Sight Singing with Individualized Real -Time Feedback The Efficacy of Singing Coach in the Music Theory Classroom

Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Harley, Heidi

Keywords

Sight Singing, Singing Coach, Real -Time Feedback, Visual Feedback, Auditory Feedback

Area of Concentration

Music

Abstract

Sight singing research in the past has focused on group achievement rather than individual sight singing ability. Computer technology can provide cost-effective, individualized feedback for singers, as well as visual feedback in a real-time format, which may be a helpful tool for students who want to learn to sight sing. This study examined the effect of visual, real-time feedback from computer-assisted musical instruction provided by Singing Coach (SC) on beginning music theory students� individual sight singing ability. Students practiced their sight singing skills in one of two feedback conditions: a traditional auditory control group (TA) or an experimental visual (EV) group. For TA feedback, the SC program played the melody as the student sight sang it, which emulated TA sight singing pedagogical practices that have students sing in a group. For EV feedback, the program provided the student�s current pitch as a blue tracking line overlaid onto the sheet music on the screen. Individual learning style preferences (auditory vs. visual) were controlled across groups and had no statistically significant effect on sight singing performance. The EV feedback group improved significantly in sight singing performance on a difficultycontrolled melody presented at the beginning and end of the course, whereas the TA feedback group did not. However, both groups performed similarly on the sight singing final tests of difficult, unfamiliar melodies. Practiced melodies were learned best when TA feedback was available.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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