The influence of virtual reality on improving emotional expressiveness in vocal performance
Meitian Zhao
Abstract
This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of VR-based training in enhancing the emotional expressiveness of amateur vocalists, with a specific focus on how this improvement may be influenced by the participants' baseline emotional intelligence. The central hypothesis is that the immersive features of virtual reality facilitate vocal emotional development and that a singer's emotional intelligence level significantly moderates this effect. The VR program utilized in the study was specifically designed to enhance participants' emotional expressiveness. The program spanned 12 weeks, consisting of three one-hour sessions per week, and employed high-end equipment, including the Oculus Rift S virtual reality headset, Sennheiser HD 600 headphones, and Alienware Aurora R8 computers equipped with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 graphics processors. The study has a quasi-experimental design, the participants were 109 students from a private music school in Beijing. Emotional intelligence (EI) was measured using the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). The level of emotional expressiveness was determined through blind expert assessments before and after the 12-week VR program. The results showed a significant improvement in singing expressiveness after the course. There was a strong positive correlation between the EI levels of students and their emotional expressiveness of performance both before and after the intervention. Moreover, the study highlights the importance of a basic EI level in maximizing the benefits derived from immersion and interactive interventions within vocal training. The article continues the global discussion about how psychological differences affect the quality of music education and actualizes the discussion about the role of EI in the training of vocalists.