[Ordering and temporal resolution in professional singers and in well tuned and out of tune amateur singers].
BACKGROUND
temporal ordering and temporal resolution.


OBJECTIVE
to compare the performance of professional singers with that of well tuned and out of tune amateur singers in the pitch pattern test (PPT) and in the Random Gap Detection Test (RGDT).


METHODS
participants were 78 individuals, male and female, with ages ranging from 18 to 55 years. All of the participants were singers with normal hearing - previously assessed using pure tone and speech audiometry--and had no language, speech, voice or hearing complaints. Each individual answered a questionnaire concerning, among other subjects, perception about own voice when singing, number of years of professional singing, difficulties when singing new songs and number of years of music study. For the objective assessment the PPT and the RGDT were used in order to investigate temporal ordering and temporal resolution respectively.


RESULTS
regarding the RGDT, there was no statistically significant difference between the groups and variables. As for the PPT, it was observed that professional singers presented a better performance, with statistic significance, when compared to well tuned amateur singers and these a better performance when compared to out of tune amateur singers. The performance in the PPT was related to specialized training and study of music theory.


CONCLUSIONS
the RGDT did not prove to be a sensitive test to distinguish professional and amateur singers. On the other hand, the PPT did. The performance in the PPT reflects the number of years of specialized auditory training and music theory study.
Ishii
Cintia
C
Departamento de Fonoaudiologia da Universidade Federal de São Paulo. cintia_ishii@yahoo.com.br
Arashiro
Priscila Midori
PM
Desgualdo
Liliane
L
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001076:Aptitude; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001302:Audiometry, Speech; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D004056:Differential Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010897:Pitch Discrimination; D017678:Sex Distribution; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014834:Voice Training