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Identification of the Adolescent Male Voice: Unchanged Vs. Falsetto By Identification of the Adolescent Male Voice: Unchanged vs. Falsetto by John B. Wayman, B.M.E. A Thesis In Music Education Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Music Education Approved Dr. Janice Killian Chairperson of the Committee Dr. Bruce Wood Professor Angela Mariani Fred Hartmeister Dean of the Graduate School May, 2009 Texas Tech University, John B. Wayman, 3/2009 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This milestone would not be possible with the assistance of my extremely knowledgeable and supportive committee, the selfless faculty at Texas Tech, and the love and patience of my friends and family. Many thanks specifically to Dr. Janice Killian. Your inspiration and guidance has been invaluable and much appreciated. To my Grandmother, your steadfast love and ability to tag team against all odds will forever be remembered. I dedicate this document to my loving mother’s memory. She so desperately wanted to see me reach this milestone in person, but will smile on me from heaven. ii Texas Tech University, John B. Wayman, 3/2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT v LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. REVIEW OF RELATED RESEARCH 2 III. METHODOLOGY AND MATERIALS 9 IV. RESULTS 16 V. DISCUSSION 29 BIBLIOGRAPHY 36 APPENDICES A. HUMAN SUBJECTS APPROVAL – RECORDING CHILDREN PARTICIPANTS 40 B. RECORDING CHILDREN PARTICIPANTS CONSENT FORM 42 C. HUMAN SUBJECTS APPROVAL – PRE-SERVICE MUSIC EDUCATOR TESTING PARTICIPANTS 44 D. PRE-SERVICE MUSIC EDUCATOR TESTING PARTICIPANTS CONSENT FORM 46 E. RECRUITING SPEECH 48 F. SCIENTIFIC PITCH NOTATION SYSTEM 49 G. PARTICIPANT RESPONSE FORMS 50 iii Texas Tech University, John B. Wayman, 3/2009 H. RAW DEMOGRAPHIC, STIMULUS REPSPONSE, AND PRE- AND - POST QUESTION DATA 55 iv Texas Tech University, John B. Wayman, 3/2009 ABSTRACT Music educators have been trained to assist male students through the voice changing process. A major challenge of assisting students through this change is identifying where they are in vocal maturation process. According to John Cooksey, there are six stages in this process. Identification of the first stage, the unchanged voice, may be especially problematic. Is the boy’s voice unchanged, or has it changed and the boy is singing in falsetto? The purpose of this study is to examine the abilities of the pre-service music educator to identify, describe, and distinguish between the male adolescent unchanged and falsetto voices when listening to a stimulus recording. Secondary questions involve pre-service educators’ confidence in their decisions and their verbal descriptors of the unchanged and falsetto voices. Methodology consisted of developing a stimulus recording (N= 16) containing adolescent male falsetto (n=8) and unchanged (n= 8) vocal samples selected by a panel of experts. Pre-service music educators (N= 61) then assessed the stimulus recording, followed with a Likert ranking of the confidence in their choice and written descriptors of the adolescent male falsetto and unchanged voice. Some of the significant findings revealed in this population were: the unchanged voice was more often correctly identified than the falsetto voices; males had greater identification accuracy than females; and males that had participated in elementary/middle school music programs were more accurate in identification than those in only secondary programs. The results yielded supporting data for stronger pre- service music educator training including, but not limited to: accurate vocal range identification, aural skills, selection of appropriate solo and choral curriculum, v Texas Tech University, John B. Wayman, 3/2009 recognition of vocal and physical cues from students, and the ability to assist the adolescent male through the vocal maturation process physically and emotionally. vi Texas Tech University, John B. Wayman, 3/2009 LIST OF TABLES 1. Stimulus Recording Order 11 2. Descriptors of falsetto & Unchanged Voice of Top 5 Most Accurate Males & Females 25 vii Texas Tech University, John B. Wayman, 3/2009 LIST OF FIGURES 1. Cooksey Stage of Male Vocal Development 4 2. Spectrogram Reading of Tenor Singing E4 in Modal Voice followed by Falsetto 6 3. Expert Questionnaire Format 10 4. Participant Survey 12 5. Participants’ Response Format 14 6. Unchanged Voice/ Falsetto Identification: Incorrect / Correct 17 7. Results: Participants X Original Sample vs. Repeated Sample 18 8. Major Concentration: Incorrect vs. Correct Responses 19 9. Major Concentration X Gender Response Accuracy 20 10. Male X Major Concentration: Significant difference between Major Concentration 21 11. Classification Breakdown 22 12. Male Singing Experience 24 13. Post Descriptors of Falsetto & Unchanged Voice of All Participants 26 viii Texas Tech University, John B. Wayman, 3/2009 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Music educators have been trained to assist male students through the voice changing process. The process has affected many aspects of the students’ lives, including recognition of the physical changes in the body, psychological processing, and social pressures in relation to the voice change. A major challenge of assisting students through this change, especially for choral educators, is to identify the exact point students are in vocal maturation. According to Cooksey (1985), there are six stages in this process. Identification of the first stage, the unchanged voice, may be especially problematic. Is the boy’s voice unchanged, or has it changed and the boy is singing in falsetto? Previous research indicates that the unchanged voice and the falsetto voice share similar qualities, yet represent very different parts of the maturation process, possibly leading to some unsuccessful educational situations in the choral classroom (Killian & Wayman, 2008; 2009). The first step in an examination of unchanged vs. falsetto voices might be the listeners’ ability to discriminate between the two across the vocal range. The next step, and possibly a greater challenge, is to discriminate between the two voices when they are singing the same pitches. Therefore the purpose of this study is to determine if pre- service music educators can distinguish between adolescent male unchanged and falsetto voices. Secondary questions involved pre-service educators’ confidence in their decisions and their verbal descriptors of the unchanged and falsetto voices. 1 Texas Tech University, John B. Wayman, 3/2009 CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED RESEARCH There have been several in depth studies of the male adolescent voice (Cooksey, 1985, 1992) as well as publications regarding techniques for working successfully with the changing voice in the choral classroom (Brinson, 1996; Killian, O’Hern & Rann, 1998). The topic of identifying the modal voice (a voice that has reached maturity) and the falsetto voice has been studied, revealing high levels of accuracy in distinguishing the two (Colton, 1970; Price, Yarbrough, Jones & Moore, 1994). However, a study of identifying the difference between the unchanged voice and falsetto voice has not been discovered. The spectrum of information relevant to the proposed study included: 1) Attempting to define the terms “unchanged voice” and “falsetto”; 2) The physical elements of the unchanged voice and falsetto; and 3) The perception of timbre in relationship to falsetto and unchanged voice. Definitions of Unchanged Voice and Falsetto The unchanged voice is just that, unchanged from childhood. A boy’s voice is not considered changed until it reaches a stage of physical development sufficient to reveal an audible change. Swanson (1977) asked several directors of children’s choirs to give descriptors of the unchanged voice. Some of the characteristics conveyed included: clear resonant tones, unforced, full and rich, and controlled. Other musical characteristics described by McRae (1991) included: wide ranges (sometimes over two octaves), clarity, soloistic ability, and even the notion that the male voice is most brilliant right before the change. 2 Texas Tech University, John B. Wayman, 3/2009 Defining falsetto is much more difficult because of vastly different pedagogical points of view (Jackson, 2005). The term falsetto has conflicting definitions; even from vocal pedagogues: Tosi in 1723, García in 1840, and Miller in 1996 challenged the definitions of falsetto and head voice as two different entities or a combination thereof (Jackson, 2005). Is the falsetto a “real” voice or a manipulation of other registers? Then there is the gender debate. Do females have a falsetto voice like males? Is this a voice that should be used at all (Ekstrom, 1959)? The translation of the term from Italian means “small false one.” The Webster dictionary (Slonimsky, 1998) defines falsetto as “voice production using head tones rather than chest tones.” This definition seemed to define falsetto in relation to other registers or tones. Some have defined falsetto by means of quality of sound: breathy, hooty, unstable, light, pure, female like, almost like a big flute (Brinson, 1996; Ekstrom, 1959; Stanley, 1958; Winsel, 1966). As part of this current study, participants were asked to give characteristics of both the falsetto voice and the unchanged voice. Physical Characteristics of Unchanged and Falsetto Voices The process of vocal maturation, according to Cooksey (1985), is divided into six stages, including Unchanged, Midvoice I, Midvoice II, Midvoice IIA, New Baritone, and Settling Baritone. The criteria Cooksey used to
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