The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of three commonly observed choral singer performance conditions (no movement, slight swaying, full-body swaying) on acoustic and perceptual measures of choral sound. We audio recorded an established university choir (N = 29 singers) performing a memorized piece while viewing the same…

We assessed the effects of singing in two venues on acoustic and perceptual measures of performances by an SATB choir (N = 28) as it sang in three spacing conditions, on two different riser unit heights, with data acquired from four microphone locations in each hall. Among primary acoustic results, long-term average spectra measures yielded a…

In this study, we examined the effects of multiple reference pitch sources on collegiate singers' accuracy in pitch-matching and intonation tasks. We also investigated which reference pitch source participants preferred and for what reasons. Participants (N = 99) sang a two-measure excerpt of "Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine" after listening…

Motor performance in familiar tasks is often advantaged when performers focus on the effects of their movements rather than on the movements themselves. But, this phenomenon has yet to be studied systematically in the context of vocal production. I evaluated 20 trained singers' vocal tone as they varied their focus of attention. Each participant…

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to discover the process of social identity development for adolescent high school women's choir participants. Purposive maximum variation sampling was used to identify three public high school women's choirs where 54 interviews were conducted with 40 different public school singers. Three waves of data…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how undergraduate- and graduate-level choristers perceived the influence of adolescent female voice change on their singing experiences since the age of 11 years old. Data included individual and focus group interviews with 17 female collegiate choral singers enrolled in one of two women's…

Many choral teacher-conductors and voice professionals utilize semioccluded vocal tract (SOVT) exercises (e.g., lip trills, straw phonation) in their classrooms or studios. Research with individual singers has indicated that these techniques may increase "vocal economy," boosting acoustic output while reducing singer effort. Recently,…

Sight-singing is prevalent in aural skill classes, where learners differ in experience and cognitive abilities. In this research, we investigated whether musical experience, level of study, and working memory capacity (WMC) can predict sight-singing performance and if there is a correlation between WMC and performance among some subgroups of…

Two experiments are reported in which skilled musicians playing different instruments performed a piece of their choice under various attentional focus conditions. In the external focus condition, they were asked to focus on playing for the audience and the expressive sound of the music. In the internal focus condition, they were asked to focus on…

Singing music at sight is a complex skill, requiring the singer to perform pitch and rhythm simultaneously. Previous research has identified difficulty levels for pitch and rhythm skills individually but not in combination. In this study, the author sought to determine the relationship between pitch and rhythm tasks occurring concurrently. High…

The effects of a positive mindset trigger word intervention on the expressive performance of individual junior high singers were tested in this study. Participants (N = 155) were assigned randomly to a control group or an experimental group. Members of the experimental group participated in a 40-min intervention while members of the control group…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate the experience of female voice change from the perspective of female middle and high school choral students. The study was guided by two questions: How do adolescent female choir students experience voice change? What is the essence of the experience of voice change for middle school…

Caregivers and early childhood teachers all over the world use singing and speech to elicit and maintain infants' attention. Research comparing infants' preferential attention to music and speech is inconclusive regarding their responses to these two types of auditory stimuli, with one study showing a music bias and another one…

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to describe the process of adolescent choral singers' social identity development within three midsized, midwestern high school mixed choirs. Forty-nine interviews were conducted with 36 different participants. Secondary data sources included memoing, observations, and interviews with the choir…

The purpose of this study was to examine the performance experiences of choral singers with respect to music performance anxiety. Members of seven semiprofessional choirs (N = 201) completed questionnaires pertaining to their experience of performance anxiety in the context of their performance history, their experience with conductors, and their…