- Title
- Australian adolescent voices: rethinking the choir
- Creator
- van Gend, Marie; Matthias, Philip; Scott, Nathan; Allan, Christopher
- Relation
- ASME XXI National Conference 2017: Uniting Voices. Australian Society for Music Education XXI National Conference Proceedings (Melbourne 13-15 July, 2017) p. 20-29
- Relation
- http://www.asme.edu.au
- Publisher
- The Australian Society for Music Education (ASME)
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2017
- Description
- Untrained adolescent singing voices are very different to adult voices, yet most Australian high school choir leaders and composers continue to use the adult SATB model. This disconnect may result in discomfort, damage, sense of failure and be reflected in the current decline in choral singing in Australian high schools (Harrison, Cowley, Connell, & Southcott, 2008; Pascoe et al., 2005). A case study of 70 students from an un-auditioned mixed voice Australian high school choir used the online voice analysis software, Praat to analyse students' vocal parameters. Students were classified into vocal development stages using the leading models developed by Gackle and Cooksey as guidelines. Boys' voices reflected the six different stages described by Cooksey, but pitch, tessitura and mean spoken frequency (SF0) were all lower. Girls demonstrated three distinct development stages but the ranges, tessitura and SF0 were different to Gackle's findings. Untrained girls' voices shared a similar range and tessitura; neither specifically alto nor soprano. No boys fitted the adult parameters of tenor, with boys in the middle of change often having a range of just a few tones. This study's results support a fluid approach when assigning voice parts in SATB repertoire, with students moving to the part that best suits their voice, and music being modified to accommodate them.
- Subject
- adolescent voice; Gackle; Cooksey; Praat
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1400702
- Identifier
- uon:34801
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780980379259
- Language
- eng
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