Acoustical description of 8 common singing styles
produced by a single female singer: preliminary results
Dr. Nathalie Henrich, Lisa Popeil
The purpose of our investigation is to explore various acoustical aspects of different common singing styles. What do they have in common; what are the differences? The results may give cues to people interested in learning to sing in different styles as well as expanding pedagogical possibilities for singing teachers.
We can imagine that these findings could even be integrated into future “voice
coach” software aimed at helping people learn to sing and match vocal
styles.
This poster graphically shows the acoustical analysis of sound samples recorded by one subject, a skilled female singer (L. Popeil) demonstrating 8 different vocal styles: opera, musical theater “legit”, musical theater “belting”, pop, rock, jazz, country, and R&B (soul). These will be compared to a speech sample. Audio and EGG recordings were made using the song “Amazing Grace”.
Samples will be assessed from short samples extracted from the song and will measure the following acoustical parameters: pitch and vibrato, loudness, open quotient, spectral amplitude of the harmonics and harmonic-to-noise ratio.
Listening stations with audio CD’s of the samples will be made available as an adjunct to the visual information presented.