Effect of Body Type on Respiratory Kinematics in Female Classical Singers

Breathing for singing is a highly contested issue in singing pedagogy with a wide variety of strategies recommended by teachers and the tendency for individuals to find more success with some strategies than others. The concept of body type as a determining factor has been suggested and supported by Hixon and Hoit, but little research has been conducted on this topic since and especially little research has been conducted using biologically female subjects. The investigators recruited eight female, classically trained singers and evaluated their body composition based on several anthropometric measurements (height, body mass, body fat percentage, and ectomorphy as determined by the Heath-Carter Somatotype system). Subjects were recruited from the greater San Antonio, Texas area and research was recorded on the campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio. The subjects were then fitted with reflective markers around the abdomen and thorax and stood on a platform with an eight-camera motion capture system recording their chest wall and abdominal movements while they performed a series of singing tasks. These singing tasks include a messa di voce, staccato arpeggio, and the first verse of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" in a variety of pitch ranges. Data on abdominal and thoracic movements was collected and compared according to body type to test the correlation between somatotype and breathing tendencies.