Singing had always been one of Sarah Altman's talents, but she was advised by her doctor to stop for three months following a minor illness.
It was one of the worst times of her life but led Altman to choose a specialization in singing health, a new addition to the Ohio State music and speech and hearing science master's programs in 2008.
"I love it, and it's exactly what I wanted to do," Altman said
The specialization requires a 23-hour, interdisciplinary curriculum that is additional to each master's program. Graduate students in music take courses from the speech and hearing science curriculum, and speech and hearing science graduate students take music courses.
"It is a cross-training specialization," said Kerrie Obert, a clinical voice pathologist working with professors teaching the courses.
Altman and four other students are in the first class to earn the specialization.
The program coordinators want to keep the specialization to six to eight students per quarter, Obert said.
"We want this to be a mentoring experience for graduate students, so we want to have a small number of competitive students," she said.
Students earning the specialization have to do clinical and surgical observation, and take many distinct courses such as voice pedagogy, voice disorders and neurology. Everyone entering the specialization has to submit a recording of their singing to ensure that each student has proficiency in the subject.
"Music students need to understand the scientific, health aspect of voice usage, and speech and hearing science students need to understand the singing aspect so that they will better understand it when they encounter a professional voice user," Altman said.
Many professional singers consistently use their speaking voices incorrectly, which can affect their singing voices. Incorrect speaking is anything that strains the laryngeal muscles, external strap muscles and internal muscles of the larynx, Obert said.
This could be in the form of speaking loudly while sick or yelling, and can truly hurt the voice of a professional voice user, such as a broadcaster, professor or opera singer, Altman said.
"We are trained very well as singers, but we are not trained to take our knowledge from singing to speaking," she said.
Altman, a graduate student in music, had to take a break from singing after she strained her voice. She was battling a sinus infection while she sang at a wedding and auditioned for an opera. Straining her voice when she was sick was detrimental to her vocal range, and it could have gotten worse if she continued to sing.
Our vocal folds are much like "wet tissue paper," and we use them for speaking and singing, Altman said.
"They are very easy to damage," she said.
Taking the break helped Altman's voice problem heal, and led to her interest in singing health. Coincidentally, the singing health specialization was being developed at the same time. She has since remained passionate about voice health awareness.
"I believe voice health awareness will increase as professional voice users continue to have problems," Altman said.
There has been a great deal of interest in the specialization, approved only a year ago by the graduate programs, and Altman and Obert both believe that the specialization will eventually become a degree at OSU.
"We've had inquiries about the specialization from students all over the world," Obert said.
Jackie Nash can be reached at nash.116@osu.edu.
2008 Woodie Awards
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