The Characterization of the Vibrato in Lyric and Sertanejo Singing Styles: Acoustic and Perceptual Auditory Aspects

SummaryThe vibrato is one of the embellishments most frequently used in the singing voice and it can be found in different singing styles, among those, lyric and Sertanejo (Brazilian country western-like singing style). Considering these two styles, the objective of the present study was to analyze the production of vibrato in the singing voice in the lyric and sertanejo genres from an acoustic and perceptual viewpoint. Twenty male singers—10 classical (operatic) singers and 10 sertanejo singers—reportedly in perfect laryngeal health, served as subjects for this study. Digital recording of the subjects' voices was performed. For each phonation, acoustic analysis was carried out together with comparison of overtones and vibrato rate and extension measurements. The results have shown that the mean values for vibrato rate and extent in lyric singers were 4.55–6.25 Hz and 0-54–1.66 semitone, respectively, whereas for sertanejo they were 5.0–6.56 Hz and 0.54–0.95 semitone. In the spectrogram, there was regularity in terms of frequency oscillation in the lyric genre whereas in the sertanejo style there was no regularity.