Acoustic Effects of the Singing Voice Quality of Untrained Female Singers in Malaysia
Main Article Content
Abstract
Vocal warm-ups are widespread and comprehensive in the singing community. Although it is well recognised and practised by professionals, warm-ups are sometimes bypassed and neglected by singers and voice teachers. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of vocal warm-up on vocal quality through acoustic parameters of jitter (%), shimmer (%), and harmonics-to-noise (HNR [dB]) in two-pitch conditions, A3 (chest register) and C5 (head register), before and after vocal warm-up. Forty untrained female singers were recorded twice while uttering the vowels /a/, /o/, and /i/ in two different pitches: Low—A3 (220.0 Hz) and High—C5 (523.2 Hz) for at least five seconds. A standardised warm-up protocol with a duration of 20-minute was carried out in this study. The subjects were recorded immediately before and after a 20-minute vocal warm-up session. Significant improvements were found in the mean values of measured acoustic parameters. A decrease was observed compared with the mean jitter and shimmer values before and after a vocal warm-up, while the HNR increased. All the acoustic variables, jitter, shimmer, and HNR were found to have significantly larger improvements in the lower pitch, A3 (chest register), compared to the higher pitch, C5 (head register). The findings of this study provided empirical evidence for the beneficial effect of vocal warm-up on the voice quality of untrained female singers. The positive effects of the findings indicated that the vocal warm-up should be encouraged and not bypassed.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Alex, N. K., C. F. J. Izaath, and K. T. K. M. T. Aseem. 2020. Acoustic voice analysis of young malayalam speakers across genders. International Journal of Science and Research 9(1): 819–824. https://www.ijsr.net/archive/v9i1/ART20204071.pdf
Amir, O., N. Amir, and O. Michaeli. 2005. Evaluating the influence of warmup on singing voice quality using acoustic measures. Journal of Voice 19(2): 252–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2004.02.008
Asiaee, M. et al. 2020. Voice quality evaluation in patients with COVID-19: An acoustic analysis. Journal of Voice (published ahead of print). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2020.09.024
Bielamowicz, S. et al. 1996. Comparison of voice analysis systems for perturbation measurement. Journal of Speech Language, and Hearing Research 39(1): 126–134. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.3901.126
Boersma, P. and V. van Heuven. 2001. Speak and unspeak with PRAAT. Glot International 5(9/10): 341–347. https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/paul/papers/speakUnspeakPraat_glot2001.pdf
Brockmann-Bauser, M., J. E. Bohlender, and D. D. Mehta. 2018. Acoustic perturbation measures improve with increasing vocal intensity in individuals with and without voice disorders. Journal of Voice 32(2): 162–168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2017.04.008
Brown, W. S. Jr., H. B. Rothman, and C. M. Sapienza. 2000. Perceptual and acoustic study of professionally trained versus untrained voices. Journal of Voice 14(3): 301–309. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0892-1997(00)80076-4
Brown, W. S. Jr., R. J. Morris, and J. F. Michel. 1990. Vocal jitter and fundamental frequency characteristics in aged, female professional singers. Journal of Voice 4(2): 135–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0892-1997(05)80138-9
Carson, C. P., D. R. S. Ingrisano, and K. D. Eggleston. 2003. The effect of noise on computer-aided measures of voice: A comparison of CSpeechSP and the multi-dimensional voice program software using the CSL 4300B module and multi- speech for Windows. Journal of Voice 17(1): 12–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0892-1997(03)00031-6
Coan, J. A. and J. J. B. Allen. 2007. Handbook of emotion elicitation and assessment. New York: Oxford University Press.
Datta, A. K. 2018. Time domain representation of speech sounds: A case study in Bangla. Singapore: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2303-4
Deliyski, D. D., H. S. Shaw, and M. K. Evans. 2005. Adverse effects of environmental noise on acoustic voice quality measurements. Journal of Voice 19(1): 15–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2004.07.003
Elliot, N., J. Sundberg, and P. Gramming. 1995. What happens during vocal warm-up? Journal of Voice 9(1): 37–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0892-1997(05)80221-8
Falcão, L. M. G. et al. 2014. Spectrographic analysis of the effect of vocal warm-up on the voice of choir girls. Audiology - Communication Research 19(4): 380–386. https://doi.org/10.1590/S2317-64312014000300001372
Frühholz, S. and P. Belin. 2019. The Oxford handbook of voice perception. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198743187.001.0001
Gish, A. et al. 2012. Vocal warm-up practices and perceptions in vocalists: A pilot survey. Journal of Voice 26(1): e1–e10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2010.10.005
Horii, Y. 1980. Vocal shimmer in sustained phonation. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 23(1): 202–209. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.2301.202
Jiang, J. J. et al. 2009. Objective acoustic analysis of pathological voices from patients with vocal nodules and polyps. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica 61(6): 342–349. https://doi.org/10.1159/000252851
Karnell, M. P., R. S. Scherer, and L. B. Fischer. 1991. Comparison of acoustic voice perturbation measures among three independent voice laboratories. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research 34(4): 781–790. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.3404.781
Kiliç, M. A. et al. 2004. The effects of vowels on voice perturbation measures. Journal of Voice 18(3): 318–324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2003.09.007
Laukkanen, A. M. et al. 2012. The effect of phonation into a straw on the vocal tract adjustments and formant frequencies. A preliminary MRI study on a single subject completed with acoustic results. Biomedical Signal Processing and Control 7(1): 50–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bspc.2011.02.004
MacCallum, J. K., Y. Zhang, and J. J. Jiang. 2011. Vowel selection and its effects on perturbation and nonlinear dynamic measures. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica 63(2): 88–97. https://doi.org/10.1159/000319786
McArdle, W. D., F. I. Katch, and V. L. Katch. 1996. Exercise physiology: Energy, nutrition, and human performance. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
McHenry, M., J. Johnson, and B. Foshea. 2009. The effect of specific versus combined warm-up strategies on the voice. Journal of Voice 23(5): 572–576. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2008.01.003
Milbrath, R. L. and N. P. Solomon. 2003. Do vocal warm-up exercises alleviate vocal fatigue? Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 46(2): 422–436. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2003/035)
Miller, R. 2004. Solutions for singers: Tools for performers and teachers. New York: Oxford University Press.
Motel, T., K. V. Fisher, and C. Leydon. 2003. Vocal warm-up increases phonation threshold pressure in soprano singers at high pitch. Journal of Voice 17(2): 160–167. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0892-1997(03)00003-1
Müller, C. 2007. Speaker classification I: Fundamentals, features, and methods. Berlin: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74200-5
Ramig, L. A. and R. L. Ringel. 1983. Effects of physiological aging on selected acoustic characteristics of voice. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 26(1): 22–30. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.2601.22
Reckers, H., E. Donahue, and W. LeBorgne. 2021. Comparison of reported vocal habits of first-year undergraduate and graduate vocal performance majors. Journal of Voice 35(6): 852–858. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2020.04.001
Ribeiro, V. V. et al. 2016. Aquecimento e desaquecimento vocais: Revisão sistemática. Revista CEFAC 18(6): 1456–1465. https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-0216201618617215
Sabol, J. W., L. Lee, and J. C. Stemple. 1995. The value of vocal function exercises in the practice regimen of singers. Journal of Voice 9(1): 27–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0892-1997(05)80220-6
Scherer, R. C. et al. 1988. Preliminary evaluation of selected acoustic and glottographic measures for clinical phonatory function analysis. Journal of Voice 2(3): 230–244. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0892-1997(88)80081-X
Sorensen, D. and Y. Horii. 1983. Frequency and amplitude perturbation in the voices of female speakers. Journal of Communication Disorders 16(1): 57–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9924(83)90027-8
Teixeira, J. P. and P. O. Fernandes. 2014. Jitter, shimmer and HNR classification within gender, tones and vowels in healthy voices. Procedia Technology 16: 1228–1237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2014.10.138
Teixeira, J. P., C. Oliveira, and C. Lopes. 2013. Vocal acoustic analysis – jitter, shimmer and HNR parameters. Procedia Technology 9: 1112–1122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2013.12.124
Titze, I. R. and W. S. Winholtz. 1993. Effect of microphone type and placement on voice perturbation measurements. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 36(6): 1177–1190. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.3606.1177