Acoustic syllable durations were measured in Estonian utterances performed in parallel as recited and sung. A systematic effect of phonological syllable length was found irrespective of the group of participants (contemporary or historic). This effect of syllable length was modified by the mode of performance: in music, it was present considerably less than in speech. In music, the effect of syllable length in turn was modified by song: it was present in two of the three songs, but absent in one song. The above results suggest that the correspondence between linguistic duration and musical rhythm in a quantity language such as Estonian is loosely defined. The nature of the correspondence between linguistic quantity and musical rhythm may be considered, to a certain extent, analogous to the tone-tune relationship in tonal languages.
This article was inspired by the first author’s observations in the teaching process, which refer to different learning patterns in studying a piece of music. I have noticed that although I teach all the students by using quite the same methods, part of them remember the pieces rather quickly and they prefer to play and practise them from memory. Some others, on the other hand, prefer to play from notes, and they continue doing it during the whole learning process. The aim of this article is to find, by an evidence-based method, the occurrence of the abovementioned learning patterns and describe their characteristic features. In case peculiarities occur, which can be projected against the typology of different learning patterns, it is possible to study connections with the earlier learning styles and learning and information processing theories. It also enables us to offer applications for a more person-centred approach in piano pedagogy to enhance both the learning process, student-teacher collaboration, and the student’s development as well as make them subjectively more pleasant for both parties. To investigate the learning patterns in basic piano studies, I video-recorded the classes with students of possibly similar backgrounds, giving them tasks testing their memory and note-reading skills. Based on the analysis of the collected information, I made conclusions about the existence and nature of hypothetical intuitive learning patterns. The interesting observations made by formal and non-formal examination add material for future in-depth studies, as the described phenomenon should be approached, above all, as a continuum, which enables us to estimate students’ inclination towards one or the other side to a greater or lesser extent, and consequently, the application of a better adapted teaching strategies.
Background. In operatic singing, poor text intelligibility is often a problem. Some voice teachers believe that singers should articulate consonants more strongly to improve intelligibility, while others believe that this should be avoided. Aim. The objective of this study is to ascertain (1) whether there is a tendency in operatic singing by which, compared to speaking, the intensity of all speech sounds is greater, but the intensity of voiceless plosive bursts increases proportionally less than that of vowels, which may make the recognition of plosives more difficult; and (2) whether pronouncing the bursts of voiceless plosives more strongly would improve their recognition. Method. The investigation was split into two stages. In the first stage, five classically trained professional Estonian singers (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, bass) were asked (1) to sing an aria in Italian from a romantic period opera, and (2) to read the text of the same aria. The recordings were segmented on the level of single speech sounds, and the intensity level of each sound was measured with the help of the software Praat. In addition, recordings of sung performances by three Italian singers (two sopranos and a baritone) and examples of spoken text by two different speakers were similarly analyzed. In the second stage, a perception test with 60 listeners (21 male, 38 female, and one non-binary) was carried out. The listeners were aged between 11 and 74. Seventy-two sequences /a/–/k/–/a/, /a/–/p/–/a/ and /a/–/t/–/a/, sung by a mezzo-soprano on G4, were played to the listeners as stimuli. The listener had to identify the plosive in the middle of each stimulus. The intensity level of the plosive varied in four steps (including one step in which the plosive burst was removed and replaced with silence). To some stimuli sets were added either reverberation (to imitate room acoustics) or pink noise (to imitate masking sounds from accompaniment or ensemble partners); further stimuli sets included the addition of both reverberation and pink noise. Results. The first stage of the research showed that in the case of the Estonian singers the intensity of the sung vowels was, on average, 14.2 dB greater than that of the corresponding spoken speech sounds, whereas the intensity of the voiceless plosive bursts increased by an average of only 7.1 dB. The intensity difference between sung and spoken speech sounds was similar in the case of Italian vocalists. Producing the plosive bursts more strongly generally tended to improve the recognition of plosives only when reverberation and/or pink noise were added to the stimuli. The probable cause of lowered recognition is the masking of plosives by the room reflections of the preceding vowels and sounds from the accompaniment and ensemble partners. In the case of /p/, too intense a burst could actually diminish recognition to some extent. The recognition was often above the level of chance even if the burst was removed, indicating that besides the plosive burst some other clues to identify the plosive exist (such as the formants’ glide from the locus of the plosive to the adjacent vowel). Conclusions. There is no need to pronounce voiceless plosives with exaggerated vigor in singing if the room reverberation is small and there are no masking sounds from other musicians. The exception is /k/, which may remain unidentified if the plosive burst is not perceived. In poorer acoustic conditions, a stronger burst may improve intelligibility. However, the singer should be cautious not to overemphasize the /p/, as this may worsen its recognition.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.