Vocal Tract Discomfort Symptoms in Elementary and High School Teachers.

OBJECTIVES: The vocal tract discomfort scale is a self-rating seven-point Likert scale that quantifies frequency and severity of eight qualitative descriptors including burning, tight, dry, aching, tickling, sore, irritable, and lump in the throat, and ranges from 0 (never/none) to 6 (always/extreme; Mathieson et al. 2009). The objectives of the current study were to compare the vocal tract discomfort scale results between elementary school teachers and high school teachers and between male and female teachers using the Persian vocal tract discomfort scale. Also, teachers in different age ranges and with different experiences were compared regarding vocal tract discomfort symptoms. METHODS: The researchers chose 20 elementary and high schools by simple random sampling in Khorramabad, Iran. The survey was given to available teachers of the selected schools. Considering the inclusion criteria, required sample size, and after excluding questionnaires that were not correctly answered, 120 were selected such that 30 were chosen for each subgroup. Subjects consisted of 60 elementary school teachers (30 females and 30 males) with the mean age of 40.92 years (standard deviation = 6.07) and 60 high school teachers (30 females and 30 males) with the mean age of 40.67 years (standard deviation = 6.00). SPSS 25 was used for analyzing the data. RESULTS: Results indicated that the frequency and severity of the vocal tract discomfort in elementary school teachers were significantly higher than for the high school teachers with a medium to large effect size. Although the frequency and severity of the symptoms were higher in female compared with male teachers, those differences were not significantly different. Younger teachers had lower frequency and severity ratings of vocal tract discomfort symptoms than older teachers. Teaching experience was not an important factor in predicting vocal tract discomfort symptoms in teachers. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that there is higher frequency, greater severity, and higher percentages of vocal tract discomfort symptoms in elementary compared with high school teachers. In addition, although the mean frequency and severity of vocal tract discomfort symptoms were not significantly different between females and males, females reported higher percentages of the symptoms. Because each of the eight vocal tract symptoms was experienced at the time of testing by between 42% (tightness) and 68% (dryness) of the participants, it is suggested that an educational program regarding vocal tract discomfort may be helpful for this profession.

Tahrir Patterns and Acoustical Analysis of Tekyeh in a Professional Iranian Classical Singer.

OBJECTIVES: "Iranian classical singing," called "avaz" in Persian, contains the ornament called a tahrir which is composed of a chain of tekyehs. A tekyeh is a fundamental frequency gesture that quickly increases and then decreases. Performing artists produce different patterns of tahrir during their singing. The primary aim of the study was to determine and describe different tahrir patterns based on fundamental frequency and temporal measurements of tekyeh produced by a professional avaz singer. METHODS: A live unaccompanied recording was made of a professional avaz singer singing the popular song "Morghe Sahar" (Dawn Bird) with free meter. Tahrir patterns were determined through auditory and spectrographic examination of the recording. Quantitative measurements were determined to distinguish among the resulting patterns. RESULTS: Four primary tahrir patterns were identified. These patterns were categorized based on (1) the number of tekyehs, (2) fundamental frequency extent from the baseline to the tekyeh peak, (3) inter tekyeh interval duration, (4) tekyeh rate, and (5) tekyeh speed quotient. Pattern 1 consists of one tekyeh and is called a "zinat." Pattern 2 is a multiple tekyeh gesture with relatively long plateau intervals. Pattern 3 is a multiple tekyeh gesture with relatively short plateau intervals. Vibrato-like Pattern 4 is also a multiple tekyeh pattern with short plateau intervals like Pattern 3 but with relatively small frequency extents. CONCLUSIONS: Four uniquely distinguished tahrir patterns, defined via acoustical analysis and the number of tekyehs, were identified using visual and auditory inspection of the various tahrirs produced by the participant. For the singer, Patterns 1, 3, and 4 constituted 96% of all the tokens. None of the tekyehs produced by the participant studied here appeared to switch between vocal registers between the lower and upper notes. The results have ethnomusicological, physiological, acoustic, and pedagogical importance for Iranian classical singing.