Improvement in perceptual judgments as a function of controlled practice or training.

The literature on children's singing reveals that, for each age group, there are some children who cannot sing in tune. These children are labelled "poor pitch singers" (p.p.s.). The literature suggests that singing in tune is not simply a question of "can" or "cannot" but rather a continuum of skill with several degrees of competence. In general, the numbers of p.p.s. within sample populations declines with age, with boys outnumbering girls by 2 or 3 to 1.The customary method of treating this disability, although implying that improvement is possible, has only shown limited success.Reference to the psychological literature on feedback, however, suggests that, (1) learning can only take place when Knowledge of Results (KR) is present, and (2) variety of experience rather than repeated measures of the same kind may be more conducive to producing "novel" patterns of behaviour.Applying these findings to the mechanism of singing, a schema theory of how children learn to sing in tune is proposed, under which a...

A Schema Theory of How Children Learn to Sing in Tune

This study investigated the effects of melodic perception instruction on the auditory discrimination of pitch and vocal accuracy of kindergarten children. Sixty-one subjects were assigned to three different instructional settings for 11 weeks. E1 had vocal instruction designed to promote melodic perception through visual and kinesthetic reinforcement; E2 had vocal instruction consisting primarily of imitation alone; and C had a traditional, nonconceptual approach. Subjects were pre- and posttested on the Gordon Primary Measures of Music Audiation (Tonal Test), the Boardman Test of Vocal Accuracy, and a rote-singing test. Results showed that there were (1) no differences among groups in auditory discrimination, (2) significant differences on vocal pitch-pattern accuracy between E1 and C and E2 and C, and (3) significant differences in rote-singing accuracy between E2 and C.

Effects of Melodic Perception Instruction on Pitch Discrimination and Vocal Accuracy of Kindergarten Children

The following were investigated in this study: the effect of individual/small-group singing activities used within the traditional large-group setting on kindergartners' use of singing voice and de...

The Effectiveness of Individual/ Small-Group Singing Activities on Kindergartners' Use of Singing Voice and Developmental Music Aptitude:

During the course of this century many researchers into music and dimensions of the musical mind have examined the problems connected with singing. A variety of terms have been used to describe those unable to vocalise accurately. Fieldhouse refers to \"growlers\" and \"grunters\", i.e. \" ... children who persisted in singing out of tune\" (1937, p. 58). Bentley (1968, p. 9) prefers the term \"monotones\" as being less derogatory. By this he does not mean the child who only sings \"one single pitch sound\", but the child who has not \"coincidence at the unison\".

M. Wolner

Papers

An experiment in individual training of pitch-deficient children.