Objectives: Young singers are often classified into a voice type by choir directors and singing teachers. Unfortunately, little is known about vocal fold and vocal tract development during adolescents and this limited knowledge may lead to premature and inappropriate voice assignment, which may unintentionally expose young singers to technical difficulties, vocal injury, and social identity problems. The purpose of this study was to investigate the educational experiences, opinions, and practices of voice teachers and choir directors about voice part assignment and adolescent vocal development. Understanding the current education in and practices around voice part assignment in adolescents will provide a baseline in developing educational materials and identify areas of future research that will ultimately improve vocal health and wellness of young singers.

Methods: A cross-sectional exploratory online survey created via Qualtrics, queried respondents on education level, students’ age, knowledge of adolescent vocal development, and practices of voice part assignment.

Results: Data collection is still ongoing. Preliminary results of 200 respondents revealed that 70% of respondents were not trained in assigning voice parts, despite the common practice of doing so. No factor for assigning voice part was chosen by more than 90% of respondents, reflecting a wide range of practices. Over half of respondents believed voice parts were assigned too early and all believed voice part could change over time. Respondents did not believe the voice to be fully matured until age 29 but paradoxically believed solo voice part could be appropriately assigned at 21 and choral voice part at 14. 25% of respondents had no lectures dedicated to adolescent vocal development, despite 93% teaching adolescents. Addressing adolescent psychosocial development in musical environments appears to be a multifactorial process.

Conclusions: There is a clear discrepancy between the typical age of voice assignment and the knowledge about the age of vocal maturation, with voice part assignment occurring prior to full maturation. The knowledge and training of voice part assignment appears highly varied. Integrating knowledge of vocal development into voice teacher training, including the physical and psychosocial impact of voice assignment, may contribute to vocal wellness and prevention of vocal injury.