"Alternative medical therapy" use among singers: prevalence and implications for the medical care of the singer.

Singers are extremely conscious of health problems that affect their voices and well-being and often take an active role in seeking care for these problems. They frequently seek treatment from providers or with modalities considered "alternative" to traditional medical care. A survey of singers was completed to elucidate their attitudes and practices regarding "alternative modalities" of medical care. Frequently singers will self-medicate or take advice from people not well versed in the special needs of a professional voice user. They will fail to share this information with the physician when seeking "traditional" medical care. These practices may predispose the singer to suboptimal or even dangerous care. These results are discussed, as well as the implications for the medical physician treating the singer. The possible detrimental pharmacologic effects of "natural therapies" widely used by singers are presented, with special attention to the particular concerns for the professional singer.

Preliminary study on the ability of trained singers to control the intrinsic and extrinsic laryngeal musculature.

Little literature is available on professional musical theater female singers, a population that regularly uses a wide variety of vocal qualities. This study tested the hypothesis that different vocal qualities cause observable specific configurations of muscular movements and structural changes of the larynx, hypopharynx, oral pharynx, and oral cavity for individual singers. Fiberoptic rigid and flexible endoscopic observation were used to determine visual analysis of such configurations. This study documents observable physiologic changes that were made by professional musical theater female singers in specific vocal qualities.

Comparisons of pharynx, source, formant, and pressure characteristics in operatic and musical theatre singing.

Belting, a vocal technique typically cultivated in musical theatre singing, differs timbrally from operatic singing in many interesting respects. The underlying phonatory differences have not been previously investigated in detail. Yet, belting is frequently associated with disturbances of voice function. Articulatory and phonatory characteristics are investigated in a female subject who is a professional singer (co-author JL) trained in both the operatic and belting styles and in an intermediate vocal technique ("mixed"). This article presents data obtained from this subject by video-fiberoptic observation of the pharynx, inverse filtering of airflow, and measurement of subglottal pressure. The results reveal that belting was characterized by very high subglottal pressures and sound levels, and apparently also by a comparatively high degree of glottal adduction. Comparisons with other investigations of related aspects of belting and operatic singing support the assumption that the data obtained from our subject are representative for these vocal techniques.