>From: "Don Miller" <milskal@h...> >From: "Don Miller" <milskal@h...> >Reply-To: vocalist-temporary@egroups.com >To: vocalist-temporary@egroups.com >Subject: Re: [vocalist-temporary] Phrase finish with Vibrato?/Controlled >Vibrato?
Dear Robin, Lloyd, David (my acquaintances in Cyberspace) and Vocalisters,
I have followed the most interesting discussion of the acceleration of vibrato frequency toward the end of the tone. Robin's view ("It's just a normal vibrato, gradually speeded up," etc) is supported by the scientific literature on the singing voice: there is a respectable study (I think Sundberg is the senior author) that finds this acceleration toward the end of the tone as a common feature among the recorded artists investigated. (If anyone is curious, I think I can find the reference.) But far better than quoting authorities, scientific or otherwise, is direct empirical investigation of one's own. This can be accomplished fairly easily with the help of the excellent spectrogram program available as freeware on the Internet at www.monumental.com/rshorne. One records the phonation of interest and then measures the (average) time interval between the distinct vibrato peaks in the spectrogram. My measurements of the sound bite that started this discussion show that the vibrato rate for five early cycles in the last note is a slow 4.9 Hz, speeding up to 5.8 Hz for five cycles near the end. The trill, incidentally, shows a vibrato rate of 7.5 Hz.
It seems to me that Robin is also right in saying that the effect is quite subtle, and that special attention should be paid to vocal tract adjustments toward the end of the tone. Along with the tendency to accelerate, I have noticed in some voices a tendency for the vibrato to become excessively wide as the end approaches. Visual monitoring in real time can be an important aid in clearing up this problem. (Technology functions here as an aid to the knowledgeable teacher, not as a replacement for the teacher, who must be able to hear the phenomenon in question.)
Awareness of many other important details that often escape our notice in the act of singing can be sharpened by the use of such feedback. But even where the program is free there is a cost in acquiring the ability to interpret the signals. Those who are not deterred by this "knowledge tax" might want to check out even more powerful feedback signals on display at www.vocevista.com.
Don Miller
Groningen Voice Research Lab University of Groningen, The Netherlands d.g.miller@m... d.g.miller@m...
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