ElI5: how does our body know exactly how tight or loose to make our vocal cords to hit a pitch right on?

Question

ElI5: how does our body know exactly how tight or loose to make our vocal cords to hit a pitch right on?

In: 2

Answer 1

Practice. Watch a video of kids singing, while they may sound adorable they’re usually not particularly good. As they get older they start to hit the right notes but even after practicing the song they’ll still hit a wrong note and then slide to the correct one. Just like anything else, your body learns cause and effect for “this pitch feels like this” and then remembers that.