Chapter 1

Introduction

Background of the study

Music is said to be a universal language that all nation with different races,

cultures, and faiths understands regardless of which mother tongue music is expressed.

However, the question is “What does the music mean? Adam Neely (2018) explained to

his YouTube vlog featuring Leonardo Bernstein entitled “What does music mean”, that in

everyone’s daily lives, people never had to ask this kind of question which is in fact they

already know what music is and isn’t and it is actually reflects your emotional state,

culture or identity. In short, music delivers message that supported and compared to a

descriptive sentence. Coming from the same vlog, Leonardo Bernstein, an outstanding

conductor in America, gave an example of him saying, “Oh, I burnt my finger!”, from that

statement, it will give the listeners an idea that he burned his finger, that it hurts or he

may not be able to play piano ever again. From a simple statement expressing a

thought, the listener can conclude ideas depending on their interpretation that is most

likely experienced in interpreting music.

People often listen to music as if it was pierced in living. Wherever they go,

whenever it is and in whatever they do, music plays in which most of the great and

famous singers they idolized sang. Music is an art form whose medium is sound.

According to Riya Haria (2017), “Art is a simple three-lettered word that has a broad

definition. Creating something without words, something that speaks to people. Art is a

language of its own”. Music itself with or without a contribution of a poem indeed portray

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a story that is being conveyed and relatable to anyone listing to it. Perhaps it do not

deliver verbal message directly, it doubtless tells something that the listener understands

within his/her heart with their personal basis. Maybe this leads the music to be known as

a universal language. However, a bassist and YouTuber Adam Neely also explained the

relationship between Language and music to his talk at Austin Convention published by

Landry Allred (2019), saying “Language is the universal music”. How ironic to the

statement “Music is a Universal Language”. He also said that, “The rhythm and

language are so intertwined.” How is it possible? Knowing that language has no musical

characteristics, Human ear do not actually tend to recognize the occurrence of melody

and rhythm as the language is uttered but it actually exists in every and any form of

speech from anyone in the world. Adam Neely also explain that when you repeatedly

play a speech, it tricks the human brain and starts hearing the melody. It was fascinating

to discover that the music is living everywhere not only produced by sounds from any

musical instruments but also from having only a speech or even a talk to somebody.

Both interpretation to music are very meaningful. Though it contradicts each to one

another, however it deepens the meaning of music in all ways.

Most of the famous songs of different genres are being recognized together with

the singer who interprets. However, beyond people’s knowledge, music undergoes the

process of composition or people mostly known as songwriting in which the

composer/songwriter imparts musical knowledge and experiences to produce a

wonderful music that will be played in many cities and countries all over the world.

Singers are being recognized more than the songwriter who puts the song in to

existence.

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 Being the singer of the written song means that you must be capable of

interpreting the song. It maybe through his life’s experiences but also has the vocal

strengths and techniques that helps express the story behind the song he/she is

interpreting. People thought that vocal lessons or singing lessons are only for the

beginners who are mostly in a young age but that is not true. Some famous and great

singers are still taking singing lessons inside the Philippines or abroad. Singing lessons

are the perfect way to reach your full potential. It enables you to train and strengthen

your voice that will help you to stay in tune. Your vocal range will expand, in turn leading

to a wider variety of songs that you can perform. An example of the famous singer

locally is Regine Velasuez- Alcasid. After she gave birth to his son, she had slight loss of

memory that includes her knowledge about singing. Moreover, she stated to an interview

published in ABS-CBN News (2019) that the reason why she took singing lessons is she

has needed to re-learn what she learned before and because of her vocal status due to

her age she has to learn new techniques in order to perform on stage and remain as one

of the top singers locally. So did other local and foreign recording artists.

In order to achieve vocal’s full potential as well as to develop song writing skills,

Voca-Composer, a music mobile application, will help singers, aspiring singers and

songwriter to develop the skills they needed in their field. Vocal capacity in terms of

loudness, range, steadiness, and control and to enhance listening capability in order to

execute tonality perfectly for singers and aspiring singers and practice songwriting for

songwriters. Trainings may be done without the help of a vocal teacher and can be

improved the singer’s capacity as if vocal coaches, trainer or a choir conductor is

present through the use of Voca-Composer and at the same time you can enhance your

skills in songwriting while doing it repeatedly.

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 In the year of pandemic Severe Acute Syndrome Coronavirus2 (SARS-CoV-2) or

Corona Virus Disease (Covid-19) year 2020 when thousands and thousands of people

were deceased and suffered caused by the tragic pandemic. Under the community

quarantine, music served as the source of hope that inspired and has been inspiring

people living in the world to keep their faiths burning and continue the life that the creator

has given despite what the world is going through. Many singers, choirs, orchestras,

composers and other musicians uploaded and shared an inspirational song so the social

media to spread inspirations and hope even to some televisions programs that televised

musicians playing and sing song for everyone. Music could change the humanity from

strife to harmony and could lead them to peace.

Overview of the current state of Technology

Mobile application is well known in the world of technology. It has been

integrated into so many aspects of living such as entertainment, educational, health

awareness, organizational, institutional, as well as in business strategies and even is

integrated as a source of living etc. The presence of these technologies has brought

users in a world where you can access anything anywhere using mobile phones at

hands. You can shop, entertain yourself, find references for your project, hear and watch

the current events happening elsewhere and so many other things that satisfy your

interests.

In the time when technology continually change and foster, when most of the

tricky and difficult jobs became simpler that is no longer requires tons of effort,

intelligence and work force in order for it to be accomplished. Many corporations,

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organizations, institutions, small businesses and every individual adopted technology to

help improve services, to earn a living that helps increase the economy of the nation and

most certainly, it gives enjoyment in the time of loneliness and boredom. Technology

had been embedded in everyday living of most of the people in every corners of the

world; at home, in school and universities, factories and production establishments, at

office and even can be seen on your way down to anywhere in the world. That is how

much the technology become important to people.

Mobile phone is the most widely used technology. It is a pocket-sized wireless

telephone, which can perform different tasks and in which communication is possible,

access to internet for entertainment and as well as a reference for educational purposes.

Since mobile phones are every individuals’ most used technology, different types of

businesses, institutions, and organizations developed mobile applications that give their

customers and clients a real time and quick access to their services.

Mobile application has been integrated to any tasks, specifically has been

integrated to music. The researcher was trying to integrate another music learning to a

mobile application. There is an application has already been integrated to music in the

field of singing, playing instruments as well as in composing a music piece. These kinds

of application has been very useful for a musician. The effectiveness of these kind of

applications are shown directly as the users take reviews of the said application that can

be seen and downloaded at Google Play Store.

In line with the study, proper vocal and ear training can be enforced under the

supervision of a music teacher, conductor or a choirmaster because proper execution

must be precise. Wrong execution may cause vocal damage. Specifically for choir, they

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sing together as one and aims to sound as one and one that has vocal damage can ruin

their performance. These trainings are important all the time before rehearsals or

performances. But what if the vocal coach is not available? There are applications that

are available online like 7 Minute Vocal Warm-Up, an android mobile application that

consists of different trainings such as breathing, vocal warm-ups, recovery, and vocal

cool down. Each has exercises that are classified under its purposes and difficulties.

Nevertheless, this application doesn’t assist singers to be used to harmonization that is

very important for a singer and a choir. Voca-Lis supports vocal warm-ups that enhances

vocal capacity of a singer as well as harmonization that improves singing in harmony

with other singers, which can be achieve in having two or more instruments or persons

that play or sing different musical notes at the same time to produce pleasing sound.

On the other hand, applications like Finale -a computer software- and

Ensemble -a mobile application- both are music composition compiler were developed

for the purpose of music composition. Those applications help composers/arrangers

compose and arrange their own music that satisfy their passion and ambition. Finale is

the perfect computer software for composers. It minimizes their time spent and efforts

exerting and can instantly play every notation, accidentals and repetition that was input

with his preference on which sound of instruments to be played whether string, wind or

percussion instrument from natural sound to synthesized sounds and it has an

adjustable volume for each staff. Finale produces portable document format (PDF) of the

composed or arranged piece, audio of the actual piece as well as musical instrument

digital interface (MIDI) and many more file format. Ensemble a mobile application similar

to finale. It can also instantly play the actual arrangement of a composer but some

properties of musical notations are not supported by this application such as adjustive

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volume, some accidentals like fermata, multiple repeats with different endings, change in

key signature, change in time signature, tempo adjustments in progress, and lyrics input.

The researcher wanted to develop a mobile application that is closely productive

as the said mobile and computer software application. This would help the users to

compose and arrange as their will without putting so much efforts and help singers

especially choristers to practice and train themselves in a more convenient and

economic friendly way.

Statement of the problem

Generally, the study aims to resolve issues that a musician are

experiencing and to help them to practice themselves in a more convenient and

economic friendly way using a Voca-Composer, a mobile music application for

composing and vocalizing.

Specifically this aims to resolve common issues that a composer experienced

such as the following:

 Problems encountered by a composer, specifically the newbie composer in

terms of:

o Teaching manually the piece to a singer, an orchestra, or to a choir

will take too much time.

o Manual composing/arranging caused confusions and have to play it

with the instrument in order to hear the sound and harmony before

considering revising.

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 o Composing can only be done somewhere where the instrument is

placed or with the use of pencil and paper.

 Problems encountered by singer and aspiring singers in terms of:

o Improper vocalization conducted by an assigned person due to

absence of a music teacher.

o Morning performances requires extreme vocal warm-ups that

sometimes did not performed because of late comers whether the

conductor or singers due to far distance.

o Trying to rehearse and perform vocalization at home cannot be

possible without patterns of solfeggio to be followed. Otherwise, may

ruin ear capacity that may detracts from tone recognition.

o Vocal trainings require piano that is fully functioning. Piano

unavailability may skip them perform vocal warm-ups that are eminent

especially for a choir.

Objective of the study

Generally, the study aims to improve time, quality and musically wise in

performing compositions or song arranging and to diminish improper practice of

preparation to rehearsal and performances. More specifically, this aims the following

objectives:

 Help composers and newbie composers in terms of:

o Provide audio file, portable document format and musical instruments

digital interface to listen and visualize the actual piece.

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 o To help composers to hear exactly the sound of their work and directly

revise with his preferences.

o Help composers to compose in a more convenient way that they no

longer need instrument, pen and paper at their hands to perform

compositions whenever and wherever they are

 Eliminate some gaps that may disregard vocal warm ups in terms of;

o To enable singers perform vocalization whether the music teacher is

present or absent.

o To enable singers to vocalize anywhere anytime.

o To enable singers to perform vocalization with different solfeggio patterns

that all proper note execution available.

o To enable singer to perform vocalization without piano.

o Enhance listening skills of the user portably even without the presence

and supervision of his/her music teacher.

Scope and Limitation

The study focuses on the effectivity of Voca-Composer, A mobile application for

composing and vocalizing and as follows:

Scope of the study

User

The application supports one user level where a user can access

all of its functionality.

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o Composing

The user is able to generate his own composition

using the application and as follows:

 Different sounds of instrument

The user can choose which instrument’s

sound will be used, whether a wind, sting,

percussive instrument, ensemble or more.

 Music Score

The interface of the actual composition is

the same with the actual music score where the

composer will fill each measures and staffs with the

note and some other musical symbols making the

user feels like a real and experienced composer.

 Saving file

The user can save the file inside the

application or save as a MIDI, PDF, and Audio file.

o Vocalization

Aside from composing, the user will be able to

practice vocalization.

 Exercise

 Breathing

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 As the foundation to singing, vocal

warm up stars at breathing. In order to

develop breathing, duration continually

getting more complex as it was performed.

 Vocalizing

The user can perform vocalization

from basic to advance to expert. Difficulty

varies on the improvement of the user.

Limitation of the Study

o Composing

 The user cannot open a file from different

application.

 Unable to download compositions in the internet

 Cannot compare user’s composition from other

compositions

 Sounds of instruments are limited, instruments

which are often used only.

o Vocalization

 User cannot connect to the internet to download

other exercises according to preference.

 User cannot compose his own vocalization

o The application will be an S-Type mobile application.

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Methodology

In this part of the research, this presents the System Development Life

Cycle Methodology that the researchers applied in conducting the research. It also

presents the functions of the methodology. System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Methodology refers to the project management model that consist of different stages

which focuses on realizing the project requirements involving planning, gathering data,

designing and prototyping, software development, testing, and implementing that help a

the developers and the researchers to systematically accomplish the project

development in fast and convenient way.

Design of the Study

Figure 2: Spiral Model for Voca-Lis: a Vocalization and Ear training application for
Spiral
Model
Phase 1
Phase 2
Determine Identify and Resolve
Objectives Risk

Phase 4 Phase 3
Review and Plan the Development and
next Test
Iteration
singers and aspiring singers

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 Figure 2, shows the Spiral model as the software model. Spiral Model is an

incremental risk oriented life cycle. However, it has allowed the developer to iterate his

current accomplishments, which provides support for risk handling. The capability of a

spiral model to pass through over again to its phases, helps the researcher build a

software in a good manner without large issues. The developer can pass through the

different phases until the project risks eliminated.

The Spiral model is divided into 4 (four) - Determine Objectives, Identify and

Resolve Risk, Development and Test, and Plan the next Iteration, phases or much

called quadrant which aims to reduce found risks and problem until was eliminated.

Each phases are categorized accordingly and correspondingly. There is no chance for a

developer go back to it’s preceding phase but to follow the spiral flow and pass through

sequentially.

Determine Objectives

In this phase, will gather the requirements of the system. From there, the

researcher will plan out what are the objectives of the system, what would be its

functionalities and design.

Identify and Resolve Risk

In this phase, all the possible solutions are evaluated to select the best possible

solution. Then the risks associated with that solution is identified and the risks are

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resolved using the best possible strategy. At the end of this quadrant, Prototype is built

for the best possible solution.

Develop and Test

In this phase, the identified features are developed and verified through testing.

At the end of the third quadrant, the next version of the software is available.

Review and plan for the next Phase

In the fourth phase, the Customers evaluate the so far developed version of the
software. In the end, planning for the next phase is started.

Significance of the Study

The output of the study will benefit to the society especially to those who are

dreaming and wanting to learn and enhance their singing capacity. Some people can

afford hiring vocal teachers and coaches to train them, but some people do not.

Moreover, knowing the insufficient knowledge of a singer to practice vocalization as

preparation to the upcoming performances, the Voca Lis app is ready to fill those gaps.

Specifically, this will benefit the following:

Composer – composition can be done without paper, pen and an instrument at hands

but a phone that has Voca-Composer.

Singers and aspiring singers – help train their vocals without the presence of a vocal

coach.

Vocal Coach – using the application, he/she no longer be depending on his piano to

train his/her students.

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Future Researchers – the study can serve as a reference to conduct his/her own

research.

Reference

Landry Allred (2019), “YouTuber Adam Neely explores language as universal music”
retrieved from https://thedailytexan.com
ABS-CBN News (2019) Regine Velasquez continues takes take Vocal Lessons, retrived
from https://news.abs-cbn.com
Adam Neely (2018)" What does Music Mean?" retrieved from https://www.youtube.com
Riya Hariya (2017) “What art means to me” retrieved from https://www.hercampus.com

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