The use of the singing voice, vocal performance on songs, and music aptitude among first to fourth graders: A cluster-analysis approach

In music education, numerous studies have focused on children’s ability to sing in tune, investigating the influence of a wide variety of factors. Those included the influence of teaching songs with text or neutral syllable, showing inconclusive or contradictory results (Goetze, 1985; Jacobi-Karna, 1996; Levinowitz, 1989; Smale, 1987; Welch et al., 1995/1996); and children’s ability to use their full voice registers, which has been shown to be a separate but important requisite behavior to achieve singing accuracy (Rutkowski, 1990, 2015). Furthermore, the relationship between singing accuracy and developmental tonal aptitude has also been investigated, revealing different results. For example, using the Primary Measures of Music Aptitude, Jones (1993) found significant differences in favor of accurate singers, yet Hornbach and Taggart (2005) found no relationship between tonal music aptitude and singing achievement. Nevertheless, comparison across studies is limited because different procedures are used. To our knowledge, there are no studies investigating the relationship between these three factors.
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between three different measures among first to fourth graders: the use of the voice ranges (with text and neutral syllable, as measured by the Singing Voice Development Measure - SVDM); the performance scores on two songs (one taught with text and other taught first with neutral syllable, as measured by two researcher-designed performance rating scales, each one comprising the rhythm and tonal dimensions); and the Intermediate Measures of Music Audiation scores (IMMA) (tonal and rhythm aptitude tests). Research questions were as follows: (1) Is it possible to identify typologies of musical behaviors based upon performance (voice ranges, and song singing) and musical aptitude scores?; and (2) If so, does gender or age contribute to characterize those behaviors?
Children aged 6 to 10 (N=94) attending a city private school participated in a two-phase study. Phase one occurred over a period of seven weeks in general music instructional time presenting a song A with text and a song B with neutral syllable, adding the words after four sessions. In phase two, children were administered the SVDM individually and performances for both songs were recorded. The IMMA was administered in a group setting before the instructional period. Three raters evaluated the randomized recording of the children’s singing, both for the use of the singing voice with neutral syllable and text, and for vocal performances using a researcher-design performance rating scales.
A cluster-analysis was used to identify typologies of children based on the results of three different measurement tools. The results provided four distinct children-types: (a) low achievement/low aptitude; (b) high achievement/high aptitude; (c) medium achievement/low aptitude; and (d) low achievement/medium aptitude. The most differentiating variable was the tonal dimension scores for song A (the song taught with text) (F = 144.680). The predominant profile (N = 47; 50%) was the high achievement group/high aptitude, showing a higher predominance of girls and a higher predominance of second- and fourth-graders.
Implications for classroom activities are discussed as well as considerations about the assessment process and the measurement tools used.

References
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