Listener Ratings of Male Singer Technical Ability

Perceptual judgments of singer technical ability have not been widely researched. A few studies have examined perceptions of singers versus nonsingers (Usha 2017) and evaluations of vocal beauty in the male voice (Robison 1992). The investigators used recordings of male voices singing [i] in an online survey instrument using a Likert-type scale. Listeners were divided into four groups (nonmusicians, music ensemble participants, music students, and music professionals). Listeners rated the technical ability of each singer (27 recordings) on a 6-point scale from beginning to advanced. Survey responses of the four listener groups were compared with vibrato rate, extent, and jitter of the recorded samples. We hypothesized that musical training would affect how listeners rate male singers overall, with the expectation that the most musically experienced and trained listeners' ratings would be the most severe.