Multiparametric Analysis of Voice at Madhya and Taara Sthayi in Indian Carnatic Singers

ABSTRACT

The objective of the study was to document the vocal parameters in Madhya sthayi and Taara sthayi in Indian Carnatic singers. The study deployed a prospective, observational, repeated-measures group design. The study comprised 15 trained Carnatic singers with a senior degree in Carnatic singing. Participants were asked to sing an ascending glide and descending glide from Madhya sthayi to Taara sthayi and back to the Madhya sthayi. The acoustic and the cepstral parameters were extracted at Madhya sthayi and Taara sthayi. As a part of spectral measures, harmonic amplitude differences were calculated at both registers of singing. The results showed that the average fundamental frequency at Madhya sthayi was equal to G# (C3 on the musical scale). At Taara sthayi, the average fundamental frequency was corresponding to F# (C4 on the musical scale). Among the acoustic measures, namely range of fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, and all the spectral measures, showed significantly higher mean values at Taara sthayi. The mean values of harmonic-to-noise ratio and the cepstral peak prominence were significantly higher at Madhya sthayi. The present study results captivate the attention of voice pathologists to develop pitch-specific normative data for the evaluation of voice in Carnatic singers.

KEYWORDS:

• Carnatic singing
• singers
• cepstral peak prominence
• spectral parameters
• acoustic analysis
• registers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Raagam refers to the melodic types or scales or notes (Venkataraman, Boominathan, and Nallamuthu 2020).

2. Average fundamental frequency is the average number of cycles of opening/closure of the vocal folds in given period of time (Teixeira, Oliveira, and Lopes 2013).

3. Fundamental frequency range refers to the difference between the highest and the lowest fundamental frequency.

4. Jitter refers an index of instability in laryngeal waveform, usually measured as the cycle-to-cycle variation in fundamental period (Kent and Read 1995).

5. Formant frequencies refer to the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract (Ferrand 2001). Formant frequencies are displayed in a wideband spectrogram as a broad bands of energy (Raphael, Borden, and Harris 2007).

6. Harmonic is an integral multiple of fundamental frequency in voice (Kent and Read 1995).

7. F1 refers to the lowest resonant frequencies of the vocal tract. F2 refers to the second lowest resonant frequencies of the vocal tract. F3 refers to the lowest resonant frequencies of the vocal tract.

8. Shimmer refers to the instability in laryngeal waveform, usually measured as the cycle-to-cycle variation in amplitude (Kent and Read 1995).

9. Harmonic-to-noise ratio refers to the ratio between periodic components and nonperiodic component in a voiced segment (Murphy and Akande 2006).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

S.V. Narasimhan

S.V. Narasimhan, PhD (speech and hearing), is an Associate Professor in the Department of Speech and Language Pathology at the JSS Institute of Speech and Hearing, University of Mysore, Mysore, Karnataka, India, having around 13 years of research, clinical, and teaching experience in the field. He did his BSc (speech and hearing), MSc (speech and hearing), and has perused PhD (speech and hearing) at the University of Mysore, Karnataka, India. He has several national and international published articles on speech sciences and voice pathology in journal and conference proceedings. He is a member of ISHA (Indian Speech and Hearing Association) and RCI (Rehabilitation Council of India).

S.Y. Aishwarya

S.Y. Aishwarya is pursuing a master’s degree in speech-language pathology at JSS Institute of Speech and Hearing, University of Mysore, Mysore, Karnataka, India. She has several research papers presented and published in national and international journals and conference proceedings. She has an utmost interest in working on dysphagia, voice pathology, and speech sciences.