Oleksii Chumakov’s Creative Activity

The article analyzes various aspects of Oleksii Chumakov’s creative activity. Oleksii Chumakov’s activity can be considered as striking in its variety of creative manifestations. His singing career is harmoniously combined with his work as a composer and arranger. The purpose of the article is to identify the specifics of stylistic dimensions of O. Chumakov’s work. The article analyzes various aspects of O. Chumakov’s activity, which impresses with the variety of creative manifestations. The artist harmoniously combines the singer’s career with composing and arranging skills. The research methodology consists oftheoretical methods (analysis, synthesis, generalization, biographical method), as well as empirical ones to observe the multifaceted work of O. Chumakov. The scientific novelty of the research is that the main features of O. Chumakov’s work are revealed, it is found out that the artist’s vocal skill is manifested in the use of soul singing. The style of Chumakov's compositions makes it possible to use the traditions of the gospel. The dominant directions in which his songs were written are funk, fusion, pop. Conclusions. It is noted that singers, who combine performance with composing, arranging, working in a recording studio, can rightly be considered professionals in their field. Having practical vocal skills, the composer takes into account the technical capabilities of singers, trying to emphasize their strengths. Oleksii Chumakov is also a presenter, writer and actor. All these qualities testify his versatility and high professionalism. In the concert performances of the singer, there is no bright effect or extraordinary scenography, because the performer prefers the ‘classical’ type of stage behaviour when the main emphasis is on the musical side of the compositions. Vocal skill, which manifests itself in the use of various vocal manners, intonation accuracy and stylistic sophistication, are the dominant elements of O. Chumakov’s performances.

Effects of Tonic Drone Accompaniments on the Intonation of Collegiate Wind Instrumentalists

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of tonic drone accompaniments on the intonation of collegiate wind instrumentalists. Participants ( N = 68) played an excerpt of the melody “Long, Long Ago” in three conditions: a mono drone (tonic note only), dyad drone (tonic plus fifth), and a control condition (no drone). Results indicated no significant effects on intonation performance due to drone condition. However, participants’ ratings of their own intonation accuracy differed significantly based on drone condition. The majority of the performances of the melody aligned more closely with equal temperament ( n = 159), and fewer aligned more closely with just intonation ( n = 45). Most participants believed the dyad drone (59.74%) resulted in their best intonation accuracy, followed by the mono drone (28.57%) and the control condition (11.68%). In response to open-ended questions, participants cited reasons why they preferred particular drone conditions, with the most common themes being “easier to hear and match,” “multiple reference pitches,” and “focused/directed listening.” Given that participants expressed preferences regarding drone use in the absence of performance differences, music educators may consider the role of comfort and familiarity with these instructional tools.

Effects of Pitch Source on Pitch-Matching and Intonation Accuracy of Collegiate Singers

In this study, we examined the effects of multiple reference pitch sources on collegiate singers’ accuracy in pitch-matching and intonation tasks. We also investigated which reference pitch source participants preferred and for what reasons. Participants ( N = 99) sang a two-measure excerpt of Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine after listening to the starting pitch of A on a pitch pipe, the piano, a vocal hum, or a tuning fork in two conditions. For one tuning fork condition, participants’ starting pitch was an A, the same pitch as the tuning fork. For the other tuning fork condition, their starting pitch was a G, a different pitch than the tuning fork. We selected two pitches for analysis, each corresponding to the first syllable of the word Joseph. We then analyzed pitch deviation of the two target notes from the reference pitch in each condition. Participants were most accurate in response to the piano and least accurate in response to the tuning fork when their starting pitch was a G. Participants expressed preference for the piano (37.12%) as their pitch source, followed closely by the pitch pipe (33.33%).

Correction timing

The current study set out to investigate the effects of oral corrective feedback (OCF) and examine the impact of correction timing on lexical stress and sentence intonation accuracy in a Persian context. The data was collected from a sample of upper-intermediate EFL students (N = 61). Immediate teacher-explicit OCF, delayed teacher-explicit OCF, and a control group were randomly assigned to three classes. A list of 50 new words, contextualized in 50 statements/questions, were utilized to measure any possible gains. Analysis of post-test results confirmed that the teacher immediate OCF (n = 20) and teacher delayed OCF (n = 20) classes outperformed the control group (n = 21). Post-hoc analysis revealed that the treatment groups were not significantly different in lexical stress accuracy gains. In contrast, the immediate group had significantly higher gains than the delayed one in sentence intonation accuracy.

Development of Second Language French Oral Skills in an Instructed Setting: A Focus on Speech Ratings

This study examined the relationship between targeted pronunciation instruction in French as a second language (L2) and listener-based ratings of accent, comprehensibility, and fluency. The ratings by 20 French listeners evaluating the speech of 30 adult L2 French learners enrolled in a 15-week listening and speaking course targeting segments, prosody, fluency, and connected speech processes (e.g., liaison, enchainment) were compared before and after instruction in read-aloud and extemporaneous (picture description) speaking tasks. Results showed that the learners improved in all speech ratings, especially in extemporaneous speaking. Results also revealed that accent ratings were linked to prosody (intonation accuracy, pitch range), while fluency and comprehensibility ratings were additionally linked to fluency phenomena (length of fluent run, hesitation rate). These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for L2 pronunciation learning and links between instruction, listener-rated dimensions of speech, and performance in different tasks.

Blind Listening Evaluation of Steel String Acoustic Guitar Compensation Strategies

A double blind multisample intonation rating test was administered to 32 experienced guitar players/guitar builders to test perceived effectiveness of some common steel string acoustic guitar intonation compensation strategies. The test used a randomized complete block design where each treatment was a typical guitar intonation compensation strategy. Each subject completed two sequentially presented sessions. Subjects were asked to rate intonation accuracy following audition of prepared sound clips. Each clip contained a short sequence of notes recorded from steel string acoustic guitar with either perfect intonation or tuning modified to fit the intonation profile of one of three typical guitar intonation compensation strategies: straight saddle compensation, individual string saddle compensation, or individual string saddle and nut compensation. Subject ratings indicate that all compensation strategies tested were equally effective. Analysis of test results by ANOVA did not indicate significant perceived differences for either session (p=0.596, p=0.286). Results of follow-up t-tests comparing intonation ratings for perfect intonation and the compensation treatment associated with the highest intonation errors (straight saddle compensation) also showed that these two treatments were equally effective in both sessions (p=0.137, p=0.359). Results of follow-up Bayesian estimation analyses comparing these two treatments also indicated no discernable difference for either session (session 1 difference of means 95% HDI: -1.31, 0.472; session 2 difference of means 95% HDI: -0.819, 1.13). Subjects’ correlation between ratings and actual intonation accuracy was determined by comparing ratings to intonation errors for each compensation strategy using Spearman's rank correlation. Rating correlation varied greatly among subjects (-1 ≤ ρ ≤ 0.949). The two subjects with the best overall correlations each gave identical ratings to two different strategies. These correlations showed low correlation to subject age and to years of guitar playing experience. These analyses suggest that all compensation strategies tested are equally successful.

The Actual vs. Predicted Effects of Intonation Accuracy on Vocal Performance Quality

The belief that intonation accuracy is a key determinant of musical performance quality is ubiquitous in music pedagogy; nonetheless, empirical validation of this belief is lacking. We investigated the effects of intonation accuracy on perceived performance quality and assessed whether music professionals’ beliefs about the importance of intonation are consistent with these effects. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants listened to vocal performances that were in tune, moderately out of tune, or severely out of tune. Only severe mistunings caused decreases in performance quality ratings for intonation insensitive listeners (those who performed poorly on a mistuning detection prescreening). However, both moderate and severe mistunings were detrimental to the ratings of intonation sensitive listeners. These results indicate that moderate mistunings exert a negative influence on the perceived quality of a performance only if the listener can explicitly detect the mistunings. If a listener cannot explicitly detect the mistunings, those mistunings do not implicitly exert a negative influence on the perception of the performance. In Experiment 3, music professionals heard samples of performances from Experiments 1 and 2 in each intonation condition and were asked to estimate the impact of the mistunings on listeners’ ratings of performance quality. Their predictions were compared to the actual performance quality ratings obtained in Experiment 2. Music professionals overestimated the impact of moderate mistunings for both intonation sensitive and insensitive listeners, suggesting that music professionals may hold inaccurate beliefs about the importance of intonation accuracy in vocal performance.

Production and Perception of Musical Intervals

This Article Reports Two Experiments. In the first experiment, 13 professional singers performed a vocal exercise consisting of three ascending and descending melodic intervals: minor second, tritone, and perfect fifth. Seconds were sung more narrowly but fifths more widely in both directions, as compared to their equally tempered counterparts. In the second experiment, intonation accuracy in performances recorded from the first experiment was evaluated in a listening test. Tritones and fifths were more frequently classified as out of tune than seconds. Good correspondence was found between interval tuning and the listeners responses. The performers themselves evaluated their performance almost randomly in the immediate post-performance situation but acted comparably to the independent group after listening to their own recording. The data suggest that melodic intervals may be, on an average, 20 to 25 cents out of tune and still be estimated as correctly tuned by expert listeners.

Effect of Melodic Context, Tuning Behaviors, and Experience on the Intonation Accuracy of Wind Players

In the first of two experiments, subjects ( N = 137) were band students with 1, 2, 3, or 4 years of formal instrumental performance experience. Subjects tuned to a single prerecorded tuning pitch and subsequently played along with a prerecorded four-measure melody. Direction and magnitude of pitch deviation were analyzed for the single tuning pitch and four selected target pitches within the melody. Responses to the tuning pitch were more accurate than for the melodic pitches. There was a high positive correlation among the four melodic pitches, but a low positive correlation between the melodic pitches and tuning pitch. In a second experiment, high school musicians ( N = 167) played along with the same prerecorded melody after either (a) tuning their instrument to a single pitch, (b) receiving verbal instructions to perform “in tune,” or (c) receiving no information. No differences were observed among the three conditions. Students who first tuned to a single pitch were more accurate at this task than at melodic performance. A high correlation was observed among melodic pitches but not between melodic and tuning pitches. Across both experiments, subjects erred most often in the sharp direction; a stronger tendency toward sharp errors was noted among more experienced students. Performance accuracy was observed to improve with experience.