Pitch-dependent vowel space adjustments by professional singers

Singers are trained to adjust their resonance space depending on pitch target. While existing studies on classical singers have focused on modeling the resonance profile, the articulatory correspondences have been less explored. The goal of this study is to model change in tongue position—a key factor that shapes the resonance space—across singers’ pitch range using articulatory data. Fifteen professional singers sang five sets of English vowels at each semitone across their pitch range. Each set included the target vowels (i, ɛ, æ, ɑ, u) in randomized order, and a filler vowel (ɔ) closing the breath group. Midsagittal ultrasound tongue images were collected at 81.5 frames per second. Tongue position was automatically tracked using DeepLabCut. Preliminary results of eight participants modelled using Functional Data Analysis show gradual neutralization of vowel contrast as pitch increases relative to the singers’ range. Specifically, high vowels tended to lower and low vowels tended to raise at higher pitches. These results suggest that articulatory adjustments operate in vowel-specific directions. Analysis by singer gender and voice type is underway. We discuss these findings in relation to vowel–pitch interactions in voice production.