title: Effects of training on time-varying spectral energy and sound pressure level in nine male classical singers.
abstract: The male classical singing voice is a musical instrument that is very important in western culture. It has many acoustic features which should change and improve over the period in which the singer trains. In this study we compare nine singers in different stages of training, from university level students through to international soloists. Typically, Energy Ratio (ER; a measure of mean spectral slope) and mean sound pressure level (SPL) may be calculated to summarize an entire singing sample. We investigate an alternative approach, by calculating the time-varying ER and SPL. The inspection of the distribution of these descriptors over an aria's time period yields a more detailed picture of the strategies for high-frequency energy production used by singers with different levels of training.
authors.affiliation: Acoustics Research Laboratory, Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. sferguson@arch.usyd.edu.au
authors.forename: Sam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ferguson
authors.forename: Dianna T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Kenny
authors.forename: Densil
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cabrera
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009146:Music; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011312:Pressure; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013997:Time Factors; D014831:Voice; D055815:Young Adult