Vocal Agility in the Male Adolescent Changing Voice
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Missouri: MOspace VOCAL AGILITY IN THE MALE ADOLESCENT CHANGING VOICE A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School University of Missouri—Columbia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Sally Hook Dr. Wendy Sims, Dissertation Supervisor December, 2005 © Copyright by Sally Hook 2005 All Rights Reserved The undersigned, appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School, Have examined the dissertation entitled. VOCAL AGILITY IN THE MALE ADOLESCENT CHANGING VOICE Presented by Sally Hook A candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy And hereby certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance. DEDICATION This document is lovingly dedicated to my husband, Marty, who gave me emotional support, technological advice, and educational wisdom throughout this process. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Wendy Sims, for sharing her excellent teaching and research skills; Dr. Martin Bergee, for his advice and wisdom; and my other committee members for their help. I would also like to thank Dr. David Rayl, who helped instill the spark of this research topic. Several area educators assisted in the data- gathering process: Briana Belding, Ed Hanson, Ken Jeffs, Melanie Ledbetter, Beth Luetjen, Christy Keilholz, Judy McCaw, James Melton, Cheryl Nichols, Mike Pierson, Melissa Straw, Dr. Fran Wells, and Claude Westfall. Additionally, I would like to thank all of the boys who were participants in this study. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................ ii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................. iv ABSTRACT.........................................................................................................................v Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1 Background of the Study Need for the Study The Problem Significance of the Study Purpose of the Study Definitions Limitations Structure of the Report 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE ................................................................................11 Philosophies of Voice Use during Mutation Identifying and Charting Vocal Ranges Vocal Phenomena during Voice Change Predictability and the Voice Change Pedagogical Methods for Adolescents during Voice Change The Need for Agility Research in the Changing Voice Vocal Agility in Adult Voices iii Agility and the Vocal Mechanism Summary 3. METHOD ..............................................................................................................45 Method Participants Independent Variables Dependent Variable Procedures 4. RESULTS ..............................................................................................................61 Null Hypotheses Analysis for Cooksey Range Stages Analysis for Cooper Range Stages Agility and Choral Experience Summary 5. DISCUSSION........................................................................................................80 Early Observations Stages/Categories Lyrics Tempo Choral Experience Additional Observations: Lessons, Intonation, Registers Participant Strategies Implications for Music Education iv Suggestions for Future Research Summary Closing APPENDIX A. RANGE CHARTS.................................................................................................98 B. LETTERS OF INFORMED CONSENT.............................................................103 C. STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE..........................................................................106 D. VOCALISE..........................................................................................................108 E. RANDOMIZED ORDER OF PARTICIPANTS.................................................111 F. CERTAIN, MODULATING, UNCERTAIN SINGERS RESULTS..................114 G. AGILITY ADJUDICATION FORM ..................................................................116 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................118 VITA ..............................................................................................................................130 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Figure 1: Graph of the Means of the Lyrics by Tempo Interaction (all participants) ................................................69 2. Figure 2: Graph of the Means of the Lyrics by Tempo by Cooksey Stage Interaction..............................................71 3. Figure 3: Graph of the Means of the Lyrics by Tempo by Cooper Category Interaction ..........................................75 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Agility Adjudication Rubric ..................................................................................58 2. Interjudge Reliability Correlations for Each Tempo with Lyrics Category......................................................................................................59 3. Interjudge Reliability Correlations for Each Tempo without Lyrics Category......................................................................................................59 4. Means and Standard Deviations by Cooksey Stages, Lyrics, and Tempi ............................................................................................ 64-65 5. Summary Table: Repeated Measure ANOVA Comparing Cooksey Stages by Lyrics and Tempi....................................................................67 6. Means and Standard Deviations for Vocalises Sung With and Without Lyrics (Cooksey)......................................................................68 7. Means and Standard Deviations Contributing to the Lyrics by Tempo Interaction.............................................................................................70 8. Means and Standard Deviations by Cooper Categories, Lyrics, And Tempi .............................................................................................................73 9. Summary Table: Repeated Measure ANOVA Comparing Cooper Categories by Lyrics and Tempi ..............................................................76 vii VOCAL AGILITY IN THE MALE ADOLESCENT CHANGING VOICE Sally Hook Dr. Wendy Sims, Dissertation Supervisor ABSTRACT This study was designed to investigate agility in adolescent changing voice males. Participants (N = 58), 11.5 to 15.9 years old, were from six Midwestern schools. The boys had varied experience in school and/or community choirs. Participants each were assigned to one of five stages of vocal maturation according to Cooksey’s range stages, and to one of the two Cooper cambiata/baritone categories. These assignments were based on the participant’s lowest terminal range pitch, and other observed tone quality factors. Each participant was recorded while singing a stepwise song pattern at increasing tempi, with and without lyrics. Judges later listened to the randomized recordings, and assigned agility scores for each participant at each of the six tempi, with and without lyrics. Agility scores were statistically analyzed with a 3-way ANOVA. Results were that (a) mean agility scores were increasingly higher from Cooksey stage one through stage five, (b) scores were significantly higher with lyrics than without lyrics, (c) there were significant differences related to tempo, with slower tempi associated with higher scores, and (d) there was a significantly positive relationship between mean agility scores and participants’ years of choral experience. A summary of the findings was that: 1. Boys in progressively later stages of voice change were judged to be increasingly more agile (singing a stepwise melisma) than in earlier stages, on average. viii 2. Differences between cambiata and baritone were statistically significant for Cooper's range categories, but not for Cooksey’s five stages of voice change. 3. Agility was more accurate when lyrics were employed, than when “ahhh” was used to sing the stepwise exercises. 4. Agility decreased as tempo increased. 5. Agility correlated positively with years of choral experience. Implications for music educators include: 1. If very fast passages exist in solo or choral repertoire, boys in the earlier midvoice Cooksey voice range stages (or Cooper’s cambiata category) may have more difficulty than boys in later stages (baritone) of voice change. 2. Songs using lyrics (consonant and vowel combinations) may be easier for changing voice boys to sing accurately, as compared to melismatic songs or passages using a single vowel. 3. As the tempo increases, changing voice students may have more difficulty with vocal agility. 4. Choral repertoire such as European Baroque music may be more accessible as changing voice boys’ choral experience increases. ix CHAPTER ONE Introduction Male adolescent singers experience vocal problems unique to their developmental level. People all over the world are aware of the special “rite of passage” from childhood to adulthood that all normal young males go through as they begin to mature during puberty. Young males, usually ten to sixteen years of age, begin to notice primary and secondary sexual characteristic changes that are results of natural