Voice DeCal — the art and science of the human voice

The Art and Science of the Human Voice

Fall 2026

Welcome to The Art and Science of the Human Voice (LINGUIS 198)!

Syllabus Join the Discord

Course Schedule

Subject to change. Please refer to in-class announcements for weekly slides, homework assignments, and office hours.

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WkDateTopicAssignmentSupplemental Readings
1 9/14 Introduction to Voice
  • Course policies and vocal goals
  • Intro to voice
  • Vocal warm-ups and vocal health
 Describing your voice NHS SOVTEs Guide
2 9/21 Anatomy Basics
  • Vocal tract anatomy
  • Phonation types and vocal qualities
  • Articulation basics
 Anatomy self-observation exercises (breathing, laryngeal position, articulation) larynx 2D diagrams
larynx 3D model
NIH voice and speech overview
Pink Trombone
3 9/28 Intro to Vocal Acoustics
  • Sound waves, DSP
  • Source-filter theory
  • Spectrograms!
  • Demos in Braat, Praat and DAW
 Acoustic analysis practice Vocal Harmonics & Formants
Daniel Russel's Acoustics Animations
Real-time spectrogram
Braat
Takayuki Arai - Vocal Models
4 10/5 Vocal Acoustics, Perceptual Qualities and Gender
  • Acoustics cont. (open quotient, spectral rolloff)
  • Perceptual qualities
  • Perceptual quadrant and vocal gender
  • Slides, SDBD/BDSD, articulation
 Pitch and weight exercises (PIP, SDBD/BDSD, whisper and vowel slides)
Resonance exercises ("hello" exercise, word chart)		 Filtered Listening
Acoustic Gender Space Viewer
UCLA Phonetics Lab Data
5 10/12 Sociolinguistics of Voice
  • Vocal gender cont. (gendered speech traits)
  • Speaker identity
  • Accents, dialects, social judgments
 Accent and articulation exercise International Dialects of English Archive
Speech Accent Archive (By Region)
Tom Scott: "Why are adverts so loud?"
glaswegian accent
6 10/19 Voice Modulation and Voicing Characters
  • Characterization, pacing and coloring
  • Improv game
  • Different applications: narration, video games
 Character study/imitation Voice Acting (Fantasy Script Samples)
Voice reel scripts
Fox in Socks warm up
7 10/26 Voice Modulation II
  • Distortion
  • False chords
  • Epiglottal growl
  • Fry
 Storytelling exercise TBD
8 11/2 Vocal Performance & Editing Workshop
  • Different applications: narration, video games
  • Audio and editing setup
  • Demo reels
 Practice with editing software voicereels.com/scripts
9 11/9 Voice in Tech
  • Speech synthesis
  • Biometric technology
  • Vocaloid
 Short written assignment Synthet: "the sound that everyone loves"
10 11/16 Guest Lecture
  • Focus: industry, voice acting
 Final project released —
11 11/23 Guest Lecture
  • Focus: vocal health, vocal gender, voice training
 Work on final project! Voice Disorders Simulations
adult pharynx 3D models
infant pharynx 3D model
12 11/30 Lab Tour or Guest Lecture
  • Focus: voice research
 Work on final project! —

Have a question? Ask in the course Discord, or come to office hours — see the Staff page.