Over the last month, computer software has recorded the boys' talking and singing voices in a sound booth to measure pitch, loudness, airflow and air pressure. Currently, 21 boys with unchanged voices between the ages of 7 to 12 years are enrolled and being evaluated. The purpose of this study is to examine the vocal fold vibration patterns, aerodynamic, acoustic, and perceptual voice changes as boys who sing progress through puberty. "From a singing voice perspective, one of the things we don't know in certainty is whether we should be training voices through puberty or whether they should stop singing through puberty.This study will help guide us with information through that process," said Wendy LeBorgne, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, a voice pathologist with the Professional Voice Center of Greater Cincinnati and co-investigator of the study. The Cincinnati Boychoir, founded in 1965, is composed of more than 250 young men from 100 schools in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. "We feel it's important to keep these boys singing all the way through."īoychoir singing is an art form dating back more than 1,000 years. In Europe, this is still the case in some boychoirs," said Christopher Eanes, DMA, Artistic Director for the Cincinnati Boychoir. "In the early traditions of the boychoir, you were sidelined when your voice started to change. This groundbreaking study is being done to better understand how puberty affects the singing voice.