In Figure 5, Ternstrom and Sundberg have a graph showing the accuracy of the study’s singers over a wide range of decibels.
- How does this relate to the question, “Can singers sing in tune even if they do not hear their voice?”
- Well, the Figure 5 graph shows that singers had the greatest pitch precision when the choir sounded quieter than the vocalist by 5 to 25 decibels.
- When the choir sounded either too loud or too soft relative to the vocalist, the singer had greater difficulty with producing accurate pitch.
- Ternstrom and Sundberg add, “In Fig. 4, the curve /u:/ should intersect the 0-cent line near the [choir] SPL which was perceived to have the same loudness as the [vocalist]. The intersection occurred in the vicinity of the 20-dB [choir] level for most subjects” (63).
- In their study, Ternstrom and Sundberg tested the singers on two vowels. /a:/ had a lot of upper harmonics and /u:/ didn’t.
- The singers had a lot more trouble tuning the /u:/ than the /a:/ vowel. Nonetheless, both vowels hit the 0-cent line at about the point where the choir sounded 20 dB quieter that the vocalist. (The 0-cent line being the point at which no tuning error occurred.)
In addition, the above quote talks about the point at which the vocalists perceived they had the same volume as the choir. Namely, that singers must be relatively louder than those around them to keep from feeling overwhelmed by sound.
However, when they sing a little louder than the choir, they felt that the choir has a balanced sound.