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Effects of sight-singing and listening on singing performance of children aged 6-11
Author
Lu, Victoria Lee Siew
Supervisor
Chia, Wei Khuan
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of programmed sight-singing and vocal modeling on the development of an appropriate choral sound in children choruses in actual field settings under experimental conditions. It also attempts to investigate two research questions: i) can regular practice of sight-singing during rehearsal improves the process of learning new songs? And, ii) can constant listening to good quality children's choir performance enhance pupils' singing quality?
Thirty children between age 6-11 were randomly selected and divided equally into experimental and control groups in this study. The samples of this study were drawn from the choir of Toa Payoh Methodist Church's Sunday School. For ten weeks, the experimental group was given a ten-minute training segment which consists of sight-reading practice and listening to good quality children's choir performance while the control group was having their weekly music theory in another classroom.
On the eleventh week, an evaluation was carried out using a Vocal Performance Evaluation From Royal Stanton's Steps to Singing for Voices Classes (1976). All thirty students, both experimental and control groups, were tested individually by the researcher.
The findings of the study showed that the ten weeks' training does not seem to lead to any substantial improvement of students' sight-singing ability. Perhaps longer training time is needed. On the other hand, this study did showed that constant listening to good quality children's choir performance had positive influence on their singing skills.
It is hoped that the findings of this research will encourage children choir conductors to adopt regular sight-singing practice as a means of improving their pupils' singing skills and also to consider introducing good quality children choir performances to children on a regular basis during rehearsal.
Thirty children between age 6-11 were randomly selected and divided equally into experimental and control groups in this study. The samples of this study were drawn from the choir of Toa Payoh Methodist Church's Sunday School. For ten weeks, the experimental group was given a ten-minute training segment which consists of sight-reading practice and listening to good quality children's choir performance while the control group was having their weekly music theory in another classroom.
On the eleventh week, an evaluation was carried out using a Vocal Performance Evaluation From Royal Stanton's Steps to Singing for Voices Classes (1976). All thirty students, both experimental and control groups, were tested individually by the researcher.
The findings of the study showed that the ten weeks' training does not seem to lead to any substantial improvement of students' sight-singing ability. Perhaps longer training time is needed. On the other hand, this study did showed that constant listening to good quality children's choir performance had positive influence on their singing skills.
It is hoped that the findings of this research will encourage children choir conductors to adopt regular sight-singing practice as a means of improving their pupils' singing skills and also to consider introducing good quality children choir performances to children on a regular basis during rehearsal.
Date Issued
2001
Call Number
MT870 Lu
Date Submitted
2001