Vocal gesture and pitch change in female singers of different genres - a qualitative and perceptual study of 3 female singer types.

Gillyanne Kayes , Sara Harris

Singers of Western Lyric repertoire and singers of ‘show’ musicals make different choices about sound qualities according to the requirements of style and performance practice of their respective genres. These sound qualities may be the result of different vocal tract configurations. This study examines the vocal behaviours of three different female singer types performing similar vocal tasks. Six singers were used in all: two trained in the Western Lyric tradition [WL], two originally trained in the Western Lyric tradition but now engaged professionally in musical theatre [MT/classical] and two ‘show’ singers trained in the Musical Theatre tradition [MT/show]. An additional focal point of interest was on how singers raise and lower pitch, especially at the point between ‘chest’ and ‘non-chest’ registers.

Procedure and protocols
Each singer performed a reading test, recorded on the Laryngograph analysis programme. Singing range tests and a song extract from their professional repertoire were recorded using nasopharyngeal endoscopy with simultaneous electrography [EGG}. Additionally, singers were asked to maintain the vocal gesture or ‘set’ of the song over a segment of their range likely to cross register boundaries. Following the tasks, singers completed a short questionnaire on their demographic profile and their experience of participating in the experiment. Data will be presented from analysis of the following:

1. Perception of ‘successful task’ and ‘genre authenticity’ by expert listening panel;
2. Qualitative analysis of observed phonatory behaviour and discrete vocal tract articulations using a Likert scale devised by the researchers
3. Glottal source analysis of closed quotient using EGG.

Gillyanne Kayes. Singing teacher and Doctoral student
137 Sunderland Road, London SE 23 2PX, UK
e-mail: gillyanne@vocalprocess.co.uk
Affiliations: School of Arts and Humanities, Institute of Education, University of London; Vocal Process Limited, London.
Sara Harris, MRCSLT, Specialist Speech Language Therapist (Voice) Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, Kent