The Score Magazine February 2022 issue | Page 47

The power of your voice
One of the advantages of musicians is that they can follow the contour of the voice . The voice is an instrument whose pitch is variable . When producing a sound , you need to have a very fine tonal perception to tune it perfectly . Few instruments allow it . String instruments are an exception . However , it would take years to train an older adult to play the violin . Singing is something that can be learned quite easily at a later age . This is why the researchers chose this discipline for their experiment .
Besides , most people have singing experience , even if it is just the music lessons they received in school . And , there is a great chance that everyone will be able to sing along - even those who have stated otherwise during their journey .
A lot of us can sing relatively well naturally , which means we ’ re relatively close to the key we ’ re trying to achieve . Most of us can adjust to a key - and with practice , we can improve our performance and sing in tune .
The main complaint from older people is that they have difficulty hearing speech in a noisy environment . And while hearing aid technology has come a long way , it doesn ’ t completely solve the problem . In the future , researchers hope to expand the study to people with hearing aids . They are also interested in studying how long the benefits would last and exactly why this activity would improve speech understanding in a noisy environment .
Social benefits of listening to music
Participating in a group activity ( like singing in a choir ) brings cognitive and social benefits , according to the research . Right now , we only know that something beneficial is going on in the brain . In addition , singing is a discipline that fits very well into the lifestyle of many people . There are several ways to improve your singing without joining a choir : you can download an app to check your pitch and key and sing by yourself .
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