Voice amplification as a means of reducing vocal load for elementary music teachers.

Music teachers are over four times more likely than classroom teachers to develop voice disorders and greater than eight times more likely to have voice-related problems than the general public. Research has shown that individual voice-use parameters of phonation time, fundamental frequency and vocal intensity, as well as vocal load as calculated by cycle dose and distance dose are significantly higher for music teachers than their classroom teacher counterparts. Finding effective and inexpensive prophylactic measures to decrease vocal load for music teachers is an important aspect for voice preservation for this group of professional voice users.

Comparison of voice-use profiles between elementary classroom and music teachers.

Among teachers, music teachers are roughly four times more likely than classroom teachers to develop voice-related problems. Although it has been established that music teachers use their voices at high intensities and durations in the course of their workday, voice-use profiles concerning the amount and intensity of vocal use and vocal load have neither been quantified nor has vocal load for music teachers been compared with classroom teachers using these same voice-use parameters. In this study, total phonation time, fundamental frequency (F₀), and vocal intensity (dB SPL [sound pressure level]) were measured or estimated directly using a KayPENTAX Ambulatory Phonation Monitor (KayPENTAX, Lincoln Park, NJ).

Breath management: gender-based differences in classical singers.

Fifty-five subjects (38 female, 17 male), consisting of professional operatic singers, singing teachers and advanced classical voice students, were surveyed to explore gender-based differences in breath management strategies for singing. Respondents evaluated extent and significance of thoracic and abdominal movement for inhalation and for control of singing extended phrases. Females were found to concentrate breath efforts lower in the body than did men (hypogastric vs.