A PRELIMINARY STUDY ON VOICE CHARACTERISTIC OF THEYYAM ARTIST (A TRADITIONAL ART FORM OF KERALA)

Feby Sabu; Amritha Ashok; Krishnapriya KP; Geethu K Sunny

Volume : VIII, Issue : IV, April - 2019

A PRELIMINARY STUDY ON VOICE CHARACTERISTIC OF THEYYAM ARTIST (A TRADITIONAL ART FORM OF KERALA)

Feby Sabu, Amritha Ashok, Krishnapriya Kp, Geethu K Sunny

Abstract :

INTRODUCTION : Most of the professional voice users have voice deviancies compared to that of normals. This rises to the peak when these individuals are performing artists. It is known fact that their age, duration of voice usage is directly linked to voice worsening. AIM: To find the acoustic characteristics of individual performing religious rituals like theyyam, a old aged traditional ritualistic art form of south India; especially in parts of Kerala, India and borders of Kerala – Karnataka, India. NEED: To get a better understanding of the vocal characteristics of voice users in religious rituals for future references to tackle assessment and management strategies. Also, to understand the deviancies form the other professional voice users as well as normal healthy individuals. METHODOLOGY: 30 Male subjects, between the age group of 18 to 40 with mean age range of 33.06years; performing religious rituals like theyyam were considered for the study. Voice evaluation was carried to find the vocal characteristics among them. These subjects were recruited for the study such that they do not exhibit any history of voice or related health issues. RESULTS & CONCLUSION: Results revealed considerable variance in theyyam artists compared to that of the normal healthy individuals.