Listeners' Perception of Vocal Effects During Singing

Area of Science:

• Vocal Music Performance
• Acoustic Phonetics
• Music Perception

Background:

• Vocal music relies on effective communication through voice quality modulation for emotional expression.
• Vocal effects, while used for artistic expression, are sometimes perceived as abusive by singing teachers (ToS) and speech-language pathologists (SLPs).
• This study explores perceptions of vocal effects among professional and non-professional listeners.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how professional listeners (Classical ToS, Contemporary ToS, SLPs) and non-professional listeners (NPLs) perceive vocal effects.
• To assess identification abilities, preference ratings, and concern levels regarding vocal effects.
• To determine if biases exist in the perception and management recommendations for vocal effects.

Main Methods:

• A hundred participants (Classical ToS, Contemporary ToS, SLPs, NPLs) completed an online survey.
• Participants performed an identification task for vocal effects and rated a singer's performance and vocal effect preference.
• Referral recommendations (SLP, ToS, MD) were collected if concerns about the singer's voice were raised.

Main Results:

• Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) demonstrated significantly higher accuracy in identifying vocal effects compared to classical ToS, contemporary ToS, and NPLs.
• Non-professional listeners (NPLs) expressed statistically lower concern about vocal effects than professional listeners.
• Listener preference for vocal effects positively correlated with higher performance ratings, but no significant differences were found in referral recommendations across occupations.

Conclusions:

• The study supports the existence of specific biases in the perception of vocal effects among different listener groups.
• No significant biases were observed in the management and care recommendations for singers using vocal effects.
• Further investigation into the nature of these perceptual biases regarding vocal effects is warranted.