음주 및 가창 후 음성의 음향학적 특성 변화 분석

Analysis of acoustical characteristic changes in voice after drinking and singing

The purpose of this study was to examine changes in acoustic characteristics after drinking alcoholic beverages and singing in order to establish guidelines for vocal hygiene of both singers and non-singers. 21 university students (10 males and 11 females) vocalized /a/ before drinking, after drinking and after singing. Changes in vocal range and acoustic characteristics were analyzed by Dr. Speech 4.0 (Tigers Electronics). No significant difference was observed in vocal range following drinking. However, there was statistically significant changes in vocal range after singing. We may infer that appropriate amount of singing functioning as vocal warm-up, rather than drinking alone, resulted in improvement in their abilities to lengthen vocal folds. This is directly related to the ability to produce high-pitched sounds. Changes in jitter in female voices after singing was the only acoustic factor that was significant. Changes in Shimmer and NNE was not significant either after drinking nor singing. Subjects who were judged to perform better in singing were marked by minimum acoustic changes, which may due to their well-trained vocal fold function. The results of this study may address the necessity for vocal function exercises for the patients with neurogenic voice disorders including dysarthria. The need for more extensive research with a larger number of subjects including professional voice users is also addressed.