Vocal Training Research Articles

Study on the Application of Electronic Equipment in Voice Disease Prevention

Electronic auxiliary equipment in many fields have been used in the prevention of disease, the vocal voice is more and more widely used, in the daily vocal training and voice disorders are mostly because the pronunciation method caused by improper, therefore, prevention and treatment of voice diseases is the scientific sound, let the human body the vocal organs reasonable movement in the vocal motor; followed by active prevention, effective treatment and daily life care. “Sound” is just like his life for the singer. How to protect it, keep it, and make it shine forever is the dream of every singer. In this paper, the application of electronic equipment, the use of voice disease prevention, through the scientific method of voice, physical health, diet and other aspects of the use of electronic auxiliary equipment, discusses the protection of artistic voice, singing can find the correct way of voice health.

뮤지컬 발성에서의 호흡 방법 연구 - 가창 시 발생하는 호흡의 오류를 중심으로 -

본 연구는 뮤지컬 발성 교수법의 흐름과 문제점을 살펴보고, 실제 뮤지컬 가창 교육현장에서 학생들 이 흔히 보여주는 호흡관련 오류 사례들을 검토한 이후 그 해결책을 모색하고자 하였다. 연구방법은 문 헌연구로 이루어졌다. 뮤지컬은 공연시장의 대표적인 콘텐츠로서 큰 비중을 차지한다. 비록 뮤지컬 콘텐츠 자체의 힘은 아 직 미약하지만 양적인 팽창은 괄목할 만한 수준이며, 뮤지컬배우 및 배우지망생들도 폭발적으로 증가하 고 있다. 뮤지컬 시장의 양적 성장에 따른 수요 증가에 대응하기 위해, 여러 대학들은 뮤지컬학과를 신설 하거나 기존 관련학과의 내부전공을 개설했다. 그러나 뮤지컬 교육의 기본이 되는 뮤지컬 발성교수법은 과학적인 방법을 기반으로 체계화되지 못하고 있다. 기존의 뮤지컬 발성 교수법에는 몇 가지 문제점이 있다. 발성과 호흡의 과학적인 이론이 부재한 경우, 과학적 이론을 기본으로 하더라도 실제 적용이 모호한 경우, 기존 발성법 자체의 심각한 오류 등이 그것이다. 이상의 문제점들로 인해, 뮤지컬 콘텐츠의 발전과 뮤지컬 배우의 역량 발전 사이의 불일치가 발생 하게 되며, 이러한 불일치는 뮤지컬 콘텐츠의 질적 향상에도 부정적인 영향을 미치고 있다.

Musical training and the perception of phonetic detail in a shadowing task

Phonetic convergence, or shadowing, is the phenomenon in which people unintentionally and temporarily change phonetic details of their speech to sound more similar to another talker. Previous research has examined effects of the shadower and of the target speaker. In the current study, we examine listener contributions on the perception of phonetic convergence. Two hundred and sixty listeners completed an AXB perception task in which they were asked to determine whether the first or third stimulus was a better imitation of the middle stimulus. Listeners provided information about previous instrumental and vocal training. Preliminary examination of the results reveals that listeners with more musical training (in the form of instrumental or vocal experience) lead to better accuracy. Results from the study suggest that there is a link between musical training and detection of fine-grained phonetic details in speech.

Моделирование области-источника вокальной метафоры

The paper describes modeling the source domain of a vocal metaphor. A vocal metaphor is a special type of metaphor that describes physiological actions and sensations of a singer during voice training, and is realized in vocal pedagogical discourse. The research material included the speech of four vocal teachers of Perm Institute of Culture at solo singing lessons (8 lessons of an average duration of 51 minutes). All the metaphors related to the process of singing (voice formation) in the speech of the vocal teachers were revealed. The total quantity of 517 units – metaphorical words and expressions – was assembled. The structure of the selected vocal metaphors was analyzed using the frame semantics method. The analysis has shown that vocal metaphors represent a structure covering a lot of semantic areas. The structure of a vocal metaphor source domain includes at least two frames – “OPERATION” and “OBJECT OF OPERATION”. These frames allow us to represent singing as certain vocal operations performed with organs and places of vocalization. Each frame is divided into slots whose ranking within the frame is based on their occurrence frequency in vocal metaphors. The most frequent within the structure of frame-1 “OPERATION” is the slot “physical impact”.Within the structure of frame-2 “OBJECT OF OPERATION”, slots “body parts” and “condition” are the most significant ones. The analysis of the interaction of slots belonging to different frames within the source domain leads to the conclusion that the most important interaction is the one of the “physical impact” – “body parts” type. This proves that at the initial stages of vocal training the influence on a certain organ is the most significant one for ensuring the interrelated operation of the entire singing apparatus. The interaction of slots within the source domain can be interpreted as blending which results in forming new knowledge about singing. Blending occurs between certain slots of frame-1 and frame-2, while other slots cannot interact due to some restrictions of their semantic compatibility.

Нормативна основа вокальної підготовки актора музично-драматичного театру: система принципів

Нормативна основа вокальної підготовки актора музично-драматичного театру: система принципів

Принципи та підходи до формування сценічно-образної культури майбутніх учителів музичного мистецтва у процесі вокальної підготовки

The article highlights the leading methodological approaches and based on them the scientific principles of formation of the specified quality for future teachers of musical art in the process of vocal training. The state of the problem under investigation in the pedagogical theory and practice is analyzed, the purpose is determined, the essence of scientific principles in the educational process and their influence on the professional formation of future teachers of musical art are revealed.Сertain methodological approaches and principles of formation of the stage-shaped culture of future teachers of musical art in the process of vocal training serve as a methodological basis for the structuring of the content of professional disciplines in the process of vocal training, the selection of forms and methods that are appropriate to be used in the training, concert activity of a future specialist, determine the leading orientations of formation vocal techniques, interpretive skills, acting skills. Therefore, the prospect of further research is the development of a methodology for shaping the stage-shaped culture of the future teacher of musical art in the process of vocal training.The conducted research of methodological approaches and scientific principles of training showed that their introduction in the educational process promotes deepening and generalization of methodological knowledge, intensification and optimization of educational process, development of interdisciplinary connections, qualitative training of future specialists. Utilizing the scientific principles considered in the classes, the future teacher of musical art will not only make the educational process interesting, but will also form students’ personal qualities, which are necessary for life in the modern world of mobility — ingenuity and creativity.

Subject characteristic of scenic-image culture of future teachers of music art in the vocal training process

The topicality of the problem of formation of scenic-image culture in future teachers of music art is determined by modern requirements to the professional training of future teachers-musicians that orient them on professional mastership, spiritual growth, formation of creative qualities by modern means of music education. The specializations “voice training” and “vocal” gain the special popularity among students of art faculties; these specialties form the vocal preparation of future teachers of music art. The base of the successful vocal activity of a future teacher of music art is scenic-image culture, determined by a high-artistic representation of a music composition, elucidation of an artistic image, executor’s aesthetic taste, scenic behavior, translation of aesthetic values to an audience. The article elucidates the subject characteristic of scenic-image culture of future teachers of music art in the vocal training process. There is analyzed the state of the studied problem in the pedagogical theory, determined the aim and tasks, elucidated the essence and varieties of the “culture” phenomenon. Subject characteristics of scenic-image culture, determined in the article, widen the methodological apparatus of the research in the process of professional training of future teachers of music art and may be a base for renewing the content of academic courses of higher art educational institutions

“Prologues to a Bad Voice”: Effect of Vocal Hygiene Knowledge and Training on Voice Quality Following Stage Performance

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effects of intensive stage rehearsal and performance on perceptual, acoustic, and aerodynamic measures of voice, and to determine the impact of knowledge and practice of vocal hygiene on measures of voice during intensive vocal performance. Nineteen stage actors who were participating in the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre festival took part in the study. Each participant completed auditory-perceptual, acoustic, aerodynamic, and quality of life measures before and after 1 month of intensive rehearsals and stage performances. They also completed a questionnaire documenting their vocal use, vocal hygiene, and previous vocal training, if any. Subjects demonstrated statistically significant deterioration in auditory-perceptual measures and mean expiratory airflow. Other acoustic measures trended toward poorer outcomes after the performances; however, these were not statistically significant. Knowledge of vocal hygiene and vocal training did not have an impact on the change in vocal measures. Stage performances do impact vocal outcomes with reduction in quality and efficient use of airflow for voice production. Knowledge and practice of vocal hygiene have some impact on these changes; however, vocal hygiene may not be the best preventive strategy of potential phonotrauma in this subject population.

Vocal-Pedagogical Education in China and Its Meaning for Self-Organization of Training Space of Chinese Students

On modern level of development of higher musical-pedagogical education in Ukraine, development and implementation of new methods of self-organization of training space for future pedagogues-musicians is becoming actual. In connection to the fact that great amount of students from China study in Ukrainian universities, scientists need to pay particular attention to specificity of work with foreign students and research peculiarities of musical-pedagogical education of this country. The article determines that general studying model in China is not directed to development and forming of skills of independent analytical work on learning materials and skills of self-organization of training space from aim setting to evaluation of the results of personal learning activities. The abovementioned has to be considered while development of methods of self- organization of training space for future pedagogues musicians. Analysis of scientific literature, studying practice of training of pedagogues musicians in the class ''Vocal'' in the system of higher musical education in China allowed to determine the following peculiarities of training of specialists: vocal art contains a spiritual element and can improve only based on general development of a personality; process of learning vocal art by a university student stipulates synthesis of arts – vocal, stage, poetry and literature in general and understanding of culture of their own countries and culture of other countries. Within the article, attention is focused on peculiarities of vocal training of future pedagogues-musicians, as this is an important factor in projecting and implementation of training activity in Ukrainian universities and in development and implementation of methods of self-organization of training space for Chinese students. The abovementioned provides an opportunity to take into consideration specific peculiarities of Chinese students’ national culture, their mentality and level of general musical training and vocal training.

Vocal training in an anthropometrical aspect

Objectives: As shown in our previous paper, the dimensions of the cerebral parts of the cranium and face of the vocal students were higher than those of the non-singing students. The aim of the present study was to analyse the type of voice and its development depending on selected dimensions.Methods: A total of 56 vocal students – 36 women and 20 men – who underwent anthropometric measurements were divided into groups according to their voice type. Two professors of singing made a subjective, independent evaluation of individual students’ vocal development progress during the four years of training. The findings were analysed statistically with the current licensed versions of Statistica software.Results: We found statistically significant positive correlation between: the head length, head and face width, depth of upper and middle face, nose length and student’s voice development.Conclusions: The dimensions of the head and the face have no impact on type of voice; however, some anatomical characteristics may have impact on voice development.

An Online Telepractice Model for the Prevention of Voice Disorders in Vocally Healthy Student Teachers Evaluated by a Smartphone Application.

This article describes the Global Voice Prevention Model (GVPM) facilitated with student teachers at West Chester University and the VoiceEvalU8 smartphone application (app) used to assess the effectiveness of the GVPM. Twenty-one participants completed 1 of 3 conditions (i.e., in-person GVPM, telepractice GVPM, and control). The in-person and telepractice conditions ran for 4 weeks during fall 2016, with 1 week dedicated to vocal education and vocal hygiene and 3 weeks spent in vocal training. The control condition ran for 1 week and included only vocal education and vocal hygiene. The VoiceEvalU8 app was used at pre- and post-condition twice a day for 5 days to record acoustic, perceptual, and aerodynamic voice measures. The study is ongoing; therefore, preliminary acoustic results for fundamental frequency (F0) and jitter% are presented from pre- to post-condition. During spring 2017, the participants were student teaching and using the VoiceEvalU8 app to record the voice measures before and after teaching all day. A new group of participants will be enrolled fall 2017 for selection into 1 of the 3 conditions and then continue on to student teaching spring 2018.

ПОСТАНОВКА КОНЦЕРТНОГО НОМЕРА ЯК ЗАСІБ ФАХОВОЇ ПІДГОТОВКИ СТУДЕНТА-ВОКАЛІСТА

The present article deals with one of the major problems of training future soloists singers in higher education in Ukraine. The author analyses the art, scientific, educational and journalistic works of native and foreign scientists and artists on problems of pop and variety performance, set objectives of vocal training of students in higher education of Ukraine. The researcher describes the production of the concert performance as a part of professional training of future soloist-vocalist and although defines a role of the vocal stage in the professional development of student’s personality — future pop singer. The article reveals origin of such concepts as “music performance”, “pop performance”, outlines the artistic components of pop vocal performance as synthesis of the arts and furthermore the role of drama in the pop vocal performance. The author of the article analyses the specifics of pop vocal performance, determines specific features of performance and stage character of pop singer. The researcher focuses on specifics of state examination of solo singing in higher education, and explains the factors of successful performance for student vocalist on the state exam, analyses the structure of the final program of the future pop singer and defines the role of performance in the solo concert.

The Role of Language in the Transmission of Body Techniques : Observation of the Lessons of Vocal Training

The Role of Language in the Transmission of Body Techniques : Observation of the Lessons of Vocal Training

Music Education Mode Optimization and Vocal Training System Construction from the Perspective of Cultural and Aesthetic

Music education mainly cultivates some basic qualities, such as the sense of morality, aesthetic taste, strong mind and creative power. Music education improves personal comprehensive development through psychological counseling and music therapy. With the deepening understanding towards the role of music education, offering music classes is supported by many non-professional music colleges in China. The music education in colleges is not only a way to teach eastern and western musical knowledge, but also a way to enhance students ‘comprehensive quality. The ultimate purpose of music education is to develop and improve students’ personality, and provide a platform to cultivate top - notch talents. However, there’re still some problems in music education, such as the music classes are not taken seriously, curriculum is backward, the system of music education is incomplete, which severely restricted the role of the music education playing in improvement of students’ comprehensive quality and cultivation of top - notch talents. Facing these problems, based on the aims of people oriented and cultivating talents, we need to persist with our struggle in strengthening music education in the proportion of personnel training process with the result of college students’ comprehensive quality, which can provide a strong supporting backup for developing top - notch talents.

A Study on the CAI Development for Vocal Training in Applied Music

A Study on the CAI Development for Vocal Training in Applied Music

Blend in Singing Ensemble Performance: Vibrato Production in a Vocal Quartet

"Blend" is a defining characteristic of good vocal ensemble performance. To achieve this, directors often consider vibrato as a feature to be controlled and consequently restrict its use. Analysis of individual voices in ensemble situations presents several challenges, including the isolation of voices for analysis from recordings. This study considers vibrato production as a feature that contributes to blend through an ecological study of a vocal quartet. A vocal ensemble was recorded using head-worn microphones and electrolaryngograph electrodes to enable fundamental frequency analysis of the individual voices. The same four-part material was recorded over several weeks of rehearsal to allow analysis of conscious and subconscious changes to vibrato production over time. Alongside the recording of their rehearsal discussions, singers were also asked for opinions on vibrato production in connection with blend. The results indicate that vibrato is adjusted to some extent by individual singers to improve blend, with some instances of synchrony between voice parts. Some conscious alterations to vibrato were made to improve blend; however, these are not always evident in the data, suggesting that singers' own perceptions of their performance may be influenced by other factors. These findings indicate a need for further studies of vibrato as a feature of blend, particularly in terms of the synergies between expectation and actual production, and potential synchronicity between singers; increased understanding of vibrato in an ensemble setting will lead to more efficient rehearsal techniques and vocal training, and could prevent vocal misuse leading to pathology in the future.

Acoustic Analysis and Electroglottography in Elite Vocal Performers

Acoustic analysis of voice (AAV) and electroglottography (EGG) have been used for assessing vocal quality in patients with voice disorders. The effectiveness of these procedures for detecting mild disturbances in vocal quality in elite vocal performers has been controversial. To compare acoustic parameters obtained by AAV and EGG before and after vocal training to determine the effectiveness of these procedures for detecting vocal improvements in elite vocal performers. Thirty-three elite vocal performers were studied. The study group included 14 males and 19 females, ages 18-40 years, without a history of voice disorders. Acoustic parameters were obtained through AAV and EGG before and after vocal training using the Linklater method. Nonsignificant differences (P > 0.05) were found between values of fundamental frequency (F0), shimmer, and jitter obtained by both procedures before vocal training. Mean F0 was similar after vocal training. Jitter percentage as measured by AAV showed nonsignificant differences (P > 0.05) before and after vocal training. Shimmer percentage as measured by AAV demonstrated a significant reduction (P < 0.05) after vocal training. As measured by EGG after vocal training, shimmer and jitter were significantly reduced (P < 0.05); open quotient was significantly increased (P < 0.05); and irregularity was significantly reduced (P < 0.05). AAV and EGG were effective for detecting improvements in vocal function after vocal training in male and female elite vocal performers undergoing vocal training. EGG demonstrated better efficacy for detecting improvements and provided additional parameters as compared to AAV.

Effects of vocal training in a musicophile with congenital amusia

ABSTRACTCongenital amusia is a condition in which an individual suffers from a deficit of musical pitch perception and production. Individuals suffering from congenital amusia generally tend to abstain from musical activities. Here, we present the unique case of Tim Falconer, a self-described musicophile who also suffers from congenital amusia. We describe and assess Tim’s attempts to train himself out of amusia through a self-imposed 18-month program of formal vocal training and practice. We tested Tim with respect to music perception and vocal production across seven sessions including pre- and post-training assessments. We also obtained diffusion-weighted images of his brain to assess connectivity between auditory and motor planning areas via the arcuate fasciculus (AF). Tim’s behavioral and brain data were compared to that of normal and amusic controls. While Tim showed temporary gains in his singing ability, he did not reach normal levels, and these gains faded when he was not engaged in regular lessons and practice. Tim did show some sustained gains with respect to the perception of musical rhythm and meter. We propose that Tim’s lack of improvement in pitch perception and production tasks is due to long-standing and likely irreversible reduction in connectivity along the AF fiber tract.

The Medical and the Musical: French Physiology and Late Nineteenth-Century Operatic Training

AbstractIn 1892, physician Achille Gouguenheim (1839–1901) was invited to teach a course on the physiology and hygiene of singing at the Paris Conservatoire. By that time, scientists had been interested in the mechanics of the ‘invisible’ singing voice for years, initially experimenting on human and animal cadavers using strings and weights to make dead larynges sing. By mid-century, with the development of better quality artificial lighting and mirrors, physicians and physiologists finally developed a better understanding of the relationship between voice and physiology. Meanwhile, by 1890, a growing number of connoisseurs and medical professionals alike were concerned that there was a crisis ruining French operatic singing. Gouguenheim and others argued that the key to improving the situation rested on embedding medical knowledge and its relationship to the proper functioning of the larynx and voice into pedagogy at the Conservatoire. Drawing upon archival documents, debates in leading periodicals and Gouguenheim’s published lecture notes, we examine the marriage between medical science and artistic pedagogy during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Overall, we argue that this evidence reveals a strand of French vocal training that merged the fields of science and artistry, if ever so briefly, creating pedagogical methods that for a few years offered the promise of rescuing French opera performance.

The Effect of Therapeutic Vocal Training on Vocal Quality and Depression of Elderly Stroke Patients

The Effect of Therapeutic Vocal Training on Vocal Quality and Depression of Elderly Stroke Patients