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Abstract
The development of a music curriculum based on childrens' abilities requires the investigation of how children learn. Since children's singing and aural abilities have been found to be unrelated in first grade children, it seems appropriate to discover the effects of teaching tonal patterns that are either easy to sing, easy to aurally discriminate, or both easy to sing and easy to aurally discriminate on the singing and aural discrimination abilities of first grade children.
Pretest singing and aural discrimination tests were administered to four groups of first grade children. The experimental treatment involved students echoing Major tonic and dominant patterns on a neutral syllable for five minutes daily for seven weeks. Group One echoed patterns that were easy to sing but varied in aural difficulty. Group Two echoed patterns that were easy to aurally discriminate but varied in singing difficulty. Group Three echoed only those patterns that were both easy to sing and easy to aurally discriminate. Group Four served as a control group and received no special training. Posttest singing and aural discrimination tests were administered to all groups.
An analysis of covariance was used on the posttest scores to determine which if any of the treatments had a significant effect. Correlations between scores on the singing test and scores on the aural discrimination test were determined for the pretest and again for the posttest. Pretest and posttest correlations were compared to determine if any of the treatments effected the relationship of singing ability to aural discrimination ability.
Although no significant treatment effect was found, observed differences between the pretest and posttest means were apparent. Changes in correlations from pretest to posttest suggest that singing and aural discrimination abilities become more similar in students that echo patterns that are easy to sing and become less similar in students that echo patterns that are easy to aurally discriminate.
