A Comparison of Facial Muscle Activation for Vocalists and Instrumentalists

The purpose of this study was to compare the muscle activation of singers and instrumentalists while performing simple vocal exercises. Volunteer participants (N = 28) were undergraduate music majors and minors, with an equal number being vocalists and instrumentalists. Participants performed five v...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of music teacher education Vol. 30; no. 1; pp. 53 - 64
Main Authors Fisher, Ryan A., Hoult, Aubrey R., Tucker, W. Steven
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.10.2020
Subjects
Human Body
Music Education
Music Teachers
Musical Instruments
Musicians
Physiology
Psychomotor Skills
Singing
Teacher Education
Undergraduate Students
vocal tension
modeling
muscle activation
zygomaticus muscle
masseter muscles
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The purpose of this study was to compare the muscle activation of singers and instrumentalists while performing simple vocal exercises. Volunteer participants (N = 28) were undergraduate music majors and minors, with an equal number being vocalists and instrumentalists. Participants performed five vowel sounds (ah, eh, ee, oh, oo), while electromyography of the zygomaticus and masseter muscles was sampled at 1,000 Hz. A statistically significant multivariate analysis of variance effect was obtained and follow-up analyses of variance showed instrumentalists had more masseter muscle activation than vocalists when performing “eh” and “ee.” Instrumentalists also had more zygomaticus muscle activation than vocalists when performing the “eh” vowel, but vocalists had more zygomaticus muscle activation when performing the “ah” vowel.
ISSN:1057-0837
1945-0079
DOI:10.1177/1057083720947412