Comparison of Singing Power Ratio of Carnatic and Hindustani Classical Singers

Abstract

Professional voice users are the group of people who depend on voice for their profession. They encompass a broad range of vocal sophistication and voice needs, but they share dependence on vocal endurance and quality for their livelihood. Professional singers are one among them and perform singing in variety of styles. Indian classical music is one of the styles which is widely sung by the Indian singers. Indian classical music is majorly classified in to Hindustani and Carnatic singing. This study compares two different practices on a common scale to get to know which one has better Singing Power Ratio (SPR). Using this SPR values we get to know which style has better power. To study SPR, phonation samples of 11 Hindustani classical singers and 20 Carnatic singers were recorded and acoustic analysis was done using PRAAT software. Further statistical analysis was done using SPSS. Results however, showed higher mean for Carnatic singers in the parameters like Jitter, Shimmer, RAP3, APQ5.

Keywords: Hindustani singers, Carnatic singers, SPR, music, Singing Power Ratio (SPR)