Semitone Range Research Articles

Changes in the male voice during puberty: Speaking and singing voice parameters

This prospective, longitudinal study investigates the relationship between different parameters of the male speaking and singing voice during pubertal development. The data obtained consisted of 122 acoustic, laryngographic and clinical recordings of 26 musically untrained boys at different stages of puberty as defined by Tanner. The data show that: 1. The maximum changes in voice parameters occur between Tanner “G” stages 3 and 4. 2. The semitone range for the modal singing voice does not alter significantly throughout Tanner “G” stages 1 to 5. 3. There is an excellent correlation between the quantitatively measured singing range of modal voice (as shown on the laryngograph) and the keyboard derived perceptive singing range. 4. There is a constant relationship between the speaking fundamental frequency and the lowest singing frequency. The relevance of these parameters to clinical and musical practice is discussed.

Absolute Pitch and the Perception of Sequential Musical Intervals

When identifying musical intervals, most musicians appear to use only one strategy: they directly evaluate the musical interval between two notes (relative-pitch strategy). Musicians with absolute pitch (AP) seem to have two strategies available for identifying intervals: they can either use the relative-pitch strategy, or they can first identify the two pitches and then infer the musical interval between them (AP strategy). This study investigates the perception of sequential musical intervals by two groups of musicians, one group with AP and the other without AP. Most subjects in either group were able to name standard sequential musical intervals based on the equal-tempered scale accurately. Most subjects in the AP group were able to name notes of the equal-tempered scale accurately and consistently, whereas subjects without AP were not. Subjects with AP identified, with varying degrees of accuracy and consistency, single notes spaced in 20-cent increments over a 9.4- semitone range, using the standard musical note names. In the main experiment, subjects identified sequential musical intervals ranging in 20- cent steps from 260 to 540 cents, using the standard musical interval names. On the basis of their identification errors, subjects, both with and without AP, appeared to identify the intervals using the RP strategy rather than the AP strategy. It seems that musicians with AP do not use this ability in the identification of sequential musical intervals, relying instead on their sense of relative pitch.

Subject positioning and phonation range measures.

Fifteen young adult male subjects were recorded as they sustained phonation of the extremes of their phonational range in both the supine and standing positions. Results of fundamental frequency analysis of the recorded samples showed a 1.1 semitone range decrease in the supine position owing to an attenuation at both the upper and lower limits.