Potential factors related to untrained singing talent: a survey of singing pedagogues

The Relationship Between Vocal Pitch-Matching Skills and Pitch Discrimination Skills in Untrained Accurate and Inaccurate Singers

“…Although numerous perceptual factors interact when judging a person's ability of the singing voice, F o control (specifically, singing in tune or accurate singing) may be the most important variable considered when trained judges distinguish talented from nontalented singing. 1 One way to objectively measure F o control is with a vocal pitch-matching task. Although F o is a physical characteristic (eg, average rate of vibration) that can be objectively measured, pitch is a psychologic phenomenon experienced by a person.…”

Singing ability is rooted in vocal-motor control of pitch

“…Although the mean pitch error is the primary factor in most evaluations of singing ability (Watts et al, 2003), other factors can play a role in how we evaluate singing ability. Our intuition is that poor pitch singers would also tend to have lower quality vocal timbres, but it is possible that these abilities are unrelated, which would mean that there exists a category of singing problems that remains unevaluated by pitch-error-based measurements.…”

The Singing Power Ratio as an Objective Measure of Singing Voice Quality in Untrained Talented and Nontalented Singers

“…19 Combined with findings from this study, the data support the views of many singing pedagogues that pitch control and timbre are the two most salient aspects of the singing voice for perceptual judgments of talent in untrained singers. 8 Hollien 22 has suggested that superior singing abilities are a product of both talent and training. In the literature of voice science where physiological and perceptual variables related to the singing voice are investigated, persons with and without voice training are often compared.…”

“…It seems that professional teachers of singing rely more on pitch control and voice quality than on other factors when making judgments of singing talent. 8 When testing actual abilities of talented and nontalented persons, talented singers are more accurate than nontalented singers when matching pitch, which is likely related to greater pitch control abilities, including perceptual acuity. 8,19 The results of this study also delineate differences between these two groups during the act of singing.…”

“…8 Previous studies have found that subjects judged to produce talented singing voices show more finely tuned pitch perception capacities and are more accurate at vocal pitch-matching tasks. 19 Combined with findings from this study, the data support the views of many singing pedagogues that pitch control and timbre are the two most salient aspects of the singing voice for perceptual judgments of talent in untrained singers.…”