The Phonetics of Music

Catalog description

Singing is an instance of human voice production, and as such can be studied in the way that speech is studied by speech scientists. The scientific study of singing is a small but growing field that uses methods from speech physiology and acoustics to characterize differences among singing voices and performances. This course will introduce students to methods for quantifying aspects of voice production, so that voice samples can be compared across singers, styles, etc. We will also discuss the scientific basis for some of the vocal techniques. Every aspect of voice presented in class will be explored through hands-on lab work with computer programs. We will mostly look at recorded samples of professional singers, but we will sometimes look at students' own vocal productions. However, this is not a course about improving one's singing, and no skill or talent is required to participate.