ISSUES RELATED TO PROFESSIONAL VOICE AND ITS CARE

  INTRODUCTION:

•      There is an ever increasing segment of the population which is dependent on vocal endurance and quality for their livelihood.

The use of voice for the specific professional performances varies greatly with the content and purpose of verbal communication.

•      The term professional voice user will be arbitrarily limited to individuals who use the voice extensively for some form of artistic expression, in other words, to performers.

•      Anyone who needs their voice in order to carry out their job is considered a professional voice user.

  DEFINITION:

•      “Professional voice users are those individuals who are directly dependent on vocal communication for their livelihood”      - Stemple, 1991 

•      Professional voice users are also often considered ‘athletic’ voice users because their voice use is more extensive and strenuous than that of a non-professional voice user  

                                                            - Khambato, 1979

Professional voice users of three types:

ü  Those who use their voice of a long period of time (politicians, teachers, telephone users)

ü  Those who use their voice under adverse circumstances persons working in noisy environments (Factory workers, sports arenas)

ü   Those who use their voice for special purpose (singer, theater artists)

Professional voice users include:

ü   singers

ü  actors

ü  Teachers

ü  Salespersons

ü  Coaches

ü  Broadcasters

ü  Auctioneers

ü  Cheerleaders

ü  choreographers and many others

  CLASSIFICATION:

   Koutman & Isakson (1991)

Level I: The elite vocal performer

-          Professional singers and actors for whom even slight aberration of voice may cause serious consequences.

-          Members of this group require maximum vocal performance in all parameters.

-          They are sometimes referred to as vocal athletes because of the superior quality, pitch range and loudness that they are able to achieve.

Level II: The professional voice user

-           For whom moderate vocal problem might prevent adequate job performance e.g. Teacher, Telephone Operator, Barristers

-          They frequently require considerable vocal stamina over prolonged periods and in many cases have to make themselves heard by large group of listeners.

-           If affected by aphonia or dysphonia, would be discouraged in their job and seek alternative employment ( Titze et al, 1997).

Level III: Non-vocal professional

 – this include doctors, business executives and lawyers, for whom a severe vocal problem would prevent adequate job performance.

    Level IV: Non-vocal non-professional – for whom vocal quality is not a pre-requisite for adequate job performance e.g. clerks, labourers.

  VOICE DISORDERS IN PROFESSIONAL VOICE USERS

     Sataloff (1991) considers the causes of voice disorders in professional voice users as follows:

-          Misuse and abuse: poor singing/ speaking techniques, singing out of range, chronic coughing, throat clearing, smoking, poor hydration, overuse of voice.

-          Chronic medical problems: esophageal reflux, allergies, sinusitis, upper respiratory tract infection, poor diet, fatigue, illicit drug uses.

-          Environmental factors: performing in dry, smoky environment, exhaustive schedule, poor acoustics, loud music.

-          Emotional factors: stage fright, anxiety, depression, performance stress.

Vocal misuse and abuse are the predominant factors leading to voice problems in vocations involving high demands on the vocal mechanism

                                                                   - Sapir, 1992

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS AS A CLUE TO ETIOLOGY:

•      Vocal fatigue – suggests musculoskeletal issue (misuse of abdominal or neck musculature) and may point to over singing or overuse of voice.  Neurological problems may also present to this complaint.

•      Prolonged warm-up time – considered a problem in western singers.  This refers to the time that singers need to warm up their voice while initiating a session of singing (usually morning times).  Frequently associated with reflux (Sataloff, 1991).

•      Pain – May be due to vocal abuse, as choking or coughing.

•      Harsh voice with loss of dynamic range – May be associated with vocal polyps, Reinkes edema or other mass lesions (Hibis et al. 1990).

•      Breathiness – May be indication of vocal fold palsy or other problems preventing closure of the vocal folds (Sataloff R.T. 1997).

•      Voice weakening especially in association with increased nasality- could be indicative of myasthenia gravis (Catten et al. 1990).

•      Volume disturbance is characterized by an inability to sing loudly or softly.

VOICE PROBLEMS IN SINGERS:

• The act of production of voice for speaking, singing and other vocal utterances is essentially the same. However a major difference lies in the fact that singing involves a more prolonged and sustained voice production while speaking involves a series of transient sounds. Therefore singing undoubtedly involves a more sophisticated and controlled way of voice.

SYMPTOMS:

The typical voice problems complained by the singers include:

·         Hoarseness

·         Inability to continue to sing for extended periods of time

·         Difficulty in producing high or low tones which they were capable of doing earlier

·         Vocal fatigue by becoming hoarse, losing range, changing timber, breaking into different registers or exhibiting other uncontrolled aberration, volume disturbance, prolonged warm-up time

SOURCES:

·         Vocal abuse may lead to vocal nodule in singers also like any other PVU. However, the speaking voice may only be affected little, if at all while the singing voice is usually characterized by limitations of upper range, onset delays with high soft phonation, reduced vocal endurance, increased effort to sing and long warm up time (Bastian 1993)

·         Hogikyan et. Al (1999) elicited opinions of a large group of ENT, SLP and teachers of singing for the nodules in singer

ü  Shouting

ü  Screaming

ü  Poor singing technique

ü  Too loud singing

ü  Style of singing

ü  Singing out of range

ü  Excessive throat clearing

ü  Excessive coughing

ü  Rehearsing when fatigued

·         Another source of vocal abuse is the tendency to prolong period of tone recital for unreasonable lengths of  time on a single breath: extended duration of singing on a single breath puts a lot of pressure on the breathing mechanism and the singer in an effort to squeeze and maintain air from ,lungs. Usages of wrong force, wrong pitch or breathing can damage the singing voice.

COMMON PATHOLOGICAL CONDITION IN SINGERS:

•      Laryngitis

•      Dehydration & lubrication

•      Reflux laryngitis

•      Vocal fold nodules

•      Vocal polyp

•      Vocal fold cyst

•      Sulcus vocalis

In dealing with the physical production of the singing voice, one encounters many problems, all of which are interrelated, and often addressed simultaneously. These problems are prevalent in different types of singers, regardless of training and experience.

q  Poor Posture

• The efficient alignment of the body is of primary importance to voice production.
• Problems in posture range from "collapse" of the chest and rib cage, with corresponding downward "fall" of the head and neck, to the hyper-extended, "stiff" posture of some singers, that results in tension throughout the entire body.

q  Poor Breathing and Inappropriate Breath Support

• Some beginning voice students seem to "gasp" for air, and exhibit clavicular or shallow breathing patterns while trained singers, on the other hand, use primarily diaphragmatic breath support.
• The muscles of the lower back and abdomen are consciously engaged, in conjunction with lowering of the diaphragm.
• As the breath stream is utilized for phonation, there should be little tension in the larynx itself.
• Sometimes, in an attempt to increase loudness (projection), a well-trained singer may over- support or "push" the airstream.
• This extra effort may affect vocal quality by producing undesirable harmonics.
• Hard Glottal or "Aspirate" Attack
• "Attack" or "onset" (a preferable term for singers) occurs with the initiation of phonation.
• Some singers (possibly related to poor speech habits) use a glottal attack, which is too hard  
• Vocal cord nodules may develop with habitual use of a hard glottal attack.
• The opposite problem is the "aspirate" attack, in which excessive air is released prior to phonation.
• While this type of attack rarely damages the vocal cords, it causes a breathy tone quality. (This technique may, however, be utilized to help correct a hard glottal attack).

q  Poor Tone Quality

•       Many terms are commonly used to describe a singer's tone - clear, rich, resonant, bright, dark, rough, thin, breathy, and nasal.

•      "good tone" is highly subjective, according to the type of singing and personal preference of the listener, in general

•      A tone that is "clear" (without extra "noise") and "resonant" (abundant in harmonic partials) is acknowledged as "healthy" and naturally will have sufficient intensity for projection without electric amplification.

•      Opera singers strive to develop a "ring" (acoustic resonance at 2,500-3,000 Hz), that enables the voice to project over a full orchestra, even in a large hall.

•      However, for other styles of singing, the use of amplification may allow a singer the choice of employing a less acoustically efficient vocal tone for reasons of artistic expression.

q  Limited Pitch Range, Difficulty in Register Transition

•      All singing voices exhibit an optimal pitch range.

•      Typically, untrained voices have narrower pitch range than trained singers, due to lack of "register" development.

•      The term "register" is used to describe a series of tones that are produced by similar mechanical gestures of vocal fold vibration, glottal and pharyngeal shape, and related air pressure.

•       Some common designations of registers are the "head" register, "chest" register, "falsetto", etc.

•      Singing requires transitions from one register to another; each of these transitions is called a "passaggio" ("passageway").

•      Lack of coordination of the laryngeal musculature with the breath support may result in a "register break", or obvious shift from one tone quality to another.

•      Untrained male voices and female voices tend to "break" into falsetto/head voice in the upper range.

•       Regardless of the style of singing, a "blend", or smooth transition between the registers is desirable.

q  Poor Articulation

•      Pronunciation with excessive tension in the jaw, lips, palate, etc., adversely affects the tonal production of the voice.

•      Problems of articulation also occur when singers carry certain speech habits into singing.

q  Poor Health, Hygiene, Vocal Abuse

•      Many singing students ignore good vocal hygiene.

•      The physical demands of singing necessitate optimal health, beginning with adequate rest, aerobic exercise, a moderate diet (and alcohol consumption), and absolute avoidance of smoking.

•      Many singers are careful with their voices but abuse their voice by employing poor speaking technique

•      Professional singers who travel are frequently confronted with changes in their sleep and eating patterns. (Specifically, singers should avoid talking excessively on airplanes that are both noisy and dry).

•      Performing in dry or dusty concert halls increases the risk of vocal fatigue and infection.

•      A minor cold or allergy can be devastating to a professional singer, who is obliged to perform with swollen (edematous) vocal cords

•       Good vocal hygiene, good travel habits, and vigilant protection of ones instrument (good judgment) is an important responsibility of every singer.

q  Poor Self-Image, Lack of Confidence

•      many singers appear to have "healthy egos" and may display the aggressive behavior which is a cover-up for anxiety and/or insecurity.

Archana (1997)conducted a study to find out the behaviour of vocal folds and resultant acoustic output in the musical notes within and across 3 registers in karnatic vocal music using EGG and spectral paramters.

•      Sub: 5 female trained singers (15-30 yrs)

•      They were asked to sing the individual notes from lowest – highest of their vocal range sustaining each note for 1-2 s.

•      Opening and closing time, open and closed phase, open & speed quotient, speed index, total period showed significant difference across the notes & registers due to marked change in the glottal parameters across frequencies of glottal vibration.

•      The parameters of LTAS (α,β, & γ ratio) showed significant difference across registers but within registers only α ratio showed significant differences.

VOICE PROBLEMS IN TEACHERS:

•      Teachers form a large group of a professional voice users and are thought to be at risk for voice problems compared to the general population (Fritzell, 1996; Russel, Oats & Greenwood, 1998). 

•      Prevalence rate of voice problems in teachers vary from 4 to 90%

SYMPTOMS:

•      Vocal fatigue

•      Discomfort in the throat

•      Hoarseness

•      Loss of voice

•      Effortful voice

•      Voice spasms

•      Breathy voice

Vocal fatigue is characterized as a problem that begins to occur as the speaking day progresses is most evident at the end of the day and usually disappears by the following morning (Voltas & Starr, 1993).

•      In a survey, Cooper (1973) found a high prevalence of symptoms of vocal attrition in class room teachers.

•      A majority of the teachers dysphonia shows laryngeal lesions or morphological anomalies. 

•      Vocal abuse  and misuse due to the vocal demands and poor acoustic environment in which teachers work (Sapir, Keider & Van Venzen, 1993). 

•      Lack of vocal education and training (Cooper, 1973) other factors like stress and anxiety, factors related to teachers career like length and type of teaching.

•      Using MDVP, Gopal.S, Krishna and Nataraja.N.P (1995) studied susceptibility criteria for vocal fatigue using 5 normals and 5 teachers.

•       The subjects were selected based on a questionnaire study, 2 sets of phonation before & after the subject underwent fatiguing task of reading continuously for ½ hrs duration

•      It was found that ½ hr duration was sufficient to induce vocal fatigue and Fo parameters reflect changes in the vocal system earlier than other parameters.

•      Gopalkrishnan (1995) studied vocal fatigue in teachers and investigated the acoustic correlates of vocal fatigue in them.

•       He found the parameters sensitive to vocal fatigue to be frequency related measurements, frequency pertuberation measurements, long term amplitude pertuberation measures and noise measurements.

•       He also reported the major symptoms as dryness in the throat, tiring voice and talking with effort.

•      R.M Chitra Tamilmani (2003) did a study on “prevalence of voice problems among future teachers in banglore”.

•      Subjects were 307 teachers training students (17-32 yrs) from 5 colleges in banglore.

•       A questionnaire concerning voice symptoms, a perceptual assessment of voice quality made by qualified speech language pathologist and a clinical examination by a laryngologist were carried out.

•      It was found that 22.2% reported of atleast 1 symptom weekly based on questionnaire, 8.9% had voice problem on perceptual evaluation.

•      CONCLUSIONS:

•      The most relevant factor of voice disorders in teaching professional is the vocal overwork during their job.

•      It is advisable that all the teachers should undergo clinical evaluation and follow vocal hygiene to prevent voice problems

VOICE PROBLEMS IN ACTORS:

•      Actors engaged in emotionally changed behaviors or acts in which emotions change very fast are expected to indulge in screaming, shouting, grooming, grunting and sobbing, depending on the theme of the play, which are usually considered vocally violent behaviors. 

•      These behaviors involve extremes in pitch and loudness variation, increase of muscular tension and explosion of air across the partially closed vocal folds (Ryker, Roy & Bless, 1998). 

•      These leads to vocal abuse and voice disorders.  If the acoustics of auditorium is poor, actors put tremendous pressure on the vocal mechanism and are a source of vocal abuse.

•      Theatre performance influences the phonatory organ, the laryngeal muscles at first. It is very difficult to follow changes in the larynx just after a theatre performance.

•      Brodnitz (1971) has stated that prolonged vocal strain after a theatre performance exhausts the vocal muscles and causes hypofunction.

•      Manoj.P (1998) studied the aerodynamic and acoustic features of voice in stage actors and normals of the age range 20-35 yrs.

•      Vital capacity, MAFR, MPD, s/z ratio and optimum frequency were measured.

•      There was no significant difference between the groups ie it was found that stage actors were not using the speech system differently from the normal group.

VOICE PROBLEMS IN CHEERLEADERS:

•      High school cheerleaders represent a vocally demanding avocation for adolescent females.

•      Cheerleading leaders requires frequent phonation at high SPL. The high SPL requisite are imposed upon the vocal mechanism which due to laryngeal mutation may be unstable and vulnerable.

Alan, Mc Henry (1986) did a survey of dysphonic episodes among high school cheerleaders.

•       Questionnaire responses were obtained from 146 high school cheerleaders.

•      They reported frequent instances of acute Dysphonia, pitch breaks, abnormal voice changes.

•      Tired voice and sore throat were experienced more frequently during evening following cheerleading events than in during events no preceding cheerleading.

Case (1991) observed cheerleaders and found:

•      Cheering without good abdominal breath support

•      Cheering with an energy focus in larynx

•      Cheering with excessive tension in neck, larynx, using hard and abrupt onset of voice, cheering at inappropriate levels

•      Inefficient. This may result in chronic structural alterations of the vocal fold tissue and vocal quality deviation.

Conclusion: 

•          Although all high school cheerleaders place similar demands upon their vocal mechanism during cheerleading, not all cheerleaders develop vocal fold pathology.

VOICE PROBLEMS IN ARMY COMMANDERS:

•      The job of army commanders is to give commands to army (Defence soldiers).  They have to do this for quite a long duration in a day, many days and years under background noise or open field. 

•      Army commanders are also required to project authority and toughness achieving, which will put additional pressure on their vocal mechanism. 

•      They have to use loud voice in sharp powerful bursts which many of them achieve using ‘glottal stroke’. 

•      Continuous employment of glottal strokes leads to thickening of vocal fold overtime or formation of vocal nodules.

•      Sapir (1993) surveyed the symptoms of vocal attrition in female army instructors, a high risk group of vocal attrition and in 386 women recruits (low risk).

•       A questionnaire was used and it was found that high prevalence of symptoms in both groups and high prevalence among instructors.

•      There was a significant correlation between no: of symptoms and rapid excessive and loud speech habits in both the groups and significant correlation between no: of symptoms and difficulties in performing instructional duties.

VOICE PROBLEMS IN INDUSTRIAL WORKERS:

•      In industrial set up the need to speak louder and in excessive noisy levels put further strain on the vocal muscles resulting in tension and vocal abuse.

•       The fumes, dust, smokes and their mental feelings compound the effect of high noise level directly on the middle lining of the vocal mechanism and leads to vocal strain.

•      There is some evidence in the literature to show that female larynx is more susceptible to vocal cord dysfunction than males from speaking in a noisy environment (Rontal, Jacob Rotnick, 1979).

•      Ohlsson, Lofquist (1987) did a study to assess vocal behavior in welders.

•       8 welders and 8 clerks were selected (exposed to noise level of 95 dB at work place).

•      A tape recording was made of each subjects reading aloud of a standard test and sustained phonation of /a/.

•      These recordings were judged by a panel of 5 trained speech pathologists on a 11 point scale.

•      Results revealed that voice and throat problems were more frequent among welders than for clerks.

•       The results of the listeners judgement on voice was that welders voice is hyperfunctional, unstable and clerks voice as hypofunctional stable.

VOICE PROBLEMS IN AEROBIC INSTRUCTORS:

•      Gelder, Marks (1987), among aerobic instructors there is increasing concern that vocal abuse and vocal injury may occur at high prevalence level.

•      Early warning signs have not been identified or are often ignored leading to the development of vocal fold pathologies which may require therapy, surgery or long periods of vocal rest.

•      Heidel, Torgerson (1993) used questionnaire to determine the characteristics of vocal problems in 75 female aerobic instructors and 75 female aerobic participants ranging from 20-40 yrs.

•       The results indicated that aerobic instructors experienced more hoarseness episodes of voice loss during/ after instructing and a high prevalence of nodules compared to the participants.

Journals:

1) Analysis of voice of stage actors – Manoj P (1998) - D. No- 370

Aim: this study aims to analyze the acoustic and aerodynamic parameters of voice of normals and stage actors and compare them.

Method:                                                       

    The following parameters were considered useful in assessing voice by various investigators to compare the voices of normals and stage actors.

Aerodynamic parameters:

ü  Vital capacity (VC)

ü  Maximum Phonation Duration (MPD)

ü  Mean Air Flow Rate (MAFR)

ü  S/Z ratio

Acoustic parameters:

ü  Optimum Frequency (OF)

ü  Average fundamental Frequency (Fo)

ü  Highest Fundamental frequency (HFo)

ü  Lowest Fundamental Frequency (LFo)

ü  Standard Deviation of Fundamental Frequency (STD)

ü  Phonatory Fundamental Frequency Range (PFR)

ü  Fundamental Frequency Tremor (FFTR)

ü  Amplitude Tremor Frequency (FATR)

ü  Absolute Jitter (JITA)

ü  Jitter Percent (JITT)

ü  Relative Average Perturbation (RAP)

ü  Pitch Period Perturbation Quotient (PPQ)

ü  Smoothed Pitch Period Perturbation Quotient (SPPQ)

ü  Coefficient of Fundamental Frequency Variation (VFo)

ü  Shimmer in dB(SHdB)

ü  Shimmer in percent (Shim)

ü  Amplitude Perturbation Quotient (APQ) 

ü  Smoothed Amplitude Perturbation Quotient (SAPQ)

ü  Coefficient of Amplitude Variation (VAM)

ü  Noise to Harmonic Ratio (NHR)

ü  Voice Turbulence Index (VTI)

ü  Soft Phonation Index (SPI)

ü  Number of Voice Breaks (NVB)

ü   Number of sub-Harmonic Segments (NSH)

ü  Number of Unvoiced Segments (NUV)

ü  Frequency Tremor Intensity Index (FTRI)

ü  Amplitude Tremor Intensity Index (ATRI)

ü  Degree of Voice Breaks (DVB)

ü  Degree of sub-Harmonic Segments (DSH)

ü  Degree of Voiceless (DUV)

ü  Average Pitch Period (To)

Subjects:

          A group of 30 normal subjects which formed the control group (15 males & 15 females) in the age group of 20 to 35 years were considered for the study. The subjects of this group had no apparent speech, hearing or ENT problems.

    The second group consisted of 30 subjects who were stage actors (15 males & 15 females) in the age range of 20 to 35 years which formed the experimental group. These subjects have had 3 years of basic training in stage acting and have been actively involved in acting for past 7 to 9 years. These subjects too had no speech, hearing or ENT problems.

Procedure:

For VC, the Expirograph instrument was used.

For MAFR, the Expirograph instrument was used.

      For the purpose of automatic extraction of the acoustic parameters using MDVP software it was decided to use the phonation of vowel /a/, /i/, and /u/. For this purpose three trials of phonations of vowels /a/, /i/ and /u/ were produced by the subject as it was done to determine the maximum phoation duration. The mic was kept approximately 6 inches from the subjects’ mouth which was connected to CSL box. The signal from this was fed to the computer and DSP board. Each phonation signal was digitized.

      To study the acoustic parameters during speech, three meaningful Kannada sentences were used (/idu/ /papu/, /idu/ /koti/, /idu/ /kempu/ /banna/). The subject was asked to say the sentences with pause between each trial and they were recorded using the same instrumental set up used for recording the phonation. These were analyzed with the help of MDVP software.

Results:

         The results were subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS computer programme.

        Analysis of the results showed that the following parameters showed significant difference between the 2 groups – normal and supranormal (both males and females).

Average fundamental Frequency (Fo), Average Pitch Period (To), Highest Fundamental frequency (HFo), Standard Deviation of Fundamental Frequency (STD), Amplitude Perturbation Quotient (APQ) , Smoothed Amplitude Perturbation Quotient (SAPQ),  Coefficient of Amplitude Variation (VAM), Vital capacity (VC), Maximum phonation duration(MPD), Optimum Frequency (OF)

 No significant differences were found in any of the parameters between the normal and supranormal group for both males and females.

      On comparing the parameters between normal and supranormal group for both males and females it was found that there was a significant difference in terms of the parameter lowest Fo between normal females and supranormal females. No other parameter showed difference.

Conclusion:

®    The speech systems were used differently by the males and females of both the groups- normal and supranormal, as shown by the differences in frequency and related parameters. VC and MPD also showed difference.

®    The stage actors (supranormal group) studied was not using their speech system differently from the normal group.

2) Speaker's formant: An indicator of expressive speech in some groups of professional voice users- Johnsi Rani (2007)- D. No- 500

Aim:

o  To determine presence of speaker’s formant  using acoustic analysis in 2 professional voice user groups: theatre artists & voice over artists (AIR announcers)

o  To investigate whether speaker’s formant is present in all tasks conditions.

o  To compare acoustic & perceptual characteristics

o  To determine perceptual correlates of ‘good speech’ in the 2 groups of PV users, which could be indicative of expressiveness.

(The speakers’ formant in male voice is located in the critical band between 16 &17 barks, with borders of 3,150 to 3, 700 Hz. Normal male voices also shows a peak in this frequency region, but the peak is less distinctive. Pathologic voices do not bear an energy peak at this part of the spectrum. Nolan (1983) pointed out that this phenomenon was similar to the singers’ formant. Leino (1993) found a peak around 3,500 Hz as a differentiating feature of good voice quality & named this peak as the Actor’s formant.)

Method:

Subjects: 37 subjects consisting of 2 groups of PV users in the age range of 18 to 50 years.

Among them, 20 were theatre artists & 17 were AIR announcers.

Theatre artists – 10 M & 10 F

AIR announcers – 7 M & 10 F

Procedure:

•         Phonation of /a/

•         Reading a standard kannada passage

•         Speaking for 1 min

   Recording was done by using a high fidelity portable digital mini-disc recorder.

The mic was placed at a distance of 5-6 inches from the speaker’ mouth.

Analysis:

ü  Acoustic analysis

ü  Perceptual analysis

ü  Correlation between perceptual and acoustic analysis

ü  Perceptual correlates of ‘good speech’ and presence of speakers’ formant in both groups of professional voice users.

ü   

ACOUSTIC analysis-

     The recorded samples (phonation of /a/), reading, speaking samples were fed using 16 KHz sampling frequency. All the subjects were subjected to LTAS analysis of vaghmi software.

Extraction of speakers’ formant:

Each sample was displayed as a spectrum. The frequency range of spectrum was 0-16 KHz. Speakers formant is a prominent spectrum envelope peak near 2800- 4200 Hz. The spectral position of the speakers’ formant was noted as the highest partial or the mid point of 2 highest partials in the speakers’ formant region.

PERCEPTUAL analysis:

5 qualified female SLPs in the age range of 25-45 years were considered as judges. These professionals had minimum of 5 yrs of experience.

       The judges were asked to listen to the audio recorded of all subjects’ speech, individually & rate each of the tasks, i.e., speaking & reading separately. The samples could be heard as many times as possible by judges. They were provided with score sheets containing the parameters to be rated. The judges were asked to rate the speaking & reading samples using a 3 point scale.

•         The speaker’s formant – strong peak about at 3.5 KHz found in better speaking voices implying that SPF is more evident in the trained voices of professionals, such as actors, voice over artists etc.

•         The speakers’ formant was evident in both groups. But the range of the speakers’ formant value wider (2800-4200 Hz). SPF was noted in both males & females in both the groups.

•         The results of perceptual analysis revealed that most of the judges rated the samples (speaking and reading) as excellent on most parameters.

•         Pleasantness, intelligibility, pronunciation, continuity, intonation and stress were rated as excellent in speaking & reading tasks.

•         The correlation between acoustic & perceptual analysis revealed high correlation between presence of SPF & quality, pleasantness, intelligibility, pronunciation, continuity, intonation & stress.

•         Theatre artists were rated as excellent in most parameters in speaking task & on the other hand AIR announcers were rated as “excellent” in reading task conditions

•         None of the parameters were rated as “below normal”.

•         The correlation between perceptual determinants ‘good speech’ & speakers’ formant was done. It was found that the subjects, in whom SPF was present, were rated as “excellent” in most of the perceptual parameters. Hence, these parameters could be speculated as perceptual correlates of ‘good speech’.

References:

Stemple, J.C. Glaze, L and Gerdemsn B (2000) Clinical voice pathology: thepry and management (3^rd Edition)

Boone, D.R and McFarlane, S.C (2000) The voice and voice therapy (6^th edition) Boston Allyn and Bacon

Rubin J. S sataloff R.T, Korovin G. S diagnosis and treatment of voice disorders 2^nd edition

Davies, D.G and Jahn, A.F (1998). Care ofthe professional voice: A management guide for singers, Actors and professional voice users.