Many individuals with Parkinson's disease experience impaired speech as their vocal muscles weaken. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of participation in a Group Music Therapy Voice Protocol (G-MTVP) on the speech of individuals with Parkinson's disease. Individuals with Parkinson's disease (N = 10) who attended bi-weekly rehearsals for a Parkinson's choir participated in the study. Choir rehearsals were led by a board-certified music therapist and involved implementation of G-MTVP, which consisted of 50 minutes of opening and closing conversation, physical, facial, and breathing warm-ups, vocal exercises, and singing, all focusing on increasing phonatory effort to maintain vocal strength. Participants' speech characteristics were measured after 3 weeks and 6 weeks of G-MTVP. Results showed significant increases in intensity of conversational speech, indicating that G-MTVP has potential benefits to improve and maintain vocal functioning of individuals with Parkinson's disease in a motivating, social setting. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.
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Yinger et al. (2012) studied this question.