![]() ![]() This gives us a visual of the “vocal imprint” for some of these roles on Broadway so we can start to obtain an understanding of how “fit” a voice needs to be in order to endure roles of a certain caliber, particularly when a vocalist needs to perform eight shows a week. The diagrams show blocks of darkness in the main frequency range with a little bit more lightness on the top and bottom notes that were used more sporadically. This study allowed us to see what is called the voice range profile, which tells us the intensity for the notes and frequencies used most frequently. When you’re singing, they go all the way up-some of the soprano notes can reach 1,000+ vibrations per second.īut when you’re belting, you are at a limited range that is lower than the soprano range-even though you might be a soprano-which means the mid-portion of the vocal folds are colliding more intensely than when singing in head voice. Male or non-treble voices speak at around 90-120 vibrations per second. When we talk, treble voices or female voices speak at around 165-250 vibrations per second, depending on the speaker’s age. A Fitbit might tell you that you burned 400 calories at the gym, while the accelerometer machine I used for the study tells you how many vibrations your voice produces per day and at what intensity-volume-and which pitches-frequencies-were produced with greater frequency throughout the day. This study does for the voice what a Fitbit does for the body. Belters use a vocal technique that requires a lot of what is known as chest voice, rather than head voice. There’s a lot of misunderstanding about belting and Broadway and the vocal impact of singing a demanding role for eight shows a week. Here, leader of the study Ana Flavia Zuim, associate director of vocal performance at NYU Steinhardt and rehearsal pianist for Hamilton on Broadway, explains what she’s learned about performance demands young artists face today and the changes she hopes to see in the industry moving forward: While there are no hard-and-fast rules about how much singing is too much, this kind of data collection is paving the way for future research into the relationship between muscle fatigue and recovery time, and can empower performers to create healthy practices that minimize harm to the voice. Today’s shows are more vocally and stylistically demanding than ever before, which can have an impact on a singer’s vocal anatomy over time, even potentially changing the underlying tissues. Vocal health professionals typically rely on a singer’s self-assessment of vocal discomfort to assess the likelihood of injury, but more definitive measurements with this kind of “vocal Fitbit” can help establish a threshold of vocal use that is sustainable for singers, as well as illustrate the vocal range required for each specific role in a production.įor example, the study illustrated how the student-performers used more of their “chest voice,”-meaning the lower range that uses thicker vocal folds and produces belting-like tone qualities through the speak-singing approach typical of contemporary musical theater. Vocal dose refers to the accumulated vibrations of the vocal folds-when we sing or speak, air is pushed up from the lungs, causing the vocal folds to vibrate and create sound-including the length of time a student was using their voice, the pitch (number of cycles per second the vocal folds vibrate), and intensity (loudness). Ana Flavia Zuim demonstrates how to capture “vocal dose” data using the dosimeter device. The data helped researchers measure the baseline “vocal dose” required for lead and ensemble roles in the show and compare it with the actual vocal output from student performers. ![]() Students fastened the dosimeter device-equipped with an accelerometer sensor-to their necks to capture vocal fold vibration data while singing in rehearsals. The new research, which appears in the Journal of Voice, drew data from six student performers rehearsing for a production of Frank Wildhorn’s Wonderland, a theatrical spin on Lewis Carroll’s classic novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Singers there take on challenging roles, belting out show-stopping numbers eight or more times a week, and the heavy workload can take a toll. But nowhere are vocal demands greater, perhaps, than on Broadway. Vocal burnout in the performing arts isn’t rare. The research employed a dosimeter device that monitors vocal vibrations the way a Fitbit tracks steps. New research offers insight into the vocal demands of contemporary musical theater. ![]()
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