Hello, welcome to the Naked Scientist. I'm Chris Smith and I'm joined by the Naked Scientist to wish you you seasons greetings and to invite you to spend the next hour with us as we're joined at our Christmas party by a choir they're the

Templar scholars and they'll be with us throughout the program coming up we'll be

looking at why crackers are,

or aren't all that funny,

the chemistry of Christmas,

and what makes the ultimate roast dinner.

In so here below below,

let's steep about this one. below let steeple bells be swan and the oi-oe-o

oh by priest and people's son

Christmas caroling is one of the traditions that really has stood the test of time

but why is that it could be that singing and in particular choral singing has some

effects that other group activities just don't. Jude Breton teaches the science of singing at the

University of York and also with us are the Templar scholars and their conductor

Torrey Longden and also biochemist Mark Lortch. We'll come to Mark shortly.

Jude, first of all, tell us how do we actually produce sound when we want to sing or speak?

We can think about the voice in three main parts.

You need a power source, a sound source, and then some sort of

modifier, some resonator. The power source for singers is the lungs and it's air

from the lungs. So we need to think about our breathing. We need to concentrate on breathing,

breathing deeply, breathing regularly and controlling that breath. That's the fundamental

to good singing. The sound source is in the voice box, so the larynx in the neck.

And it's actually a pair of tiny vocal folds. Some people call them the vocal cords and they're about the size of

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