‘Vocal Fitbit’ shows how hard Broadway singers work

New research offers insight into the vocal demands of contemporary musical theater.

The research employed a dosimeter device that monitors vocal vibrations the way a Fitbit tracks steps.

Vocal burnout in the performing arts isn’t rare. But nowhere are vocal demands greater, perhaps, than on Broadway. Singers there take on challenging roles, belting out show stopping numbers eight or more times a week, and the heavy workload can take a toll.

The new research, which appears in the Journal of Voice, drew data from six student performers rehearsing for a production of Frank Wildhorn’s Wonderland, a theatrical spin on Lewis Carroll’s classic novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Students fastened the dosimeter device—equipped with an accelerometer sensor—to their necks to capture vocal fold vibration data while singing in rehearsals. The data helped researchers measure the baseline “vocal dose” required for lead and ensemble roles in the show and compare it with the actual vocal output from student performers.

Ana Flavia Zuim demonstrates how to capture “vocal dose” data using the dosimeter device. Vocal dose refers to the accumulated vibrations of the vocal folds—when we sing or speak, air is pushed up from the lungs, causing the vocal folds to vibrate and create sound—including the length of time a student was using their voice, the pitch (number of cycles per second the vocal folds vibrate), and intensity (loudness). (Credit: NYU)

Vocal health professionals typically rely on a singer’s self-assessment of vocal discomfort to assess the likelihood of injury, but more definitive measurements with this kind of “vocal Fitbit” can help establish a threshold of vocal use that is sustainable for singers, as well as illustrate the vocal range required for each specific role in a production.

For example, the study illustrated how the student-performers used more of their “chest voice,”—meaning the lower range that uses thicker vocal folds and produces belting-like tone qualities through the speak-singing approach typical of contemporary musical theater. Today’s shows are more vocally and stylistically demanding than ever before, which can have an impact on a singer’s vocal anatomy over time, even potentially changing the underlying tissues.

While there are no hard-and-fast rules about how much singing is too much, this kind of data collection is paving the way for future research into the relationship between muscle fatigue and recovery time, and can empower performers to create healthy practices that minimize harm to the voice.

Here, leader of the study Ana Flavia Zuim, associate director of vocal performance at NYU Steinhardt and rehearsal pianist for Hamilton on Broadway, explains what she’s learned about performance demands young artists face today and the changes she hopes to see in the industry moving forward:

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