Singing Coach

Reported February 2006

TAMPA, Fla. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Want to learn to sing? Now, your computer can coach you to carry a tune.

Ashley West is learning to sing and her vocal coach is a computer program called Singing Coach.

Chief technology officer Ken Spiegel works behind the scenes with this new Singing Coach software. Spiegel, Vice President and General Manager of Electronic Learning Products, Inc. in Tampa, Fla., says: "Your vocal chords vibrate. They create a pitch and frequency that's measured by the computer." It's plotted in real-time on a graph and the goal is to stay in the blue box.

"It's great to see the box and visually stay in it," West says.

This software is not just about singing; it's also being used in schools to help kids improve their reading. A study revealed students who used the Singing Coach program for nine weeks improve their reading one to three grade levels. Susan Homan, Ph.D., a professor of literacy at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Fla., and study author, says, "I have never seen that kind of growth in such a short period of time."

Bekah Bychowski went up two grade levels in her reading skills. "I wasn't stuttering when I was reading books out loud in class."

The singing coach software is now being used in seven schools with kids from fourth grade to high school. There are three versions of the software including kids, family and a professional version. The cost ranges from $30 to $100.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

The Acoustical Society of America
2 Huntington Quadrangle
Melville, NY 11747-4502
Phone: (516) 576-2360
FAX: (516) 576-2377
asa@aip.org
http://asa.aip.org/

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