Summary
Objective
The purpose of this research was to evaluate the immediate impact of vocal demand
on musical theater singers in Brazil and to explore its relationship with the presence
of voice symptoms.
Method
A total of 264 musical theater singers participated in this research. The group was
formed by 126 women and 138 men, with a mean age of 33. All of them answered two questionnaires
immediately after a show: (1) demographic data, vocal self-assessment, and a voice
symptoms/signs list; and (2) Evaluation of the Ability to Sing Easily (EASE) Scale,
translated and culturally adapted to Brazilian Portuguese as EASE-BR.
Results
The data from the two scales were correlated. The results showed that EASE-BR total
and subscales scores were lower in singers with more years of singing practice. Singers
who had other professional activities besides musical theater, such as opera and solo
singing, also presented lower scores. The singers presented only 1.56 voice symptoms/signs.
Those with more voice symptoms/signs also presented higher scores in the EASE-BR.
There was a weak correlation between the voice symptoms/signs and EASE-BR. No significance
was found between gender, age, singing practice hours and singing lessons and the
EASE-BR scores.
Conclusion
The immediate impact of vocal demand after a show is perceived as positive, and the
singers considered their voices ready for a new performance. EASE-BR can be used to
identify vocal changes, and it can also be used by itself because it has a weak correlation
with the list of symptoms/signs.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 30, 2018
Accepted:
April 20,
2018
Footnotes
This research was presented at the 30th World Congress of the IALP in Dublin, Ireland, in August 2016, and at The Voice Foundation Symposium in Philadelphia, PA, United States of America, in June 2017.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
