hertz. I still like the old term. It is more descriptive! Cycles is MUCH cooler!

[@PapaKlimentino]

okay, so i tried this... WTF IS THIS? WHY AM I CRACKING AND SWITCHING TO HEAD VOICE WHEN I DONT WANT TO? KSEGEKWJEIE

[@physicsgirl]

You tried already?? What length pipe? Around what note?

[@PapaKlimentino]

@@physicsgirl i really dont know... i just found this long pvc pipe in my house in the basement... i really dont know its length... but i think around the length of the pipe that you have in the vid. And the notes... around the notes that you did. From lower fourth octave i kept scaling to fifth octave notes. at one point my voice cracked and i transitioned to head voice... it was weird.

[@HungrysitesRu]

I tried and no problem switched to head through mix without any cracking. Are you sure that you are not having a problem with your mixed voice? Do you have a crack when not singing into the tube? Mine is 107 cm long, 3.1 outer, 2 inner. I'll try tomorrow with another tube but I suspect that no actual singers tried it so noone disproved it.

[@PapaKlimentino]

@@HungrysitesRu when im not singing into the tube i can transition no problwm without cracking. I think its the tube. When i sing into the tube, it cracks and it skips a couple of notes so its "impossible to sing".

[@boahhist]

@@PapaKlimentino my voice cracks even without a tube. Maybe its bc of my deep voice

[@MattNolanCustom]

You get a similar effect with resonator tubes on Marimbas and Vibraphones, that kind of thing. It is a common misconception that the resonance in the tube is what directly makes the vibrating bar louder by adding acoustic energy. Actually, it does the opposite. Vibrating bars are a dipole sound source and they are small compared with the wavelength in air, so the front and back waves, being opposite phase to each other, cancel out fairly well - the bar's fundamental doesn't ring out loudly in free space. The resonator tube "eats" the sound waves from the underside of the bar, at the resonant frequency, thus reducing the cancellation with the sound wave from the top of the bar, allowing it to radiate loudly into the air. The resonator makes the bar louder by removing acoustic energy! In light of this, perhaps, it is not surprising that it becomes difficult to sing the resonant frequency directly into a tube that is right by your mouth.

[@rva]

Haha nice experiment.

[@pearljoyperales1166]

0:52 Well, *we just found PHYSICS GIRL'S TWIN!*😂😂

[@mafiozos2000]

This principle is used in speaker enclosures, in order to design bass reflex. When the frequency is above the frequency of the baffle (usually a tube of some length and diameter), the pressure is to high, so, the air cannot escape from this baffle and the response of the enclosure matches this of a "closed box enclosure". AT resonant frequency of the baffle, the sound gets amplified due to the resonance of the tube. It's like having a 2nd speaker that plays synchronously (stationary waves) the same frequency (Although, there is a slight delay of n cycles, so that's why the is a slight "reverb" effect at these frequencies). On a speaker that the the frequency of the incoming signal is usually a mix of frequencies, this results on a physical/mechanical "Bass Boost" (since, the specific frequency is amplified, and the rest work as mentioned above). On frequencies lower then the resonance point, the baffle works like an open hole, so the sound gets attenuated even more than when it gets played on a closed enclosure. So, the whole idea of a bass reflex is to be "tuned" right where the physical frequency response of the loudspeaker itself starts to "be less efficient". That results in a slightly better low-end response of the speaker-system than before.

[@ashleyexall3115]

2:20 Something NOTE-able about natural frequencies! Anybody? Anybody?

[@octogonnapus]

stop that, you are better then this

[@kidzfun4420]

Yesss!

[@Youtubeiscoolandgreat]

Me: why is she singing into a tube? Diana: umm lets find the resonance frequency, why is it skipping the notes. Australian dude: oh it’s just like a spring.

[@girlinagale]

So interesting for saxophonists. Blowing air through a tube while the mouthpiece/reed buzzes and then changing the resonant frequency of the tube by opening and closing holes along it. And the extension of the tube both through the instrument and through the mouth, throat and lungs.

[@keithtomczyk4730]

I took a tuning fork and rang it against several pieces of steel. Each piece I used a drill and bit,and amazingly ,the drill motor pitch and pitch fork sounded the same during the speed in which the drill bit cut easiest thriugh the steel.

[@keithcessna1]

I knew that drilling through steel was easier at lower speeds but never knew why.

[@ashleytheheartless9050]

soooooooo if i sing in someone's mouth in the resonant frequency of the human neck will i snap it?

[@cheesecakelasagna]

_bruh_

[@dallynsr]

It’s a great another way to look at Helmholtz resonation. Also, the resonate frequency is dependent on the air volume’s mouth or opening size. Bigger is higher, smaller is lower, and is optimized to handle the amount of airflow needed for a particular loudness-without turbulence or chuffing. (Mainly bass reflex speaker enclosures) but is also a critical component of the output frequency. The pvc pipe has an opening (on both ends) same as the rest of the tube so becomes irrelevant. The bottle whistle example is a good example of same volume with different size necks and openings changing the bottle tones.

[@Bo-kq8tn]

I am going to be singing into a cardboard tube for the next hour now thank you. This was mindblowing 8O

[@fredbcruz]

Good old pre covid times when you could just share a tube to sing with no worries in the heart

[@shonemery848]

As a classically trained Bass , as well as a classically trained clarinetist... I was aware of this and am impressed at how easily you grasped and then explained a concept that took me ages to understand. This is the video that convinced me to subscribe to your channel. You rock!

[@johnchessant3012]

I wish I was friends with 3Blue1Brown ;) And Physics Girl, of course! That's why I'm here.

[@hieuho2652]

I will give this tube to a singer who has well-trained mixed voice to make them question their skill.