Laryngeal movements during wind instruments play

Abstract

Historically, the concern of wind instrumentalists has been diaphragm control and embouchure. Laryngeal movement during “blow” has been overlooked or neglected by wind musicians. It has been said that musical tone has to be produced by the resonances of the player's air column by opening his larynx during blow. In the present study, fiberscopic observations of the larynx during blow revealed that musical tones were played with adducted vocal cords. Narrowed glottis appeared to control the airflow of the blow. Persons who could not make musical tone blew with open glottis. Vibrato was also made by rhythmic open and narrowing movements of the glottis. The authors concluded that the larynx regulates the airflow of the “blow”. The authors postulated that the embouchure might be important as the receptor of the airflow rather than controlling the movement for “blow”. © 1989, The Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan, Inc. All rights reserved.