Summary
Background
The voice use of choir singers is understudied despite the imbalance of high vocal
demands versus low vocal education, and consequently increased risk for voice problems.
Also, there is a lack of information on the effects of a performance on choristers’
voices. Available studies included performances of at least one hour. To date, no
studies investigated the effects of a choir performance with a duration resembling
vocal warm-ups.
Purpose
The first purpose of this study was to determine the voice quality, capacities, symptoms
and voice-related quality of life of choir singers. Secondly, the effect of a short
choir performance, resembling warm-up duration (15 minutes), on the choristers’ voices
was investigated.
Methods
A randomized controlled trial was used. Thirty adult choir singers (25 women, 5 men;
mean age: 32 years) were assigned randomly to an experimental group or a control group.
Participants in the experimental group sung in choir for 15 minutes immediately after
their pre voice assessment, whereas the control group was instructed to have standard
voice use (one-on-one conversation with the investigator, no singing) across that
time span. A second voice assessment was repeated afterwards.
Results
The choir singers showed excellent voice quality and capacities with mean scores on
the Dysphonia Severity Index and Acoustic Voice Quality Index of 7.5 and 2.0, respectively.
Auditory-perceptually, the mean grade score was 5/100 corresponding with a normal
to mildly deviant voice quality. Patient-reported outcome measures showed mean deviant
scores, indicating a considerable singing voice handicap. The choir singers seem vulnerable
for stress with a high occurrence rate of 76.7% (23/30). Compared with the control
group, the Dysphonia Severity Index significantly improved, whereas the self-perceived
presence of vocal fatigue and complaints increased after 15 minutes of choir singing.
Fundamental frequency increased in both groups, being more outspoken in the experimental
group.
Conclusions
Choir singers show excellent voice quality and capacities, that further improve after
a short choir performance of 15 minutes. Vocal fatigue and complaints, on the other
hand, already increased after that short time span. Realizing that vocal load is much
higher in real-life rehearsals, competitions and performances, choristers deserve
and need a qualitative voice training and a strict follow-up. Future research should
focus on effective vocal warm-up and cool-down programs for this population.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 18, 2022
Accepted:
August 11,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2022 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
