Identificação de problemas vocais enfrentados por cantores de igreja

PURPOSE: to identify possible problems faced by gospel singers of Irati-PR. METHOD: we analyzed 42 questionnaires answered by singers from the church, which contained identifying information and a questionnaire related to 30 vocal problems that could be faced by the singers, both related to vocal health problems and the specific use of singing voice. The questionnaire is widely used in the Brazilian literature. RESULTS: the average value of these problems was 7.78. Women reported higher average number of vocal problems (mean: 9.65) than men (mean: 6.19). There is a statistically significant difference between them (p = 0.03). From the 30 questions, only one was not checked by any singer. The most cited vocal problems were: difficulties to reach high or bass notes (n=29;58%), shortness of breath to complete musical phrases (n=27;54%), tightness or ball in the throat (n = 25; 50%), feeling weak or too strong voice for choral singing (n=22;44%) and discord (n=18;42%). Moreover, it was observed that there is no increase of vocal problems as there is increase of age or singing time (p=0.003 and p=0.573, respectively). CONCLUSION: women reported more problems than men regarding voice use. The amount of vocal problems does not depend on age and singing time, this may indicate that the lack of technique can be harmful even for subjects who sing recently. The most frequent complaints seem to have more relation to lack of vocal technique.