Conclusion

Based on the results evident in the plots, there doesn’t seem to be any strong evidence that some vowels are easier to blend to than others. However, there are hints that unrounded vowels may be more challenging to blend to. So is choral music better for blending than pop music? Further analysis is definitely warranted.

Things to change

There were certainly things that could be altered or added in a further experiment. For one thing, I would use a sample size larger than the size of 7 that I used in this experiment. Additionally, Praat does have its bugs. When I was looking at some of the frequencies, I noticed that some of them seemed a little off, like they didn’t match the images I was seeing or the .wav files I was hearing. Upon checking this in Praat itself and not just in the .csv text output, I realized that I was getting the same information, so there may be bugs inside of Praat.

Future Experiment

In future experiments and analysis, I would consider whether blending is the same across all pitches. I did create recordings on two other pitches, but there was so much analysis involved in looking at A3 that I stuck with that pitch. I may still look further into this topic, however, to see what I can find.

It would also be interesting to look at the differences in blending between different voice parts. If I had a large enough sample of individuals who were basses, tenors, etc, I could make fascinating comparisons.