The "Real' Me: Practical Application of Research into the Perception of Vocal Timbre

An understanding of vocal timbre, in all its complexities and colours, is fundamental to singing and teaching singing. A study for a doctoral thesis took a multidisciplinary approach to examine the layers of meaning given to vocal timbre through the language of singers, listeners, and teachers. Words describing the singing voice were collected through semi-structured interviews and questionnaires with solo, choral, amateur, and professional singers and singing teachers. An empirical study focussed on making a CD of three different songs chosen and sung by 22 amateur singers aged 11-65 with diary and interview analysis pre- and post-recording. This was followed by a further listening study from a selection of tracks to five audience members. Many timbre words were collected and patterns were observed. Two practical pan-European projects gave further opportunities to explore timbre, the first conducted by European Voice Teachers Association on digital resources for teaching singing and LeoSings, a project exploring diversity in choral singing across Europe. The use of real-time visual feedback proved to be a rich resource in complementing the timbral language used by singers and teachers, leading to a deeper exploration of vocal identity. The link between the language of vocal timbre and performance practice also impacted on choral singing through aspects of choral blend, acoustic space, and aural perception. The relationship between the science and art of vocalisation reveals the diversity of language employed to describe the singing sound while timbre remains an often elusive but nonetheless fundamental part of the real me' in singers.