Investigation of the Effect of Male Singing Model on Kindergarten Children’s Use of Singing Voice Achievement
Abstract
Replicable singing models are important as children learn to use their singing voices. Previous research indicates that for elementary school aged children a child model is most effective, then a female model, then a male falsetto model, then a male baritone model. In my work with preschool children in a more informal setting, I noticed that many of these children did not seem to have difficulties singing along with male undergraduate students. In a recent study I conducted, significant differences in male and female models were found, favoring the female model. However, gains in singing were not noted until the second half of the year and the male teacher was only part of instruction for the first half of the year. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a male singing model over an entire academic year of instruction on kindergarten children’s singing voice achievement. Kindergarten children (N=15, n=10) received informal music guidance once a week for 30-40 minutes from October to May from a team of two music teachers, one female and one male. The teachers sang together during activities, but sometimes the female teacher would take the lead; other times the male teacher. The Singing Voice Development Measure (SVDM) was administered four times during the instructional period. For each test time, the female teacher administered the test with her voice as the singing model; on a different day the male teacher administered the test with his baritone voice as the singing model. Two raters evaluated the randomized recordings of the children’s singing; reliabilities were acceptable. A 3-way repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant interaction by time and model. The children’s scores, quite high on the pretest, increased over time for both models except for the final text performances with the female model; one of these performances appears to be an outlier.
