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Singing and vocal development

Profile image of Graham WelchGraham Welch

2015, Oxford University Press eBooks

https://doi.org/10.1093/ACPROF:OSO/9780198744443.003.0024
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Singing and vocal development: Introduction Despite the warmth in the room as they shook the snow off their winter coats and gathered around the kitchen table, there was a collective sense of nervousness and, in some cases, unease that was barely touched by the hostess' cheerful manner and greeting. Outside, the dark of a Newfoundland evening had already descended and the hostess wondered if some of the wind's icy chill was reflected in the body language. This gathering was to be the first of several sessions for the group when things usually unspoken, sometimes hidden for many decades, would be allowed to surface. My biggest recollection is school, of course. You went to school, the first thing the nuns would say,-Anybody can sing. You'd go and you were embarrassed to tears because you knew you couldn't sing, and there was no help… I can remember, at least a full row, if not two, in the classroom choirs or the singing choir, that you were told to pantomime. You had to go to music, and you had to listen to all the words and be able to mouth it or lip-sync it like everybody else, but you were not allowed to sing and you weren't allowed to turn it down. (Knight, 2010, pp. 108-9, interview with C., aged 50) I remember playing skipping and singing on the street. I can't remember the tunes now… I don't think I ever really thought I couldn't sing until Grade 7 and the teacher and all my friends and I were in glee club and that was a major time, she stopped and said-Somebody is tone deaf here. She said-It's you Vic, you're tone deaf. She said-You don't have any notes, you just can't sing along with the music at all… I can see the class, I was sitting second row back and there were kids behind me, you can imagine how embarrassed I felt. From then on I just assumed I was tone deaf… I guess obviously it was traumatic, to remember after 30 years. (Knight, 2010, p. 125, interview with V., aged 47) Then in Grade 6 [age 11] … I stood up to sing it and she told me to sit down, that I couldn't sing. Well, I was devastated … I'm sure I wanted to cry. Of course you came home, it was no good of telling your parents at the time that something like this had happened to you… And she was such a powerful person in the community… It stayed with me for so long. It was so degrading at the time. Even in high school, if there was anything to do with music, I hated music … I didn't learn it. I couldn't learn it, as I thought … I'm sure that [incident] affected it, in a lot of ways … maybe she just didn't have the knowledge and it didn't come to her-'I am doing something that's going to affect this child for most of her life.' That's probably the way it was. (Knight, 2010, p. 91, interview with L., aged 42) Over the next few weeks and months, these adults shared many similar detailed, yet negative, memories, particularly associated with their former schooldays. Despite the passing of time, these episodes of childhood were vividly recalled. A sense of embarrassment, shame, deep emotional upset, and humiliation were commonly evidenced, usually accompanied by reports of a lifelong sense of musical inadequacy. For these particular Canadians, as for many other adults around the world in different cultural contexts, the associations between singing and childhood were not positive. Within the local Newfoundland culture, singing competency either as an individual or within a group has always had high status. Consequently, any perceived singing "failure" in childhood has often led to continued self-identify as a "non-singer" (see Knight, 1999) and has reinforced a cultural stereotype of a community that is divided in two: those who "can sing" and those who "cannot"-a status associated with emotional trauma, acceptance, and a sense of "irrevocability" (Knight, 1999, p. 144). Similar findings have been reported from other studies of adults in North America, the UK, and Scandinavia. Yet, despite such experiences, there are some adults who never give up hope of improvement and there have been several successful examples of specialist choirs being started for adult "non-singers" (Mack,

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  92. Welch, G. F., Himonides, E., Saunders, J., Papageorgi, I., & Sarazin, M. (2014). Singing and social inclusion. Frontiers in Psychology, 5:803, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00803.
  93. Welch, G. F., Himonides, E., Saunders, J., Papageorgi, I., Vraka, M., Preti, C., & Sarazin, M. (forthcoming). Children's singing behaviour and development in the context of Sing Up, a national program in England.
  94. Welch, G. F., & Howard, D. (2002). Gendered voice in the cathedral choir. Psychology of Music, 30(1), 102-20.
  95. Welch, G. F., Saunders, J., Hobsbaum, A., & Himonides, E. (2012). Literacy through music: A research evaluation of the New London Orchestra's Literacy through Music programme. London: International Music Education Research Centre, Institute of Education, University of London.
  96. Welch, G. F., Saunders, J., Papageorgi, I., & Himonides, E. (2012). Sex, gender and singing development: Making a positive difference to boys' singing through a national programme in England. In S. Harrison, G. F. Welch, & A. Adler (Eds.), Perspectives on males and singing (pp. 37-54). London: Springer.
  97. Welch, G. F., Sergeant, D. C., & White, P. (1996). The singing competences of five-year-old developing singers. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 127, 155- 62.
  98. Welch, G. F., Sergeant, D. C., & White, P. (1997). Age, sex and vocal task as factors in singing "in-tune" during the first years of schooling. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 133, 153-60.
  99. Welch, G. F., Sergeant, D. C., & White, P. (1998). The role of linguistic dominance in the acquisition of song. Research Studies in Music Education, 10(1), 67-74.
  100. Williams, J. (2010). The implications of intensive singing training on the vocal health and development of boy choristers in an English cathedral choir (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Institute of Education, University of London.
  101. Williams, B., Larson, G., & Price, D. (1996). An investigation of selected female singing-and speaking-voice characteristics through comparison of a group of pre-menarchial girls to a group of post-menarchial girls. Journal of Singing, 52(3), 33-40.
  102. Willis, E., & Kenny, D. T. (2008). Relationship between weight, speaking fundamental frequency, and the appearance of phonational gaps in the adolescent male changing voice. Journal of Voice, 22(4), 451-71, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2006.11.007.
  103. Wise, K. (2009). Understanding tone deafness: A multi-componential analysis of perception, cognition, singing and self-perceptions in adults reporting musical difficulties (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Keele University.
  104. Young, S. (2002). Young children's spontaneous vocalizations in free play: Observations of two-to three-year-olds in a day care setting. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 152, 43-53.
  105. Figure 24.2 Longitudinal data on 5-to 7-year-old children's (n=184) rated singing abilities (maximum accuracy rating=7) for a) words of target songs (two songs were assessed each year);
  106. deconstructed pitch elements of the same songs (single pitches, simple melodic contours (glides), and simple melodic fragments)
  107. Data from Welch, G. F., Sergeant, D. C., & White, P., The singing competences of five-year-old developing singers. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 127, pp. 155-162, 1996, Welch, G. F., Sergeant, D. C., & White, P., Age, sex and vocal task as factors in singing "in-tune" during the first years of schooling. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 133, pp. 153-160, 1997, and Welch, G. F., Sergeant, D. C., & White, P., The role of linguistic dominance in the acquisition of song. Research Studies in Music Education, 10, pp. 67-74, 1998.

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