Immediate Effect of Semioccluded Vocal Tract Exercises Using Resonance Tube Phonation in Water on Women Without Vocal Complaints

Abstract

To analyze the immediate effects of semioccluded vocal tract exercises on vocal quality and vocal self-assessment using resonance tube phonation in water in women without voice complaints, and to compare these results with those obtained using tongue trills and unvoiced fricative exercises. This was a quasi-experimental study. The participants were 30 women aged 18-39 years and without vocal complaints. All participants performed three exercises for 3 minutes: experimental exercise (EE: phonation into a resonance flexible tube in water exercise), control exercise (tongue trill exercise), and placebo exercise (PE: unvoiced fricative exercise). Three outcomes were analyzed-vocal self-assessment, auditory-perceptual evaluation, and acoustic analysis. The vocal self-assessment showed significantly greater improvement after EE than after the other exercises. There were no significant differences in auditory-perceptual evaluation or acoustic analyses in any of the voice exercises. The EE promoted an immediate positive effect in the subjective self-assessment, with better results compared with PE. However, the clinical vocal evaluation did not indicate immediate positive effects after 3 minutes of EE, control exercise, or PE.