The Evaluation of Singing Voice Accuracy: A Comparison Between Subjective and Objective Methods

Larrouy-Maestri, Pauline; Lévêque, Yohanna; Schön, Daniele; Giovanni, Antoine; Morsomme, Dominique

doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2012.11.003

Cited by 42 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…However, it should also be noted that this correlation was not one to one; there is still a good deal of variance in melodic singing ability unaccounted for in single-pitch matching, some of which may concern tonality. Larrouy-Maestri, Lévêque, Schön, Giovanni, and Morsomme (2013) showed that, together, intervallic error and tonal drift could account for 81% of the variance in experts' judgments of singing ability; our results showing that single-pitch-matching error can predict intervallic error but not tonal drift lend quantitative confirmation to these expert judgments.…”

Section: Scaling Up To Melodiessupporting

confidence: 68%

Singing ability is rooted in vocal-motor control of pitch

Larrouy-Maestri

Peretz

2014

Atten Percept Psychophys

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The inability to vocally match a pitch can be caused by poor pitch perception or by poor vocal-motor control. Although previous studies have tried to examine the relationship between pitch perception and vocal production, they have failed to control for the timbre of the target to be matched. In the present study, we compare pitch-matching accuracy with an unfamiliar instrument (the slider) and with the voice, designed such that the slider plays back recordings of the participant's own voice. We also measured pitch accuracy in singing a familiar melody ("Happy Birthday") to assess the relationship between single-pitch-matching tasks and melodic singing. Our results showed that participants (all nonmusicians) were significantly better at matching recordings of their own voices with the slider than with their voice, indicating that vocal-motor control is an important limiting factor on singing ability. We also found significant correlations between the ability to sing a melody in tune and vocal pitch matching, but not pitch matching on the slider. Better melodic singers also tended to have higher quality voices (as measured by acoustic variables). These results provide important evidence about the role of vocal-motor control in poor singing ability and demonstrate that single-pitch-matching tasks can be useful in measuring general singing abilities.

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Section: Scaling Up To Melodiessupporting

confidence: 68%

Singing ability is rooted in vocal-motor control of pitch

Larrouy-Maestri

Peretz

2014

Atten Percept Psychophys

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“…Since both the musical piece and the extraordinary vocal performance were unfamiliar to listeners, inter-rater agreement at the level of features of vocal expression was estimated following the procedure described in Larrouy-Maestri et al (2013). Pairwise Spearman coefficient correlations between the 25 participants (rating 20 items for each of the 20 interpretations) were computed.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vocal Features of Song and Speech: Insights from Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire

Merrill

Larrouy-Maestri

2017

Front. Psychol.

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Similarities and differences between speech and song are often examined. However, the perceptual definition of these two types of vocalization is challenging. Indeed, the prototypical characteristics of speech or song support top-down processes, which influence listeners' perception of acoustic information. In order to examine vocal features associated with speaking and singing, we propose an innovative approach designed to facilitate bottom-up mechanisms in perceiving vocalizations by using material situated between speech and song: Speechsong. 25 participants were asked to evaluate 20 performances of a speechsong composition by Arnold Schoenberg, “Pierrot lunaire” op. 21 from 1912, evaluating 20 features of vocal-articulatory expression. Raters provided reliable judgments concerning the vocal features used by the performers and did not show strong appeal or specific expectations in reference to Schoenberg's piece. By examining the relationship between the vocal features and the impression of song or speech, the results confirm the importance of pitch (height, contour, range), but also point to the relevance of register, timbre, tension and faucal distance. Besides highlighting vocal features associated with speech and song, this study supports the relevance of the present approach of focusing on a theoretical middle category in order to better understand vocal expression in song and speech.

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“…Singing with lyrics demonstrates a singer's vocal motor ability and their full vocal range to which the evaluation criteria of voice experts can be applied (for specific criteria see Omori et al, 1996;Ekholm et al, 1998). Singing with lyrics helps to address more of the evaluation criteria in a single singing task (Larrouy-Maestri et al, 2013). Learning and then singing a new song (both melody and lyrics) gives us insight into the recognition and memorization of song despite these areas are still not fully understood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Song and speech: Examining the link between singing talent and speech imitation ability

Christiner¹,

Reiterer²

2013

PsycEXTRA Dataset

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In previous research on speech imitation, musicality, and an ability to sing were isolated as the strongest indicators of good pronunciation skills in foreign languages. We, therefore, wanted to take a closer look at the nature of the ability to sing, which shares a common ground with the ability to imitate speech. This study focuses on whether good singing performance predicts good speech imitation. Forty-one singers of different levels of proficiency were selected for the study and their ability to sing, to imitate speech, their musical talent and working memory were tested. Results indicated that singing performance is a better indicator of the ability to imitate speech than the playing of a musical instrument. A multiple regression revealed that 64% of the speech imitation score variance could be explained by working memory together with educational background and singing performance. A second multiple regression showed that 66% of the speech imitation variance of completely unintelligible and unfamiliar language stimuli (Hindi) could be explained by working memory together with a singer's sense of rhythm and quality of voice. This supports the idea that both vocal behaviors have a common grounding in terms of vocal and motor flexibility, ontogenetic and phylogenetic development, neural orchestration and auditory memory with singing fitting better into the category of "speech" on the productive level and "music" on the acoustic level. As a result, good singers benefit from vocal and motor flexibility, productively and cognitively, in three ways.(1) Motor flexibility and the ability to sing improve language and musical function. (2) Good singers retain a certain plasticity and are open to new and unusual sound combinations during adulthood both perceptually and productively. (3) The ability to sing improves the memory span of the auditory working memory.

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The Evaluation of Singing Voice Accuracy: A Comparison Between Subjective and Objective Methods

Cited by 42 publications

References 26 publications

Singing ability is rooted in vocal-motor control of pitch

Singing ability is rooted in vocal-motor control of pitch

Vocal Features of Song and Speech: Insights from Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire

Song and speech: Examining the link between singing talent and speech imitation ability

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