Male music teachers and singing fathers: effects on and correlations with kindergarten children's singing abilities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to discover the effects, if any, of baritone and falsetto singing models on kindergarten children's singing range development and pitchmatching abilities. An additional purpose was to determine if there is a relationship between the amount of singing that fathers do with and to their children in the home and those children's singing range development and pitch-matching abilities. I investigated the following questions: (a) What effect, if any, does a male music teacher's use/nonuse of falsetto have on kindergarten children's singing range development? (b) What effect, if any, does a male music teacher's use/nonuse of falsetto have on kindergarten children's pitch-matching abilities? (c) To what extent does the amount of singing that fathers do with and to their children in the home correlate with those children's singing range development? (d) To what extent does the amount of singing that fathers do with and to their children in the home correlate with those children's pitch-matching abilities? Participants were 66 kindergarten children in four intact classrooms who received music instruction for 30 minutes once each week for 20 weeks. Two classes (n = 29) experienced a baritone vocal model during music instruction, while two classes (n = 37) experienced a falsetto vocal model during music instruction. Parents completed a revised version of the HOMES questionnaire (Brand, 1985) at the outset of the study to provide information about the children's musical home life. Vocal range development was tested using the Singing Voice Development Measure (Rutkowski, 1996). I tested pitchmatching accuracy of sol-mi patterns in a call-and-response song. Results of a MANCOVA indicated no significant differences in either pitchmatching or vocal development between the two groups; however, the results of a chi-square test indicated significantly more children in the falsetto group had success in singing over the break in the head register on the SVDM pretest (p < .00) and SVDM posttest (p = .01). The results of the HOMES indicated that the amount of singing that fathers did with and to their children in the home had multiple significant (p < .05) positive correlations with the children's scores in both pitch-matching and singing range development pre-, mid-, and post-tests. Based on the results, I recommended that male elementary music teachers consider using their falsetto ranges when teaching kindergarten children to sing in their head registers. In addition, fathers should be encouraged to sing with their children because it appears that the amount of singing fathers do with and to their children in the home positively correlates with those children's singing abilities.