THE EFFECT OF BIOFEEDBACK AND RELAXATION TRAINING ON STUDENTS STUDYING VOICE IN AN ACTOR TRAINING PROGRAM: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

This study compared the effectiveness of three training procedures in teaching muscle relaxation of targeted muscles used in vocal production. Twenty-seven subjects in an actor training program participated in a taped relaxation training program. In addition, nineteen of the subjects were assigned at random to two groups which received weekly tutorial sessions, one of which also received EMG and EDA biofeedback training. After eight weeks, all subjects showed improvement in lowered EMG ratings in targeted mucles during non-performance testing. In performance testing, the two groups receiving individual tutorial sessions were superior to the group which received taped relaxation only; no significant difference was found between the group receiving biofeedback and the group receiving tutorial sessions only.