Great talent, excellent voices-no problem for pubertal girls?
This research on 17 girls (aged 9;9 y to 16;11 y) singing in an established choir was focused on two issues: 1) the variety in physical and vocal development using Gackle's model, and 2) the matching of vocal demands and abilities. Developmental and acoustical data on the speaking and singing voice revealed considerable variation between individual girl singers. The model was greatly applicable. However, all girls had a greater total singing range, mainly in favour of the lower tones, and 11 girls used a lower speaking fundamental frequency. A third of the girls met the vocal and developmental features of their stage at a younger age. Next the lower limit of the frequency range of all girls was several semitones below the lowest notes of the pieces being worked on at the time of the experiment. However the upper limit of the pieces coincided with or exceeded their upper frequency limit.
Speech Language Pathology and Audiology, Labo ExpORL-Department of Neurosciences, Leuven, Belgium. Wivine.Decoster@med.kuleuven.be
Wivine
W
Decoster
Sofie
S
Ghesquiere
Sebastiaan
S
Van Steenberge
D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008572:Menarche; D009146:Music; D011627:Puberty / Q000502:physiology*; D014827:Vocal Cords / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology*; D014831:Voice / Q000502:physiology; D014833:Voice Quality / Q000502:physiology*