Vocal Chords as the First Instrument
Sunday, April 29th, 2007One time my dad joined a contest in a local fm radio station asking their listeners what the first musical instrument is. Luckily, he was picked as the winner, and received a CD as the prize.
His answer was vocal chords.
My guess was the lyre, and it wasn’t even close. The lyre was invented waaay after this first musical instrument’s discovery, which was since the beginning of time. Before the arrival of classical music, and even before the invention of archaic tribal instruments by prehistoric men, humans were already creating rhythms using their own built-in musical implement–the vocal chords.
Vocal chords are these lower of two folds or bands in the throat which produce sound when made tighter or loosened when air is breathed out while speaking or singing. Vocal chords have the ability or power to produce musical tones. For some people it comes out effortlessly. For some it needs thorough training. While for some, it’s just something they have accepted they can’t acquire (ahem).
To look at it, it’s the only instrument that produces an ample diversity of pitches, elaborate timbre, and various tones all in one. Our voice can create a story on its own with just striking different melodies, even without putting words. That reminds me of a vocalist humming all the way through the song, and yet it’s tells a whole tale. It also brings me in awe with what amazing things this body part can do. It can croon. It can hum. It can yodel. It can scat. It can chant. It can carol. If you can do at least one of these skills, then you can produce musical tones yourself. We all can. I take that it’s-just-something-they-have-accepted-they-can’t-acquire back. I can hum, at least.