Resonance Tuning in Three Girl Choristers

Abstract

There was clear evidence that the subjects employed resonance tuning techniques comparable with the strategies used by adult singers. The protocol and results presented here pave the way for further studies exploring the development of resonance tuning techniques in young soprano voices, with the potential to impact on approaches to classical singing training in the future.

The Perception of Formant Tuning in Soprano Voices

“…The results for both the preference and naturalness questions for the /i/ vowel are somewhat unexpected, considering that R 2 tuning in isolation at these fundamental frequencies has not often been observed [11,28]. However, these results must be considered in conjunction with the vowel identification results, in that the subjects were simply asked how natural the sounds were, but not told which vowel sounds they represented.…”

Determining the Relevant Criteria for Three-dimensional Vocal Tract Characterization

“…These results are summarised in Figure 10, which shows the range and extent of both R 1 : f o and R 2 : 2 f o tuning over the range of fundamental frequencies investigated, to within 70 Hz (in grey, after [13]), and "tighter" resonance tuning, to within 25 Hz (in black, after [1,9]). The resonance measurements for the /i/ vowel appear to follow very clear patterns; R 1 : f o tuning was seen over the entire fundamental frequency range, and R 2 descended as the fundamental frequency increased.…”

“…This consisted of exciting the vocal tract at the mouth with a synthesised broad-band signal, while also recording the response with a lavalier microphone placed at the subject's mouth (see Figure 1). The experimental set-up for this study is identical to that presented in [13], and is shown in Figure 1. The equipment used to simultaneously play and record a signal at the subject's mouth using a 3D-printed impedance-matching horn and a microphone.…”

“…The flexible tubing allows the subject to position the acoustic source and microphone on their bottom lip. From [13] The device was held by the subject, touching their bottom lip. The excitation signal used consisted of harmonics spaced 5.38 Hz apart, from 250 Hz to 3500 Hz, with phases adjusted to improve the signal-to-noise ratio [32].…”

“…An example plot of P open /P closed against frequency is shown in Figure 6. As in previous work [1,9,13], these measurements were then cross-checked by another researcher. In some cases it was not possible to accurately identify the vocal tract resonances, especially for closed vowels or when the subject did not remain completely still whilst singing 1 , and these measurements were omitted from the results.…”