The Voice

Its something you hear everyday, you don't even think about it.  Everyone one has a fairly unique voice.  Not only do some talk at a higher pitch than others, some talk lower, some sound raspy,  and others sound light.  There are almost an infinite amount of slight variances in pitch and timbre that many don't notice.  So lets look at the extremes.

I would by no means say I have a high voice.  But I can make mine high by two means, naturally and chemically.  Naturally, I can go into what is known as falsetto.  Falsetto vibrates a different part of your vocal cords than your normal (modal) voice would.  It usually brings up the pitch an octave or sometimes even two if your good.  This helps men hit hire notes if it isn't in their modal range.  Problems with falsetto though, is that it is very limiting, both dynamically and tonally.  It usually sounds more "breathy" and the tone lacks a certain "ringing" that modal voices have.  The other way to alter your voice is chemically through a method we all know and love, inhaling Helium.  The air we breathe regularly has oxygen in it, yes, but only 20% of it.  71% of air is heavy nitrogen.  The other nine percent are less important. The weight of air though, molecularly, is over 6 times heavier than He2, helium molecules.  When breathed in, it fills the upper part of your lungs and is ready to go through your vocal cords.  If you speak normally, your vocal cords are trained to do the work for and vibrate heavier air. So when the helium passes through them, the same work is applied to lighter air, vibrating it faster, raising the pitch quite a bit.

On the other end of the spectrum, what if you wanna go lower.  It is a lot tougher to falsely lower ones voice than it is to raise it.  To get a lower note, you have to somehow vibrate the air slower.  Some can compensate for this naturally, but others, like myself end up vibrating my whole throat to try and make that slow vibration.  It ends up coming out very groggy and fake.  Luckily, we can do it chemically as well. If we got a higher pitch with a molecule that was 6 times lighter than air, perchance we can get a lower pitch by using a compound that is 6 times heavier than air.  And we're in luck, such a chemical does exist, and it is safe to inhale a little bit.  Sulfar Hexaflouride is a compound that is about 6 times heavier than air.  This means your vocal cords are working to vibrate heavier air, so it vibrates slower.  The slower the vibrations, the lower the frequency, hence a lowered voice.  Take it away Adam.