Medidas tradicionais, formânticas e cepstrais nas vozes de cantores treinados e não cantores

Abstract

Purpose: to evaluate traditional, formantic, and cepstral acoustic measurements in trained singers and non-singers, in addition to comparing the values of acoustic parameters in different phonatory tasks. Method: descriptive and cross-sectional study in two groups, one of trained popular singers (n=14) and the other of non-singers (n=16), female and male, with and without vocal complaints. They uttered the vowel /a/ in weak, comfortable, and loud subjective intensities and low and high-frequency pitches, in addition to singing “Happy Birthday to You” in comfortable and strong intensities. The voices were recorded in a recording booth with acoustic treatment in the Voice and Acoustic Comfort Laboratory. A vocal habits questionnaire and a VHI-10 questionnaire were applied. The measurements used were HNR, CPP, CPPS, f0, minimum f0, maximum f0, and formants F1-F4 of sustained vowels and extracted vowels from the song. Results: In the group of trained singers, they all sang as a religious or recreational activity (100%), (35.7%) of this group presented the VHI questionnaire above the cutoff point. In comparison, 35.7% worked as singing teachers in addition to the singing activity, and 42.8% had previously undergone speech therapy and otorhinolaryngological monitoring. In the group of non-singers, 43.7% of people sang as a religious or recreational activity and were above the cutoff point on the VHI-10 questionnaire. The maximum f0 in the song tasks and the F1 of the vowel /e/ extracted from the song in loud intensity were significantly higher in the group of trained singers; the other measures did not show statistically significant differences. Considering all participants, in the CPP and CPPS measurements, there was an increase in values in loud intensity, while in the high subjective frequency emission, the CPP and CPPS decreased. In formant acoustic measurements, a difference was observed in the values of the first formant (F1), which increased with the increase in subjective intensity. Conclusion: Trained singers can reach higher frequencies in the song task at high subjective intensity. In both singers and non-singers, there was a relationship between subjective vocal intensity, subjective pitch, and acoustic measures CPP and formants, establishing a stable relationship between vocal tract configuration and vocal quality, regardless of the level of voice use and training.