Effect of Body Type on Respiratory Kinematics in Female Classical Singers.

Breathing for singing is a highly contested issue in singing pedagogy with a wide variety of strategies recommended by teachers and the tendency for individuals to find more success with some strategies than others. The concept of body type as a determining factor has been suggested and supported by Hixon and Hoit, but little research has been conducted on this topic since and especially little research has been conducted using biologically female subjects. The investigators recruited eight female, classically trained singers and evaluated their body composition based on several anthropometric measurements (height, body mass, body fat percentage, and ectomorphy as determined by the Heath-Carter Somatotype system). Subjects were recruited from the greater San Antonio, Texas area and research was recorded on the campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio. The subjects were then fitted with reflective markers around the abdomen and thorax and stood on a platform with an eight-camera motion capture system recording their chest wall and abdominal movements while they performed a series of singing tasks. These singing tasks include a messa di voce, staccato arpeggio, and the first verse of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" in a variety of pitch ranges. Data on abdominal and thoracic movements was collected and compared according to body type to test the correlation between somatotype and breathing tendencies.

Perception of Vibrato by Professional Voice Teachers: A Pilot Study.

OBJECTIVES: Voice teachers and clinicians often use vibrato characteristics as auditory-perceptual cues for giving functional instructions. Historical texts also point to the use of vibrato characteristics as a diagnostic tool as far back as the 18th century. This study investigates the relationship between vibrato rate and vibrato extent, and the auditory-perceptual ability of professional voice teachers to assess the vibrato rate of a synthesized singing voice. METHODS: Thirty-five professional voice teachers completed a Visual Sort and Rate task with 20 synthesized singing samples that systematically varied in both vibrato rate (Vrate) and vibrato extent (Vext). Two generalized linear mixed effects models and one linear model were designed. RESULTS: Both Vrate and Vext were found to be significantly associated with the perception of Vrate as well as with the accuracy of perceptual judgments. Neither listener age, nor amount of teaching experience were significant predictors of perceptual accuracy. Inter-rater agreement for the entire sample set was moderate and intra-rater reliability for samples with identical Vrate (but differing Vext) was found to be negligible. CONCLUSIONS: While professional voice teachers have a skilled ability to discern nuanced auditory-perceptual vocal characteristics such as vibrato, in this study, samples with an identical Vrate, but for which the Vext differed seemed to demonstrate a high amount of listener rating error and variability. As such, it seems that both Vrate and Vext may play a role in the perception of vibrato rate.

Asymbiotic in vitro seed germination, in vitro seedling development, and ex vitro acclimatization of Spiranthes.

Premise: Reproducible seed propagation and production protocols were developed for Spiranthes and related taxa to facilitate ex situ conservation practices. Methods and Results: Spiranthes seeds were scarified for 3- and 10-min intervals in 10% sodium hypochlorite solution, then cultured on three seed germination media. After germination, seedlings were given one of the three photoperiod treatments, and then planted in one of four greenhouse substrates. Seed germination ranged from 0% to 90% and occurred on all three media only after the 3-min scarification. Seedlings in the 24/0-h light/dark and 16/8-h light/dark photoperiods on P723 medium had significantly higher fresh weight than those in the dark treatment group. Ex vitro survival ranged from 55% to 95% across substrates. Conclusions: Results show that Spiranthes seeds are damaged by extended chemical scarification, are adaptable to a variety of culture media, and require light for optimal development. Further experimentation showed that the propagation protocols described here can be applied broadly within the genus.

Listener Ratings of Male Singer Technical Ability.

Perceptual judgments of singer technical ability have not been widely researched. A few studies have examined perceptions of singers versus nonsingers (Usha 2017) and evaluations of vocal beauty in the male voice (Robison 1992). The investigators used recordings of male voices singing [i] in an online survey instrument using a Likert-type scale. Listeners were divided into four groups (nonmusicians, music ensemble participants, music students, and music professionals). Listeners rated the technical ability of each singer (27 recordings) on a 6-point scale from beginning to advanced. Survey responses of the four listener groups were compared with vibrato rate, extent, and jitter of the recorded samples. We hypothesized that musical training would affect how listeners rate male singers overall, with the expectation that the most musically experienced and trained listeners' ratings would be the most severe.

Voice Change Following Testosterone Supplementation in Women: A Multi-Institutional Case Series.

OBJECTIVES: To describe voice changes as a result of the off-label use of androgen supplementation in women. METHODS: A multi-institutional retrospective consecutive case series identified women taking androgen supplementation who presented to voice clinics at two institutions with a chief complaint of voice change between 2014 and 2019. Age, occupation, hormone therapy, indication, Voice Handicap Index-10, fundamental frequency, semitone pitch range, testosterone blood level, treatment undertaken, and long-term outcome were collected. RESULTS: Nine women presented with voice change after initiation of androgen hormone supplementation. The mean age was 55 and three patients were performers. All patients underwent hormone therapy with testosterone supplementation, most commonly subcutaneous testosterone pellets. Six patients (67%) were being treated for menopause symptoms, one patient for decreased libido, one patient for breast cancer, and one patient who desired additional muscle gain. Time of symptom onset after hormone therapy initiation was highly variable, ranging from 0 to 48 months with a mean of 15 months. Mean Voice Handicap Index-10 was 21, mean fundamental frequency at comfortable speaking level was 155 Hz and mean semitone pitch range was 22 semitones. Two patients had markedly elevated serum total testosterone levels. Hormone therapy discontinuation and voice therapy were recommended in six (67%) patients each. Five patients returned for follow-up after treatment and noted some subjective benefit. CONCLUSIONS: Female patients treated with androgen supplementation may experience unintended voice changes, most prominently reduction in fundamental frequency. Although some benefit may be obtained from voice therapy and cessation of hormone therapy, voice changes may be permanent. Caution should be exercised when prescribing these medications to women.

Social and Stylistic Correlates of Vocal Fry in a cappella Performances.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the social and stylistic correlates of vocal fry in a cappella performances. STUDY DESIGN: A matched-guise experiment was used to measure listener evaluations of fry and non-fry guises. METHODS: Four singers, two male and two female, sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" with onset vocal fry. These recordings were used to create the two guises: (i) an unmodified recording with onset vocal fry on vowel-initial words and (ii) a recording in which the fry had been removed. In total, 253 participants listened to the recordings and evaluated the singers' social and stylistic attributes along a Likert scale, e.g., how confident, sexy, and sincere each singer sounded. A factor analysis was used to conflate correlated variables, and mixed effects linear regression models (n = 1,012) were fitted to each lone or joint factor to determine whether vocal fry significantly influenced listeners' responses to the singers. RESULTS: Vocal fry significantly altered listener evaluations of the singers' sincerity/commitment, maturity/sophistication, naturalness, and confidence (P < 0.05). Unlike male singers, who were rated as significantly less sincere/committed with vocal fry, female singers were seen as more sincere/committed with vocal fry and younger listeners also found them less natural, suggesting vocal fry is associated with emotional intensity in female voices. Younger listeners perceived singers with fry as less mature/sophisticated, suggesting an association with youth. Finally, listeners with more musical training rated singers with fry as less confident, while less trained listeners did not exhibit this difference. CONCLUSIONS: Listeners are highly attuned to vocal fry in music but respond to it differently based upon their age, musical training, and the singer's sex. Vocal fry is evaluated more positively among younger, less musically trained listeners, and it is better received in women's voices, suggesting that the use of fry strategically targets a specific audience, i.e., younger and less trained listeners, who interpret fry as a marker of youth and emotional earnestness. These findings show that a single stylistic feature like vocal fry can be imbued with multiple meanings depending on the singer and audience, and its use can serve to include or exclude particular listener groups.

Validating Translation Test Items via the Many-Facet Rasch Model.

This study applied the many-facet Rasch model to assess learners' translation ability in an English as a foreign language context. Few attempts have been made in extant research to detect and calibrate rater severity in the domain of translation testing. To fill the research gap, this study documented the process of validating a test of Chinese-to-English sentence translation and modeled raters' scoring propensity defined by harshness or leniency, expert/novice effects on severity, and concomitant effects on item difficulty. Two hundred twenty-five, third-year senior high school Taiwanese students and six educators from tertiary and secondary educational institutions served as participants. The students' mean age was 17.80 years ( SD = 1.20, range 17-19). The exam consisted of 10 translation items adapted from two entrance exam tests. The results showed that this subjectively scored performance assessment exhibited robust unidimensionality, thus reliably measuring translation ability free from unmodeled disturbances. Furthermore, discrepancies in ratings between novice and expert raters were also identified and modeled by the many-facet Rasch model. The implications for applying the many-facet Rasch model in translation tests at the tertiary level were discussed.

Self-Regulation in Language Learning.

Self-regulated learning has been a widely researched subject for decades in educational psychology. Different instruments have been developed to understand learners' self-regulated learning in a specific subject domain. This study developed a measurement scale to assess English-as-a-foreign-language learners' self-regulatory capacity in English language learning and further examined the effects of gender on English-as-a-foreign-language learners' self-regulatory capacity. A series of psychometric analyses including exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and full structural equation modeling were undertaken to answer the research questions raised. The findings suggest that the scale can attain high reliability and strong validity in two different samplings, and the underlying construct of self-regulation in English language learning is shown to be multidimensional with a significant impact by gender. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are further put forward in light of the research findings.

Vibrato Rate and Extent in College Music Majors: A Multicenter Study.

OBJECTIVES: To examine differences in vibrato rate and extent according to vowel, production type, gender, voice type, and vocal training. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional. METHODS: Four collegiate voice teachers used a common protocol to gather data on habitual, best classical, and nonvibrato singing production of five vowels in 78 male and female vocal majors. Subject age, gender, voice type, academic degree program, number of years of training, and most frequent singing style were compared with mean vibrato rate and mean peak-to-peak vibrato extent for each vowel and for each production condition. RESULTS: The high versus low and female versus male comparisons in this study support results found in the literature. Both vibrato rate and vibrato extent were reduced when the singers sang nonvibrato as compared with their habitual and best classical production. CONCLUSIONS: The mechanisms for reducing vibrato rate and extent need further exploration.

Perception of Non-Vibrato Sung Tones: A Pilot Study.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: Singers are often asked to sing with a non-vibrato production. The term non-vibrato is problematic in that it is not possible for a human to sing a tone without fundamental frequency variation. Whether a singer achieves a quality of tone that is perceived as non-vibrato is an aurally subjective matter. The specific aim of this study was to determine when a tone is perceived as non-vibrato by a population of singers, voice teachers, choir directors, and speech pathologists. Using voice samples that exhibit a variety of vibrato rates and extents, the investigators sought to determine (1) if there is a threshold for the perception of non-vibrato tone with regard to vibrato extent; (2) if vibrato rate, given similar vibrato extent, does affect the perceptual threshold of non-vibrato tone; and (3) if there are differences in the perceptual threshold of non-vibrato tone across the different professions of the research subjects. STUDY DESIGN: Survey. METHODS: Participants responded to an online survey featuring 40 randomized samples of soprano voices singing [ɑ] with a variety of vibrato rates and extents. Some samples were repeated to test subject response reliability. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that a perceptual threshold exists with regard to vibrato extent. However, vibrato rate significantly affected where this extent threshold occurred for the participants. Vibrato extent and rate work together to affect perception of non-vibrato tone. Significant differences were not found across the different groups.

Protocol challenges for on-the-job voice dosimetry of teachers in the United States and Finland.

The occupational voice use of teachers has been an important research topic over the last 10 years. However, data collection on vocal loading in teachers at and away from the workplace poses significant challenges to the research protocol. The challenges include recruitment of subjects, voice data collection on the job, and subject compliance and retention. The present article offers recommendations for coping with these protocol difficulties. The recommendations are based on the authors' experiences with long-term, on-the-job voice dosimetry of large subject groups of teachers in the United States and Finland.

Objective measurement of vocal fatigue in classical singers: a vocal dosimetry pilot study.

OBJECTIVES: To collect objective vibration dose data on singers and relate them to subjective measurements of vocal fatigue. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Seven subjects completed a 2-week study period. The National Center for Voice and Speech (NCVS) dosimeter recorded vocal load, soft phonation tasks, and subjective soft voice ratings. Three vocal doses (time, distance, and cycle) were measured in classical singers' larynges during an intensive practice period. RESULTS: Spikes in vocal load are reflected as harsher subjective ratings on the same day as well as 24-72 hours later. When at least 48 hours of vocal rest occurred before a vocal load, improved subjective evaluations were seen after the load. CONCLUSIONS: The NCVS dosimeter appears to be an effective tool for data collection on prolonged use of the voice. SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first multi-day study comparing objective and subjective data on vocal fatigue in a group of professional singers.