You're listening to 20,000 Hertz.

Back in college, I was a music major, and one of the requirements of my degree was that I had

to take singing lessons. Out of every class I took, this was the most anxiety-inducing, because

while I was a good trumpet player, as a kid from Arkansas, I just couldn't get rid of the country

twang in my singing. I was super nervous about it, and let's just say it didn't go that well.

The only song I remember singing was, You'll Never Walk Alone from the Musical Carousel.

And to this day, I still can't hear that song without cringing.

You'll never walk the home.

But on the plus side, that experience did give me an appreciation for just how complex the human voice is.

I'm fascinated by the ways that people can manipulate their voices to the point where they can make sounds that feel truly out of this world.

Our producer, Martin Ostwick, is also a talented musician.

So when he suggested that we make an episode about the extraordinary range of the human voice,

it seemed like the perfect chance to give this topic the attention that it deserves.

I'll let Martin take it from here.

My love of audio all started out with my love of singing. I've been a singer-songwriter for probably about 20 years, but I've never formally studied singing,

so I don't really understand how people make these incredible sounds with their voices.

Like, what's the difference between head voice and chest voice?

How high and how low can people sing?

And most importantly,

how does Moriah Carey do that whistling thing with her voice?

I know enough to know that singing starts with the vocal chords.

Our vocal system is really complicated, but imagine a big tube that comes up from your lungs. That's the trachea, or windpipe.

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