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Where is a singer's voice if it is placed "forward"?
1Department of Musicology, Estonian Academy of Music, Tallinn. vurma@ema.edu.ee
Journal of Voice : Official Journal of the Voice Foundation
|October 25, 2002
Summary
Singing teachers often use "forward" and "backward" voice placement terms. Acoustic analysis reveals "forward" placement correlates with higher formant frequencies (F2, F3) and a prominent singer's formant, indicating a desirable singing quality.
Area of Science:
- Vocal pedagogy
- Acoustic phonetics
- Singing voice science
Background:
- Singing teachers use subjective terms like "forward" and "backward" voice placement.
- Traditional voice production knowledge struggles to explain acoustic or articulatory differences for these terms.
- A "forward" voice placement is generally considered a desirable singing quality.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the acoustic correlates of subjective "forward" and "backward" voice placement descriptions used by singing teachers.
- To determine if measurable acoustic differences exist between perceived "forward" and "backward" vocal productions.
- To analyze the acoustic characteristics of the "singer's formant" in relation to perceived voice placement.
Main Methods:
- Expert opinions from singing teachers were analyzed to understand their characterization of "forward" and "backward" placement.
- Vocal productions perceived as "forward" and "backward" were selected from a listening test.
- Acoustic analysis was performed on selected vocal productions, focusing on formant frequencies (F2, F3) and the singer's formant.
- The study included the acoustic analysis of five basic vowels.
Main Results:
- Acoustic analysis confirmed that "forward" voice placement correlates with higher frequencies of the second (F2) and third (F3) formants.
- A more salient "singer's formant" was observed in vocal productions perceived as "forward" placed.
- These findings provide objective acoustic evidence supporting subjective pedagogical descriptions of voice quality.
Conclusions:
- The study provides acoustic validation for the subjective pedagogical concepts of "forward" and "backward" voice placement.
- "Forward" voice placement in singing is acoustically characterized by elevated F2 and F3 frequencies and a prominent singer's formant.
- These findings can inform pedagogical approaches and vocal training by linking subjective descriptions to measurable acoustic parameters.
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