MENC: The National Association for Music Education

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1 MENC: The National Association for Music Education Effect of Vocalization on the Sense of Pitch of Beginning Band Class Students Author(s): Charles A. Elliott Source: Journal of Research in Music Education, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Summer, 1974), pp Published by: MENC: The National Association for Music Education Stable URL: Accessed: 16/09/ :03 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. MENC: The National Association for Music Education is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Research in Music Education.

2 120/JRME EFFECT OF VOCALIZATION ON THE SENSE OF PITCH OF BEGINNING BAND CLASS STUDENTS Charles A. Elliott Studies have shown that wind instrumentalists tend to score lower on tests of aural acuity than do string players and pianists. Several explanations have been advanced to explain this deficiency among wind players. Research studies show that the students participating in both an instrumental and a vocal ensemble tend to score highest on tests of aural acuity. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the effect of daily vocalization practice on the sense of pitch of students in selected beginning band classes. The experimental sample consisted of six selected beginning band classes of heterogeneous grouping. The six groups were equal in size, academic achievement, and extracurricular musical activities. A pretest of pitch discrimination and tonal memory revealed the groups were similar with respect to these abilities also. There were three control groups and three experimental groups. Instructors for the control groups were allowed to conduct their band classes as usual throughout the school year. Experimental-group instructors conducted their classes in the usual manner except lo teach their students to vocalize previously designated pitches and exercises selected from the class text. A posttest given to all groups at the end of the school year revealed that: (1) Regular participation in band class resulted in improved pitch discrimination and tonal memory abilities. (2) Regular practice in vocalization during the band class had a significant effect on the sense of pitch of students in the experimental groups, who scored significantly higher on the posttest than the students in the control groups. (3) Brass and woodwind players were affected equally by the vocalization procedure. (4) Private piano study was a factor in the posttest results, especially on the test where subjects had to match musical sounds with notation. (5) Regular participation in an extracurricular vocal ensemble had little effect on posttest results. Key Words: aural discrimination, bands, brass-wind instruments, group instruction, instrumental music students, keyboard instruments, vocal instruction, woodwind instruments.

3 Elliott/121 Most performers and music educators agree that a highly developed sense of pitch is necessary for the aspiring musician. There is some research, however, to indicate that many wind instrumentalists are deficient in pitch acuity. A study by Stecklin and Aliferis revealed that wind instrumentalists scored significantly lower on the Aliferis Music Achievement Test (College Entrance Level) than did pianists and string players.1 It was concluded from this study that, on the average, wind players possess a less keenly developed sense of aural acuity than do pianists and string players. The Stecklin-Aliferis study also revealed that the single group of students possessing the most highly developed sense of pitch were those participating in both a vocal and an instrumental ensemble. There are several explanations for this deficiency among wind instrumentalists. Most wind instrument instruction is accomplished in classes, some of which are quite large. Thus, because of time limitations, the teacher is forced to concentrate instruction on the mechanical aspects of performance such as correct fingerings, embouchures, hand positions, and so forth. Other important areas of instruction may then be overlooked. Another possible explanation, offered by Stecklin and Aliferis, is that string players develop a keener sense of hearing ability than do wind players because, when playing a string instrument: "Tones are not made by pressing keys or valves, or covering holes; rather every shade of intonation is controlled by the sensitivity that the string performer's ear has on the placement of his fingers."2 With most wind instruments, however, a particular fingering is almost sure to produce the desired note. Therefore, a keen sense of hearing is not absolutely necessary in the production of tones on most wind instruments. Purpose As mentioned, wind instrument instruction is usually carried on in groups. Since pitch consciousness is a skill that should be developed by all instrumentalists, it would be desirable if a technique could be employed to give such instruction to large groups of students. Some music educators believe that the regular practice of singing during band class may be an influential factor in the students' development of a sense of pitch. Yagello advises instructors to select instrumental method books that have "compositions which lie within Ithe range of the voice," and to require every pupil "to sing them before attempting to play them."3 Mursell and Glenn have pointed out that, as control of pitch when singing is largely a mental process, regular vocalizing during the instru- 1John E. Stecklin and James Aliferis, "The Relationship of Instruments to Music Achievement Test Scores," Journal of Research in Music Education, Vol. 5 (Spring 1957), p. 14; Aliferis Music Achievement Test (College Entrance Level) (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1947, 1949, 1950, and 1954). 2 Stecklin and Aliferis, p Leo Yagello, "A Study and Evaluation of Class Instrumental Instruction Material for Elementary School Groups" (master's thesis, Duquesne University, 1956), p. 5.

4 122/JRME mental class may result in the players' increased ability to relate musical notation to sounds rather than to specific fingerings or slide positions.4 The purpose of this study was to discover the effect of regular practice in vocalization on the sense of pitch of the students in selected beginning band classes. The investigator's review of the related literature revealed that the term "sense of pitch" may take on various meanings depending on the context in which it is used. These various meanings were considered, and a composite definition encompassing four specific musical abilities was adopted. Sense of pitch is defined as one's ability to: (1) discern slight differences in the pitches of tones sounded consecutively; (2) recall correctly, after a brief interval, short melodic passages; (3) mentally convert sounds perceived aurally into musical notation; and (4) mentally convert musical notation in,to musical sounds. Procedure The experimental sample consisted of those students studying wind instruments in the beginning band classes in six selected public schools. At each school these band classes met for one period per day. Each class was heterogeneous, and each used the First Division Band Method (Parts I and II) as the class text. Three classes were designated as experimental groups and three as control groups. Only subjects completing both the pretest and the posttest were included in the sample. Ninety-seven sub- jects completed both pretest and posttest for the combined control groups, and ninety-nine completed these tests for the combined experimental groups. Comparisons of the combined experimental and control groups showed them to be similar in size, academic achievement, and participation in extracurricular musical activities. Items three and four of the given definition of sense of pitch are contingent upon the ability to read music. As all subjects in the six groups were beginning wind instrumentalists, the assumption could not be made that all were able to read music upon entering the class. Thus, a pretest was given during the first week of the school year to compare the experimental and control groups with respect only to items one and two of the definition. This pretest consisted of the pitch discrimination and tonal memory sections of the Seashore Measures of Musical Talents (1939 revision).5 When the students completed the pretest, instructors for the control groups were allowed to conduct their band classes as usual throughout the school year. Instructors for the experimental groups were asked to conduct their classes in the usual manner, with the following exception: 4 James L. Mursell and Mabelle Glenn, The Psychology of School Music Teaching (New York, Chicago, and San Francisco: Silver Burdette Co., 1931), p Carl E. Seashore, Don Lewis, and Joseph G. Saetveit, Seashore Measures of Musical Talents, 1939 revision (New York: Psychological Corporation, 1939).

5 Elliott/123 the students were taught to vocalize previously designated pitches and exercises (selected from the text) as they were encountered in the class. This vocalization was done on the syllable la and was preceded for the first few weeks by teacher demonstration. Throughout part one of the First Division Band Method, the selected exercises were played, vocalized, and played again. Throughout part two of the text, the exercises were vocalized before being played with only a starting pitch given. During the final week of the school year, a posttest was given to all groups. It consisted of: (1) the pitch discrimination and tonal memory sections of the Seashore Measures of Musical Talents; (2) an especially constructed test to measure the subjects ability to match music perceived aurally with musical notation; and (3) the third test of the Kwalwasser- Ruch Test of Musical Accomplishment, which measures the mental ability to convert notated music into musical sounds.6 In this test, subjects are presented a familiar melody, "America," and are asked to pick out those measures in which pitch errors occur. In addition to the posttest, all subjects were asked to complete a questionnaire. The information thus obtained was used to divide the experimental and control groups into smaller subgroups for further data analysis. Results An analysis of variance technique was used to compare mean scores of all groups. This computation was completed using the computer program ANOVAR.7 The design implemented by Program ANOVAR is basically groups-by-trials analysis of variance but when only one trial is involved it resolves to ordinary single-classification analysis of variance, and when only one group is defined (with multiple trials) the design becomes subjects-by-trials. Because with two groups of subjects single-classification analysis of variance is equivalent to the t-test for independent groups, this program will accomplish such purposes.8 Comparisons of the pretest mean scores showed that with respect to pitch discrimination and tonal memory abilities, the experimental and control groups were similar. Results of these comparisons are shown in Table 1. The combined control and experimental groups each scored significantly higher on subtests A and B of the posttest than on subtests A and B of the pretest. The results of the comparisons of these mean scores are presented in Tables 2 and 3. An analysis of the differences in the posttest means revealed that the experimental groups scored significantly higher than did the control groups on subtests A, C, D, and on the total scores. For subtest B the 6 Kwalwasser-Ruch Test of Musical Accomplishment (Emporia: Bureau of Educational Measurements, Kansas State Teachers College, 1939). 7Program ANOVAR is one of several EDSTAT compiler programs available at The University of Texas Computation Center for use with the CDC 6600 computer. 8 Donald J. Veldman, Fortran Programming for the Behavioral Sciences (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1967), p. 247.

6 124/JRME Table 1 Comparisons of the Control to the Experimental Groups on the Pretest Results Subtest A Subtest B Total Scores Table 2 Comparisons of Pretest to Posttest Results for the Control Groups Subtest A Subtest B Table 3 Comparisons of Pretest to Posttest Results for Experimental Groups Subtest A Subtest B mean score for the experimental groups was greater than for the control groups, but this difference did not reach the.05 level of significance. Table 4 gives the F-ratios and probabilities obtained by the comparisons of the control and experimental groups' mean scores on each of the four subtests and total scores of the posttest. Comparisons also were made between the brass and woodwind sections in the experimental groups. Generally, the brass players scored higher on the posttest than did the woodwind players. An analysis of variance of the differences in these mean scores, however, proved them to be nonsignificant. Thus, with respect to the posttest results, there were no significant differences in the scores of the brass and woodwind players in the combined experimental groups. These comparisons are presented in Table 5. Of the ninety-seven subjects making up the combined control groups, thirty-four reported studying piano privately. Twenty-eight of the ninety-nine subjects making up the combined experimental groups

7 Elliott/125 reported studying piano privately. When this private piano study was considered as a factor, the posttest results revealed that: 1. For subtest C (a measure of the ability to relate musical sounds to musical notation) and for the total scores, the pianists in the control groups scored significantly higher than did the nonpianists. 2. The pianists in the experimental groups scored significantly higher than did the nonpianists only on subtest C. 3. The pianists in the experimental groups scored significantly higher on the posttest than did the pianists in the control groups. 4. When the pianists were removed from the groups entirely, the experimental groups still scored significantly higher on the posttest than did the control groups. Table 4 Comparisons of Control to Experimental Groups on the Posttest Subtest A Subtest B Subtest C Subtest D Total Scores Table 5 Comparisons of the Brass and Woodwind Sections Within the Experimental Groups on the Posttest Brass Woodwind Subtest A Subtest B Subtest C Subtest D Total Scores Tables 6 through 9 present the comparisons of the above mean scores. In the combined control groups, twenty-two subjects participated in a vocal ensemble outside of the regular band class. Fourteen students in the combined experimental groups took part in outside vocal ensemble. However, vocal ensemble participation had little effect on the posttest results. That is, those subjects participating in an outside vocal ensemble scored no higher on the average than did those not participating in a

8 126/J RME Table 6 Comparisons of Control Group Pianists to Nonpianists on the Posttest Results Pianists Nonpianists Subtest A Subtest B Subtest C Subtest D Total Scores Table 7 Comparisons of Experimental Group Pianists to Nonpianists on the Posttest Results Pianists Nonpianists Subtest A Subtest B Subtest C Subtest D Total Scores Table 8 Comparisons of Control and Experimental Group Pianists Subtest A Subtest B Subtest C Subtest D Total Scores Table 9 Comparisons of Control to Experimental Groups with Pianists Eliminated Test Control Means Experimental Means df F Ratio Prob. Subtest A Subtest B Subtest C Subtest D Total Scores

9 Elliott/127 vocal ensemble. As was expected, those experimental group subjects who had participated in a vocal ensemble scored significantly higher than those control group subjects who had participated in a vocal ensemble. Results of the comparisons of these mean scores are presented in Tables 10 and 11. Table 10 Comparisons of Control to Experimental Groups with Vocalists Eliminated Test Means Means df F Ratio Prob Subtest A Subtest B Subtest C Subtest D Total Scores Table 11 Comparisons of the Vocalists in the Control and Experimental Groups on the Posttest Results Subtest A Subtest B Subtest C Subtest D Total Scores Conclusions On the basis of this study, it was concluded that regular participation in band classes will result in improved pitch discrimination and tonal memory abilities. An analysis of the results of subtests A and B (pitch discrimination and tonal memory) revealed that all groups showed a significant improvement from pretest to posttest on those variables. However, the improvement made from pretest to posttest by the experimental groups on subtests A and B was significantly greater than that for the control groups. Regular vocalization practice had a significant effect on the sense of pitch of the students in the experimental groups. As a whole, those students scored significantly higher on the posttest than did the students in the control groups. This difference was greatest on subtests C and D, in which the subjects were required to match music perceived aurally

10 128/JRME with musical notation and to convert musical notation into musical sounds. When the experimental groups were subdivided into brass and woodwind sections, there proved to be no significant differences in the posttest scores for these two subgroups. It was concluded, then, that the brass and woodwind players were affected equally by the vocalization procedure. Private piano study did affect the sense of pitch of the students in both the control and the experimental groups. This conclusion was most evident on subtest C, in which the subjects were required to match musical sounds with musical notation. This finding concurred with that of Stecklin and Aliferis-that is, pianists on the average possess a greater ability than do nonpianists to visualize music notation perceived aurally. There was, however, a greater difference in the scores of the pianists and nonpianists in the control groups than for the pianists and nonpianists in the experimental groups. It was concluded, then, that regular practice in vocalization during the instrumental class may compensate somewhat for the absence of private piano study. Regular participation in a vocal ensemble outside of the band class had little effect on the posttest results. Students participating in a vocal ensemble scored no higher or lower than those not participating. This was true for both the experimental and the control groups. However, it should be noted that the number of students participating in an extracurricular vocal ensemble was comparatively small Skyline High School Dallas, Texas