Speech and Hearing Science Commons^™

Articulatory Activity Of The Tongue, Jaw, And Lips During The Second Passaggio Transition Of The Soprano Voice, Richard C. Lissemore

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation describes three experiments designed to explore the acoustic and articulatory activity of a perceptible change in the soprano voice known as the secondo passaggio, or second transition, which typically occurs for the [ɑ] vowel between D♮5 (587 Hz) and F♮5 (698 Hz). Acoustically, the transition involves a shift in resonance strategy from second resonance tracking of the second harmonic (f_R2/2f_o) to first resonance tracking of the fundamental frequency (f_R1/f_o). To quantify the acoustics of the transition, we employed the measure L₁-L₂, the …

Understanding The Effects Of Hormone Treatments On The Transgender Singer: A Pedagogical Study And Voice Studio Guide, Erin M. Hannon

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Transitioning from one gender to another can be an arduous and emotionally charged experience, accompanied by many physical and mental transformations. The journey of self-discovery and vocal explorations is both unique and deeply personal. Modifications that emerge in an individual's vocal characteristics have a profound influence on their capacity to communicate and express themselves.

Transgender vocal students and professional singers must navigate the delicate balance between their vocal and gender identities while considering the possible risks of Gender Affirming Hormone Therapy. Though these therapies may significantly alter one's appearance and overall well-being, they are also capable of causing notable declines …

The Effect Of Different Warm-Up Durations On Subjective And Objective Measures Of Singing In Choral Singers Over The Age Of 55, Jeremy A. Chesman

MSU Graduate Theses

Choral singing is a popular activity in the United States. Choral singers are often encouraged to warm up vocally before they sing. Considering voice conditions, like presbyphonia, that can develop shortly after retirement, more research about vocal warm-ups is needed for those over the age of 55. This study assesses the effects of various durations of vocal warm-ups on subjective and objective measures of the singing voice using a within-groups design with randomized condition order. Nine participants performed vocal warm-ups for 0, 5, 10, and 15 minutes. A song sample was then recorded and sent to two expert raters who …

How Music Shapes Our Identities And Why It Matters: Case Studies Of Professional Musicians, Annabelle C. Linker

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders Undergraduate Honors Theses

Brain research has demonstrated that music uniquely contributes to neural functioning, but little is known about how losing the ability to produce music, which may be inherent to personal identity for professional singers, impacts quality of life. This study explored identity and music in the lives of five well-known vocal music professionals selected because they have publicly talked about the role of music in their lives via books, televised interviews, and documentaries. The careers of three of the individuals were disrupted by neurogenic disease; one lost the ability to sing after treatment for vocal nodules; and the fifth individual remains …

Effect Of Consistent Singing On Maintenance Of Speech Intelligibility Following Lsvt®: A Retrospective Longitudinal Case Study, Rachel Ricca Beck

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Parkinson’s Disease is a common neurodegenerative disease affecting one’s ability to hone and refine volitional movement. Many with Parkinson’s report significant effects on voice and communication. Speech-language pathologists have long targeted the achievement of increased vocal volume through intensive voice therapy, with the most common program being Lee Silverman Voice Treatment® (LSVT®) (Ramig et al., 1994). While LSVT® is the most prominent type of voice therapy for individuals with Parkinson’s, other researchers have begun investigating therapeutic singing because of the similar functions it employs (e.g., increased breath support, utilization of entire vocal range).

The current project is a retrospective, longitudinal …

Amplification Vs The Natural Ear: A Test On The Effectiveness Of The Natural Ear On Adults Ability To Match Pitch In Song, Celeste Orozco

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: Singing is a natural enjoyment of life; however, individuals tend to isolate themselves from this enjoyment due to their inability to match pitch accurately. A new technology, the Natural Ear provides altered auditory feedback to the user while singing. It is hypothesized that this feedback may aid in the userâ??s ability to match pitch.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of the Natural Ear to amplification and no amplification conditions on pitch matching accuracy in song.

Study Design: This study used a complex counterbalance within-subjects design.

Methods: 50 adults from the El Paso Metropolitan …

The Effectiveness Of The Natural Ear On Adults Ability To Accurately Match Pitch, Kendra Nicole Rosales

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: Many theories, such as oral motor, perceptual, and sensorimotor deficits, have been posited to explain inaccurate pitch matching abilities. The current study identifies with the sensorimotor deficit theory and found it to be the most plausible explanation for inaccurate singing abilities. The Natural Ear (NE) program was designed to process voice productions in real-time and filter out the discordant harmonics, allowing a person to hear only their F0.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the Natural Ear program in increasing pitch matching accuracy in singers.

Methods: A total of 50 participants were included …

Similarities And Difference In The Neural Processing Of Speech And Song In Religious Music, Brett Pielstick

Undergraduate Honors Theses

An fMRI study was performed to see the differences in the neurological processing between spoken and sung language in religious music. Students at Brigham Young University, who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, were exposed to alternating blocks of spoken and sung lyrics of religious and non-religious songs. There was no significant activation when contrasting speech and song, but there was significant activation in the right middle temporal gyrus and the posterior cingulate gyrus when listening to spoken and sung religious lyrics, suggesting an emotional reaction to religious stimuli. Contrasting spoken stimuli for both religious …

Musical Ear Syndrome: What Do We Know?, Cara D. Pestel

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to review the existing literature regarding Musical Ear Syndrome and other related auditory hallucinations. While the existence of auditory hallucinations is evident, their cause is unclear and widely understudied. There was a need for existing information to be compiled for use in the healthcare field. This review of existing literature will aid speech-language pathologists, audiologists, nurses, psychologists, and physicians in understanding this condition and what differentiates it from other various disorders. This will allow these professionals to better understand the experiences and needs of those with Musical Ear Syndrome.

Pitch Perception In Preschool-Age Children Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing, Megan Lambert

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This research thesis will 1) provide an overview of the psychoacoustics of music perception, particularly as related to the properties of pitch perception in young children and 2) describe the methods and outcomes of an exploratory study to evaluate the efficacy of obtaining pitch perception data from preschool age children with hearing loss. Each child completed a series of three tasks, including coaching and practice, single note perception, and pitch contrasts. All of the children readily understood the single-note pitch perception task. Pitch contrast performance across participants ranged from 50% to 96% correct for the first data collection period and …

Singing Portuguese Nasal Vowels: Practical Strategies For Managing Nasality In Brazilian Art Songs, André Campelo

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The articulation of Portuguese nasalized vowels poses some articulatory problems accompanied by negative acoustic effects for the performance of Brazilian art songs. The main objective was to find strategies that permit the singer to conciliate an idiomatic pronunciation of these vowels with a well-balanced resonance, a desirable quality in classical singing. In order to devise these strategies, the author examined sources dealing with nasalized vowels from varied perspectives: acoustic properties of vowel nasalization, phonetic and phonological aspects ofBrazilian Portuguese (BP), historical views on nasality in singing, and recent vocal pedagogy research. In addition to the overall loss of sonority, the …

The Effect Music Has In Speech Therapy, Emily K. Nester

Honors Theses

The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine the use of music in speech therapy. A survey was sent via email to Mississippi Speech-Language-Hearing Association (MSHA) certified speech-language pathologists to acquire knowledge on the use of music in their therapy sessions. The author used the source, SurveyMonkey, to collect and analyze the data. The data was used to determine the prevalence of music in speech therapy. In addition, when music was used, the data portrayed how music was incorporated into therapy and the particular gender, genre, and/or disorder preferred.

Fundamental Frequency Characteristics Of Modal And Vocal Fry Registers, Heidi Brubaker, Jason Albertson Whitfield Ph.D., Jane Schoonmaker Rodgers D.M.A.

Honors Projects

This study examined the distribution of fundamental frequencies in the connected speech of 14 healthy young adults. Acoustic analysis of fundamental frequency was performed on previously collected speech samples of a phonetically balanced reading passage. For the first three sentences of the reading passage, fundamental frequency contours were extracted using PRAAT, a speech analysis software package. The accuracy of these contours were visually verified and manually corrected when needed. The distribution of the fundamental frequency histories for each sample were then analyzed using Gaussian Mixture Model analyses in MATLAB. For most speakers, four statistical modes were identified in the data …

A Call For Hearing Loss Prevention Programs In College Music Education Programs, Jason Taurins

Honors Theses

Music educators, ensemble conductors, and students who participate in musical ensembles are exposed to sound pressure levels which exceed the criteria for NIOSH. As such, this population should be enrolled in hearing loss prevention programs. Ensemble directors (many music educators fall into this category) have a direct role in influencing the sound pressure levels produced in rehearsals. Music educators have a role in influencing the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors of their students. Because of the health risks of noise exposure, and the role music educators (and ensemble directors in general) have in influencing their students, hearing loss prevention should …

A Preliminary Study Of The Articulatory And Acoustic Features Of Forward And Backward Tone Placement In Singing, Krista Wyllys

Masters Theses

A variety of terms exist for describing tone quality in singing, and voice scientists, voice therapists, teachers of singing, and students of singing use different terms to describe the same sound. One aspect of tone quality is tone placement. Teachers of singing often rely on imagery and imitation to elicit correct tone placement from students of singing. More concrete data about what produces forward and backward tone placement could supplement singing teachers’ current practice of using imagery and imitation to elicit a desirable tone quality. This study examined forward and backward tone placement to determine the articulatory gestures and acoustic …

Structural Processing Of Language Components: Detection And Comprehension, Samantha Rose Crow

Wayne State University Theses

Although music and language share many perceptually functional characteristics, research endeavors are still focusing on the underlying neural circuitry. Past research has indicated a distinction of hemispheric lateralization between music and language processing. Recently, efforts have shifted to the notion of an initial general shared pathway in the brain with auditory stimuli differentiated in later processing to specialized regions. Therefore, both linguistic and musical components have been examined in numerous experiments to discern the possible influence of music and language components on auditory perception and comprehension, including their potential interaction. However, the effects of sentential prosody on early language structural …

Treatment For Children With High Functioning Autism: A Comparison Of Social Stories To Musically Adapted Social Stories, Veronica M. Torres

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The incorporation of music and social stories has been seldom tested, thus a study which uses a single-subject, alternating treatment design assesses the effects of standard social stories versus musically adapted social stories on the pragmatic abilities of an individual with high-functioning autism is presented. The goal of this project was to determine whether read social stories versus musically adapted social stories would be more beneficial in reducing problem behaviors in a child with high-functioning autism. Both types of social stories were implemented with the participant and the data supported the effectiveness of both treatments. Though the musically adapted social …

A Study Of The Adolescent Boy's Changing Voice, Harold Robert Estby

Graduate Student Research Papers

It was the purpose of this study (1) to arrive at an understanding of the vocal mechanism and how it changes during the changing voice period, (2) to discover what preparation can be made for the changing voice period, and (3) to find information on the changing voice period that would lead to an understanding ot how the changing voice develops and how it should be cared for and trained.

An Investigation Into The Histories Of Theories And Treatment Of Vocal Registers In Training The Singing And Speaking Voice In Relation To The Recently Published Theories Of Douglas Stanley, Edward Burger Lyon

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The question, then, is not. "Should such a study impose limits upon itself?" Rather it is "How shall the boundaries be set?" On the part of the investigator, two considerations might well influence his choice of a specific area in the field of vocal research: (1) Is there a point upon which there exist confusion or, at least doubt, in the mind of the investigator? (2) Is the clearing up of this point of doubt or confusion sufficiently important to the investigator to justify his spending a year trying to solve the problem? In this case the writer has somewhat …