The Experiment Effect of Voice Therapy Techniques on the Voice of the Elderly Choir Members

To explore the experiment effect of voice therapy techniques on the voice of choirs in the aging period.

Two senior choirs in Xi'an City were randomly divided into an experimental group (n = 43, male 14, female 29) and a control group (n = 37, male 8, female 29). The control group conducted choral training according to regular choral rehearsal, while the experimental group was designed voice therapy techniques based on the regular choral rehearsal method. The experiment program consisted of eight sessions (one session per week). The singing vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/ were used as the vocal corpus, and the acoustic parameters, such as fundamental frequency perturbation (jitter), amplitude perturbation (shimmer), and harmonic-to-noise ratio (HNR) reflecting the sound quality of the voice, as well as the intensity and range reflecting the ability to sing, were measured and compared between the two groups before and after the experiment respectively.

The post-experiment values of jitter and shimmer for each vowel in the experimental group declined in different degrees than the pre-experiment values, while the control group showed an increase in the above parameters. The tone intensity and range of the experimental group were significantly improved compared with the control group.

Appropriate voice therapy techniques in the process of choral training can contribute to the improvement of voice quality and singing ability of the elderly choir.