Augmented visual-feedback of airflow: Immediate effects on voice-source characteristics of students of singing

Glottal adduction is a crucial aspect in voice education and vocal performance: it has major effects on phonatory airflow and, consequently, on voice timbre. As the voice is a non-visible musical instrument, controlling it could be facilitated by providing real-time visual feedback of phonatory airflow. Here, we test the usefulness of a flow ball (FB) training device, visualizing, in terms of the height of a polystyrene ball placed in a plastic basket, phonatory airflow during phonation. Audio and electroglottographic recordings of five postgraduate, classically trained singer students were made under three subsequent conditions: before, during, and after phonating into the FB. The calibrated audio signal was inverse-filtered, using an electroglottograph signal to guide the manual tuning of the inverse filters. Mean phonatory airflow, peak-to-peak pulse amplitude, and normalized amplitude quotient were extracted from the resulting flow glottograms. After the FB condition, increases of mean flow and peak-to-peak pulse amplitude were observed in four singers. In addition, the singers’ mean normalized amplitude quotient increased significantly. The findings, although exploratory, suggest that reduction of glottal adduction can be observed immediately after FB phonation.

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Optimising outcome assessment of voice interventions, II: sensitivity to change of self-reported and observer-rated measures

The Journal of Laryngology & Otology ◽

10.1017/s0022215107007839 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 122 (1) ◽

pp. 46-51 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

I N Steen ◽

K MacKenzie ◽

P N Carding ◽

A Webb ◽

I J Deary ◽

...

Keyword(s):

General Health ◽

Voice Quality ◽

Voice Handicap Index ◽

Effect Sizes ◽

Voice Therapy ◽

Vocal Performance ◽

Symptom Scale ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Voice ◽

Responsiveness To Change

AbstractObjectives:A wide range of well validated instruments is now available to assess voice quality and voice-related quality of life, but comparative studies of the responsiveness to change of these measures are lacking. The aim of this study was to assess the responsiveness to change of a range of different measures, following voice therapy and surgery.Design:Longitudinal, cohort comparison study.Setting:Two UK voice clinics.Participants:One hundred and forty-four patients referred for treatment of benign voice disorders, 90 undergoing voice therapy and 54 undergoing laryngeal microsurgery.Main outcome measures:Three measures of self-reported voice quality (the vocal performance questionnaire, the voice handicap index and the voice symptom scale), plus the short form 36 (SF 36) general health status measure and the hospital anxiety and depression score. Perceptual, observer-rated analysis of voice quality was performed using the grade–roughness–breathiness–asthenia–strain scale. We compared the effect sizes (i.e. responsiveness to change) of the principal subscales of all measures before and after voice therapy or phonosurgery.Results:All three self-reported voice measures had large effect sizes following either voice therapy or surgery. Outcomes were similar in both treatment groups. The effect sizes for the observer-rated grade–roughness–breathiness–asthenia–strain scale scores were smaller, although still moderate. The roughness subscale in particular showed little change after therapy or surgery. Only small effects were observed in general health and mood measures.Conclusion:The results suggest that the use of a voice-specific questionnaire is essential for assessing the effectiveness of voice interventions. All three self-reported measures tested were capable of detecting change, and scores were highly correlated. On the basis of this evaluation of different measures' sensitivities to change, there is no strong evidence to favour either the vocal performance questionnaire, the voice handicap index or the voice symptom scale.

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Lady in the Lake, Choral Voices, and Narrative Agency

Music Sound and the Moving Image ◽

10.3828/msmi.2021.3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 37-69

Author(s):

DONALD GREIG

Keyword(s):

Human Agency ◽

Musical Instrument ◽

A Cappella ◽

First Person ◽

Narrative Strategy ◽

Notable Feature ◽

Narrative Agency ◽

The Voice

A notable feature of the use of choral voices in cinema is the attenuation of language; singers hum, vocalise, and sing in invented or dead languages. Such an approach applies across genres and sees choruses used in two related ways: as evocations of human and inhuman collectives, and as celebrants of spectacle and narrative resolution. I argue that this approach is dictated by the particular implication of human agency that the voice, as opposed to the musical instrument, promotes. I sketch the ontological properties of choral voices in cinema and analyse Lady in the Lake (Robert Montgomery, 1947). As well as being a singular experiment in first-person camera, the film is significant for its a cappella score, the only one of its kind in classical cinema, motivated, I argue, by the film’s distinct narrative strategy.

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