NCT04526041

Language and Music, Speech and the Human Beatbox: Theoretical Issues for Research in General and Applied Linguistics

Language and Music, Speech and the Human Beatbox: Theoretical Issues for Research in General and Applied Linguistics; Monocentric Exploratory Study

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 5 (actual)
• Sponsor: Hopital Foch · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines, using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice. It may also involve vocal imitation of turntablism, and other musical instruments. To produces the different sounds, the Beatboxers use their vocal apparatus in a much wider and more complex way than its use in speech. This allows them to acquire a panel of rich and varied sounds. The Human Beatbox (HBB) is a very recent subject of study in phonetics. This study offers an exploratory study of pharyngolaryngeal articulatory behaviors using nasofibroscopy and electroglottography and an aerodynamic study in order to better understand the articulatory capacities and limits of the vocal tract.

Detailed description

HBB is characterized by two very interesting aspects (1) the complexity of the oro-pharyngo-laryngeal joints and the articulatory precision of the beatboxers and (2) the respiratory management which allows the artists to beatbox continuously without interrupting their performance. These two points, very characteristic of this technique, allow them to best imitate diverse and varied musical tones. The Human Beatbox is still little studied and the literature on this subject is quite limited. Percussive sounds (for example imitations of bass drums, hi-hat or snare) seem to be characterized by articulatory strategies, melodic sounds (for example wind instruments, strings) seem to be based on both articulatory and phonatory strategies, and finally, electronic sounds seem to mainly use complex phonatory strategies. Our objectives are to better understand the articulatory capacities and limits of the vocal tract at different levels (articulation capacities, sound production mechanisms, muscular and acoustic temporal relationships, strategies of efficiency...). It is possible to find clinical applications of the Human Beatbox in the context of congenital speech disorders (for example dyspraxia) or acquired (for example oro-pharyngo-laryngeal surgery of the partial glossectomy type).

Conditions

• Language

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Nasofibroscopy	Laryngeal exploration performed using a flexible fibrescope while singing.
OTHER	Electroglottography	Electrography of glottal movement using the EG2-PCX2 system (Glottal enterprises) while singing.
OTHER	Air flow measurement + acoustic signal recording	Air flow measurement and acoustic signal recording while singing using the EVA2 system (SQLab-LPL, Aix en Provence, France)
OTHER	Questionnaire	Questionnaire on subject singing habits, the way it use and perceive the use of his body when singing.

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-10-16
• Primary completion: 2021-07-27
• Completion: 2021-07-27
• First posted: 2020-08-25
• Last updated: 2023-02-28

Locations

1 site across 1 country: France