Description
Subject: Creak(ing) / Vocal fry / Strohbass
Left: Regular true vocal fold vibration
Middle: Complex & (ir)regular true vocal fold vibration without fundamental frequency = creak / vocal fry
Right: Complex & (ir)regular true vocal fold vibration with fundamental frequency = creaking
/ Strohbass
Frontal plane
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- Note: Complex & (ir)regular true vocal fold vibration without pitch (fundamental frequency) is named ‘creak’ in for example Complete Vocal Technique and ‘vocal fry’ in other methods / techniques / pedagogies.Complex & (ir)regular true / (a)periodic vocal fold vibration with pitch (fundamental frequency) is named ‘creaking’ in for example Complete Vocal Technique, but otherwise in other methods / techniques / pedagogies. One interesting example is the ‘pig squeal’, which is extremely high pitched creaking, used by a.o. metal singers. Melissa Cross calls this Fry scream.
Creaking can also be used with periodic oscillation. It’s then called ‘Strohbass’ and has a pitch (fundamental frequency). It is used, for example, by Gyuto monks, but also in classical choral singing. The pitch usually sounds one octave below the corresponding modal voice. But specialists can go down the subharmonic scale up to 1/5. It is also used in combination with vowel overtones in Tibetan monastic chants which are not explicit overtone singing, but accentuate harmonics in vowels. (Ref: Wolfgang Saus)