EVALUATION OF "FORWARDNESS" OF THE SINGING VOICE

In describing voice quality and singing technique, professional singers and singing instructors often use figurative expressions such as "supported voice", "directed to the mask" or "made to fly". I am interested on the study of a pair of concepts often used in vocal pedagogy: the "forward" or "backward" placement of the singing voice. With the help of present test I hope to evaluate how uniformly the figurative expressions are understood and whether it is at all possible to use them objectively to describe the acoustic and/or articulatory content of the singing voice and its production.

On this page you can hear five different male voices singing triads on vowel /a/.

1. Please evaluate the degree of "forwardness" or "backwardness" of each sound sample ticking the appropriate box (1 corresponds to extremely "backward" and 10 to extreamly "forward" voice quality).

2. If possible, please add any comments about voice quality, production or naturalness of the tones.

VOICE1   COMMENTS


 1     2     3    4    5     6    7    8    9    10
"backward"                              "forward"

 

  

VOICE 2

  


 1     2     3    4    5     6    7    8    9    10
"backward"                              "forward"

 

  
VOICE 3  


 1     2     3    4    5     6    7    8    9    10
"backward"                              "forward"

 

  

VOICE 4

  


 1     2     3    4    5     6    7    8    9    10
"backward"                              "forward"

 

  
VOICE 5  


 1     2     3    4    5     6    7    8    9    10
"backward"                              "forward"

 

  

Now you can hear seven female voices. Please proceed the same way.
   
FEMALE 1  


 1     2     3    4    5     6    7    8    9    10
"backward"                              "forward"

 

  

FEMALE 2

  


 1     2     3    4    5     6    7    8    9    10
"backward"                              "forward"

 

  

FEMALE 3

  


 1     2     3    4    5     6    7    8    9    10
"backward"                              "forward"

 

  

FEMALE 4

  


 1     2     3    4    5     6    7    8    9    10
"backward"                              "forward"

 

  

FEMALE 5

  


 1     2     3    4    5     6    7    8    9    10
"backward"                              "forward"

 

  

FEMALE 6

  


 1     2     3    4    5     6    7    8    9    10
"backward"                              "forward"

 

  

FEMALE 7

  


 1     2     3    4    5     6    7    8    9    10
"backward"                              "forward"

 

  

3. Please describe yourself (your experience as a singer or voice teacher, nationality, mother tongue, gender, age, ect.)




Thank you for your cooperation!

Allan Vurma
Estonian Academy of Music
vurma@ema.edu.ee