Laryngeal and Acoustic Analysis of Chest and Head Registers Extended Across a Three-Octave Range: A Case Study.

Voice registers are assumed to be related to different laryngeal adjustments, but objective evidence has been insufficient. While chest register is usually associated with the lower pitch range, and head register with the higher pitch range, here we investigated a professional singer who claimed an ability to produce both these registers at every pitch, throughout her entire singing range. The singer performed separated phonations alternating between the two registers (further called chest-like and head-like) at all pitches from C3 (131 Hz) to C6 (1047 Hz). We monitored the vocal fold vibrations using high-speed video endoscopy and electroglottography. The microphone sound was recorded and used for blind listening tests performed by the three authors (insiders) and by six "naive" participants (outsiders). The outsiders correctly identified the registers in 64% of the cases, and the insiders in 89% of the cases. Objective analysis revealed larger closed quotient and vertical phase differences for the chest-like register within the lower range below G4 (<392 Hz), and also a larger closed quotient at the membranous glottis within the higher range above Bb4 (>466 Hz), but not between Ab4-A4 (415-440 Hz). The normalized amplitude quotient was consistently lower in the chest-like register throughout the entire range. The results indicate that that the singer employed subtle laryngeal control mechanisms for the chest-like and head-like phonations on top of the traditionally recognized low-pitched chest and high-pitched head register phenomena. Across all pitches, the chest-like register was produced with more rapid glottal closure that was usually, but not necessarily, accompanied also by stronger adduction of membranous glottis. These register changes were not always easily perceivable by listeners, however.

Vocal tract shapes in different singing functions used in musical theater singing-a pilot study.

OBJECTIVE: Singing styles in Musical Theater singing might differ in many ways from Western Classical singing. However, vocal tract adjustments are not understood in detail. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Vocal tract shapes of a single professional Music Theater female subject were analyzed concerning different aspects of singing styles using dynamic real-time magnetic resonance imaging technology with a frame rate of 8 fps. The different tasks include register differences, belting, and vibrato strategies. RESULTS: Articulatory differences were found between head register, modal register, and belting. Also, some vibrato strategies ("jazzy" vibrato) do involve vocal tract adjustments, whereas others (classical vibrato) do not. CONCLUSIONS: Vocal tract shaping might contribute to the establishment of different singing functions in Musical Theater singing.

Substyles of belting: phonatory and resonatory characteristics.

Belting has been described as speechlike, yell-like, or shouting voice production commonly used in contemporary commercial music genres and substantially differing from the esthetic of the Western classical voice tradition. This investigation attempts to describe phonation and resonance characteristics of different substyles of belting (heavy, brassy, ringy, nasal, and speechlike) and the classical style. A professional singer and voice teacher, skilled in these genres, served as the single subject. The recorded material was found representative according to a classification test performed by an expert panel. Subglottal pressure was measured as the oral pressure during the occlusion for the consonant /p/. The voice source and formant frequencies were analyzed by inverse filtering the audio signal. The subglottal pressure and measured flow glottogram parameters differed clearly between the styles heavy and classical assuming opposite extremes in most parameters. The formant frequencies, by contrast, showed fewer less systematic differences between the substyles but were clearly separated from the classical style with regard to the first formant. Thus, the differences between the belting substyles mainly concerned the voice source.