As part of a research project on vocal technique and the acoustics of the voice, I have been exploring the role of vocal technique in improvised singing.
The first phase of this research project was completed in May 2026; you can read the abstract below, or contact me for further details.
Vocal Technique in Improvised Singing: Abstract
Vocal improvisation is currently emerging in the West, with styles such as jazz, free improvisation, and more recently, circlesinging, collaborative vocal improvisation, vocal painting, etc. However, to date, there has been no research into vocal technique amongst improvisers in the West. I have therefore sought to lay the groundwork in this field by assessing, in this study, the role of vocal technique in improvisation. A survey was conducted amongst an empirical sample of 18 people (9 professionals and 9 who have been practising for at least 4 years). The questions focused on the importance of vocal technique in their practice, the time they devote to technical work, and their perception of various technical parameters as expressive tools in improvisation. My hypothesis was that improvisers generally underestimate the usefulness of vocal technique. The results show that an average of 1 hour 24 minutes per week is spent on technique, representing 15.2 per cent of the total time spent on vocal practice, even though technique is still perceived as being quite important (3.9 out of 5 on average). As for registers, vibrato and vowel colour, the singers are generally aware that they use these elements when improvising but practise them relatively little in isolation. As for twang and consonants, they are less often aware of using them, and practise them hardly at all. This study is limited by the size of the sample and by the fact that it is not random. It does, however, enable us to provide nuanced answers to our questions: improvisers consider vocal technique to be important, but practise it little, and certain aspects are virtually absent. These findings lay the foundations for future research: why is vocal technique practised so little, what are the needs in this area, and what technical tools could address them?
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