Technology and Music Education In. Kindergarten and Lower School. Dawn E. Frazier. Houston Baptist University

Transcription

1 Technology and Music Education 1 Running Head: Technology and Kindergarten Music Education Technology and Music Education In Kindergarten and Lower School Dawn E. Frazier Houston Baptist University

2 Technology and Music Education 2 INTRODUCTION Have you ever been at a birthday party where some party goers felt uncomfortable singing happy birthday, or sat in church with the person next to you not singing the hymns with everyone else? One reason could be that those people have been told that they are unable to sing on pitch. One would think that Happy Birthday is a fairly standard piece of music which does not require a professional singer to sing that song, right? Perhaps a previous teacher or family member told them never to sing again because they were so awful. One option to improve this situation could be to conduct studies in pitch training. This could help foster confidence and knowledge in young students and adults. Thereby encouraging them to sing more freely. Those who are generally meek may feel that they sing poorly. However, it is not necessarily due to the fact that they have a poor quality voice, but perhaps only poor instruction (Thomasson 2007). LITERATURE REVIEW A person can be slightly off pitch and not be considered tone deaf. Tone deafness is defined as the inability to digest tone in one s ear resulting in the inability to reproduce pitch. Poor-pitched singing is the inability to perceive pitch relationships and is not necessarily tone deafness. According to Peter Pfordresher and Steven Brown (2007) there has been a recent discovery that a deficit in neurologically healthy individuals may exist. This musical perception deficit which has been also been named congenital amusia results in a situation where the individual happens to be impaired in terms of pitch perception but not with the basic aspect of hearing(perez & Hyde 2002).

3 Technology and Music Education 3 There are some fundamental musical terms that are related to the concept of poor pitch and tone deafness which will be used frequently throughout this report. It is important to understand the differences between these terms: Motor model is defined as using neurological events when deciding which pitch to sing (Miller 1926). Accompanied music has the harmonic parts against the melody while incorporating different rhythmic patterns and pitches. An unaccompanied piece of music is the opposite of accompanied music. Unaccompanied music is defined as a person singing or playing the melodic line with no harmony added. From the very beginning people are sound oriented. In the womb babies hear sound that is muffled, and when they are born the child can differentiate between its mothers voice from that of another female. How is this possible? Researchers have found the infant s preferences to sounds come from being attracted to human voices that they hear over and over. The baby forms a mental representation of the familiar voice after hearing it in a few repetitions (Ilari & Sundara, 2009). Melody and pitch can be learned in the same way, through repetition. Infants are able to store what they hear musically into their long term memory. In research conducted by Ilari and Sundara (2009), researchers had parents sit with their infants on their laps. The parents and researchers wore headphones to block the music. This method was used to avoid influencing the infants reaction. There were two versions of a song; each version was cut into 4 excerpts in second intervals. Each excerpt was started and stopped in the same spot. To break the infants attention from each excerpt, a light flashed several times. This was to reassure that the infants were paying attention to the different excerpts. The study included 16 trials, with 4 familiarization and 12 test trials. This method was used to ensure that the infants learned the association between the flashing light.

4 Technology and Music Education 4 Out of sixty infants, thirty-five listened longer to the unaccompanied version. Eight infants listened equally to both versions accompanied and unaccompanied. Seventeen infants listened to the accompanied version of the song. In general, the infants listened more to the unaccompanied version of the song. The study suggests that the infants found it more appealing to listen to the more simplistic styles as produced by unaccompanied music (Ilari & Sundara 2009). However, listening to music does not guarantee perfect pitch. A lack of precision in motor control could be the reason for poor pitched singing which is generally caused by defective phonation control (Pfordresher & Brown, 2007). If this is the case then the poor pitched singer would be reproducing the pitches and intervals randomly. In addition to randomly placing the pitches, a motor deficit could also include difficulty in producing pitch changes such as intervals like do mi sol. This is a result of the inability to stretch the vocal folds during singing. Large pitch intervals should be more difficult to produce where as the mono tone pitches should be easier. Pitch production should be centered around a generally comfortable level for the singer. Comfortable pitch areas lie predominantly around the speaking register of the singers voice. In the research performed by Pfordersher & Brown (2007), a motor model assisted them and became the basis of their research. Singing is a complex motor skill which involves degrees of freedom. The problem identified was that pitch discrimination was also prevalent. Therefore, the motoric or neurological observations were not the deciding factor of the problem. In congruence, with this motor model there was another model called the sensorimotor model which was to supplement what the motor model had missed. The sensorimodel relates to the senses, primarily the sense of hearing. Referring to the sense of hearing gave Pfordersher and Brown (2007) the ability to argue that tone

5 Technology and Music Education 5 deafness is not just a neurological deficit with perception or production but, the conversion of auditory pitch information to the appropriate vocal sounds. As a result, poor pitched singing is developed from an intrinsic miss-mapping of stored pitches onto motor gestures. These troubles primarily show through with vocal imitations in children singers (Howard and Angus 1998). Poor pitched singing is better described as out of tune singing and not tone deaf singing. One can experience a singer who is not very accurate and may be a couple decimals off the pitch. It may not be much, but it is just enough to be considered out of tune. According to an article on elementary level choral singing, anyone can sing (Thomasson 2007). The main idea in teaching children pitch is to show them correct pitches. Beginning at a young age, children need proper vocal modeling to ensure training of correct pitch. Children mimic what they see and hear. If the teacher provides poor vocal modeling the children will learn an improper method to sing. When approaching a child who is having trouble finding and matching pitch the teacher needs to be cautious and provide a safe environment to encourage them to succeed. If a child who is struggling with pitch is ignored, the child will develop a false sense of singing (Thomasson 2007). All children should be encouraged to find their singing voice and when one does it should be celebrated. To begin training the ear, children should be allowed to match pitch with a variety of timbres or sounds, the easiest being a vocal model, the teacher (Thomasson 2007). For a little more complexity students should attempt to match pitch with the piano, recorder or electric piano. Students should know what pitch is and what it means to sing on pitch. A couple of responses from Thomasson s (2007) classroom are as follows: ''Using our singing voices.'' --

6 Technology and Music Education 6 Ronald, Kindergarten; High and low.'' -- Kaitlyn, 1st grade ''If you're singing high pitch and low pitch.'' -- Karthik, 1st grade. As time and training progress children begin to notice a difference in the way they breathe and the way they sing. When taking a shallow breath the children notice that it is difficult to sustain a pitch or tone for a long period of time. This is the beginning of knowing and instilling the skills needed to sing beautifully and accurately. Once they work the exercises students will begin to realize and correct their own mistakes. Vocal exercises that address pitch accuracy include finding the pitch which the students are most comfortable with. By finding a comfortable pitch the students are more able to match the tones that follow (Miller 1926). The next step is to take the students slowly up the scale stopping on the pitches that they are having troubles with. When numbers are used to teach the students the pitches it gives them something to relate their singing to and allows a visual in their head of where the next step or pitch is. Using visuals in regard to teaching correct singing is beneficial and encourages accuracy. RESEARCH QUESTIONS The questions that need to be addressed are as follows: Is it possible for kindergarten level students to improve their pitch by using instruments? Will learning the definitions assist the students in matching pitch and training their ear? Will listening to a recording of the music help the children learn their songs more quickly and accurately?

7 Technology and Music Education 7 METHODS The participants in this study were kindergarten students at St. Thomas Episcopal School (STES) in Houston, Texas. The students were broken up into two groups, a control and an experimental group. The kindergarten classes are comprised of both genders. By the time the students reach first grade they are separated into their own classes. In the control group, teaching methods from previous years were used by the researcher. The experimental group ventured into new territory and started by singing simple patterns using numbers (methods demonstrated on a CD). This concept has worked well as observed in private lesson settings. It was interesting to see how effective it was in a group setting. The researcher used a piano and digital voice recorder to record students and prepare CD learning materials. Data forms were filled out by the parents and evaluated for additional input. The data included the amount of time practiced by each student. The researcher made a chart of the numbers and times the students drifted off pitch. Results were collected before and after training to see if the exercises made any difference. Using the digital voice recorder, the researcher recorded students at the beginning of lessons and provided a recording on CD for the children to work with. The recorded music was expected to help the students learn their pitches and music faster and easier. The first round of results was collected in November 2009 and the additional results will continue to be collected through the spring of Continued research will be performed on various age groups in the semesters to follow. At the beginning of the school year, the first week of school was dedicated to pitch training. While discussing pitch, the students learned the definition of the word. After learning

8 Technology and Music Education 8 what pitch meant, the students attempted to match the pitch that was given to them by the teacher. This was challenging for them at first. As the definition of the word was enforced, the students showed improvement in their pitch matching ability. Following the pitch definition discussions, the students worked with an electronic keyboard to match pitch. For pitch matching exercises, an electronic keyboard got the job done. Had a real piano been available, a one would have been used for its unwavering tone quality. In situations where no instruments were available, a teacher found that if they moved their hand in the direction the pitch should be, correct pitches were more quickly attained. These visual cues assisted the children in determining where they were high or low. As stated above, the St. Thomas Episcopal Schools kindergarten class was the focus of this research. The students and parents received a permission slip (see Appendix A) to participate in the research. Both kindergarten classes were required to sign a permission slip. The experimental group received the CDs on October 1, Families were asked to fill out a practice log (see Appendix B) to account for practice time. The time requested was three days per week for minutes a day. The control group received the CDs the first week of November which was one month later than the experimental group. The researcher worked with both classes in the same manner during school. The experimental group had the benefit to listening to the CDs in addition to singing work in class. During the experimental group s class, the work was equally as intense for the controlled group. During class, both groups worked on dynamics and other musical related topics with about fifteen minutes on the songs. To eliminate confusion among parents as to why some children received CDs and others did not. CDs were ultimately

9 Technology and Music Education 9 distributed to the control group in early November; which satisfied their wishes and thankfully worked in favor of the researcher. The point being that the experimental group had the CDs for a month longer than the control group. Findings The parents of the experimental class kept up with their children s practice time and logs. In the appendix, a sample of the log used is provided. Dates completed, and the average amount of time each child practiced was noted. Each child was expected to practice with their CD four times a week. The control class had the typical three days a week for 30 minutes a day in class. Overall, the experimental group did not learn the words and melodies faster. In fact, it was quite the opposite. The chart below is a visual depiction of the information collected over the course of research. Only 23% of the study participants returned documentation. % of Documents Received Documents Received Documents Not Received Complications 12% 23% 65%

10 Technology and Music Education 10 Average Rehearsal Time Per Student Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Student 6 Control Times Control Days Experimental Time (Average) Experimental Days (Total) When compared to the control group the experimental group did not rehearse as often. This is a contributing factor in lowering the results of the experimental group. Commitment of time with or without additional study aides was critical to the successful learning of the songs. The graph above shows the amount of rehearsal time across both sets of six student groups.

11 Percentage of Students Matching Pitch Technology and Music Education Pitch Matching Ability Expected Control Experimental September October November The Pitch Matching Ability graph shows progress over a period of three months by indicating the percentage of students who acquired the ability to match pitch successfully. The blue line (currently covered by the green line) represents the expected pitch matching ability of the all students. This is a baseline expectation. The red line indicates ability demonstrated by the control group and the green line reflects ability demonstrated by the experimental group.

12 Technology and Music Education 12 CONCLUSION Over the course of the research project (28 days) it was apparent to the researcher that some students in the experimental group were working with the CDs and some were not. Therefore, this research proved to be both a success and a failure. How can the success of the early CD distribution be truly realized if the students did not use them? For those that received CDs early the results indicate that it was of very little value for that particular group. The distribution of the CDs as a supplemental learning tool proved to be ineffective. At least, it appears so for two groups of kindergarteners. The experimental group had less than expected results while using the CDs. The control group completed their learning of music and pitch acquisition after only one week of CD distribution. Further research will be helpful in mastering the learning by CD method in general and with specific regard to the kindergarten level of education. Technology in the form of CDs, podcasts and MP3 players are great tools in assisting the learning of music. However, it should not be relied upon as a primary source for kindergarten music education. The younger age groups require added attention and require a teacher or parent working directly with them on pitch, dynamics and tempo in a controlled setting. Young children cannot be expected to learn a complete program from a CD. Professionally recorded music of mature singers should be avoided to assist with the completion of a learning program. The children can become too dependent on the voices they hear and may not want to sing out with their own voices. Some recordings use singers with a strong heavy-chesty mature pitch rather than one more appropriate for younger voices. If students mimic this singing it could damage their voices. To

13 Technology and Music Education 13 avoid this, the teacher with whom they interact should have recorded a CD for educational assistance. The effect will be different than using a random professional recording. Using voice sound clips as a reference and pointing to where the pitch is high or low helps the students to sing the pitch accurately. Their progress will increase rapidly with this custom-tailored approach. This research was designed to assist learning music faster and more accurately, as well as to increase self-esteem while singing. Pitch, words, diction, melody and rhythm are important elements within music. In order to learn all of this material in a short amount of time, recordings are a great tool. CDs aside, both kindergarten classes had elements of success in learning their music. The control group just seemed to do so without the early introduction of a CD study aide. As noted, the results of the research are somewhat mixed. However, it s fair to say that the additional use of technology for the control group in the final week helped lead that class in the advance of technical work on learning their music and finding pitch. Further, had the experimental group actually used the CDs, they most certainly would have improved more rapidly. Limitations Beyond the issues with students using the CDs and parents returning forms, there were some additional challenges that resulted from the research. Home recorded CDs do not always work in certain CD players. The digital voice recorder (DVR) that was used had an option of converting the files to the popular MP3 format. Using the DVR microphone made it challenging

14 Technology and Music Education 14 for some of the students to hear the words over the piano. Consider using an external microphone when using a DVR for educational tools. Two students out of twenty-three received CDs that did not burn correctly; both students received quickly new ones. The researcher ed both parents with the music as an attached document. This option on the composition allowed the student to be able to put the music on an MP3 player. The other challenge in using CDs was with regard to the children loosing the CD assigned to them. The experimental class had the opportunity to create their own CD case. Young students, especially kindergarteners need to have the sense of being involved and coloring on blank paper CD cases seemed to be a good method for accommodating them. This research was not cheap. CDs, jewel cases, DVR recorder, computer and software required for burning discs incurred a cost. Use of technology implies these items will be acquired. The children and parents agree that this was helpful in the learning process. Upon reflection, the researcher and children felt that the CD would have been more effective if the recordings were developed with an echo pattern which is the learning process used during class. In addition, breaking out the melodic piano solo and the melodic vocals/piano would have been more effective. Implications The incorporation of technology in music classrooms is becoming crucial. With so many students being over stimulated with technology such as video games and MP3 players, it is a must to stay up with the variety of ways music teachers can use technology as a teaching aide. Research indicates that this works better with students in the upper grades. Who is to say that

15 Technology and Music Education 15 kindergarten cannot use the same tools? Different groups of students under different circumstances may react more positively. I cannot emphasize enough that the assistance of parents when using this method is very important. Over time, technology aides will become more effective for lower school music classes. The practical use needs to be perfected before teachers can use CDs and other technology as a supplementary teaching tool. CDs are a great addition to teaching music, but it requires both the child and parental involvement to make it a success.

16 Technology and Music Education 16 REFERENCES Howard, D.M., & Angus, J. A. S. (1998). A comparison between singing pitching strategies of 8 to 11 year olds and trained adult singers. Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology,22, Ilari, B., & Sundara, M. (2009). Music listening preferences in early life: infants responses to accompanied versus unaccompanied singing. Journal of Research Education, 56(4), Miller, R. (1926). The structure of singing: system and art in vocal technique. Schirmer, Thomson Learning. Wadsworth group (1996). Pfordresher, P. Q., and Brown, S. (2007). Poor-pitch singing in the absence of tone deafness. music perception vol.25,issue 2, Thomasson, D. (2007). Elementary choral music: younger singers singing on pitch and with tone quality - it's elementary. Choral Journal 47:9, Peretz, I.,& Hyde, K. L. (2003). What is specific to music processing? Insights from congenital amusica. Trends in cognitive Science, 7,

17 Technology and Music Education 17 Appendix A September 14, 2009 Dear Parents, As your child s music teacher, I am very grateful for the opportunity to work with them every day. It is something I am very passionate about and love doing it. Currently, I am taking classes at Houston Baptist University and working toward my masters in education degree. As a requirement for one of my courses, I have been asked to conduct research with regard to how music is learned. I would like to request your permission to have your child to participate in this research project. Let me tell you a little more about the research. The concept is for me to evaluate various methods and of those which will result in the quickest and most efficient way for children to learn music. One class will be the control class and the other class will be the researched class. No child s name will be used in the completion of the research. The class that will be actively involved in the research will be learning the music primarily through the technology of recordings on CDs. The research will require the children to listen to the CDs at home in addition to our normal work performed at school. I would like the children to listen to the CDs around your schedule. The control class will be learning music in class and will not have the added assistance of the CDs. I have attached a copy of the research proposal to inform you a little more about the goal of the project. The goal of this project is to inform other music teachers of the most efficient way to teach music in preparation for concerts. If you agree to have your child participate, please sign the permission slip below for documentation of approval. Thank you in advance for your time and assistance! Sincerely, Dawn Frazier St. Thomas Episcopal School K-Bridge through 1 st Music Teacher frazier.dawn@stes.org (713) I give my permission for my child to participate in Mrs. Frazier s action research for music education project. Name: (Printed) Name: (Signed) Date:

18 Technology and Music Education 18 Appendix B Please fill in the practice time that the children have listened to the CD. This is the data portion of the action research project. I would like the results turned in on November 5 th Date: Begin Time End Time Thursday 10/8/2009 Friday 10/9/2009 Saturday 10/10/2009 Sunday 10/11/2009 Monday 10/12/2009 Tuesday 10/13/2009 Wednesday 10/14/2009 Thursday 10/15/2009 Friday 10/16/2009 Saturday 10/17/2009 Sunday 10/18/2009 Monday 10/19/2009 Tuesday 10/20/2009 Wednesday 10/21/2009 Thursday 10/22/200 9 Friday10/23/2009 Saturday 10/24/2009 Sunday 10/25/2009 Monday 10/26/2009 Tuesday 10/27/2009 Wednesday 10/28/2009

19 Technology and Music Education 19 Thursday 10/29/2009 Friday 10/30/2009 Saturday 10/31/2009 Sunday 11/01/2009 Monday 11/02/2009 Tuesday 11/03/2009 Wednesday 11/04/2009 Please sign and date at the completion of this assignment. Name: Date: