Research on the Role of Singing Skills in Vocal Performance

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Performance

scholarly journals Lesions of an Avian Basal Ganglia Circuit Prevent Context-Dependent Changes to Song Variability

2006 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 1441-1455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mimi H. Kao ◽  
Michael S. Brainard
Keyword(s):  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Courtship Song ◽  
Vocal Performance ◽  
Social Modulation ◽  
Anterior Forebrain ◽  
Magnocellular Nucleus ◽  
The Moment

Trial-by-trial variability is important in feedback-based motor learning. Variation in motor output enables evaluation mechanisms to differentially reinforce patterns of motor activity that produce desired behaviors. Here, we studied neural substrates of variability in the performance of adult birdsong, a complex, learned motor skill used for courtship. Song performance is more variable when male birds sing alone (undirected) than when they sing to females (directed). We test the role of the anterior forebrain pathway (AFP), an avian basal ganglia–forebrain circuit, in this socially driven modulation of song variability. We show that lesions of the lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior nidopallium (LMAN), the output nucleus of the AFP, cause a reduction in the moment-by-moment variability in syllable structure during undirected song to the level present during directed song. This elimination of song modulation is immediate and long-lasting. We further show that the degree of syllable variability and its modulation are both attenuated in older birds, in concert with decreased variability of LMAN activity in these birds. In contrast to the requirement of LMAN for social modulation of syllable structure, we find that LMAN is not required for modulation of other features of song, such as the number of introductory elements and motif repetitions and the ordering of syllables or for other motor and motivational aspects of courtship. Our findings suggest that a key function of avian basal ganglia circuitry is to regulate vocal performance and plasticity by specifically modulating moment-by-moment variability in the structure of individual song elements.

What Was the Voice?

2019 ◽  
pp. 2-17
Author(s):  
Nancy H. Shane Butler
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Vocal Performance ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Voice

This chapter considers what classical antiquity understood the voice to be, as well as how that understanding has influenced subsequent Western thought. The chapter begins with discussion of song, a term that antiquity applied to written poetry as well as to song proper. It then turns to more general questions about how the Greeks and Romans theorized the relationship of the voice to language. After explaining some of the principal terms for “voice” in both Greek and Latin, the author reviews the vocal theories of various schools of ancient philosophy. He then considers the role of the voice in oratory and the special problems generated by the growing circulation of speeches in written form. He turns finally to a celebrated if perhaps apocryphal vocal performance by a pantomime in Rome in order to consider the tension between the particular voice of an individual and the more generic vocality of antiquity itself

scholarly journals The Influence of Posture and Balance on Voice: A Review

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Caçador
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Performance ◽  
Dynamic Posturography ◽  
Vocal Rehabilitation ◽  
Voice Production ◽  
Postural Changes ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Vocal Effort ◽  
Vocal Quality ◽  
The Voice

The role of posture in vocal performance is recognized for many years. Speech therapists and singing teachers use this knowledge to correct bad postures to improve vocal quality with good results, although most of that knowledge is empirical. This review evaluates the influence of posture and balance on voice. Modification in posture secondary to exogenous stimulation can affect voice, while alterations to the voice production mechanism can cause modifications in posture. Vocal effort results in segmental alterations of posture, accompanied by global postural changes. Dysphonic individuals demonstrate a greater displacement of the centre of gravity forward, which results in postural instability, increasing muscular work to maintain the posture and balance. After vocal rehabilitation, dysphonic patients presented an improvement in posture parameters in static and dynamic posturography. Posturography evaluation of patients before and after vocal treatment may represent a clinically useful variable in evaluating the efficacy of vocal therapy.

scholarly journals Pop Music for Kids: Sonic Markers as Narrative Strategies in Children’s Music

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eirik Askerøi
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Vocal Performance ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Children's Music ◽  
Recording Technology ◽  
Younger Age ◽  
History Of

Whilst the creative handling of recording technology has played a major role in the development of popular music, there has been little research into the role of production in music promoted explicitly for a child audience. The term “tween” is most often applied to describe children just before they become teens, referring to children aged 9–12 years. In more recent years, however, the tween category has come to comprise children as young as 4 and up to 15 years of age. Based on the premise that there is a growing tendency for children to be “youthified” at a far younger age than occurred previously, I am keen to investigate the extent to which music plays a part in this process. Through close readings of three songs from different eras in the history of children’s music, I will explore the role of sonic markers as narrative strategies in children’s music. The overall aim is to discuss the extent to which the relationships between lyrical content, vocal performance, and production aesthetics may play a role in the youthification of child performers and audiences. 

The Role of the Body in the Production and Perception of Solo Vocal Performance: A Case Study of Annie Lennox

2001 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane W. Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Mental States ◽  
The Body ◽  
Vocal Performance ◽  
Body Movements ◽  
Functional Movement ◽  
Present Information ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
The Relationship

The work described in this paper interprets the body movements of singers in an attempt to understand the relationships between physical control and the musical material being performed, and the performer's implicit and explicit expressive intentions. The work builds upon a previous literature which has suggested that the relationship between physical execution and the expression of mental states is a subtle and complex one. For instance, performers appear to develop a vocabulary of expressive gestures, yet these gestures – though perceptually discreet – co-exist and are even integrated to become part of the functional movement of playing. Additionally, there is the matter of how both musical and extra-musical concerns are coordinated between performer, co-performers and audience using body movements. A case study shows how, in the interaction between body style, musical expression and communication movements of both an individual and culturally-determined style are used. Many of these performance movements have clear functions and meanings: to communicate expressive intention (for instance, a sudden surge forwards to facilitate the execution of a loud musical passage, or a high curving hand gesture to link sections of the music during a pause); to communicate to the audience or co-performers a need for co-ordination or participation (for example, nodding the head to indicate “now” for the audience to join in a chorus of a song; or exchanging glances for the co-performer to take over a solo); to signal extra-musical concerns (for example, gesturing to the audience to remain quiet); and to present information about the performer's personality, with their individualized characteristics providing important cues (muted contained gestures, or large extravagant gestures, for example); to show off to the audience. From these results a theory is developed to explain how gestural elements help to make a performance meaningful.

‘What says meow?’. The role of context and linguistic experience in very young children's responses to what-questions

1983 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhianon Allen ◽  
Marilyn Shatz
Keyword(s):  
Prior Experience ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Vocal Performance ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Linguistic Experience ◽  
Vocal Responses ◽  
Cast Doubt

ABSTRACTChildren aged 1; 4 to 1; 6 were asked common what/-questions under four different contextual conditions. The presence of a gesture was found to have a significant effect on the nonverbal components of children's responses, while linguistic sophistication and type of question asked affected vocal responses, but did not produce any consistent effects on nonverbal responses. Results are interpreted as suggesting that, at this early age, gestural information is processed relatively independently of speech. These findings cast doubt on the likelihood that maternal gestures facilitate early language responding. Case-study observations of the children's interactional behaviour with mothers suggest instead that prior experience with verbal routines was a factor in the children's experimental vocal performance.

Social Composition: Musical Data Systems for Expressive Mobile Music

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 57-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Hamilton ◽  
Jeffrey Smith ◽  
Ge Wang
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Performance ◽  
Data Systems ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Content Creation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mobile Music ◽  
Audio Rendering ◽  
On Line

This article explores the role of symbolic score data in the authors' mobile music-making applications, as well as the social sharing and community-based content creation workflows currently in use on their on-line musical network. Web-based notation systems are discussed alongside in-app visual scoring methodologies for the display of pitch, timing and duration data for instrumental and vocal performance. User-generated content and community-driven ecosystems are considered alongside the role of cloud-based services for audio rendering and streaming of performance data.

Voice

2017 ◽  
pp. 147-168
Author(s):  
Gian Maria Annovi
Keyword(s):  
Epistemic Authority ◽  
Vocal Performance ◽  
High Priest ◽  
Fictional Narrative ◽  
Voice Changes ◽  
Homophobic Violence ◽  
The Difference ◽  
And Control

Chapter six discusses the effects produced by Pasolini’s vocal performance in his films. Pasolini’s voice changes according to the function attributed to his authorial presence. It is his real voice when he presents himself as the author, as in film experiments such as Appunti per un’Orestiade Africana (Notes Toward an African Orestes, 1970) and Comizi d’amore (Love Meetings, 1963). However, when he plays a character in a fictional narrative, as in the case of The Trilogy of Life, his voice is dubbed. In this chapter I examine the difference between these two kinds of voice, showing that also dubbing and voiceover are elements of the performance of Pasolini’s authorship. I focus particularly on dubbing in Edipo re (Oedipus Rex, 1967), where Pasolini played the apparently marginal role of the High Priest. Pasolini’s use of his actual voice, as in the case of the voiceover in La sequenza del fiore di carta (The Sequence of the Paper Flower, 1969) and La Ricotta shows the author’s epistemic authority and control over the interpretation of his work. He particularly emphasizes the importance of his vocal performance in Love Meetings, a cinéma vérité experiment in which he interviews Italian people of all kind on issues concerning sexuality. However, when the questions turn to homosexuality, Pasolini silences his own voice (and authority), in order to reveal the homophobic violence of 1960s Italian society, unfiltered. Pasolini’s silence thus produces a subtle and subversive homopolitical intervention, which anticipates the more militant and strategic use of homosexual desire in The Trilogy of Life.

scholarly journals Сoncert performance production as method of professional training for students-vocalists

2017 ◽  
pp. 136-140
Author(s):  
S. V. Gmyrina
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Music Performance ◽  
Vocal Performance ◽  
Successful Performance ◽  
Vocal Training ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Variety Performance ◽  
State Examination

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.

scholarly journals Overcoming the stage-psychological barrier in the process of training masters in vocal

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (2 (127)) ◽  
pp. 40-46
Author(s):  
Natalya Koehn ◽  
Сui Shiling
Keyword(s):  
Role Play ◽  
Psychological State ◽  
Stressful Situation ◽  
Vocal Performance ◽  
Public Performance ◽  
Performance Quality ◽  
The Future ◽  
Emotional Strain ◽  
Teachers Training

The article deals with the problem of future vocal teachers training in performance activity. The author has focused on the psychological readiness for public performance, which is subjectively perceived as a stressful situation requiring psychological, emotional strain, maximum concentration of attention and volitional effort. A significant role of the psychological state for the singer caused by his/her reflection on the phonation-singing aspects; the degree of emotional brightness, artistic perfection in the creation of musical images has been specified. The author has analysed the works of musical psychologists and representatives of theatrical and musical arts in relation to the factors of the performers’ unsatisfactory psychological state. Some features of productive and creative as well as excessive unproductive unrest alongside with its causes have been described. Three groups of determinants of the future professional’s personal psychological state have been considered: functional; motivational-characterological and operational. A special attention was paid to the types of the future vocal coaches’ performance activity such as performances in the form of academic reporting, contests, concerts and other educational events, pedagogical-illustrative methods as well as students’ entertainment. The participation in these activities is significantly different in the extent of responsibility for the performance quality and its possible consequences. It has been pointed out how significant it is to choose the repertoire for the performance in accordance with vocalist’s real abilities, to hold auto trainings, to create «situations of success», role play and vocal-improvisation games in order to improve students’ performing-psychological state. Keywords: vocal performance; future vocal teacher (coach); stage-psychological barriers, training, master students, stage-performing activity.

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