Spectrographic analysis of the effect of vocal warm-up on the voice of choir girls

• Autor(a) principal: Falcão,Lília Maria Gomes
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Masson,Maria Lúcia Vaz, Oliveira,Gisele, Behlau,Mara
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Audiology - Communication Research
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2317-64312014000400380
• topic: Voice; Speech acoustics; Voice training; Child; Music

Purpose To analyse the immediate effect of a vocal warm-up program on children that sang in a choir by means of spectrographic analysis. Methods Experimental study consisting of 14 girls from an amateur children’s choir, aged 9 to 12 years. Acoustic spectrographic analyses were performed before and after a specific vocal warm-up program, consisting of a hierarchical sequence of body exercises, respiratory and articulation training, vocal exercises, ascending and descending musical scales and facilitating sounds. The speech material for spectrographic analysis was the sustained /Ɛ:/ vowel, pre and post warm-up program. The selected acoustic parameters were instability of trace, noise at low and high frequencies, frequency bifurcation, harmonics series, presence of a hard vocal attack, pitch and voice breaks, and mean fundamental frequency. Results No significant differences were found regarding the effect of the vocal warm-up when pre and post data were compared. However, there was a negative correlation between the level of harmonics and noise in the high frequencies post warm-up. Conclusion The vocal warm-up program implemented for children that sang in choirs produced a richer acoustic spectrum that may indicate enhanced glottic closure or vocal tract adjustment.