SINGING IN TUNE: INSIGHTS FROM MUSIC EDUCATORS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCHERS

ANA LUISA LOURO SANTO

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MUSIC YORK UNIVERSITY, TORONTO, ONTARIO APRIL 2012

Ana Luisa Louro Santo

SINGING IN TUNE: INSIGHTS FROM MUSIC EDUCATORS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCHERS

by Ana Luisa Louro Santo

a thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of York University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Permission has been granted to: a) YORK UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES to lend or sell copies of this thesis in paper, microform or electronic formats, and b) LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA to reproduce, lend, distribute, or sell copies of this thesis anywhere in the world in microform, paper or electronic formats and to authorize or procure the reproduction, loan, distribution or sale of copies of this dissertation anywhere in the world in microform, paper or electronic formats. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the authors written permission.

ABSTRACT
This thesis is an interdisciplinary examination of the reasons people may sing out of tune. The first chapter is an analysis of interviews with four singing teachers. Common themes include a strong focus on discovering ways to remedy the problem and a belief that everyone can be taught to sing in tune with enough effort and the right methods. The second chapter makes a case for visuospatial deficits as one possible cause of out-of-tune singing, and describes the results of a research experiment that examines this hypothesis. Results show that those with amusia appear to have a deficit in visuospatial working memory, and that out-of-tune singers who lack the pitch-perception deficit present in amusia do not have this deficit, highlighting the separability of the two conditions. The third chapter explores the differences between qualitative and quantitative research and makes suggestions for bridging the gap between music researchers and music educators.

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To Alexandra and Maya

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to express my thanks to my supervisor Rob van der Bliek. Your guidance along the entire process was invaluable, especially in the early stages of organizing and planning. Also, I gratefully acknowledge your decision to supervise such a multi-faceted and interdisciplinary work in the first place, especially when no one else would come near it! Similarly, I would also like to thank the other member of my committee, Mary Desrocher. Your kind suggestions and advice on the psychology-related aspects of this thesis were vital in helping me explore exactly what I wanted to without having to compromise. I would also like to thank Nicholas Cepeda and James Bebko for their consultation during the early stages of this work. Your comments and suggestions played an important role in helping me get started. To Reid Olsen, Brian Piper, and Shane Muellerthank you for your extraordinary patience and numerous back-and-forth e-mails in helping me figure out how to use the PEBL software. I am very grateful! To Hugh McCague at the Institute for Social Research thank you for your calm, patient, and detailed help with the statistical analyses. Your contributions are greatly appreciated. To Jennifer Andricola, Robert Abbott, and especially Alycia Panagopoulos thank you for your meticulous help in preparing the manuscript, for being my hands, and for never balking at yet another scribbled page in urgent need of transcription. I could not do what I do without you behind the scenes. To Barbara Muskatthank you for your unquestioning faith in me, for cheering me on, and for supporting me through the more difficult times. It means so much to me. I would also like to express my appreciation and thanks to the interviewed teachers who shared their thoughts and experiences. Your comments are an invaluable part of this work, and I am very grateful for the time you took out of your busy schedules to sit and speak with me. Also, my thanks to all the participants in the experimentresearch like this is only possible with people like you!

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To Catherine Day, Renata Todros, Karen Rymal, Catherine Robbin, Norma Burrowes, and Lisette Cantoneach of you has nurtured and trained my voice in your own way. You have all inspired me, given me confidence, and taught me to never be content with mediocrity. I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart, because each of you has uncovered an aspect of my voice I never knew was there. To Laura, Matthew, Alycia, Laurie, Elvira, and Cathythank you for all your support during this process and for being there when I needed you. Your friendship and understanding of me means more to me than I could ever put into words. And finally, to Matthew Keitzmy outlier. Without you, I never would have even thought to try. Thank you for believing in me.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................... II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................... IV TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................. VI LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................... VIII LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ IX INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 Experience of music educators .................................................................................... 2 Amusia ......................................................................................................................... 3 Disconnect between music researchers and educators................................................. 4 The current project ....................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 1: SINGING AS A PEDAGOGICAL CONCERN ..................................... 8 Interviewing teachers ................................................................................................... 8 Results.......................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 2: A CLINICAL LOOK AT OUT-OF-TUNE SINGING ......................... 29 Normal development of musical ability ..................................................................... 29 Amusia: A deficit in pitch perception ........................................................................ 32 Etiology of amusia ..................................................................................................... 34 Amusia and the brain ................................................................................................. 34
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Speculation about amusia subtypes ........................................................................... 35 Is amusia music-specific? .......................................................................................... 38 Rationale for the current study................................................................................... 47 Hypothesis ................................................................................................................. 49 Methods ..................................................................................................................... 49 Results and Discussion .............................................................................................. 60 CHAPTER 3: BRIDGING THE GAP .......................................................................... 71 Limits of a traditional experiment.............................................................................. 71 Bridging the gap between music researchers and music educators ........................... 73 Usefulness of experiments ......................................................................................... 75 Usefulness of interviews/case studies ........................................................................ 77 Helping those with musical learning disabilities ....................................................... 78 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 80 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 85 APPENDIX A: EDUCATORS ..................................................................................... 95 APPENDIX B: MBEA DISTRIBUTIONS ................................................................ 136 APPENDIX C: PARTICIPANT DETAILS ............................................................... 137 APPENDIX D: EXPERIMENTAL DATA ................................................................ 144

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LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE 1: CORSI FW/BW START SCREEN ........................................................................ 54 FIGURE 2: CLOCK TEST START SCREEN .......................................................................... 55 FIGURE 3: MENTAL ROTATION TASK SAMPLE .............................................................. 56 FIGURE 4: MATRIX ROTATION1ST SCREEN AND COMPARISON EXAMPLE .......... 57 FIGURE 5: MATCH TO SAMPLE1ST PATTERN AND COMPARISON .......................... 58 FIGURE 6: MALE AND FEMALE MEANS ON CORSI BACKWARDS (TOTAL) ............. 63 FIGURE 7: GROUP BOX PLOTS FOR CORSI BACKWARDS (TOTAL CORRECT) ........ 65 FIGURE 8: MBEA M. SUBSCALE CORRELATION WITH CORSI BW (T. CORRECT) ... 69 FIGURE 9: SCORE DISTRIBUTION OF MELODIC (TASK 1) AND RHYTHM (TASK 2) SUBSCALES.................................................................................................................. 136

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LIST OF TABLES
TABLE 1: OUT-OF-TUNE AND IN-TUNE RATINGS ........................................................ 141 TABLE 2: CONSOLIDATED PARTICIPANT CHARACTERISTICS ................................. 142 TABLE 3: MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS FOR EACH GROUP ON ALL TASKS ........................................................................................................................... 144 TABLE 4: ANOVADEPENDENT VARIABLE BY GROUPS .......................................... 144 TABLE 5: MULTIPLE COMPARISONSCORSI FORWARDS (BLOCK SPAN) ............ 145 TABLE 6: MULTIPLE COMPARISONSCORSI FORWARDS (TOTAL CORRECT) .... 146 TABLE 7: MULTIPLE COMPARISONSCORSI FORWARDS (MEMORY SPAN) ....... 147 TABLE 8: MULTIPLE COMPARISONSCORSI FORWARDS (TOTAL) ....................... 148 TABLE 9: MULTIPLE COMPARISONSCORSI BACKWARDS (BLOCK SPAN)......... 149 TABLE 10: MULTIPLE COMPARISONSCORSI BACKWARDS (TOTAL CORRECT)150 TABLE 11: MULTIPLE COMPARISONSCORSI BACKWARDS (MEMORY SPAN) .. 151 TABLE 12: MULTIPLE COMPARISONSCORSI BACKWARDS (TOTAL) .................. 152 TABLE 13: MULTIPLE COMPARISONSMATCH TO SAMPLE .................................... 153 TABLE 14: MULTIPLE COMPARISONSCLOCK TEST ................................................. 154 TABLE 15: MULTIPLE COMPARISONSMATRIX ROTATION .................................... 155 TABLE 16: MBEA MELODY SUBSCALE SIGNIFICANT CORRELATIONS WITH VISUOSPATIAL TASKS .............................................................................................. 156

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TABLE 17: MBEA RHYTHM SUBSCALE SIGNIFICANT CORRELATIONS WITH VISUOSPATIAL TASKS .............................................................................................. 156 TABLE 18: MEAN SCORES ON ALL TASKS BY GENDER ............................................. 157 TABLE 19: T-TEST FOR EQUALITY OF MEANS BY GENDER ...................................... 157 TABLE 20: RAW PARTICIPANT TASK DATA .................................................................. 158

INTRODUCTION
The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it. Kahlil Gibran

We can probably all call to mind a rendition of Happy Birthday that made us cringe, when someone was singing quite obviously out of tune and seemed not to care that their pitches did not match the intended notes, or even the pitches of those around them. Typically, we refer to such poor singers as tone-deaf, and some of these individuals even proudly declare how unmusical they are. Strangely, others seem to be completely unaware that they cannot sing in tune. Out of tune singing is not only a problem during the occasional birthday gathering, however. Elementary school teachers have to deal with this problem on an everyday basis, especially with very young children who are not yet able to consistently sing in tune for a variety of reasons: their parents dont sing at home, their music exposure is limited, they lack confidence, they associate negative emotions with singing due to being silenced by adults, etc. (Smith 2006, 28). Whether or not an out-of-tune singer is aware of the extent of their
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deficit, the inability to sing in tune may cause mild embarrassment in some individuals, and significant distress in others. People who sing out of tune are often asked not to sing at all. This is especially distressing to some children, who feel singled out among their peers. Some teachers even go so far as to tell children to just mouth the words, rather than try to sing (Smith 2006, 28).

Experience of music educators

Music educators and writers on music education have attempted to grapple with this problem by relying on their personal teaching experiences. Many say that singing in tune does not, in fact, come naturally, and that all children need to be taught to sing in tune. One writer reports that in his experience, up to two-thirds of children cannot sing in unison (Lyon 1993, 20). Another writer claims that children and primitive peoples tend to sing the fourth slightly sharp and the seventh slightly flat. (Russell-Smith 1967, 43). The development of muscular co-ordination is also seen as an important precursor to singing. Often, the problem is seen as one of motivation. A teacher who wrote about her experiences with eighth-grade singers said that students often sing out of tune because they dislike the music and do not make a serious effort, or because they insist on singing a voice part not suited to their voice. She also says that the problem sometimes comes from the parents, who boast about their

childs lack of musical ability, instead of responding with concern, as they would for other subjects, and encouraging the child to try harder (or obtain remedial help) (Bradely 1965, 49). Others have suggested methods for tutoring these out-of-tune singers. Some have proposed graduated methods (Bridgehouse 1978, 53), such as eartraining exercises of progressive difficulty (Bradely 1965, 53), but there does not appear to be a standard method for aiding out-of-tune singers, only trial and error adapted to the individual students progress. Still others have proposed that tone-deafness does not exist (Kazez 1985, 46; Smith 2006, 30), and that almost all children can be taught to sing well with enough persistence, although a small few may have some form of hearing disorder that interferes with their ability to match pitches (Kazez 1985, 47).

Amusia
The term tone-deaf is used colloquially to describe poor singers. While this term suggests that these individuals have faulty pitch perception, it is typically used to mean that they have faulty pitch production (i.e. they cannot produce the correct notes when they sing) (Pfordresher and Brown 2007, 95). Congenital amusia, on the other hand, is a term proposed to refer to a developmental disorder that is characterized primarily by a deficit in pitch

perception (Foxton et al. 2004). Amusic individuals have difficulty not only singing in tune, but also recognizing familiar tunes. This disorder occurs in the presence of otherwise intact cognitive abilities, and appears to have a genetic origin (Peretz and Hyde 2003, 363). Because amusics have difficulty perceiving differences in pitch smaller than two semitones (Hyde and Peretz 2004, 357; Peretz 2008, 331), they are unable to acquire the tonal structure of the musical culture they were born into. (Even infants as young as six months appear to have acquired sophisticated pitch processing that surpasses an amusics ability (Burns 1999, 252).) As a result, music does not make sense to amusic individuals, because they perceive it as a series of unrelated tones that their minds are unable to tie together into musical phrases. The Montreal Battery for the Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA) has been developed to detect amusia, and to differentiate amusics from those who merely have singing problems but can otherwise perceive music normally (e.g. Cuddy et al. 2005). For the purpose of this project, the author will be using the terms tonedeaf and amusic to refer to these two separate conditions; the former refers to deficits solely in pitch production, and the latter to deficits in pitch perception.

Disconnect between music researchers and educators

The knowledge of amusia does not seem to have made it into the

general knowledge of music educators, possibly because the research is still very new. This suggests two underlying problems. The first is that cognitive deficits (such as amusia or other learning disabilities) are not something the average music educator is concerned with when teaching music. Schools and teachers are generally unaware that musical disabilities might exist (Peretz and Hyde 2003, 364). The second concern is that although psychological researchers have amassed a considerable amount of information about a disorder that is musically relevant, this information has not made it into the hands of music educators, whom it could certainly help. This problem is highlighted by Hodges, who writes that neuromusical research either appears in scientific journals in language that is too difficult for non scientists to easily read and understand, orin the popular press in such a watered-down fashion that actual facts may be distorted or obscured (2000, 17). His article goes on to discuss a few interesting neuromusical research findings, presenting them to educators in an accessible way. While attempts like Hodges are worthwhile, they do not address the larger concerns that have been identified: disabilities that affect music learning do exist, and the research on them is largely inaccessible to some of the people that could benefit most from the information. It seems that musical research in general, even research that is meant to aid the teaching of regular students,

does not have much of an effect on actual teaching practices. For example, Haston reports that although there is an abundance of literature highlighting the benefits of performance skill modeling, teachers only use modeling about 10-25 percent of the time (2007, 26). The problem of bridging the gap between researchers and educators is compounded by the fact that the tasks used in psychological research are seen as divorced from actual music-making, so there may be a mistrust of researchers making conclusions about music, especially if they are not musicians themselves (Phillips 2008, 3). Whatever the reasons for the disconnect between the two disciplines, it seems a worthwhile goal to try and close the divide, so the two may benefit from each others knowledge.

The current project

The current project is a multidisciplinary attempt to collect different kinds of data on the problem of out-of-tune singing. Chapter 1 will discuss the information collected from interviews with four singing teachers, and analyze common themes among them. It will consider their thoughts alongside what music education researchers have already written about the challenges involved in helping out-of-tune singers. Chapter 2 will be written as a typical psychology research experiment, reviewing the current available literature and then exploring one specific hypothesis regarding a possible reason for out-of-tune singing. This experiment

and write-up will also serve as a case study of research experiments in general. Chapter 3 will present an examination of the findings from both of the above two very different attempts to gather data. Difficulties encountered during the process will be addressed. It will also include a discussion of how music researchers and music educators can better communicate with each other for the purpose of aiding out-of-tune singers.

CHAPTER 1: SINGING AS A PEDAGOGICAL CONCERN

The human voice is remarkableit enables us to communicate not only with words and language, but also with various non-verbal sounds such as laughter, crying, sighs, and of course music. Music itself seems to be innate (Patel 2008, 386), starting from an infants playful cooing to the instinctive motherese of new parents, and nature has provided us with a built-in instrument that is capable of expressing an astonishing array of musical sounds and phrases. The art of singing has been studied in a systematic way since as early as the second century AD (Mason and Wigmore 2012). Todays singing teachers are just as passionate about the subject, and there is no shortage of books, conferences, workshops, journals, organizations, classes, and other methods of sharing and discussing different methods of singing instruction.

Interviewing teachers
To find out some of the current thoughts of those who teach singing today, interviews were conducted with four individuals who teach singing in some capacity: an elementary school teacher, two high school teachers, and a

private voice teacher. The teachers were recruited through personal connections and all teach in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Teachers were asked a variety of questions about their experiences with out-of-tune singers. They were asked to detail specific experiences, explain teaching methods, and provide their thoughts on the concept of tone-deafness. They were also asked about the ease of accessing current research being done in music education. Appendix A includes transcriptions of the four interviews, as well as further details about each teacher. Quotes from each of the four teachers (identified in the text by the letters A through D) are excerpted from these interviews.

Results
The following provides a condensation and summary of many key observations and insights gleaned from the four teacher interviews.

TEACHING METHODS
Even though these four teachers taught a variety of ages (from fouryear-olds to adults), they shared many of the same thoughts on the problem of singing in tune and how best to help their students. The three teachers from the elementary and high schools all agreed that

singing together with others is important for helping those who struggle with pitch-matching. One of the high school teachers (Teacher C) told the story of a young boy who struggled severely not only with matching pitch, but also with hearing differences between pitches; one of her methods for helping him was to recruit a friend of his of the same voice part, and have him sing along with the other boy during his remedial sessions with her. The elementary school teacher (Teacher A) told a similar story, of a little girl who wanted so much to improve her singing that she would spend her recesses with a friend and practice singing with her. The other high school teacher (Teacher B) believes that this is such an important method that she rarely works with these students individually anymore, and instead encourages them to join the choir and participate in sectionals, where they sing together with their own voice part. She even records herself singing each voice part (from a choral piece) individually and emails her students the digital file, so they can practice at home. She says this is vital, especially since many of her current students cannot play the piano or sight-read musical notation. Another method that most of the teachers have employed with out-oftune singers is playing notes on the piano and asking the student if they can discriminate between them. Many of the students struggle a great deal with this initially, and are incapable of telling whether one note is higher or lower than

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the other, even when the intervals are several tones apart. The teachers described the painstakingly slow process of improvement (several months or longer), starting with very wide intervals and training the student to hear the difference, and then gradually moving on to intervals that are closer together. Teacher A, as a teacher of younger children, had many ideas for working with this population. She said that letting children physicalize music helps them free their singing voices and relaxes them: ...when you get fabric and you let them dance around and sing, they love that. She also noted that, especially for children with learning or reading disabilities, the visual requirements of deciphering notation on a musical staff can be quite difficult. She has found that using giant staff paper and marking the middle line in red is a huge benefit to these children in helping them sight-read music. Interestingly, Teachers B and C pointed out that out-of-tune singers often benefit from being taught how to listen for and find the first note. Often, if that note is off, the rest of the song is off; if the first note is correct, the rest tends to follow.

FACTORS AFFECTING THE SINGING VOICE

The general consensus among the teachers interviewed was that they didnt believe anyone was truly tone-deaf, to the point of being unteachable. All the teachers seemed to put a great deal of energy, thought and personal time

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into aiding students that struggle to sing in tune. They have also come up with many different hypotheses to explain why some people may struggle more than others with pitch-matching. One point made by almost all of the teachers was that singers sometimes have trouble producing the right notes because they cantfigure out what their singing voice is. As Teacher A points out, children have difficulty differentiating and coordinating between their singing voice and their speaking voice. They also run into difficulties by trying to copy the singing voices of others (i.e. popular music entertainers) whose singing ranges do not match their own, making it even harder to produce the correct notes. Teacher C mentioned something similar about the boy she struggled with, saying Maybe he just doesnt know how to use his vocal apparatus to sing the right pitch; the private voice teacher (Teacher D) expressed the same concerns as well, and works extensively with her students to help make them aware of the way they are shaping their mouths and using their face, throat, and diaphragm muscles. All of the teachers mentioned correct breathing and posture techniques. They highlighted the importance of this when working with their students, with Teacher B making a helpful comparison: Singing isnt just opening your mouth and having notes come outYou wouldnt find a runner who all of a sudden just goes and runs a marathon without warming upfor singers, our

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preparation is proper breathing. They also cited emotional stress as a factor that can affect control of the voice and therefore the proper production of notes. Teacher D spoke extensively about the importance of being aware of physical problems that can contribute to out-of-tune singing. In her practice, she has encountered people with heart problems, thyroid illness, pregnancy-induced hormone changes, acid reflux, allergies, and premenstrual tension, all of which have caused dramatic effects on their singing voice. For younger boys, the hormones associated with puberty also have obvious dramatic effects on the voice as it changes. Teacher C said that other teachers recommend not singing during this period at all, so as not to cause vocal damage; she personally doesnt agree with this, and says that it is better to just have an awareness of the issue and accommodate the boys when necessary, usually by exempting them from singing particular notes they are having trouble reaching or controlling. While these physical factors affected pitch production, in most cases the singer was aware of the difficulties. Nevertheless, if physical concerns can wreak havoc even with a good singers best intentions, it is easy to imagine how a poor singers difficulties would only be compounded by a lack of awareness of how to control the body for correct vocal production. It is possible that out-of-tune singers who have intact pitch perception abilities may have some sort of motor coordination difficulty. This has already been

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proposed by Pfordresher and Brown (2007, 95). Teachers C and D have succeeded in getting an out of tune sound to suddenly become in tune, simply by asking the student to change the vowel they were singing. Sometimes a different vowel puts a note totally off pitch, said Teacher D. The importance of getting a student to stop and become aware of their vowels, mouth shape, breathing, posture, and tension, is something all teachers mentioned. Teacher D told the story of a young woman she worked with for a long time; the student had severe difficulties matching pitch and singing in tune. Teacher D worked with her extensively on singing technique and body awareness, and got to the point where, with constant vigilance during lessons and stopping her every time she sensed something was about to go wrong, she could get her to sing fairly well. However, it seemed to be quite difficult for the girl to do this on her own: take her out in public or go to do an exam, and she would merrily just carry on, think about having fun with the song, and just slip every timeshe couldnt get rid of it. It is extraordinarily difficult to pay attention to every moment of sound production, especially when someone has already taught themselves to sing one way and needs to unlearn it. Teacher C compared this challenge to learning a second languageyou can be made aware of the different ways you need to shape your mouth to produce a word

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correctly and get the word right, but to do so consistently would take a vast investment of time and energy. Perhaps some singers find this process more difficult than others, just as some people have a natural affinity for language and others do not; this could explain their difficulty responding to their teachers instructions. Teacher B tries to slow down the singing process and allow students to become acutely aware of what theyre doing. This process, which she learned from another teacher at a conference, is called audiating: often, if you say, youre not in tune, fix it, they keep singing. They dont stop and start again, they just keep singing and get louder. So I say, Stop singing. Step number one of audiating, you have to listen. And Ill play the note, a few times. And they have to listenSometimes Ill make them do it with their eyes closed. So they really hear the note. And then Ill say, Step two, breathe and pretend you are singing but dont sing. Go through the process of singing but dont do it and Ill play that note instead.So its like they go through the motion and they dont sing but they hear me play. And then the third step is to sing. Every single time, it works. They get the note. This active listening process, as well as active engagement with and awareness of what ones body is doing, seems to be an important point for all the teachers.

FAMILIARITY WITH MUSIC

Both Teacher A and Teacher B noted that there are often children in their classrooms who grew up in different musical cultures. These children
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may have difficulties properly hearing or singing music based on Western major and minor scales if, for example, they grew up singing and listening to music that contains quarter tone steps. Teacher A also pointed out that some parents simply do not sing at home with their children or expose them to much music at all. This can affect a childs ability to produce correct notes while singing, especially when they are still very young.

HOW OUT-OF-TUNE SINGING AFFECTS THE ENSEMBLE

Many adults who have trouble singing in tune have a similar anecdote: when they were in school, their teachers told them to sit in the back row of the choir, or, even worse, sing fish (mouth the words without sound). Teachers A and B both mentioned how traumatic this can be, especially for a young child. When asked how they dealt with out-of-tune singers in a performance situation, each teacher had her own way around the problem. Teacher B spoke of the way she moves individual singers around, based not on where they will be heard less, but rather on what will be best for the individual. For example, when she had an alto who had trouble staying in tune, she moved her to the very edge of the altos, away from the sopranos and the men. With another singer, she moved her to the very front row, because what she needed was for the sound of the choir to come into her ears from behind. Teacher C explained

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that, before a competition or something, [if] you dont have time to work with the personI have to admit that I will say Mouth this for a moment. This allows the student to be involved in the performance but acknowledges their difficulties. Younger students raise different concerns. Teacher A, who works with very young children who are just getting to know their voices, dismisses the concern entirely, saying that the most important thing for the children is to feel the enjoyment of singing: Let them just sing, who cares?

THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

This focus on the enjoyment of music, rather than on creating a perfectly polished performance is something all of the school teachers emphasized. As Teacher B put it: Im very passionate about [enjoying music] and I think maybe because Im so passionate that passes on to the kids and they understandthat this is a joy to be here singing and who cares? We dont need to be the best at it. So long as everyone is happy and enjoying what theyre doing, Im happy. The teachers spoke of the importance of making sure the classroom environment is a safe place, where students feel comfortable taking risks and being vulnerable. As Teacher B pointed out, [Our voice is] the one instrument we carry with us for the rest of our [lives]you have a job, a responsibility to help. She even carries out trust exercises with her students at the beginning of
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the school year, to make sure they all feel very comfortable with each other. She explained that sometimes, students with pitch-matching problems will not sing out, and that makes it difficult to correct the problem. By making it feel very safe to sing, she counteracts this tendency. She will even ask one of these students if they would like to help demonstrate the problem to the rest of the class. By addressing the problem in this way, she alleviates the embarrassment and provides confidence for the student. Not only does she take the time to be aware of the problem, she also normalizes it by explaining that it is a common problem and reassuring the students that it is fixable. Teacher A also tries to make the classroom environment a very comfortable and safe place for her young students. She explains to them that singing is like taking a chancewhen you take a chance, you take it with everyone there with you. Its not like youre there out on your own, were there to support you. She says that making music is a huge risk, even for children, and that teachers have to make [the classroom] a safe place for them to share who they are. Your voice is a very personal thing. Teacher C similarly spoke of the importance of a very inclusive classroom, and highlighted the benefit of including other aspects of music in the classroom besides singing and music theory. She understands that students become more engaged with music in general if the curriculum allows them to

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chose which aspects of music they engage with. She gives them this freedom to explore by providing a variety of instructional methods, musical examples, and opportunities to research music that is close to them. She also pointed out the importance of the teachers mental state, which can affect the students: Of course when you are tired, you have less passion for your subject, and this affects the students engagement. Even Teacher D, with her private students, understands the importance of the social environment on someones ability to sing in tune. She stresses that it is not always wise to push a student who is having an emotionally difficult day (i.e. because of a failed exam or breaking up with a boyfriend), and that it can be better to wait for another day. The teachers said they take measures to make sure that teasing is minimized or avoided. Teacher B goes so far as to impress upon her students that something as subtle as glancing over at a friend when someone is singing out of tune will stay with that person forever. All of the school teachers reported very low levels of teasing around out-of-tune singing. Teacher A explained that by the second grade, everyone is already used to each others singing voices, and Teacher C expressed her confidence that our society in general has shifted away from that kind of environment: we are in a different era; everything has to be equal; everything has to be accepted. And I think we are in beautiful times when there is no wrong. Whether the absence

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of teasing in these teachers classrooms is truly a cultural shift or just evidence of the teachers passion and tolerance reflected in their students, it is an encouraging thought that, despite the ever increasing reports of school bullying that we hear about in the media, the music classroom may be one small place where everyone can risk exploring this aspect of themselvestheir voice without fear.

MUSIC EDUCATION MORE THAN JUST THE RIGHT NOTES

While all the teachers were very interested in helping their students sing in tune, some also expressed the belief that music education is not just about getting students to sing perfectly or having polished, professional performances. Teacher B explained that it is rare if even one of her students ends up studying music at the university level, so her purpose is not perfection in performance, but something else: Im trying to train my students who are going to have music with them for the rest of their lives. So they can go to choral concerts and listen and be able to say, Oh, listen, the tuning was not quite right there, or Oh, listen to that chord, its perfectly in tune, or even to just enjoy it, just close their eyes. I have a former student who wrote me that he doesnt sing anymore but he goes to every [University] choral concert there because he said hes meant to be in the audience and just know the beauty of it. Teacher A pointed this out too. She is trying to give her students basic music literacy, not only as a skill in and of itself, but so they can use that skill
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to appreciate and enjoy music. She exposes them to different instruments, musical cultures, dancing, composition, etc., as well as teaches them how to recognize intervals and how to read musical notation: Enjoyment of music is for everybody. Its not just for people with great voicestheres a musical soul, so thats what you want to feed. Its the poetry, theyre seeing the world, theyre expressing it through music and everybody can do that. She also believes that getting children involved in performances is important, so they can see the work that goes into them and feel a sense of accomplishment. Sometimes, if she knows a child really needs it, she will take that into consideration when they audition for a performance, because she thinks it is important to give kids a chance, to feed that musical soul; singing all the right notes is not as much of a concern. Even Teacher Bs marking scheme reflects this philosophy. She grades students on seven categories (diction, breath control, posture, etc.). Someone can come in and not be able to match pitch [but if she is] doing her vowels, enunciating each of the consonants, has her rhythms and cut-offs very precise, [does] the dynamics as marked, [has] good posture, she can still score [a high mark], easily, without singing the right notes. Teachers B and C both mentioned the importance of the music classroom for students who have learning disabilities. Teacher B pointed out that the vocal classroom can make an enormous difference for students who are

21

usually ...just sitting there in a math class with people there putting up their hands and answering, and for them its like hearing the teacher speak a different language. Their self-confidence takes such a beating. [But then] they come here and they can do something. It makes a world of difference for students. She also believes music is a reprieve for students who have traumatic things going on in their lives. Teacher C echoes this belief: Music is quite a phenomenonI think music helps in all kinds of situations, mental, physical, anything.

PARENTAL AND SOCIETAL VIEWS TOWARDS MUSIC EDUCATION

The importance of music education in the publics mind has changed considerably since Plato wrote of the necessity of universal music education (Hoffer 2009, 9). At present, one is most likely to hear music education being mentioned as the first choice for funding cuts. It is evident that these teachers have a passion not only for the teaching of singing but for music education as a whole. They seem to approach their subject, whether consciously or not, from the philosophical viewpoint of educating the whole person (Gerber Jr. 2001, 36). They touched on some of the problems with the education system today, including the lack of funding to music programs due to music being considered a frill or unnecessary subject.

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Some students, even those enrolled in vocal classes, do not take the subject seriously, and even if they do have problems matching pitch, it is a lost cause trying to help them not because they are unteachable, but simply because they do not put in the effort. Many parents do not show the same interest in their childs singing ability as they do in their reading or mathematical ability; however, in schools where parents do value the importance of music education, as at Teacher As school, the program definitely benefits, because the parents demand it. Teacher A also mentioned that when the school is a feeder school for high schools with big music programs, it also translates into a bigger and better elementary school program. Teacher C said that while some parents dont have an interest in what their child is doing in their music class, many do, and are excited to hear that their son or daughter can sing really well, or does not sing well yet but has a lot of potential. She says that she wont take no for an answer if there is a situation where a parent might disagree with their childs choice to choose music as a course.

HOW TEACHERS ACCESS CURRENT RESEARCH

The most prominent concern voiced by all of the school teachers when asked about their ability to access current research was that they simply did not have enough time. The life of a school teacher is occupied by many other tasks besides teaching and it seems music teachers have even more commitments

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than teachers of other subjects. Besides teaching and other various projects teachers are required to be involved in, there are also performances, competitions, and choral rehearsals. Sometimes music teachers are even asked at the last minute if they can prepare a performance for a school assembly. All of these things mean teachers usually get home late in the evenings, and after tending to their families, hardly have any time for themselves, let alone for exploring research. Another concern expressed by the school teachers was that they did not even know where to go to access the kind of research that might be beneficial to them. All four teachers did mention conferences as a primary source of information and interaction with other teachers, but these places seem to have more of a focus on practical skills and techniques. Newspapers and television programs were mentioned as places they sometimes ran across recent research. An on-line community for music teachers was mentioned by Teacher B, but she lamented the changes recently made to the site, which made it more difficult to access. Teacher C mentioned a journal that she used to receive in the mail that she found very informative, but was recently changed to e-mail only, which made it more difficult for her to access.

WHAT OTHER TEACHERS ARE SAYING

Writers in the field of music education have very similar things to say as

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the four teachers interviewed for this project. The importance of individual accommodation when teaching children to sing has been written about (Merrill 2002, 50), as well as the belief that all adults and children can be taught to sing in tune with enough focused effort (Lyon 1993, 59). The state of music education in schools is also a topic of great concern, with a 2005 Canadian report finding that 20 percent of the music programs in Quebec and 21 percent of the music programs in Ontario had experienced declining enrollments in the past two to three years. (Kratus 2007, 42). There seems to be a general feeling among music educators that tonedeafness does not really exist, and that all children and adults can be taught to sing in tune (e.g. Kazez 1985, 46; Lyon 1993, 59; Smith 2006, 28). Information about congenital amusia does not seem to have yet made its way into most writings about singing education (to the authors knowledge), although the problem was recognized and written about in Music Educators Journal as early as 1948 (Cox 1948, 62). This is understandable, as the research on amusia is still quite new. However, it would be beneficial for music educators and writers on music education to be aware of this music-related disorder. One article mentions several reasons why children may have trouble singing in tune, and these echo some of the same thoughts expressed in the

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interviewslack of exposure to music, improper singing technique, etc. (Smith 2006, 28). A comprehensive review on research related to the teaching of singing was done by Phillips in 1992. He writes of the importance of breath control and posture and makes comments similar to what the interviewed teachers spoke of (569). He also discusses the importance of pitch discrimination as a prerequisite to singing, and mentions that some out-of-tune singers may have deficiencies in tonal memory (553).

MUSICAL DISABILITIESUNANSWERED QUESTIONS

Perhaps it doesnt matter if teachers have an awareness of musical disabilities.1 It is quite obvious from the interviews that these four teachers have an inexhaustible passion for their subject and are willing to invest great amounts of time and energy to help their students sing well, by tailoring their approach to each individual students difficulties. Even a student with a regular disability trying to learn math or reading could not ask for better help than this.

Besides amusia there are other learning difficulties that can affect the learning of pitches and other musical information. For example, children with general learning disabilities have been found to have trouble with pitch-matching (Mozingo 1997) and tonal memory (Bergendal and Talo 1969). Children with dyslexia have difficulty with the rapid processing of music (Forgeard et al. 2008); children with language disorders may have trouble processing the rapid information required for music learning (Tallal et al. 1991); and Hbert and Cuddy (2006) have suggested that some individuals have such extraordinary difficulties learning to sight-read musical notation that the difficulty be referred to as music dyslexia. 26

However, there are still stories of countless adults who gave up on music and singing long ago because their difficulties were too much for their teachers, or because, despite their teachers best efforts, they were unable to figure out how to help. Even the teachers interviewed here had a few stories of their own: Teacher D spoke of a girl who she worked diligently with for quite some time, yet in the end her pitch problems refused to go away. Teacher B worked privately with a friend who really wanted to sing, and despite improvement, he never got to the point where he could match pitches all the time. And then there are stories which defy explanation, like Teacher As father who cannot sing in tune at all but can nevertheless whistle perfectly in tune. Individually tailored trial-and-error interventions seemed to work for many of these teachers students, and the teachers all had very insightful guesses about why their out-of-tune singers had so many difficulties. Nevertheless, the problem of out-of-tune singing persists for many adults who were either not so lucky as to have a concerned music teacher stumble on the right way to help them, or who gave up on music entirely due to extreme discouragement or frustration. If the origins of out-of-tune singing were better understood, it might provide clues to developing better interventions for all. The next chapter will look at the current understanding,

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and then examine one possible reason for out-of-tune singing.

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CHAPTER 2: A CLINICAL LOOK AT OUTOF-TUNE SINGING

The interviews provided a rich source of information on individual examples of out-of-tune singers and the variety of interventions implemented by their attentive teachers. While this information is invaluable, it is also important to explore this topic in the available research literature as well. The following is a review of relevant research related to out-of-tune singing and attempts to understand the problem through a researchers point of view. A psychological experiment, testing a particular hypothesis related to out-of-tune singing is conducted, explained, and discussed.

Normal development of musical ability

A common misconception about musical ability is that it is often thought to be something innate, possessed by a special few. It is also common to hear people casually say they are left-brained and that is why they are not musical or artistic. These two assumptions have almost no support in the literature; music performance alone contains many different components like pitch, rhythm, tempo, contour, timbre, loudness, and spatial location (Cook 1999, 214), which are processed in various different parts of the brain (Bizley et

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al. 2009, 2064). A human being comes into the world with a brain that is evolutionarily prepared to learn many things; namely, language (Fromkin 2006, 313) and social interaction (Legerstee 2009, 4). The development of these two processes occurs at a surprisingly rapid pace. Normally developing infants as young as six months of age are capable of distinguishing between the phonemes of their native language and a foreign one (Kuhl 2007, 111). Infants also show social consciousness almost from birth (Legerstee 2009, 4) and are capable of engaging in triadic (three-person) interactions as early as three months (Legerstee 2009, 44). Like language, social interaction, and learning to walk, musical knowledge also develops in infancy. Naturally, infants do not come into the world knowing how to play the piano or sight-read musical notation, but neither do they come in knowing how to write a story, share with siblings, or play hockeythese are specific skills that must be taught and practiced, but they would not be possible without the development of the more basic underlying skills (language, social awareness, motor coordination), which the infant develops without specific teaching, merely exposure. Infants appear to come prepared to absorb musical knowledge the same way they absorb language. Researchers have found that infants as young as six

30

months show a preference for musical scales with unequal steps and seem to learn them faster than scales with equal steps.2 Unequal steps is a universal property of all scales, regardless of culture or musical system (Thompson and Schellenberg 2006, 91). Even when the unequal scales used in the experiments are invented (not related to any real-life scales), infants seem to prefer them and are able to identify mistunings in them. Experiments to prove musics innateness have also been done with adults. Adults without any musical training nevertheless show an ability that is comparable to formally trained musicians in detecting out of tune notes, and also have expectancies about what sequences of chords are legal in any given piece of music (Peretz et al. 2008, 331). While it is apparent that infants seem to internalize what is good music and what isnt, the evolutionary purpose of music development is something that is under debate. Pinker proposes that music appeared in human culture as a side effect of language development, and is often quoted as saying it is nothing more than auditory cheesecake (1997, 534). Others propose that music did actually develop as an evolutionary adaptation (Dalla Bella 2009,

Examples of scales with unequal steps would be the Western major or minor scales, or the pentatonic sale; the intervals between each note in the major scale, for example, occur in this pattern of tones (T) and semitones (S): TTSTTTS. A scale with equal steps between notes would have a pattern like SSSSSSS. Such scales do not occur naturally in any known musical culture. 31

243). Regardless of how music came to appear in human culture, it is clear that we are all born with the capability to understand it.

Amusia: A deficit in pitch perception

Out-of-tune singing is a problem that has been recognized for a long time, and has been called many different things: tone-deafness, tune-deafness, dysmelodia, dysmusia, and various other terms. However, this condition has only been given systematic attention by researchers in the past ten years (Ayotte, Peretz, and Hyde 2002, 238). The term congenital amusia has been proposed by Isabelle Peretz and colleagues (Peretz 2008, 329) to refer to poor pitch perception (out-of-tune singing usually co-occurs) that is present from birth and is not due to acquired brain damage. Amusics have profound musical deficits when compared to normal healthy controls. They are unable to tell whether two melodies are the same or different when obvious pitch changes are present (Peretz 2008, 330), and they do not improve with practice (Hyde and Peretz 2004, 356). They do not show the same sensitivity to obvious dissonant chords in music that is present even in infants (Peretz and Hyde 2003, 363). They have difficulty recognizing familiar tunes without lyrics (Peretz et al. 2008, 330). The most apparent manifestation of their deficit is when they attempt to singthey are unable to sing in tune, and are also unable to tell that their singing is not in tune. While amusics do

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attempt to produce a rough estimate of what the pitch should be (i.e. singing one note higher than the next, if this relationship was present in the melody), their accuracy is nowhere near what is achieved by normal controls (Hutchins et al. 2010, 508). These difficulties all seem to stem from one main deficitthe inability to perceive differences between pitches; specifically, pitch differences that are smaller than two semitones (Hyde and Peretz 2004, 359). A normal adult control can perceive differences in pitch that are four times smaller than two semitones (Hyde and Peretz 2004, 359). Even more specifically, it appears to be sequential pitch relationships that the amusic brain cannot process (Hyde et al. 2006, 2562). The detection of pitch direction is also impaired (Peretz et al. 2008, 331). If an amusic cannot perceive these fine-grained pitch differences, it would make sense that they most likely do not internalize the grammar of the musical scale of their particular culture (Hyde and Peretz 2004, 357); as evidence of this they also seem to have impairments in perceiving pitch patterns in music (Foxton, Nandy, and Griffiths 2006, 89). A deficit in memory for pitch also seems to be present (Tillmann, Schulze, and Foxton 2009, 263); which would also hinder the ability to make sense out of music. Without this musical grammar, they are unable to set expectations about what is happening in music as they listen to it. This can interfere with amusics ability to gain

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enjoyment from music, as the ability to form expectations and have those expectations played with is one of the fundamental reasons the brain experiences music as pleasurable (Levitin 2006, 113). Indeed, some amusics even claim that music sounds like unpleasant noise (Sacks 2007, 112).

Etiology of amusia
The pitch discrimination deficits present in amusia occur in the presence of otherwise intact cognitive abilities (Peretz and Hyde 2003, 363). Amusia is also not due to a hearing problem. It appears to be a music-specific disorder, due to a congenital anomaly that affects only pitch processing and nothing else (Hyde and Peretz 2004, 356). There is ample evidence that amusia has a genetic origin, which would mean it is present from birth (Peretz et al. 2009, 1278). 39% of family members of amusics also have amusia themselves (Peretz 2008, 32), while it is reported to affect only about 4% of the general population (Kalmus and Fry 1980).3

Amusia and the brain

One study measured the electrical responses of amusic brains to differing pitch changes. They found that the amusic brain has no reaction to

This widely-quoted estimate may not be accurate; see Henry and McAuley (2010) for a discussion. 34

hearing pitch differences smaller than one semitone, while normal brains do. They also found that amusic brains actually overreacted to large changes in pitch (Peretz, Brattico, and Tervaniemi 2005, 480). Interestingly, a more recent study has shown that amusic brains do in fact seem to be able to perceive pitch differences as small as a quarter of a tone (Peretz et al. 2009, 1277). According to the authors, this is important because it reveals that the amusic brain is equipped with the essential neural circuitry to perceive fine-grained pitch differences. What distinguishes the amusic from the normal brain is the absence of awareness of this ability (emphasis added) (1283). Another study, this time done with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) also showed similar resultsthat brain activity increased in response to fine pitch changes in both amusics and controls (Hyde, Zatorre, and Peretz 2010, 5). The authors suggested that this provides evidence for amusia as a disconnection syndromethe brain is capable of perceiving the information, but it gets lost somewhere along the way and is not translated into conscious awareness.

Speculation about amusia subtypes

Several researchers have proposed the possibility of there being subtypes of amusia. They have found that only a subset of amusics have vocal production difficulties (Hutchins et al. 2010, 510), deficits in discriminating

35

between pure tones (Jones et al. 2009a, 69), or trouble with tests of pitch direction (Liu et al. 2010, 1691). Despite being an easily observed (or heard) problem, out-of-tune singing in non-amusics has not been given much attention by psychological researchers (Hutchins et al. 2010, 505). Peretz says that future research should focus on comparing the perception and production skills of amusics (2008, 341). There is some evidence that tone-deafness (out-of-tune singing with intact pitch perception ability) is either a separate disorder or a subtype of amusia. About 15% of the population believes that they are tone-deaf (Thompson 2007, 159). This is much higher than Kalmus and Frys 4%. A study that used the Distorted Tunes Test (DTT) screened eight hundred and sixty-four people, and found 69 of them to be tune deaf (Jones et al. 2009a, 228). This is 8.8%more than twice as high as the oft-quoted 4%. The reason for these differing percentages is not clear. However, because many more people than any of the quoted percentages think of themselves as tone-deaf, it is quite possible that the difference is made up by people who cannot sing in tune, but are not otherwise deficient in their ability to tell pitches apart (Cuddy et al. 2005, 320). An interesting study done by Loui, Alsop, and Schlaug used diffusion

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tensor imaging (DTI) to look at the brains of amusics.4 They found that the arcuate fasciculus (AF) (a neural pathway that connects the frontal cortex and the area where the temporal and parietal lobes meet) had much less volume than controls. This suggests that the neural connection between these two important brain areas is impaired. The ability to discriminate pitches seemed to be correlated with the volume and size of the fiber tracts in the AF (Loui, Alsop, and Schlaug 2009, 10217). They also suggest that rather than being a quantitative difference between amusics and controls, it is likely a difference in quality, where the volume in amusics AF is at the low end (10219). Based on this evidence, the authors propose that amusia might be a disconnection syndromea disorder where two parts of the brain fail to exchange information. This is an interesting idea, because it implies that even among amusics there might be varying degrees of deficit. It would also imply that some nonamusics could possibly have milder musical impairment. They also noticed that the AF is involved in auditory-motor behavior (e.g. hearing a note or melody and then attempting to reproduce it by singing): while the superior

DTI uses information gathered from MRI scans to determine where in the brain there is water that is diffuse in a medium with barriers. Long, myelin-covered neurons, also known as white matter, are such a medium. Therefore, brains with less or poorly myelinated neurons will have images that reflect this as less white matter. Myelin is responsible for speeding up the transmission of electrical signals between neurons: less myelin/white matter means slower transmission of information. 37

branch of the AF seems to predict pitch discrimination ability, its inferior branch seems to predict sound production ability. One article did examine poor singing ability as separate from pitch perception deficits. The authors suggest that the inability to sing in tune may be caused by sensorimotor integration issues (Pfordresher and Brown 2006, 95). It also seems that, because out-of-tune singers can perceive pitches without difficulty, they have an accurate mental representation, but for some reason are unable to translate this into accurate singing (112). This mismatch between accurate perception but inaccurate production is reminiscent of Loui and colleagues disconnection syndrome model of amusia. It is possible that tone-deafness could also be a different kind of disconnection syndrome since mental representation and motor production seem to be indeed disconnected; this possibly has also been suggested by Hutchins and colleagues (2010, 510).

Is amusia music-specific?
Since amusic individuals do not have difficulties with other aspects of cognitive functioning, it seems as if amusia is a disorder that affects the processing of musical pitches, and nothing else. However, there does appear to be some evidence that amusics may have other subtle cognitive deficits.

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PROBLEMS WITH PROSODY

One area where amusics may have subtle difficulties is in the understanding of prosody. Prosody refers to the patterns of stress and intonation in a language. (For example, in English, we usually raise the pitch of the last word in a sentence when we want to ask a question.) Since amusics have deficits in pitch perception, it would make sense that they might have difficulty discerning meaning in speech. Studies of subjects with brain damage have shown that musical ability and speech prosody do seem to be related (Della Bella 2009, 259; Bautista and Ciampetti 2003, 467), giving credence to this idea. Studies with amusics have been done to examine this possibility, and results have been mixed; however, it does appear that amusics have subtle difficulties in understanding prosody. One study showed that amusics have trouble distinguishing between (and imitating) statements and questions when the final pitch differences are small (Liu et al. 2010, 1642). Because typical questions (in French and English) usually have a rise in pitch that is very large (over seven semitones), amusics do not usually have difficulties with everyday conversation (Hyde and Peretz 2004, 359); these large pitch differences are more easily perceived by them. It is likely that the studies which did not show evidence of a prosody deficit did not do so because they used these large

39

intervals, and the study by Liu and colleagues, with smaller intervals, seems to confirm that. Another study also found that amusics seem to have trouble detecting the direction of pitch changes in speech as well (Patel et al. 2008, 366). Evidence has also been found for amusics impairment in decoding emotional cues in prosody (Thompson 2007, 163). Even when amusics seem to have no difficulties with normal speech prosody, it has been noted that when sentences have their linguistic information removed and only the pitches are played, amusics find this considerably more difficult (Ayotte, Peretz, and Hyde 2002). It has been suggested that the context in which language is spoken usually provides enough information on meaning, so even if sentences do contain meanings conveyed by small pitch differences, the context is usually enough to alert amusics to the meaning, and therefore no difficulty is perceived5 (Stewart and Walsh 2002, 420). Approximately 60-70 percent of the worlds languages are tone languages (Yip 2002, 1). Tone languages use comparative differences in pitch to distinguish meaning between phonemes that are otherwise identical. For example, in Mandarin, the sound [ma] can have four different meanings: [m], said with a rising tone, means hemp, but said with a falling tone, [m] means

Interestingly, music training has also been shown to aid phonetic experts in identifying linguistic tones, and to enhance normal subjects ability to decode the emotions in prosody (Kolinsky et al. 2009, 235).

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scold. With other tone variations it can also mean mother and horse (Deutsch et al. 2004). Infants born into tone-language-speaking cultures have to be able to identify these pitch changes, or they would have severe difficulties understanding their own language. It has been hypothesized that amusia might not be as prevalent in tone-language cultures, because early and consistent exposure to tone-discrimination might compensate for a pitch processing deficit (Peretz 2008, 332). The converse is also possiblethat amusic speakers of tone languages have more noticeable language difficulties than English or French speakers (Peretz and Hyde 2003, 366). Recently, a study was conducted to investigate these possibilities. For the first time, amusia was observed in speakers of a tone language (Mandarin). 3.4% of the screened participants tested as amusic, which is close to the 4% rate reported in other studies (Nan, Sun, and Peretz 2010, 2641). About half of the 22 amusics in this study had impairments in tone discrimination in their own language; however, they had no difficulties producing the four lexical tones in Mandarin. These results show that amusia is possible despite early exposure to a tone language, and that amusia is not specific to musical pitches but also affects the processing of lexical tones as well, at least for a subset of amusics. It is also interesting to note that even though they had difficulty perceiving lexical tones, their tone production was not impaired. The authors suggest that

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this points to a dissociation between pitch perception and pitch production in speech. (A dissociation between language perception and production is already well established (Pinker 1994, 317).) Because only some amusics appear to have deficits with prosody, Patel and colleagues (2008, 366) suggest incorporating tests of prosody perception into the diagnosis of amusia, to separate the possible different subtypes.

VISUOSPATIAL ABILITY
A study by Douglas and Bilkey (2007) tested both amusics and controls on visuospatial ability (using a mental rotation task) and found that amusics were significantly more impaired on the task than controls. Also, when participants were asked to complete both the mental rotation task and a task of melodic discrimination at once, the control group made more errors on the mental rotation task and were slower in making the pitch judgments, suggesting that the two tasks shared some common property, which caused them to interfere with each other. This interference did not occur with amusics, however. This could mean that amusics are not using the same mechanism for pitch discrimination that normal subjects are. A recent study by Tillmann and colleagues (2010) attempted to replicate the results of the Douglas and Bilkey study. They used a line bisection task to assess the spatial representations of amusics and controls. The two groups did

42

not differ on accuracy for this task. They then tested the two groups with the same mental rotation task used by Douglas and Bilkey. Their study failed to replicate the results of Douglas and Bilkeys experiment, suggesting that amusia and visuospatial processing are not related. Another recent study, using several measures of visuospatial ability, also failed to replicate the results (Williamson, Cocchini and Stewart in press). As proposed by Patel and colleagues (2008, 366) it is possible that there are subtypes of amusia, and that the small number of amusics used in the three studies could be the reason for the conflicting results. It could be that only some amusics have visuospatial deficits, and the small samples happened to be biased towards one subtype or another. It could also be that only a specific kind of visuospatial ability is related to amusia, and that clearer results would be found by using a variety of tests to measure different aspects of this ability. Besides having a pitch perception deficit, amusics appear to have a pitch memory deficit as well (Williamson et al. 2010), so one possibility is that amusics have a deficit specifically in visuospatial memory. Under the premise of amusia subtypes, it is possible that tone-deafness, or the inability to sing in tune in the absence of any deficit in pitch perception, is one of these subtypes, and that visuospatial deficits may only be present in this subpopulation. The idea that visuospatial ability and musical skills are related is not

43

new. A correlation has been found between memory for visuospatial location and memory for pitch and contour in melody (Mozingo 1989, 67). In a study using children, it was found that creative musical ability was correlated to spatial orientation in both boys and girls, and to spatial visualization in girls (Hassler, Birbaumer, and Feil 1985, 111). The direction of this relationship is not clear, however. It is likely that it goes both ways, with musical training enhancing visuospatial ability and vice versa. Those with higher innate visuospatial ability are perhaps more likely to continue in music lessons and do well. It is possible that both skills share a common neural representation and thus influence each other (Douglas and Bilkey 2007, 919). Several studies have also shown that pitch height is represented visually in the brain (Roffler and Butler 1968; Rusconi et al. 2006), and that spatial rotation and musical permutations share underlying processes (Cupchik, Phillips, and Hill 2001), again suggesting a relationship between pitch perception and visuospatial ability.

POSSIBLE PARALLELS BETWEEN A VISUOSPATIAL LEARNING

DISABILITY AND AMUSIA
Non-verbal learning disability (NLD) is a term proposed by several researchers (e.g. Rourke 1989) to encompass the range of deficits related to nonverbal ability that tend to appear together (e.g. difficulties with nonverbal

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problem solving, visuospatial material, social ability, motor coordination). Many medical conditions (metachromatic leukodystrophy, velocardiofacial syndrome, periventricular leukomalacia, and excessive radiation treatment for brain tumors) all present with a cluster of non-verbal learning deficits. Because these conditions all have white matter deficits in common, Rourke (1989) has proposed a white matter hypothesis for those who have non-verbal deficits in the absence of any identifiable physical condition, claiming that the NLD syndrome is likely caused by white matter deficits, especially in the right hemisphere. Because the right hemisphere contains more white matter, it is thought that general white matter damage will have more of an effect on right hemisphere functions. White matter pathways, especially in the corpus callosum, have been shown to be deficient in those with Aspergers Syndrome (Lincoln et al. 1998), which shows a close relation to the NLD syndrome.6 The literature on NLD is interesting when compared to amusia. White matter abnormalities in the right hemisphere have also been associated with amusia (Hyde et al. 2006). Specifically, amusic brains have been found to have less white matter in the right inferior frontal cortex (Peretz 2008, 332). Also, visuospatial deficits have been found in right hemisphere lesioned patients who also have musical deficits (Srkm et al. 2009, 2646) and white matter deficits

Aspergers Syndrome may in fact be synonymous with NLD; see nldbprourke.ca/BPRA41.html for a discussion. 45

have been related to both visuospatial deficits and amusia (Hoffmann 2008, 86). Individuals with epilepsy who were going to have their temporal lobes removed were administered parts of a musical aptitude test before and after surgery. Those who had their right temporal lobes removed performed significantly worse on the subtest measuring tonal memory (Winner 1998, 376). The pitch perception and production of individuals with right hemisphere damage has been found to be impaired in comparison to those with left hemisphere damage (who show deficits in rhythm production and perception) (Alcock et al. 2000, 47). While the entirety of music processing is certainly not limited to the right hemisphere alone (i.e. Alossa 2009, 274; Dalla Bella 2009, 256; Loui, Alsop, and Schlaug 2004, 10218), it is clear that this hemisphere plays a key role in pitch processing (Dalla Bella 2009, 245). Other similarities between NLD and amusia are that those with NLD also have difficulties with prosody (Palombo 2006, 87), and amusics may have poor memory for other non-verbal sounds besides pitch (Tillmann, Schulze, and Foxton 2009, 263). Understanding prosody, or at least, the emotional and social cues in prosody, is considered to be a non-verbal ability, and those with general right-hemisphere damage do show difficulties with this ability. They often misunderstand prosodic cues, and use monotone or otherwise odd prosody in their speech (Shields et al. 1996, 474). Many studies have also shown that the

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right hemisphere is largely responsible for processing prosodic information (e.g. Ross and Mesulam 1979). Furthermore, a case study of someone with right hemisphere seizures showed that they caused both aprosody and amusia (Bautista and Ciampetti 2003, 467). These provide an interesting parallel between amusia and NLD. If NLD and amusia share similar deficits in prosody, processing nonverbal sounds, and have similar neurological abnormalities with respect to white matter, it is possible that they both share deficits in visuospatial ability as well. Because these similarities are tenuous, the hypothesis does not go as far as suggesting amusia and NLD are the same disorder. Rather, in the same way that nonverbal deficits may have the same underlying basis (white matter deficits) though with different causes for it (excessive radiation, birth defect, etc.), it is hypothesized that amusia may also occur due to white matter deficits while having a different origin.

Rationale for the current study

While there is no shortage of interventions and programs for children who have learning disabilities, the plight of the learning disabled (LD) student attempting to learn music often goes unnoticed. Those with learning disabilities presumably have cognitive deficits that undoubtedly interfere with the varied musical skills required for full participation in a music community.

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Yet how having a learning disability might affect learning to play an instrument, singing, sight-reading, or even remembering music, has hardly been explored in the literature (see Bergendal and Talo 1969, Carlson 1986, Forgeard et al. 2008, Hbert and Cuddy 2006, Mozingo 1997, and Sloboda 1978, for isolated but notable exceptions). The problem of learning disabilities and music learning may go unnoticed for a variety of reasons. It is possible that LD students may initially be interested in music, but quickly become discouraged because of their challenges and the lack of awareness of the problem. The literature shows that specific cognitive deficits do indeed interfere with the learning of music, from phonemic awareness (Gromko 2005), to dyslexia (Forgeard et al. 2008), to processing speed (Kopiez and Lee 2006, 118), to visuospatial ability (Gillman, Underwood, and Moorhen 2002). To be useful, of course, any attempts to explain how music learning might be affected by learning disabilities should look at specific cognitive processes and compare them to specific musical tasks. Because amusia is a known condition that affects music processing, it provides an opportunity to look at a specific musical task (singing in tune) to see if it is related to any other cognitive abilityin this case visuospatial ability. The rationale for the relationship between these two abilities has already been discussed. It should be noted that this is only one of dozens of

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hypotheses that could be examined to explore the relationship between learning disabilities and music.

Hypothesis
The present hypothesis is as follows: both those with pitch perception deficits (amusics) and those with pitch-production deficits in the absence of amusia (tone-deaf) will perform significantly poorer than trained singers and controls on six measures of visuospatial ability. Differences between those with amusia and those with "tone deafness" will be explored post-hoc.

Methods
PARTICIPANTS
All participants were recruited via notices put up at York University, the University of Toronto, craigslist.org, kijiji.ca, and word of mouth. There were three types of notices: some asked for people who had ever been told or considered themselves to be tone-deaf, some asked for non-musicians, and the others asked for trained singers. The age range of participants was 18-70, with the median age being 22. There were 29 males and 29 females in the study.

MATERIALS
Two subscales of the Montreal Battery for the Evaluation of Amusia

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(MBEA) were used to screen participants for amusia.7 These tests involve listening to pairs of short melodies and deciding whether they are the same or different. The different melodies contain a one note mistuning, which is obvious to normal listeners but undetectable by amusics. A score of two standard deviations below the meanunder 22 for the melodic subscale, and under 23 for the rhythmic subscale (Peretz, Champod, and Hyde 2003, 66)is thought to be diagnostic, since there is no overlap between the scores of amusics and controls (Ayotte, Peretz, and Hyde 2002, 242).8 To measure singing ability, participants were asked to sing O Canada, the national anthem. In cases where the participant did not know O Canada, Jingle Bells was substituted. (In a few cases where the participant did not know Jingle Bells, Happy Birthday was used.) The singing was then evaluated by three separate raters (who were professional singing teachers) as in tune or out of tune singing. Those who received an out of tune scoring from two of the three raters were considered tone-deaf and grouped accordingly (see below). The individual ratings can be found in Appendix C.

Breakdown into experimental groups

Participants were divided into four main groups determined by the

7 8

An example of this test can be found online at www.delosis.com/listening A large-sample score distribution on this test may be found in Appendix B. 50

author: Amusic, Tone Deaf, Non-musician, and Singer. A fifth group (Amusiarhythm) was added later. Group 1: Amusic Those who scored 22 or below on the MBEA melodic subscale and 23 or below on the rhythmic subscale (whether or not they could sing in tune) were considered amusic. Participants who could not sing in tune and who scored 22 or below on the melodic subscale but above 23 on the rhythmic subscale were also included in the amusic category. There were 16 people in this group.9 Group 2: Tone Deaf Those who scored normally on the melodic subscale but could not sing in tune were put into this category, regardless of their performance on the rhythmic subtest. There were 9 people in this group. Group 3: Non-musician Participants who scored above 22 and 23 on the melodic and rhythmic subscales, respectively, and sang in tune were placed in this category. These participants all had less than 2 years of musical training. There were 10 people

Not all people who score below the cutoffs actually test as amusic after being administered the full MBEA; therefore it is quite possible that not all participants placed in the Amusic category for this study had true amusiathis must be considered when interpreting the results. 51

in this group. Group 4: Singer Participants in this category scored normally on both subscales, sang in tune, and had at least 3 years of private vocal training and/or membership in a choir that required auditions. There were 16 people in this group. Group 5: Amusia-rhythm Five participants scored normally on the melodic subscale but below 23 on the rhythmic subscale (all five could sing in tune); a fifth group was added to the analyses to accommodate these participants. The appearance of these rhythmic amusics is interesting in light of a recent study which found one participant who had remarkable difficulty synchronizing to music (despite normal pitch perception and singing ability). The authors suggested that this was possibly a new form of congenital amusiabeat deafness (PhillipsSilver et al. 2011, 967). Most amusics do not have any deficits with rhythm (Hyde and Peretz 2005).10 Other studies have also shown that some amusics have rhythm deficits, but these appear to be caused by interfering pitch changes, which may distract from the rhythm (Tillmann et al. 2010, 1). Further testing would have to be done on these individuals, however, to

In the current study, one Amusic participant even reacted with a startle to a rhythm difference in the MBEA rhythmic subscale, in stark contrast to her painstaking difficulty in telling two different melodies apart. 52

10

find out if they are truly beat-deaf or if their poor performance on the rhythmic subscale of the MBEA was due to some other reason. (The participant with beat-deafness mentioned above actually performed normally on the rhythmic subscale but poorly on the meter subscale. The latter was not administered to participants in the current study). Non-grouped participants Two participants did not fit into these categories; one had a score of 22 on the melodic subscale but a normal score on the rhythmic subscale, but nevertheless could sing in tune. Another had normal scores on both subscales and could sing in tune, but was excluded from the non-musician category because they had too many years of musical experience. Both of these persons data were included only in the correlational analyses.

Visuospatial tasks
Six measures of visuospatial ability were administered on the computer (Mueller, 2010).11 These measures were chosen because they were easily available and test a wide variety of visuospatial functions. The order of the tasks was counterbalanced between participants using a random sequence

All measures were obtained from pebl.sourceforge.net, with the exception of Corsi Backwards, which was provided by Reid Olsen in an email to the author on January 20, 2011. 53

11

generator. Corsi Forwards is a task used extensively to assess, investigate, and measure visuospatial skills, nonverbal memory, and visuospatial memory (Berch, Krikorian, and Huha 1998, 318). In the adaptation used in this study, nine blue squares are seen on the computer screen, and some of the squares light up in a certain order. The participant is required to click on the squares in the same order they lit up. The computer ends the task after several consecutive incorrect responses. Corsi Backwards is a similar test, but the participant is now required to click on the squares in the opposite order they lit up (i.e., the last

Figure 1: Corsi FW/BW start screen

square that lights up would be the first to be clicked). This measures not only the participants visuospatial memory but also their ability to keep this information in working memory (or the visuospatial sketchpad) and manipulate it (Kessels et al. 2008, 427). It is also thought to tap non-sequential
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visuospatial abilities (Mammarella and Cornoldi 2005, 1064). The computer also ends the task after several incorrect responses. Corsi Forwards and Corsi Backwards produce four scores each: block span (the longest string of blocks remembered correctly); total correct (the number of correct trials); memory span (total correct + 2, divided by 2); and TOTAL (block span x total correct). Figure 1 shows a sample of the screen at the start of the Corsi tasks, before the blocks begin to light up.

Figure 2: Clock Test start screen

The Clock Test measures visual attention (Lichstein, Riedel, and Richman 2000, 153). In the version used in this study, a large ring made up of small empty circles is seen on the screen. A red dot moves around the ring, and

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Figure 3: Mental Rotation task sample

occasionally skips a circle. Each time this happens, the participant is required to press the space bar. The task takes approximately 60 seconds and produces a score out of 60. Figure 2 shows what the participants see on starting. The Mental Rotation task is based on Shepard and Metzlers (1971, 70) original version of this task, which is a measure of spatial ability. In this task, participants see two geometric shapes side by side. Sometimes the shapes are identical but one is a rotation of the other; other times, one of the shapes is a mirror image (that may also be rotated). The latter is considered different while the former is same. Figure 3 shows a sample of a pair of shapes. Participants indicate their choice by pressing the D or S key. In this case the correct response is Different. 12 The Matrix Rotation task is a measure of spatial orientation and rotation

12

The Mental Rotation scores were not used, as it was discovered later that the PEBL program was configured to record random scores for this task.

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and short term memory (Lentz 1989, 18). In this task, a pattern is presented, and the participant is instructed to take as much time as they need to memorize

Figure 4: Matrix Rotation1st screen and comparison example

it and press any key when they are done. This makes the original pattern disappear. Another pattern immediately takes its place, and participants are required to indicate whether this second pattern is the same or different, by pressing the left or right shift key, respectively. The pattern may be either a rotation of the one they memorized (same), or something entirely different. This task produces a score out of 20. Figure 4 on the left side shows a typical pattern presented to the participant; the right side presents a sample of a second pattern which the participant is asked to judge as being the same as (merely rotated) or different from the first. In this case the answer is Same. The Match to Sample task is a measure of short term visual memory

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Figure 5: Match to Sample1st pattern and comparison

(Swartz et al. 1995, 205). This task presents participants with a similar sort of pattern as in the Matrix Rotation task, with the same instructions for memorizing. After the key is pressed to clear the screen, a few seconds elapse before the presentation of two new patterns. Participants are required to indicate which of the two patterns identically matches the first one they memorized by pressing the left or right shift key. No rotation occurs. This task produces a score out of 30. Figure 5 on the left side shows an example of a first pattern participants might see; on the right side is an example of a screen that appears after a short delay, giving the participant two patterns to compare to the one in memory. In this case, the correct answer is Left. A questionnaire was also given to participants to gather personal data such as years of musical experience, handedness, their own perceptions of their singing ability, etc. A sample questionnaire is provided in Appendix C.
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PROCEDURE
Participants were given the consent form and had it explained by the reseacher before they signed. They were told the researcher was interested in looking at differences in singing ability, and how that might be related to other cognitive skills. All participants were administered the MBEA subscales first. The test was administered via computer, in a quiet room, with the volume set to a comfortable level. The participants were instructed to click different if they believed the second melody in the pair was different in any way, and same if the melodies were identical. The researcher remained in the room during the task, quietly working at another table. After the MBEA subscales, participants were given the six visuospatial tasks in a counterbalanced order. Each task was explained verbally, and there were also written instructions on the screen. All participants were then asked to sing O Canada (or one of the substitute songs). They did not know beforehand that this would be the song they would be required to sing. The lyrics were provided on the computer screen. The researcher started a tape recorder and then left the room while the participant sang, to minimize errors caused by nervousness. The questionnaire was then given to participants to fill out. When the tasks were complete, the participants were paid $10.

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Results and Discussion

The data was analyzed using statistical software (SPSS). Specifically, one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), multiple comparisons, Pearson correlations and t-tests were performed. The nature of these analyses and the differences in the test groups that appear under them follow. 13

ANOVAS AND MULTIPLE COMPARISONS

ANOVAs were used to measure differences between all groups (Amusic, Tone Deaf, Non-musician, Singer, and Amusia-rhythm) on the visuospatial tasks. When significant differences were found between groups (p<.05)14 multiple comparisons15 were performed on all possible group pair combinations to locate the source of the significant differences. A significant difference between groups was found for Corsi Forwards (TOTAL) (p=.045). Multiple comparisons show that this difference is found between the Singer and the Amusia-rhythm group (p=.049). Significant group differences were not found for Corsi Forwards block span, total correct, or memory span.

Means and standard deviations, p-values, F-values, and raw scores for all tasks can be found in Appendix D. 14 The p-value referred to means that a cut-off of .05 was used to determine significance. For example, a p-value of .045 means that there is a 4.5 per cent possibility that the group differences occurred by chance; .004 means a 0.4 per cent possibility, etc. 15 Tukey HSD 60

13

A highly significant difference between groups was found for all the Corsi Backwards scoresblock span, total correct, memory span, TOTAL: p=.001, .002, .003, .002, respectively. Multiple comparisons show that Amusics scored significantly lower than Singers on all four of the Corsi Backwards scores (p=.008, .016, .018, .009, respectively). Amusics also scored significantly lower than the Tone Deaf group on block span (p=.017) and TOTAL (p=.037). The Tone Deaf group scored significantly higher than the Amusia-rhythm group on block span (p=.016), total correct (p=.037), and TOTAL (p=.049). The Singer group scored significantly higher than Amusiarhythm on all four respective scores (p=.013, .009, .016, .026). (Interestingly, the Singer and Tone Deaf groups were identical on the TOTAL score (p=1.000).) A significant difference between groups was also found on the Matchto-Sample task (p=.029). Multiple comparisons show that this difference was between Amusics and Singers, with the Amusics scoring significantly lower than Singers (p=.035). A significant difference between groups was found on the Clock Test (p=.044); however, the significant difference did not show up at all in multiple comparisons.

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CORRELATIONS
Pearson Correlations16 were also performed on the data. (Positive correlations mean simply that as one variable goes up, so does another, and vice versa.) Comparing the scores on the MBEA melody subscale and rhythm subscale to each of the visuospatial tasks, significant correlations were found with both the Corsi Backwards scores and the Match-to-Sample scores. (The values are reported in Appendix C).

T-TESTS
T-tests were also run to determine if there were any significant differences in the mean scores of males and females on each of the tasks. Males had a significantly higher mean on Corsi Forwards (total correct), (memory span), and (TOTAL), as well as Corsi Backwards (block span), (total correct), (memory span), and (TOTAL). Figure 6 provides an example of the gender difference from one of the tasks. However, a two-way ANOVA was also run, and the significant differences between the groups found by the ANOVAs for the visuospatial tasks cannot be accounted for by gender.

16

The Pearson Correlations reported are R, not R2 . 62

Figure 6: Male and female means on Corsi Backwards (TOTAL)

WHAT DOES THE DATA MEAN?

Results on the Corsi Forwards task were not as hypothesized. There were no significant differences between groups for the longest string of blocks participants could remember (block span), or the number of correct trials (total correct). When these two scores were considered together (TOTAL), a significant difference was present, with Singers scoring higher than the Amusia-rhythm group; however, because this difference was just on the cut-off for significance, and the Amusia-rhythm group only contained 5 participants, it is possible that this was not a true significant difference. This would mean that neither amusia nor tone-deafness are related to this particular visuospatial
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ability. This is consistent with the results found by Williamson, Cocchini, and Stewart (in press) who showed that not only were there no differences between amusics and controls on the Corsi Forwards task, they were actually the same to nine decimal places (Victoria Williamson in an email to the author, October 25, 2010). This makes the results on the Corsi Backwards task all the more interesting. Amusics scored significantly lower than Singers on all four of the scores for this task. This is seen very clearly by the box plots shown in Figure 7 which gives the total correct scores of each group for the Corsi Backwards task. Amusics had a mean score of 7.19 while singers had a mean score of 9.75. This may not seem like a significant difference, but what is important in determining the significance is that singers as a whole scored much higher than amusics as a whole. The shaded bars on the box plots show where 50% of the middle scores lie (in this example between 6.5-8.22 for Amusics; between 8.7710.73 for Singers), and the arms extending from the bars indicate the lowest (Amusics: 4; Singers: 6) and highest (Amusics: 10; Singers: 13) scores. This significant difference suggests that amusics do indeed have a deficit in visuospatial ability, at least when compared to singersspecifically with the processing of non-sequential, or holistic, visuospatial information. Corsi Backwards also tests working memory, meaning amusics may

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have a working memory deficit as well. This is consistent with another study that found a small subset of amusics to have deficits in working memory (Williamson 2010).

Figure 7: Group box plots for Corsi Backwards (total correct)

Precisely how this apparent deficit in remembering non-sequential visuospatial information affects amusics ability to process music correctly is open for debate. We know that amusics have a deficit in fine grained pitch discrimination, and that this may disrupt the normal acquisition of musical syntax that others acquire implicitly solely through exposure to music. In other words, when most people hear music, their brains process it holistically in terms of acquired musical schemas, and not note-by-note (Snyder 2000,

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152).17 The brain fits music into note-relationships (i.e. scales) that it already possesses. It is possible that amusics deficit in non-sequential visuospatial memory also affects their holistic musical processing as well, causing them to never acquire the tonal structure or syntax of their musical culture to begin with. This may lead them to hear music in a piecemeal fashion, and may affect subsequent musical learning. However, this explanation does not take into account amusics already well documented deficit in consciously perceiving very small pitch changes. Perhaps amusics have more than one underlying deficit, or perhaps the difficulty with remembering holistic visuospatial relationships somehow interferes with conscious pitch-perception (as mentioned earlier, amusics brains actually perceive very small pitch differences at the unconscious level). If amusics have a deficit in visuospatial working memory, as well, this would be consistent with the idea of amusia as a disconnection syndrome. Working memory deficits are often found in other disconnection syndromes such as dyslexia (Paulesu et al. 1996, 154), giving support to Loui, Alsop, and Schlaugs disconnection syndrome model and their finding that the arcuate

This is how people sight-read musical notation as wellthe mind even goes so far as to supplement a legal note when there is an error in the musical score inconsistent with the key of the piece (Sloboda 1978, 11). 66

17

fasiculus in amusics has much less volume than controls (2009, 10217). Also interesting is that Amusics scored significantly lower than the Tone Deaf group on Corsi Backwards (block span) and Corsi Backwards (TOTAL). While the data shows that the Tone Deaf and Singer groups were almost identical statistically, this does not automatically imply sameness between the groups. It is possible that with a larger sample, significant differences could be found. Nevertheless, when looking at a visual representation of the data (see Figure 7) the intuitive conclusion is compellingthat Singers, Non-musicians, and the Tone Deaf are all very similar to each other, while the Amusic group (and the small Amusia-rhythm group) scores quite obviously lower than the other groups. While the difference between the Tone Deaf group and Amusics gives strength to the idea that these two musically-challenged groups are quite different from each other (in the processing of holistic visuospatial information), it does not confirm one of the hypotheses for this study, that Tone Deaf individuals would also be impaired in visuospatial ability compared to Non-musicians and Singers. Those who cannot sing in tune but do not have amusia may have a different and as yet unidentified origin of their singing difficulties. The Amusia-rhythm group also scored significantly worse than the Singer group on all four scores; at best, this would mean that those with

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rhythmic amusia also have the same non-sequential visuospatial memory deficits that amusics do, but since the sample size is so small, no definite conclusions can be made. The other task which showed significant group differences was Matchto-Sample. The only significant group difference was that Amusics again scored significantly lower than Singers, which is similar to the results for the Corsi Backwards task. Interestingly, the group comparisons show that, for this task, the Amusic and Tone Deaf groups were actually very similar to each other, and, at the other end, Singers and Non-musicians were identical. At the very least, this tells us that the short term visual memory involved in this task is also deficient in amusics (because this task involves remembering the image as a whole it taps holistic or non-sequential visuospatial memory as well.) The correlations between participants scores on the MBEA subscales were an interesting and perhaps cleaner way to examine the data. It did not involve dividing the participants into groups at all, but rather looked at the participants performance on the melodic and rhythmic subscales and compared it to their scores on each of the other tasks. Not surprisingly, the results of these analyses echoed the group comparisons. As the scores on the MBEA subscales went up, so did the scores on the Corsi Backwards and Match-toSample tasks. While the strength of this relationship was moderate at best, all

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the correlations were highly significant. A moderate strength to the relationship means that as one goes up, the other also goes up, but only by a few points. Nevertheless, the significance of the relationship is accurate ninety-nine times out of a hundred, which means it is a highly consistent relationship. Figure 8 plots each of the 58 individual participants. The general trend upwards highlights the moderate relationship between the scores on the MBEA melodic subscale and the Corsi Backwards (total correct) scores. The fitted line shows the upward trend. The correlation results are interesting in that they suggest a

Figure 8: MBEA m. subscale correlation with Corsi BW (t. correct)

more general relationship between pitch perception and non-sequential visuospatial memory, visuospatial working memory, and short term visual memory. However, it is not possible to say whether one causes the other. It is
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also possible that some higher-level processing mechanism is responsible for both pitch perception and visuospatial memory. Future studies should focus on examining whether amusics truly do have a deficit in visuospatial working memory. Other tasks could be used in combination with the Corsi Backwards task to pinpoint the exact nature of the deficit, if one indeed exists. The entire MBEA battery should be used to make sure all participants being tested are truly amusic. Future studies should also focus on those who cannot sing in tune (classified as tone-deaf for this study), as the current study did not shed much light on the reasons for these individuals singing difficulties. Not much research has been done on the merely tone-deaf, but since they do not appear to have a cognitive deficit in pitch perception as amusics do, it would be especially beneficial to these out-oftune singers to further study the problem, as presumably it would be easier to devise interventions to help them sing in tune.

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CHAPTER 3: BRIDGING THE GAP

As seen from the reviews of the literature, the experiment, and the teacher interviews, understanding the reasons for out-of-tune singing is a complicated matter, and understanding how to remedy it, more so. While the purpose of this project was to shed a little more light on this multi-faceted problem, no single overarching conclusion can be made. Several important things came to light, though, and each deserves further examination.

Limits of a traditional experiment

Scientific research is not devoid of methodological concerns. Because complex problems must often be broken down into several separate questions, one wonders if the results of individual studies can really be summed to provide meaningful answers. For example, in the current experiment, one of the main findings was that amusics appear to have deficits in visuospatial working memory. Whether this can be used as evidence towards the broader hypothesis (a relationship between musical deficits and learning disabilities) is not clear. Also, deciding what to examine in a study is a process that inherently involves bias. If ones eventual goal is to find out whether out-of-tune individuals have some kind of broader cognitive difference, choosing one hypothesis over another is at least partly subjective, based on the personal

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interests of the researcher. This is just one way which makes it impossible to have a truly objective experiment. There is also the concern that the data gathered from a typical experimental situation is divorced from the skills it purports to examine. Some of the participants themselves raised this point; they were concerned that being asked to sing in English (a second language to some), or being asked to sing something they were not entirely familiar with would affect their ability to sing. (One participant suggested humming as a way to circumvent the problem, but this raises a whole other set of concernsi.e., whether humming involves the same cognitive processes as singing). And, despite the established reliability and validity of tasks like Corsi Blocks, there are always concerns that the underlying cognitive process involved in a particular task may not necessarily be the mechanism at work (Berch, Krikorian, and Huha 1998, 329). In an ideal experimental situation, all factors except the ones being measured would be controlled for across participants. However, there will inevitably be practical and financial constraints. To obtain meaningful statistical results, recruiting enough participants for each experimental group is important. This often takes a considerable amount of time, especially if one is dealing with rare populations such as amusics. The more participants one has, the more confident one can be that the findings apply to the general population. Time and financial concerns

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also limit how much one is able to examine: in the current study, the entire MBEA was not able to be administered. Other factors that are difficult to control for include: prior exposure to different musical cultures, inexperience with singing aloud, ambient noises affecting concentration, inexperience with using a computer, etc.

Bridging the gap between music researchers and music educators

Another issue that came to light was the very different approaches to the same problem by researchers and educators. In most of the psychological literature reviewed on amusia and tone-deafness, the main concern, whether expressed overtly or not, seems to be with explaining and understanding the problem in as much detail as possible. Music educators (both in the literature and those interviewed for this study), on the other hand, seem to be more focused on remedying the problem and finding workable solutions, rather than trying to understand its origins. Both of these concerns are important. It is often necessary to understand the origins of a problem (in this case, what makes people sing out of tune) in order to find ways to fix it. Both educators and researchers would benefit from each others expertise. The educators interviewed for the current study indeed expressed interest in being able to access research more easily.

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The disconnect between research and education is a problem that applies broadly to all aspects of education, not just music (Casanova 1989). A recent review of the literature that deals with this problem identified one of the major themes as the need for step-by-step procedures for interpreting research and implementing it in the classroom (Warby et al. 1999, 205). A Universal Translation Format is provided and expanded upon by the authors. It consists of seven steps educators can follow to help them locate and understand research. The seventh step focuses on transferring the research into practice. While this is a very useful tool for educators who want to understand the research currently available, it is not much use to educators who simply do not have the time to extensively review the available literature. This is especially true for music educators, whose time is even more limited because of performances and other musical events. It also puts the responsibility for transferring research into practice solely on the teachers, when ideally it should be a combined effort between teachers and researchers. One problem teachers often encounter with research is that even when experiments go beyond theoretical underpinnings and actually examine the efficacy of a particular intervention, results can often be ambiguous, confusing, or buried under a considerable number of alternate explanations. This makes it difficult for an educator to decide whether a particular intervention is even

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worth implementing, or whether it needs amendments. Both educators and researchers would benefit from a more collaborative dialogue. It seems what is needed is some sort of intermediary between educators and researchers. Researchers need to be able to communicate their research findings and relevance to educators in ways they can easily access and put into practice. Educators, in turn, also need a way to communicate their concerns to researchers, so that researchers tackle problems that are of relevance to the classroom. Perhaps a partnership between local schools and universities could facilitate this exchange of ideas. A system could be set up where teachers could raise their concerns and ask questions, and researchers, in turn, would have access to a vital source of information to consider when coming up with or designing research experiments. Involving educators in the process even further, by requesting their ideas on the similarities of musical tests to real-life music learning experiences would also help foster trust between researchers and educators, and help educators feel more comfortable with the conclusions eventually made from experiments.

Usefulness of experiments
Notwithstanding their problems, experiments can still provide highly valuable information. Solutions to problems are easier to come by when the problem is understood from all angles. In the case of out-of-tune singing,

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teachers often resort to trial-and-error methods that are tailored to each student. While they may eventually stumble upon a solution through their own intuitions and the responses from the student, this method often takes a considerable amount of time, and perhaps wasted efforts exploring interventions that may not end up being useful. Research experiments have the eventual goal of understanding the problem as a whole by first understanding its parts. The current available research on amusia and other reasons for out-of-tune singing is helpful in that it sheds light on the exact nature of the deficits and possible reasons for them. Without a controlled experiment, the result referred to in Chapter 2 (that amusics may have a deficit in non-sequential visuospatial working memory, or at the very least, that pitch perception and non-sequential visuospatial memory may be related) would not likely have been discovered. If this result is replicated and confirmed in future studies, it could help shed light not only on the origins of amusia, but also provide clues on possible interventions. Perhaps amusics would benefit from training in visuospatial working memory, and this would ameliorate their pitch perception deficits as well. Researchers have not yet reached the point of designing remedial help for amusics or other out-of-tune singers, but presumably they are headed there: one attempt has already been made in designing a remedial program for

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someone with acquired amusia (due to brain damage) with positive results (Weill-Chounlamountry et al. 2008, 332). Future research will hopefully focus on devising similar interventions for those with congenital amusia as well. As mentioned earlier, it is important that music educators be involved in this type of future research. They already have years of practical experience in devising methods to help the out-of-tune singers in their classrooms, and their discoveries could be the basis for future research experiments on interventions for out-of-tune singers, amusic and otherwise.

Usefulness of interviews/case studies

The lack of significant results for the Tone Deaf group was also an interesting finding. It solidifies the fact that there is a salient difference between amusics and those who cannot sing in tune due to other, unknown reasons. This is where the teacher interviews proved helpful in providing answers that the experiment could not. They hypothesized many reasons for out-of-tune singingtechnique problems, physical conditions, lack of experience or familiarity with music, difficulties attending to music, and individual differences in music learning. These suggestions all deserve further individual experiments of their own, but in the meantime, the usefulness of the information gathered from interviewing music teachers on their experiences and informal case studies with students cannot be taken lightly. Besides being a

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rich source of information for future studies, interviews with music teachers who have direct experience teaching others to sing provide us with other useful pieces of information as well. For example, it is interesting and important to know that many students who struggle to sing in tune, sometimes severely so, can in fact be taught to sing correctly, with varying degrees of effort. This should provide encouragement to many who currently consider themselves tone-deaf. Whether any of the success stories recounted by the teachers had amusia is impossible to know. It would be beneficial to students and educators alike for the knowledge of amusia to become mainstream (and the research more accessible) so that educators could potentially screen amusic students early on, and perhaps alter their teaching methods accordingly.

Helping those with musical learning disabilities

At present (to the authors knowledge), there has only been one documented and confirmed case of amusia in a child (Lebrun et al. in press). This 10 year old child had severe difficulties singing in tune, perceiving music, and remembering music. Her choir director had never encountered such difficulty in helping a child sing in tune over her 30 year career. The child attends about 10-12 classical concerts a year with her mother, is part of a choir that meets 4 hours per week, and was constantly exposed to recordings of

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Mozart as she was growing up. Therefore, her deficits cannot be explained by a lack of exposure to music or a lack of motivation. Her other cognitive abilities are normal. Presumably there exist other children with amusiaadult amusics complain of their musical difficulties since childhood. Ideally, the eventual supports for amusics and other out-of-tune singers, as well as for those that have learning challenges with other aspects of music need be aimed at children as well as adults. More research is needed to know what these supports could be, but they should be similar to supports for other types of learning disabilities: more time, adaptation of materials, alternate teaching methods, modifications according to specific needs, etc. In the meantime, the child version of the MBEA (Lebrun et al. in press, 3) could be used as a possible screening tool for music educators to use in their classrooms, not only for identifying amusic children, but for differentiating children who have perceptual problems with music from those who do not.

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CONCLUSION
The inability to sing in tune impacts not only affected individuals themselves, but also their friends, family, classmates, and music instructors. Individuals with this problem have varying levels of responsiveness to intervention attempts. The problem of out-of-tune singing also attracts the attention of researchers, who have focused their attention on amusia, a deficit in pitch perception. To better understand the problem and discover potential intervention methods, information was collected through reviews of relevant educational and psychological literature. Four singing teachers were also interviewed and asked to speak about their experiences with out-of-tune students. An experiment that examined whether out-of-tune singing was related to visuospatial ability was also conducted. All of this information was put together not only to create a multidisciplinary understanding of out-of-tune singing, but also to generate ideas about how to create a more open dialogue between music researchers and music educators. From the singing teachers, we learned that difficulty with hearing the difference between notes seems to be a significant contributor to many students singing problems. Other factors were given equal importance, such as
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improper breathing techniques, hormonal changes, and lack of familiarity with the music or with the act of singing. They are also concerned with the broader issues surrounding singing problems. They make sure their classrooms or lessons are emotionally safe places for students to explore their voices, and place as much emphasis on the enjoyment and exploration of music as they do on correct notes. They also take steps to mitigate the effects of out-of-tune singing on the ensemble. From the experiment, we learned that amusics may have difficulties with visuospatial working memory, and that this may contribute to their difficulties with music processing. It may hinder their perception of music as a whole, which could in turn cause them to not acquire the musical grammar of their culture and contribute to their deficits in pitch processing. We also learned that those with the inability to sing in tune despite normal pitch perception (called Tone Deaf in the experiment) do not share this same difficulty in visuospatial memory, strengthening the idea that this condition is separate from amusia. More research is needed to further explore and confirm amusics deficit with visuospatial working memory, as well as to explore reasons for out-of-tune singing in the absence of amusia. (The teacher interviews provide a wealth of information for researchers wishing to come up with testable hypotheses on the matter.)

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The final chapter explored the usefulness and limitations of both very different method of collecting data (interviews and case studies vs. experiments). Case studies focus on the individual experiences of teachers and students, and teachers attempts to come up with practical solutions to problems. Experiments focus more on a very detailed understanding of small, particular parts of the problem, aiming eventually for a complete understanding that will then lead to hypotheses for intervention. The lack of communication between music researchers and educators was also examined, and possible ways to close the divide were suggested. Educators and researchers need a forum where they can come together and regularly have access to each other and share ideas in ways that are mutually beneficial. Educators ideas gained from hands-on experiences in the classroom have the potential to be an important source of information for researchers looking to understand all facets of out-of-tune singing. Researchers also need a way to communicate research findings to the people it would most benefit, educators and students. The chapter ends with a reflection on what can be done currently for those with music disabilities, singing-related or otherwise. Musical learning difficulties should be treated as other learning difficulties and given appropriate individualized attention and consideration. In regards to amusia specifically, it

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is suggested educators use a version of the MBEA to screen for deficits in pitch perception. In the absence of research on how to ameliorate amusia, screening for the problem would at least provide educators with information that would help them tailor the direction of their interventions. The desire to express oneself musically, whether through the voice or otherwise, seems to be an innate part of being human. As the interviewed teachers pointed out, the singing voice is a very personal thing, and singing exposes one to emotional risks that are not present with other, external instruments. While there are many adults who continue to have an interest in music despite their inability to sing in tune, there are probably just as many who were turned off of music at a young age, discouraged by others insensitive responses to their attempts at singing. Many of the comments made by participants in the experiment highlighted this reality. No child should be barred from the enjoyment of singing simply because they have more difficulty with it than their peers. In an ideal world, interventions would be provided to all such children so that they could perform to the best of their ability and enjoy participating in singing experiences. In cases of true amusia where remediation attempts prove unsuccessful, musical interest should be channeled to other instruments instead of turning the child off music entirely. If educators and researchers share their knowledge and collaborate on future research

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explorations, perhaps these ideals could be met, and those who sing out of tune never turned away from their desire for full participation in musical experiences.

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APPENDIX A: EDUCATORS
Informed consent form sample
Study Name: Researcher: Singing and cognitive differences Ana Luisa Santo M.A. student, Music, York University analuisa@yorku.ca

Purpose of the Research: The purpose of this project is to understand the experiences that music educators have in teaching children or adults who cannot sing in tune. This is part of a Masters Thesis that will look at ways to close the divide between psychological research and music pedagogy. Another purpose of the project is to explore how learning disabilities and outof-tune singing might be related. What You Will Be Asked to Do in the Research: You will be asked questions about your experiences in teaching pupils who cannot sing in tune, how it affects the classroom, strategies you may have employed, and other related questions. You will be given a copy of questions beforehand so you can think about your answers. The interview will take approximately one hour. Risks and Discomforts: We do not foresee any risks or discomfort from your participation in the research. Benefits of the Research and Benefits to You: The benefits of this research will be a better understanding of problems encountered when teaching people to sing. This understanding could eventually lead to hypotheses for future research on learning disabilities and in-tune singing, and how to develop strategies to help those that cannot sing in tune due to learning disabilities or other cognitive deficits. Voluntary Participation: Your participation in the study is completely voluntary and you may chose to stop participating at any time. Your decision not to volunteer will not influence the nature of your relationship with the researcher or York University either now, or in the future. Withdrawal from the Study: You can stop participating in the study at any time, for any reason, if you so decide. Your decision to stop participating, or to refuse to answer particular questions, will not affect your relationship with the researchers, York University, or any other group associated with this project. In the event you withdraw from the study, all associated data collected will be immediately destroyed wherever possible.

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Confidentiality: All information you supply during the research will be held in confidence and unless you specifically indicate your consent, your name will not appear in any report or publication of the research. The interview will be tape-recorded and transcribed. Only the researcher and a transcriber will hear the tape. Your data will be safely stored and only the researcher will have access to this information. Your consent form will be stored separately from the tape so there will be no way of associating you with the data. Confidentially will be provided to the fullest extent possible by law. All data and tapes will be destroyed upon the completion of the project. Questions About the Research? If you have any questions about the research in general or about your role in the study, please feel free to contact me or my Graduate Supervisor Rob van der Bliek by phone (416-736-2100, ext. 33694) or by e-mail (bliek@yorku.ca). You may also contact my Graduate Program Music, Accolade East Building, Suite 371, 416-736-2100, ext. 77432. This research has been reviewed and approved by the Human Participants Review Sub-Committee, York Universitys Ethics Review Board and conforms to the standards of the Canadian Tri-Council Research Ethics guidelines. If you have any questions about this process, or about your rights as a participant in the study, please contact the Sr. Manager & Policy Advisor for the Office of the Research Ethics, 5th Floor, York Research Tower, York University (telephone 416-736-5914 or e-mail ore@yorku.ca). Legal Rights and Signatures: I, _________________________________ consent to participate in Singing and Cognitive Differences, conducted by Ana Luisa Santo. I have understood the nature of this project and wish to participate. I am not waiving any of my legal rights by signing this form. My signature below indicates my consent.

Signature Participant Signature Principal Investigator

Date

Date

Pre-interview letter to teachers

I am doing my Masters degree in Music at York University, and for my thesis I am exploring the concept of tone-deafness. I am particularly interested in the experiences of teachers who have taught out-of-tune singers. Below are some questions I would like you to think about before our interview. You may make notes and bring them with you if you find this helpful. The interviews will be tape recorded, and only myself and a transcriber will have access to this tape. Portions of the transcribed conversation may appear in my thesis, but all identifying information of yourself, students, or your school, will be changed or removed, and your anonymity will be assured. You can reach me at [number]. Think about experiences you have had teaching individuals who could not sing in tune. How did you first notice the problem? How did you try to teach them? What were some things 96

that worked? That didnt? Did you have to change your methods from those you use with normal singers? If in a classroom setting, do you single the student out? Do you tell them of their difficulty at all? Or try to help without letting them know? Were the individuals aware of their difficulty? If not, how did you make them aware? Did it work? Were there ever times that an individual simply could not be taught to sing in tune? If so, what was the outcome? If in a classroom, did you ever ask the student to stop singing, seat them at the back of the choir, give them an instrument instead, ask them to only mouth the words, etc? If it was a private student, did you ever tell them they could not be taught, recommend they take up another instrument, or make other suggestions for help besides your own? If in a classroom, how do other students respond to their out of tune peers? If in a classroom, did you ever spend extra time individually with the poor singer? Is there time for this? What would be the ideal method for teaching poor singers, if you had unlimited resources/time? Do you ever talk to the parents of out of tune singers? What do you say? What is their response? Have you ever worked with individuals who have learning disabilities? Have you noticed if they have trouble singing in tune? How does the out-of-tune student affect the classroom? What are your thoughts on the ideal solution of what do with out-of-tune singers, if there is not time to help them properly, or if helping methods havent worked? What do you think about tone-deafness? Do you think there are people who cannot ever be taught to sing in tune? Is there anything else about out-of-tune singing or tone-deafness that you feel is important to share? Have you ever heard of amusia, or read any research on tone-deafness? Do you usually read research conducted in music education? Why or why not? If you do, where do you usually access it? What would make it easier to access? If you read research, do you ever try to apply what youve learned to the classroom? Do you trust research/researchers? Why or why not? If not, what would make you trust them more? Do you ever feel you could conduct research in your own classroom/school/private practice, to explore a problem and find hands-on solutions? If you had unlimited time/resources, what questions would you like to explore as a teacher/researcher?

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Full transcriptions of teacher interviews

All interviews were recorded with a digital recording device (iPod and microphone), as well as a cassette recorder for backup. The digital recordings were transcribed and checked against the recording for accuracy. They were then edited only to remove unnecessary words and pauses and irrelevant bits of conversation. Most of the sentences were preserved as they were spoken; however, in certain cases minor grammatical changes or re-ordering of words was done for ease of reading. Please note that all personal information recorded relating to the interview subjects, their schools, their students, or anything else that would enable identification, has been removed from the following transcripts or replaced with neutral text in square brackets.
PROFILE OF TEACHER A:

Current position: Elementary school music teacher (Kindergarten Grade 6) has been teaching music for 11 years interviewed in her classroom after school

INTERVIEW WITH TEACHER A

How long have you been teaching music, specifically in what grades? Ive been teaching music for 11 yrs. I started out the first few years half time teaching music. The next year I got full time music but then it was cut in half so then I had to do music half time and math and science grade 6. And then it was music full time again the next year, then kindergarten music. Then music full time two years, then music half time kindergarten. But Ive been teaching now for four years full time music and actually its a 1.5 music so theres another person who does the other .5 music. Oh, thats strange, why do they do it that way? Because its the prep time has been put up for teachers and so they have to have coverage so music was chosen as the one that gets coverage and gym gets 1.5 also. So our school has always had music, which is a good thing! Yes. And now I have a full time music room also, so Ive been here three years now. In this room? Yeah, whereas before I had to share a kindergarten and music room. This is good. This is a good room. Its got a stage, big space for movement. I have access to steel pans if I want it for the program, so its good.

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Thats really good. The room is important. Yes, but music isnt considered to need a room. Really? Yes. So are there other schools where Sure theres someone on the rotary who just has a cart who does music. Or you have schools that have no music and teachers teach their own music. So I have a degree in music, which is great. You dont have to have a degree in music to teach music, unfortunately. So is it an undergrad degree? Performance in voice for four years, then took two years of music theatre then I did my third level Orff. I think music hasnt been valued in the school program, which is a problem. It is usually considered a frill. Yeah, Ive been reading a lot about that. I know, its sort of depressing. But there are good things too, like Music Monday. Theres a coalition of music, you know, and we have strings in our school, we have band in our school. We have a pan program and I teach recorders so theres a lot of music happening here. But I think that is because we feed into [local junior high school], which is a music showcase school for 7/8s and then we feed into [local high school] from there so theres kind of a connection. Thats interesting. Yep. So you get a priority sometimes. But the parents are the ones who have made the music program happen here. Theyve demanded it so its good In your day to day class, how much of what you teach is singing? A lot of it is singing. Its based on Orff program, but I teach K-6 and each student gets a rotary of a 5 day cycle. They get two music programs, 50 minutes each. So they are singing every time we meet. There is always singing. In grade 1 you teach them about so and me and where it is, how to play it and how to sing it. And in kindergarten you are always singing, so thats a big part. Yeah, so singing is a big part. And we have choir. We have a primary choir and then we also do lots of productions. Last years primary production was Aesops fable of the Tortoise and the Hare, Race to the Finish. All classes had to participate; they all had a song to do. Then we have people who had speaking roles and singing roles. Then the year before that we did Cinderella, so that was with the juniors. All the classes had songs also. Theres lots of singing, performing. This year were doing Hamlet with the juniors but we have a singing component also. Does each teacher prepare their own class or do you prepare all the classes? I do all the classes. Thats a lot. That is a lot, yeah. Its good though. You can make it a part of your program too. If you are teaching the songs and stuff theres a lot of rehearsals. And how is it decided who has the singing or speaking roles? They have to audition with a song and a monologue. Its usually me and another teacher or guest director. And then other teachers can come in and listen also.

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And how do you decide? Well you know whos going to be able to do it by the way they can sing, how they are on stage, you know what you need. Sometimes too theres a kid who really needs it and you give him a chance. Do you take their stage presence into account? Oh yeah. How they present themselves. You know Hello, my name is such and such, Im from room such and such, Ive prepared for you just like an audition. If youve auditioned you know. They come in and present themselves. They can do it. My juniors do it, primaries do it. Primaries might sing Twinkle Twinkle or Happy Birthday, but thats still okay. Its sort of being in front of people that theyre comfortable with, that they have to present themselves to. Its a good experience for them just to audition, thats a big part of it even if they dont get a part. But they can participate in lots of different ways. Kids who didnt get into Hamlet this year are helping with sets, costumes, or props. So I think that, for me, I really like doing stuff like that because its a whole kind of thing, where you work toward an end product, where they really see where they can do it. Its very important. In your day to day classroom experience with kids, can you think of any that youve taught that have trouble singing in tune? I dont really think about that in tune stuff because every kid comes from a different background. You would be amazed at how many kids dont know any of the little nursery rhymes that are based on so and me and me and do. Because we are coming from many, many different cultures. Sometimes Ill ask them, do your parents sing to you? or what do you listen to? I think thats part of the thing where kids cant figure out even what their singing voice is. Theres a different kind of voice for singing or talking, outdoor and indoor. So you sort of start them off with figuring that out and if they can echo back, if you do lots of echo songs and some kids cant quite get where it is in their voice. Where it is too high or too low. And I think thats part of it because theyre not in tune with singing, with listening to, echoing back, singing it back. So I think its a problem with not singing. There are some kids who may have pitch problems but I usually locate it as they dont know their own singing voice. Like in the classroom, theyre singing with other kids. Kindergarten is where they really start to do it. Whereas before I think singing was just a part of, like singing to babies is more of the thing that was done. You mean culturally? Culturally, I think, yeah. Even in whatever language, just sing to your baby. But I think people maybe just dont think to do it, or they dont know the songs or they put on a tape or something. Theyre not even used to listening to a human voice. There are a lot of different things that way. But there are kids that I have found who I know they are going to be bases. And there is one girl; she has the lowest voice in the world. As long as she can at least do me do and its three octaves below me, thats fine. I dont care, because shes got such a low voice. But I think that this is a major thing. They dont even know. Theyre not even comfortable with their singing voice let alone singing in pitch. There are lots of times when I do singing, where they listen to me sing it and they have to sing it back. Or well do little things like, Good afternoon, Billy Good afternoon, Mrs. [name]. So that gives them a chance to do it and hear other kids, and then doing it together, else theyll do it on the piano, xylophone, or recorder. Theres different ways to hear the pitches. I think that this is helpful.

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So do you find that all these little tricks, do they work? I think that helps a lot. Some kids I think, oh my goodness, but by the end of the year they can do it. Or else I tell them that they need to go home and they need to practice that so me. Or if they get to grade 1 and theyre doing so me do, theyll hear it on the subway and then theyll say, Oh I heard so me do! and Ill go, Yeah! To recognize where those things are and to try to match the pitch. And then Ill say, Oh this ones higher! Can you hear its not quite there, but its almost there? Then Ill have somebody else do it. Then ask, you try it again for us? And then there is an improvement, or maybe not. I think posture is a good thing too. They dont know how to produce properly so you always talk about sitting up tall. You know, do your breaths. There are lots of things they can do. Those little tricks do help. Singing together and putting a person who has difficulty with singing and matching pitches beside someone who can and when they are doing singing, I say you have to be able to hear the people beside you and in choir thats a big thing too. In choir, for my primaries, they do two part singing and you know thats pretty tough. You can do it, or you can do Canons or rounds. Sometimes they do this [stick their chins out] and youll say, you cant have that! They can do it and its nice for them to have that experience. I think its just a different, you know, they have to learn how to listen and locate where their singing voice is. Because a lot of the times they listen to radio or Much Music singers and its not the kind of its not in their range and not the kind of quality you want in a kids voice. So thats another thing too. But you do have kids who can really do good opera, so they figured out how they can do that too. So theres different things. Do you think when kids are listening to music thats not in their range or appropriate style, that it can actuallyYes. I think it can take away from their actual education as far as a kid. I expose them to all kinds of music but I think their own singing voice for singing with other children. Because there definitely is a childrens voice and how they sing is not belting out with a chest voice and a lot of them they cant get up in that high register because they are used to hearing somebody whos doing chest all the time. Well, thats a problem. They are trying to copy that and it doesnt come out sounding the same way in their voice? Yeah. And a child voice is totally different and they have that nice head tone and to have that happen with kids voices. theyre very lucky to have that. But they dont hear it or know it. I think thats an issue. Has there ever been any child who specifically has given you more trouble than most as far as trying to figure out techniques that would help them? There are a couple of them who just dont get singing and speaking. And thats always interesting. Ill just say you need to practice, Nyah, nyah, nyah-nyah-nyah! Dont you sing that? Dont you ever say that? I think before people did more skipping rope songs or just games and hand games with singing stuff and thats sort of lost and some kids dont have that singing kind of quality, that nasally kind of thing. So, yeah, theres a couple. Can you tell me more about the process you went through with specific children? I think for them to be aware that they can hear that theyre not singing on the pitch. Thats one important thing in trying to use the air, get it higher, and where the sound comes from. In choir, you talk about the stuff like that, but in the regular classroom you dont. And I think, too, just singing for the sheer enjoyment. Let them just sing, who cares?! I dont care if theyre singing

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and theyre off pitch. Everybody else is singing so it doesnt matter. So they can feel the enjoyment. I think this one boy in particular, I think hes fairly depressed so I think thats part of it. So theres kind of heaviness already there. I think it has a lot to do with lots of emotional things too. Sort of releasing the voice. You hold it in, maybe, and you lock into here and not let it go. Could be something like that. And sometimes, too, I might use movement letting their arms go while theyre singing. And often too if it goes high Ill say, Stretch up! or lower and you sing down low. You physicalize it. Do you find that it helps? I think it frees them up. Like I said sometimes its locked in here, so using things like that. Or sometimes when you get fabric and you let them dance around and sing, they love that. Theyre not self conscious and I think maybe thats some of it too. If you have to speak in public, its hard, rather than sort of being with everyone so maybe theyre highlighting in their mind I cant do this. But if they just do it without thinking they can do it. I think too, is not to make them feel self-conscious. If they dont do it, Ill say Oh a little higher and then Ill just move on. Instead of saying do it again, do it again! So you dont want that to happen. It seems like you dont focus too much on getting them to be exactly on tune, but the most important thing is to get them to be doing it and get involved and to enjoy it. Yeah, thats right. I think theyll get it in their own timing. Its just developmental, and often times it comes along fine. So you get to watch the kids, how they progress musically. K-6, yes. Are there any kids in 5 or 6 that still have trouble or does it disappear by then? By grade 5, youre dealing with a lot of other things: they dont want to sing in front of other people, unless they are really outgoing and they dont care. By then, girls seem a lot more shy than they used to be and boys seem like, yeah I can sing that and they do! Even if theyre off key, it doesnt matter, they just sing it. Then theres kind of a shift emotionally. Unless theyve been singing all along, doing shows and things like that. For the most part, I think they know and they can sing together. And they have to sing in tune too. If youre doing basic, like 1-5-4 things, they have to be able to sing that because if theyre going to put it on an instrument, they have to know what a 5 is. Do you think (like you said about the boys singing even though they might be off key) that is still a developmental thing even though theyre in the 6th grade? No because for some of them their voices are starting to change and because theyre physically changing and girls too, by grade 4 their bodies are developing. They dont want to do it. So youre dealing with a lot of different things in the classroom setting. So you try to make it as safe as possible, like we did a Beatles review last year and I had them singing Beatles, and they love Beatles songs. Anybody can sing those, you know? Or folk songs and things like that. African songs. If you choose a lot of different kinds of repertoire, then it gives them a chance to try different things too. Like different instruments. So I think thats helpful. Im not looking for a pure sound. If youve got a choir with a pure sound youre working at it, quite a hard time. This is their education as far as self expression, finding out what they can do, what they like to do, and sort of exploring it. A lot of them choose instruments, theyre doing strings, theyre doing band, theyre doing steel pans. He makes them sing with the steel pans. So you really get a lot of stuff. And definitely with recorder. I make them sing and dance and play the recorder. So they have to be able to do it, and they like it. Medieval, whats not to like? So its 102

always the range too. You try to choose a good range for them, not too high and by then, because I have a soprano voice, Ill flip it down for them. Ill say if you can match that pitch you can sing it there. So I would say that Im not into the, to be honest, that people are tone deaf. Ive never believed that. I think maybe they dont produce a sound that other people like, but you know some teachers, they want a perfect sound so theyll tell their students to sing fish or dont sing. And I really found that offensive because I think every kid needs to be given a voice. And then you have some adults who never sing because their teacher told them fish. I think, emotionally, thats a lot of baggage. What do you mean by sing fish? They dont sing anything, they move their lips. So it looks like theyre singing but theyre not. Its a very painful thing for a little kid to have somebody say to them, because I think you can get tuned up. Enjoyment of music is for everybody. Its not just for people with great voices, because if you look at Bob Dylan, he doesnt have the greatest voice, Leonard Cohen, but theres a musical soul, so thats what you want to feed. Its the poetry, theyre seeing the world, theyre expressing it through music and everybody can do that. Thats what I believe. I dont really like to stifle somebody, but you try to get them get them to be the best they can be. Thats what I believe. Yeah, I think I agree with that philosophy. I think thats more important when theyre little than getting them to have the exact right note. But, you see, if youve got the childrens Bach choir, yeah somebody thats tone deaf its going to be difficult. You do have to audition to get in, so its an elitist kind of group but its a group thats specifically for choral singing. So we do choral singing here but we do lots of other things too, like learning how to do composition, creative composition, improvisation, whatever. Theres lots of different things that are part of music making. I know, too, in kindergarten and grade 1, I do tone mapping so if the tone is going up they have to show me up. If the tone goes down, its down. So looking at it, if you can hear it, and most kids can do that. And then when it gets a little closer youre not going to do half steps with the kid. But theres stepwise and then the big skips. And then when it gets closer of course its harder to differentiate it. I think that it could be related to [learning disabilities] because I took an evening course at Integra, which works with learning disabilities and they were talking about music and how to help those who do have learning differences. Help them in the music. One of the things that they said, just for the B line, when you do the treble clef, to draw for some of them a red line, so they can see where a note is above or below. Because I can tell right away, some kids Ill say to them, Do the notes look like they are on the same space (when one is on a line and the other on a space)? And theyll say yes. I can see that in grade 1. You can see where there is going to be learning problems because sometimes theyll reverse things or thats exactly it, its a spatial thing. They cant see it. So I have big, BIG, things for them to put things on [staff paper and note shapes]. But it is very difficult, sometimes, for some of them and then later on, I realize they do have learning differences. I could say, definitely, it has something to do with learning differences because music is very connected to intelligence, and music intelligence. Do the other kids notice when their peer isnt singing in tune? How do they respond to that? Well sometimes everyone will laugh, which we dont want. I dont let it go by, if people laugh 103

or make fun because its not fair. And I think they know me, that whatever somebody does, its respected if its done honestly. So I dont think there is any belittling or anything like that and if there is then Ill address it right away. Because its like taking a chance. Thats what I always say, when you take a chance, you take it with everyone there with you. Its not like youre there out on your own, were there to support you. Or Ill just say, Come on everybody, lets sing it again, lets sing it together, to redirect them. But usually by grade 2 they know each others singing voices and they get used to it. Or one little girl, I guess it was last year, she really wanted to and some other little girl helped her and you wouldnt believe how much she improved because she just sang with the other little girl at recess and stuff. And she totally improved. It was amazing. Because I said, go practice with somebody and youll see you can do it. So I think its confidence too. I dont know. I could always sing, but maybe other kids, they question themselves. Or often theyll say, I forgot. Then Ill say, Okay, Ill come back to you when you remember. Then Ill say, Did you remember? and theyll say yes. Its kind of a thing, too, that risk-taking. Music is a huge risk taker: people think, Kids, oh they just do it. But I think there is a dynamic and you have to be able to read that and make it a safe place for them to share who they are. Your voice is a very personal thing. I had a lot of people coming in [for my study] who thought they were tone deaf, but didnt end up being. Like on the questionnaire I asked has anyone ever told you that you were tone deaf? And they have all these stories about their parents telling them not to sing and teachers telling them to just mouth the words and its really sad. See, my dad, he is tone deaf, hes got a horrible singing voice. But he can whistle a song in tune. Thats fascinating! It is. I think, okay, well what is that? Thats an interesting kind of phenomenon too; that you can whistle something in tune but you cant sing it in tune. And so, sometimes I will do that, Oh, can you whistle that? And not that many kids know how to whistle but whistling is a fun way to do it too and you still have to use the mechanism and you have to be able to match it. So thats another thing, too, that maybe there are different ways to match pitches. It doesnt have to be the singing voice because we have different ways. . There does seem to be another subgroup of people who cant sing in tune but they can perceive pitches correctly. Its interesting when you say about being able to whistle but not sing. It must be some motor production thing, like the wires are not quite connected. Or they go off, for some reason. But then it can come back on track. Its a very interesting study. But, Ive never used that term [tone deaf]. And I havent really come across it in music and stuff like that. Last year, we went to [place in community], our choir sings there in June. And one of the questions from one of the people in their choir (because they have a choir there) was, what do you do with people in your choir who are tone deaf? And Im thinking ok, these kids have never heard that term. And I said, Ive never come across that with my choir. I said, You know, you just do little things and everybody can sing, I believe. And you know, because theyre in their 80s and 90s and its a common thing I think from way before that people just sort of labeled you oh youre tone deaf. Theres just lots of different factors about that. The word tone-deaf is just a word we use. It doesnt have any meaning. Amusia has a meaning, but just being tone-deaf Yes, definitely. You cannot tell that this is different from this. Thats totally different than not being able to match a pitch, to echo back whats been sung to you. Its a misnomer in a way. 104

It is, because theyre not actually deaf to tones since they can hear it. They just cant produce it. Exactly. So, production, if youre a singer, you learn how to produce your voice. You have a voice but you have to sort of, yeah, its production. Its just the mechanism of learning how to sing. Its one that takes a few years and getting used to it and youll be hearing it. And then sometimes when you play a note and you hear that voice and its, hmmmm, not quite, and then youll be like lets pick a different one. And then they can get that note. So maybe its certain ranges too, where they cant quite hear it or quite get that note. Thats another thing, the note. Especially for kids voices. Oh, yes. So my other questions are not really about tone-deafness. I just want to know how teachers keep up to date on information or research thats new. Do you read any journals or go to workshops? How do you keep up on things? Im part of the coalition for music and part of the Orff chapter. So we have workshops 3 or 4 times a year. Then theres stuff at the Conservatory. I took a course last summer for a week that was on writing Orff sort of stuff, but as far as finding out what research is in music and stuff like that? Like research that is done on techniques that might work better in the classroom. Theres a lot of that stuff out there but does any of it trickle down from the psychologists to the educators? No. I dont think it does, not to educators. Not unless its given in those forums. Like with the [school board], they have professional development, but Ive never seen anything that was ever given like that. (Maybe you could get a job doing that.) There isnt. Im interested in it, stuff thats been done at McGill with the brain and music, Ive read that. Or theres maybe books, like Im reading one about music and your brain. It that Daniel Levitin? Thats a good book. Yes. But as far as research, no we dont get really anything. Its hard to access. The stuff is out there, in theory educators could go and get the music educators journal where they have all these studies, or Psychology of Music. But when you dont have the time. Like, where do I go to get that? Do I go to Indigo [bookstore]? Where do I go? Thats the thing, you have to either be affiliated with the University or have a subscription to it and then even if you do get the actual article its written in language... Thats not accessible. The thing is, you dont have that much time to sort of decipher something. It needs to be in lay language and something that you can make use of. You know, we have a music quadrant leader, its how the [school board] is run. If you need something for resources, you can go to this person and say, what are these things that are going on in music research? I can ask that question. I dont know what the answer would be, maybe they have access to it, but we dont or I dont get it. You can go on the [school board] website and theres a music [coalition], but thats more like questions like where do I get this piece of music from? or do you have this piece of music? Its more a hands on thing. Theres not that sort of stuff about research. Right, so youre saying that something that would make it more accessible would be to

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have it like a summary in laymans termsthis is what was found and this is how you can apply it? Sure. Why not? And somewhere easily available for teachers. Sure. Or if its a professional development that music teachers can do it. That may be something. They have two conferences and things like that. Orff has a conference every year. So maybe if people gave talks there because you have a lot of music people going to those things. When I went to the Integra workshop about music, it was really hands-on. Plus they had some kids who have learning differences and they talked about what it was like and what helped them. And what kinds of things, if you have a kid with learning differences, what kinds of things would be good for them. Like, getting into a band would be good. That was more hands on. But as far as access to different things, if I read it in the newspaper or hear it on the CBC or something. See thats the thing. Either you have the Psychology journals or you have where its been so watered-down or distorted, you cant even use it for anything. Useless. Or sometimes its just blatantly wrong. There should be some kind of middle ground and thats part of what Im trying to figure out. Exploring that area and figuring out what can we do to bridge the two. Well, something like the Coalition for Music in schools would probably be good because they have a good website and they might be interested, maybe theyll hire you. Theirs is to promote music in schools and that actually would be helpful to a teacher. And theyre looking for those kinds of projects, to help other teachers. Ill look into that. The reality is that you dont have music in a lot of schools. There is a lot of funding that is gone and the teachers arent there anymore. Its kind of hard. And regular classroom teachers, I think its hard for them to do it all. It seems like a multi-layered problem. On the one hand, some schools dont have music at all and on the other hand, when you do have music you want to make it not about training the children to be in a chorus or something. You want to make it be about self expression and to give them some skills that are basic musician skills, like what key is this? If you want to do a baseline or play guitar, how are you going to find where the base line is? For grade 5/6, thats pretty key because they all want to be in a rock band. Its a way to help them, you know? Doing a soundscape. What kinds of instruments are you going to use? How do you play them? Well, lets not use the vibra slap through the whole piece of music. But, why? Basic! Some schools dont even have instruments. You know, I got $1000 from the parent council. I bought a soprano xylophone for $600 and a nice chime for $250. The rest of the money will be to clean my xylophones that are at least 30 years old. So theres a thousand gone. Its expensive to buy instruments but you need them because there is so much you can do with them. And they need to have that, because instruments are the thing that really makes an ensemble work. They need to figure it out and then theyre like, I can do that! Its great. I bet it gives a chance for kids with different abilities to all feel involved. Yes, its unbelievable. And if they cant do changing hands then just do one. Challenge yourself 106

with all the different sounds. Its great. I think the Orff instruments are good. With the Orff Society, they probably would be interested in whats going on because when we do the Orff stuff, like for workshops, they have different clinicians come in. They might do dance or music, or they might do art and music or they do curriculum stuff, you know, teaching different music things. But theres never ever been one about music research. Its a basic thing. Everyone in music knows that music is important but other people dont seem to realize that. Maybe thats the basic thing that everyone should know.

PROFILE OF TEACHER B

Current position: High school vocal and math teacher (Grades 9-12; Grade 9) has been teaching for 15 years previously taught strings, drama, history, geography (Grades 7-10) interviewed in her office after school and before choir practice

INTERVIEW WITH TEACHER B

How long have you been teaching? I started teaching in 1996, so I guess this is my fifteenth year, but I was off on maternity leave for a year and seven months. When I first started teaching, my very first year, there were no teaching jobs available in Ontario, it was the same situation back in 1996. So I taught in Cairo, Egypt, at a private American School there. And I did the kindergarten through grade 12 vocal, but that was my first year teaching and it was a brand new school and they didnt really have a set curriculum or anything so I just called that my practice year because, really. I studied concurrent education at [University] so I was in the classroom right from first year doing stuff. I think I probably did more real teaching stuff then than I did my first year of actual teaching in Egypt. Kindergarten to 12th grade vocal, and that was fine, it was what it was. The kids didnt really take it seriously; they were very, very, wealthy students. At the high school level they didnt choose vocal, they were told they had to take it, so that right away gives you the mentality of some of the kids. A lot of the male students were just being groomed to take over their fathers businesses and stuff, so that was a bit of a hard sell, trying to really come up with all different ideas to have them singing there. Then when I came back to [town], it was a different board, and my former music teacher from high school had an opening and she was the head of music at [school] and so went there, filling someones maternity leave, a long-term occasional. And I was teaching strings. So I did strings because I was actually a cellist originally and I started singing later, partway through high school. So I did strings, grades 7, 8, 9, 10, because it was a combined program with grade a 7-8 school and the high school. I was there for three years and in those three years I had switched to elementary panel after my first year. My first year, when I was doing the long-term occasional, I did drama and strings and then the next year I switched to elementary. So I was hired by the grade 7-8 side, but I was still doing the same stuff. I did strings and then I started doing vocal as well. Then I moved to [town] in the year 2000. Thats when I had the full vocal program to myself. It was just two sections and we built it to a whole vocal program there. I say thats really where I got a lot of what I do now with teaching vocal. I was there from 2000-2007. Took a year off for maternity leave. Then I went to [school] for one 107

year in [town], just because I had moved out to [town] and this was a little closer to home. But I kind of missed being in the downtown area so I went on maternity leave again, and then I returned and came to [current school]. So I have been here at this school since last February. Theres a lot of stuff going on here because the teacher who was here prior to me was also the head of the department and ran the vocal program here for twenty years, full vocal big program. When she left, that program took a beating and I didnt come in right after her. There was a person filling in for my maternity leave who came in first, so the kids had a lot of adjustments. So we dropped numbers and we are just now slowly building it up. The kids have to get used to I am pretty strict about my expectations with music. This is a very athletic school. The kids wouldnt think twice about missing a sports practice. But when it comes to our rehearsals its, Oh, I cant come, I gotta go do stuff. So I made very strict rules [such as] three rehearsals, youre out. Ive taught other things too. When I was teaching grade 7 I had to teach math, history, geography [etc.]. In high school I do vocal music, and grade 9 math. So thats what I do this year, four vocals and two math. I love it. I love the balance of the two because they are very different but at the same time kind of similar. Did you have to study math to be able to teach math? Well when I went to University, I went as a math major and then I switched to music in second year. So mine is a BA in music not a BMus because back in the day they didnt offer BMus concurrently at [University]. They only offered a BA or a BSc with education, so I had to do a BA in music. So its more music history but I did the performance stuff just on my own. You can pay for extra courses to do that stuff. So I do have some math courses, enough to make it one of my teachables. Can you tell me about any specific experiences with individuals that youve had that have had trouble singing in tune and could you explain what you did to help them, what worked and what didnt? I would say that this is something that I really find important and Ive done a little bit of reading, trying to figure out the best ways to deal with students who cant match pitch. So everything Ive figured out has happened since I started at [my previous school] in the year 2000. Prior to that, when I was in high school, my choir/vocal teacher would sometimes ask me to do private lessons with some of my peers. I remember I had one girl, and she couldnt match pitch. I would play a note and say, Okay try this note. And I would play it and I would say, Okay, just listen. Then I would sing it to try to get her to sing it and she couldnt. But eventually we got to the point where whatever note I played, she would sing a minor third above it. Thats very strange. It was totally strange but I was a student at the time and I was just like, Okaywell, you know. We werent even getting to repertoire; I would spend forever just trying to keep plunking out notes. And as time evolved, I eventually realized, because I then did private lessons as an adult after I had been studying voice for a while, with a friend of mine. And he couldnt match pitch. He just wanted to round out his personality and do something musical. Well, he really couldnt match pitch and I discovered it is very difficult. The best way to have students learn to match pitch, and I really believe that everyones ear can be trained, but they need to be in a choral setting or in a group setting where there are other people singing in unison, the same thing as them. Individually, one on one, it just takes way longer. But if you are

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in a group setting, it speeds the process up so quickly. What I did though with my friend, the private student, I would make him listen. He wanted to do Sarah McLachlans, I Will Remember You. And he used to do, [sings off pitch]. So I made him listen to the piece over and over, put earphones in so there were no other outside noises interfering and just listen and listen to it over and over. I still thought it was a long process and we never really got it to the point where he was able match every single pitch. He had gotten closer, but he was never exactly on. Whereas Ive had vocal students who have trouble matching pitch when they come in, especially at a grade 9 level. I find grade 9 boys, just with all the change in their voice, they have great difficulty. But also, I have a lot of grade 9s just because their ear isnt trained that way. Ive kind of discovered that, it seems to me, its their musical background and the training of their ears. And some people just hear things differently than others. And so I start off every grade 9 year with a unison piece. Ill just have everyone singing the exact same thing and ask the students. I think I mentioned this to you on the phone, what one of my mentors suggested to me is asking the [other] students, when a students singing is obviously not the same pitch as other people. When were singing a unison piece, or warm-ups or anything, you can always hear those one or two voices that are not singing the same. First of all, I want to alleviate that embarrassment for the kids because then they get all shy and they dont want to sing. So I talk about it and I say, Well, its not that people cant sing. Can you guys hear that there are different notes coming out and we should all be singing the same note? And theyll say, Yeah. And Ill say, Well, thats just because some peoples ears have been trained differently. They havent been as trained so theyre not as developed as other peoples. And there are various reasons, could be cultural or the music that they listen to, etc. Some people hear quarter tones in the Asian culture. And over here we have semi-tones and tones, you know, so I say to them, If you can hear that, what we have to do is help people because their ears can be trained, easily. I will usually talk to a student I want to sing aloud in advance and Ill say, You know, can you hear that you are not singing the same pitches? And theyll say, Yeah, kind of embarrassed. And Ill say, Well, its nothing to be embarrassed about. Its only normal. Actually would you mind if I use you to demonstrate because there are other people going through the same thing. And they feel all special, Oh Im helping out. Then Ill say, Did you notice that Bob over here is not singing the same pitches so heres what were going to do. Bob, raise your hand for me please. And Bob will raise his right hand. Then Ill say, Okay, please note that he raised his right hand and that means that Bob is dominant on his right side. So his right ear is a little more dominant than the left, so now Im going to take Jim who is a quite a strong singer. I think we can all tell that Jim sings with fairly accurate pitches and hes a strong singer. Jim, can you sit on Bobs right side? And now whenever we are singing, if you hear that Bob starting to go off, can you just lean in and sing right into his ear? I swear this has had so much success for me. I think part of the reason is, yes they are getting the correct pitches really sung closely in the ear. But the other part is two things. One, it is the want, the attitude. A problem has been identified. Its not just being swept under the rug and they want to work harder because they feel that they can. I think often people that dont match pitch they just think, Oh, I cant sing. And I say, It has nothing to do with singing. If you can speak, you can sing. If you have laryngitis, you cant sing, other than that you can sing. It is your brain sending signals as to what exactly which pitch is coming out. So we just have to train your ear for that. Once they hear that, I have found that every single time they rise to the occasion and they get it. The only time it doesnt seem to fix itself is when they just dont try; theyre just like, whatever. In my last period class, I just had a couple of those but they dont even sing. It has nothing to do with them being embarrassed by their voice, they just dont care. And theyre not passing the course, it has nothing to do with them not singing in pitch, they just

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dont do anything at all. No singing, no handing written work in or anything so thats a completely different situation. I have found that this works really, really, well: keeping them in a group setting singing the same things. Thats why I, with grade 9s I wont split into harmony or SATB pieces right off the bat; just keep them all in unison so they can develop that. My biggest success story was a student I had who came in grade 10 and he couldnt match pitch at all and by grade 12 he was my bass section leader. So I really think that as long as you address the problem and dont make a big deal, a lot of it is the psychology of it. So you start that way in grade 9. Once they get to grade 10, are there still some that werent able to get it in grade 9? Every now and then Ill get new students who come in and, yeah, that will happen. But normally, its hard for me to say here, I was at [previous teaching position] for many years and that was my program. When youve been in one spot for a long time then you can start developing these. Believe me, at the beginning of my time I was not doing this kind of stuff. I was just trying to figure it out. I never had my own vocal program, I team taught at [another school] so I was just trying to figure things out as I went. But once I had been there for a while, I could start playing with these ideas and doing different activities. I paired that with, have you ever heard of [name of camp]? Thats like a provincial camp; its up in [town]. I taught there for two years, student leadership stuff, and it changed my whole teaching career. It made me realize lots of stuff, and for instance in a vocal classroom, it is very different from an instrumental classroom because in the instrumental classroom, when students mess up they have their instrument to hide behind. In a vocal classroom, if you mess up you dont, you have nothing to hide behind. Its just you and its very personal. So I spend a lot of time at the beginning of my year doing trust activities, trust building. I really try to create a very safe community where each class is bonded. They feel very safe around each other so they are more apt to take risks and to sing out more. Just doing a few activities like that, team building stuff, really helps and so then they are more apt to sing out more and I can fix the problems. If someone isnt going to sing, you cant fix their matching pitch problem. I cant hear it sometimes because they dont sing. But here, Ive only been here for a year and last year, I came in February for the second half of the year, and it was a disaster. I wouldnt even count last year as teaching; it was just trying to get by, day by day. There were some very, very tough students. There were physical fights going on in the classroom. It was a real disaster, just trying to keep classroom discipline. So this year, at the beginning of the year, the students are different, but I cant do all this other stuff yet, like the trust building and stuff, because Im still trying to get them into a routine, to just get them to take the course seriously. Vocal is a course, just like any other course, like math. Why would you think you are going to come here for a whole year and get a credit without doing work? So, we do things like posture, breathing, etc. Weve kind of touched on pitch, but even then they have to really trust me 100% first too. And so Im building that bond right now with my students but Im not quite there. I need another year, and then even with the new kids when the new kids come in and see that the older kids respect you then they follow the lead but right now the older kids still remember [previous teacher] from before. So they are just trying to get used to my way versus her way. The other kids are still trying to [figure out if] its serious or not, do they really care, etc. While Im trying to sort the program out, they are just waiting for me I guess, to figure out whats going on. Well eventually get to the point where the people taking vocal are here because they want to be here, not just because they think its a bird course. And at that stage, then Ill really be able to really start again doing what I used to do at [previous school], which was dealing with these kids who have problems matching pitch and stuff like that. 110

So at [previous school] you would start off with just unison pieces in grade 9? I used to do the same piece every single year. It was Eleanor Daleys And God Shall Wipe Away All Tears. I could do so much teaching with that one piece. Stagger breathing, thinking about long phrases, and keeping just the blanket of sound going. It was in unison, but it also went up to a high G so for females, and I could work with them on how to raise their soft palate, and releasing air as theyre singing; for males, going into their falsetto voice, I always make them sing to ooo. Thats another thing, actually for matching pitch. For the guys, just getting the break, the technique stuff sometimes hinders them, going from their chest voice to their falsetto. I found that making the guys sing in their falsetto range, from middle c up to ooo, their larynx is more relaxed and so then they can sing very quiet so they arent doing this [sings with a strained voice] and then theyre not even close to getting the right pitch, whereas if they just relax [sings with a soft relaxed voice] With Eleanor Daley, you have to go up to a G. You cant sing that with chest voice. They have to go into their falsetto. Its very uncomfortable for the kids, but discomfort is not a bad thing. It means they are learning something new. That is the one piece I use over and over because there were lots of teaching tools in there. But at the same time it was unison and then the piano part is really good too. Its like a nice heavy part, so it makes it a little bit more interesting for them. And it is a classically based piece, like the text is pretty you know... the fact that it says, God. I like doing this right off the bat and not acting like its any different. So it sets the tone for the program. They are not coming in and singing Katy Perry. Its not like, Lets sing California Girls in three part harmony. Its a choral program. Were going to do choral music and were going to sing music of all cultures, and if it says God in there, then it says God in there. But then, after I have that talk, You know, if youre not comfortable that is totally fine. Right off the bat, I just use that piece to set the tone. So what do you do after 9th grade, in grade 10 or 11, when there are still people that arent matching pitch, but you have more harmonies and different parts going on? I always used to run sectional rehearsals for an hour a week and the students actually ran them. So it would be all the altos together and theyre getting their unison singing there. And then in class I move them as far from other sections as possible. Oh, the different voices? Yes. If there is an alto who cant match pitch, I would have my altos on my right. So I put her on the far right, away from the men and away from the sopranos. And then surrounded by strong altos. So I always put the strong singers all around. Behind, like three behind, so its coming from both sides and directly behind, and then on either side too. Does it work? Yes. Im trying to think, here, I have one grade 9 girl and Ive already seen improvement in the girls in the other class. Its the guys in my other grade 9 class. There are about four guys in there who arent matching pitch, but they dont really sing, theyre not in the choir, they dont want to do the choir. Im not really sure why theyre in the choir. So Ive talked to them about it and you know, This would be good if you came and joined the choir and we tried this but you have to participate in class. But theyre not interested so thats fine, thats their choice. But for the upper years, yes, I find that it totally does. Im just trying to think of who I have thats in my upper year classes, theyre all matching pitches; see, I didnt know them when they were younger but I would say the ones that I can tell they kind of go off sometimes are probably the ones who had trouble with matching pitch maybe at a younger age, but by now their errors are getting used to it. The more they practice, too, the more they train their ear to do it, so I see that 111

correlation too. Someone who cant match pitch but never goes home and tries, theyre not going to go as far. But in my upper year classes, it seems to be fine. I dont do sectionals here, not yet, because its like pulling teeth. I used to have three hours of rehearsal a week at [previous school], two hours choir, one hour sectionals, but here I just barely get one hour out of them. So, its just a constant battle. In all your years of teaching, in the school setting, was there ever anybody who, no matter what you tried, you couldnt get them to match pitch at all or is there always some kind of level of progress? Theres always some level of progress, if they are singing. The only ones I havent had any success with this year (like I said I dont count last year because it wasnt like teaching, it was just survival mode) but this year so far, and its almost the end of the school year, I have a couple who still arent matching pitch. But the one girl, she tries and she has definitely improved, shes just not 100 percent. And I think that I just havent spent enough time doing like we dont have sectionals, theres just not enough rehearsal time here. She cant go home and practice on her own, she needs the guidance of the school. They really seem to need that. And then the other kids are those four boys [who] dont try. So if they dont try, then obviously you cant take that into account. Ive talked to them about it so they know. I tell them, You are capable of doing this, but you have to put the time in, you have to care. [They respond] Yeah You know, grade 9 boys. So I dont think, I mean I cant think of anyone who has not been successful. Theres always been some form of improvement. I just really think the key thing is to address the situation, instead of just ignoring it and hoping Okay, well, theyll just get better. I think actually saying to them, You know, this is the problem and its totally fine, its trainable, then it alleviates (because you know that old thing [where] theres teachers, especially at the elementary level, kids join choir and well say to them, Oh, just mouth the words.). Ive got colleagues who will say to me, because I try to invite staff to come and sing with us whenever they want to, and they say, Oh I cant. Believe me, when I was in elementary school the teacher told me just to mouth the words. And that makes me they laugh and Ill get so mad, Im like, And you are 50 years old and still remember that. So obviously it had an impact. You cant just ignore, you cant just say things like that, you have a job, a responsibility to help. Thats the one instrument we can carry with us for the rest of our life, our voice. So Im pretty passionate about this. Were you ever in a situation where you had a big performance coming up and there was a student that just couldnt sing in tune? I was just doing my seating plan for choir for our upcoming spring concert. And the one girl who I am talking about, shes gotten better but shes still her pitch wavers. I put her right in the front row. It is what it is, you know what I mean? Im not going to stick her in the back; Ive got her in the front row so the voices will come forward, into her ears, because thats best for her. So thats just me, I think thats far more important that having a beautifully polished performance. And Ive had her in the front row all year long, and it hasnt been [When] we get recordings back and Ive listened to them, its been fine. I dont hear her sticking out. Now, I think at times she gets kind of quiet and then she kind of comes back in, but when were in class there is only twenty of them in class so I can hear her and shes on, then shell stray with it, then shes back on. And usually its right at the beginning of a phrase, just to find her first pitch. I never single her out; Ill just be like, Okay, everyone listen, make sure you listen. Oh, heres the other thing, I call it [audiating]. When I taught strings I did this, because with strings its this whole... are you familiar with the string instruments, violin, viola, cello, bass? So often

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when you start kids on that, teachers will put tape so they know where to put their finger. The problem is that each instrument is different and then you can go out of tune and this and that. So sometimes where the tape is is not accurate but if kids are taught that way, they dont use their hearing as much. They just say, My first finger is down, its on the tape so it must be right. And they are not even actively listening. They need to actively listen. I learned this at the [conference] one year from the strings teacher, audiating. So I make my singers do it too. I will often turn the lights out and tell them to close their eyes and sing because when you take away your sense of sight your hearing is heightened. I also will say okay heres the audiating process: Were about to sing and Ill play that first note and Ill hear that girl, sometimes shes not on the correct note. So Ill tell the whole class, or even not just people not matching pitch but tuningwise, if theyre a bit sharp or a bit flat, Ill say, Stop. Because often if you say, Youre not in tune, fix it, they keep singing. They dont stop and start again, they just keep singing and get louder. So I say, Stop singing. Step number one of audiating, you have to listen. And Ill play the note, a few times [sings note several times]. And they have to listen, and sometimes Ill make them do it with their eyes closed. So they really hear the note. And then Ill say, Step two, breathe and pretend you are about to sing the note to an ah vowel. When I say, One, two three [takes deep breath], youre going to breathe and then pretend you are singing but dont sing. Go through the process of singing but dont do it and Ill play the note instead. So step two would be like this [demonstrates above process] and then I would play the note while they pretend theyre singing. So its like they go through the motion and they dont sing but they hear me play. And then the third step is to sing. Every single time, it works. They get the note. Its like so strange, someone taught me that, and its wild. Audiating. Thats the other thing, just finding the first pitch often helps too. When theyre in the process of trying to match pitches, if they can get their first note, after that they are pretty much okay to get on. You say that you try and tell the kids [about singing out of tune] at the very beginning and explain it to the whole class so they dont feel uncomfortable; does that work all the time or are there cases where the kid still gets made fun of? Ive never had anyone make fun. If you have one kid, thats something I address from day one. Id say Im a pretty laid-back teacher, I love to have fun. Like fun, fun, fun. Theres my costumeI wear my princess costume. I love to have fun but I tell them, You want to see me mad? You will do something disrespectful to one of your peers. I say that this is my only rule, and that is respect. Respect for me, I respect you, we respect each other. Its not like a one-way street; we are all in an atmosphere of respect in my classroom. And then Ill talk to them and Ill say, Give me examples of disrespect. And you know, theyll often say, Well you know, like mouthing back. And Ill say, Or just talking when one person is talking and someone else carries on a conversation, thats disrespectful. But then I talk to them about how one little look can be like, Ill say, You might not be saying something, but you can look at your friend and roll your eyes and Im guaranteeing you that other people see that and it puts a wall around them. So then I talk to them, I say, In a vocal classroom, if someone gets up to sing and you just glance at your friend, because theyre not matching pitch or something like that. That will stay with that person forever. So you really need to be cognizant. So dont even think about ever saying anything because if you want to see me mad Because Im pretty much always happy with kids and in a good mood, but Ill say, If you want to see me mad, then you will say something. I havent yet had a student who says something mean to another student. Ever.

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Thats pretty cool. Oh, thank God, I couldnt imagine what I would do. I would lose it. Im very passionate about it and I think maybe because Im so passionate that passes on to the kids and they understand, you know, that this is a joy to be here singing together and who cares? We dont need to be the best at it, so long as everyone is happy and enjoying what theyre doing, Im happy. I dont think Ive ever heard anybody put it into words that way. Obviously, I know that if Im getting up to do something and I see somebody just glance at another person, I know what that means. And thats going to stay with me. But Ive never heard a teacher specifically address that and put that into words. I think thats really cool. Yeah, you know, I think often that we as teachers, we forget the little things. And thats the other thing, when I was mentioning this [conference] before; I was a typical music teacher before, very product oriented. Where okay, were in [vocal festival], we have to be perfect. I want everything precise, blah, blah, blah. But how many kids really go on to study music at University? If, at this school, I mean theres one its a big deal, very few do. So Im not trying to train these people who are going to University for music. Im trying to train my students who are going to have music with them for the rest of their lives. So they can go to choral concerts and listen and be able to say, Oh, listen, the tuning was not quite right there, or Oh, listen to that chord, its perfectly in tune, or even to just enjoy it, just close their eyes. I have a former student who wrote me that he doesnt sing anymore but he goes to every [University] choral concert there because he said hes meant to be in the audience and just know the beauty of it. Little things like that, so what I started teaching at the leadership camp, thats when I started thinking that its more about the process and how we feel when we do it. Not everyone is like that, Im just a very feely [person], oh the feelings, emotions, you know. I mean, I have a lot of personal tragedy in my life too, and so music has helped me through it. You know, kids students, they can go through such rough times. I think a teenager, believe me its bad enough being a normal teenager fighting with their parents but then some of the kids today, the things they go through, like a parent coming from war-stricken countries or this and that or one-parent families, parents passing away. They go through some really rough things and music can be such a salvation for people. So thats what I want my students to know, but to also put it in context. Give it the respect that it deserves and the people performing, give them the respect as well. Do you ever spend individual time with those students who have trouble, after school? I used to but I dont really anymore. I even tell them that its not going to be as beneficial to do one-on-one work; they need to be surrounded by people. So sometimes, if I do have a student who needs help, Ill have a couple other students come too so theyre singing together. But the one-on-one, they dont get as much out of it, even just singing with me. There needs to be other people around singing the same thing, so I dont do it. You know what I do? I tape, this is new here, but thats because it was a different situation in [other school], you know the financial aspect. Because kids there have a bit more money than at [this school], and so a lot of them took private lessons so the majority of them could learn their notes at home on the piano or whatever. But here hardly anyone plays piano, so when I tell them to go home and practice their music they dont know how to. So all the pieces are here, I record the soprano part, alto part, tenor part, bass part, me singing it. And I record them as Mp3 files and I email it to the kids so that they can listen and sing along. So I tell them to put it on the Mp3 players and theyll walk around [and sing]. Sometimes theyll plug it into the stereo, as a trick to me, all of a sudden Ill hear myself singing and ugh! You know I hate hearing myself. Thats how I have them

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practice, listening to the Mp3 file of me singing. And then its just their line as well. Then I tell them when theyre confident enough, that they know one, play someone elses part. If youre an alto, play the soprano part. So what about parent/teacher interviews? Do you ever mention anything about a student who cant sing in tune, are the parents interested, do they care? No. I have not once had a parent who really cared that much about what really their child is learning in a vocal classroom. Can you believe that? Not once. They are more interested in just coming to meet the teacher and whats going on in the program. But actual technique, like what theyre doing? No. And I never really ever once brought it up, if theres a student who is not matching pitch. There are not that many parents who come for vocal students anyway, as Ive found. I mostly have math parents come in. But no, I havent had that many and no, never once has it come up, the whole matching pitch thing. A few students Ive had, who have music parents, like parents who are musical, theyre all very musical themselves so its not an issue for them. But the average parent wouldnt know. Ive had one parent who did come in, he was pretty mean to his daughter, he was like, So, she cant even sing! and I was like, Um, she can, actually, she was a good singer you know, just the dad trying to be funny. His daughter was like, Daaaad! I was like, Oh no, she does very well. But Ive never had a parent actually wanting to focus on the fact that their child wasnt matching pitch. Have you ever had students in your class who had learning disabilities that you knew of and [did you notice if] that affected their ability to sing? I have lots of students. I always love to work closely with the special education department and guidance because, to me, this is a class where (its not like the math class where there is a strict curriculum that you have to get through by the end of the year on the [standardized test]). We have a lot more leeway and this is a class that can really help students self-confidence and that kind of stuff. In case you cant tell by now, I am like the mommy, very nurturing to my kids. I always tell them, Im like your second mom. And I talk to them about lots of things. I could be in the middle of a song and then say, Okay wait, life lesson number 5 and talk to them about something completely random like, Girls, if youre going through a breakup with your boyfriend, the best thing you can do is just be completely apathetic. If you show that youre really angry, thats the opposite side of love and its just showing too much. If you really want to get him? Just act like you dont care at all. And theyll just look at me and Ill be like, Okay, back to the music. But that kind of thing, I dont do that to be a complete idiot, its all calculated enough. Yeah, I like to have fun and stuff but these kids need a break. This classroom is like a break from English, Geography, Math. And some kids struggle in those so thats why I always go to Special Ed or Guidance. At [other school], they used to send me kids who maybe werent doing as well academically. They would say, Would you take so-and-so in Vocal? Ill say, Absolutely. Because its a course where, if you work at it, you will always improve. Youre never going to get worse in Vocal. If you sing, you are only going to get better. And thats that little bit of confidence for kids who are just sitting there in a Math class with people there putting their hands up and answering, and for them its like hearing the teacher speak a different language. Their self-confidence takes such a beating. They come here and they can do something. It makes a world of difference for students. So yeah, I have students who come in. Ive never found that, I mean, we get a list of Special Ed kids, so for theory sometimes Ill give them a little bit longer depending on their disability. But singing wise? I treat everyone exactly the same. And this might be important for you, when it

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comes to marking them? I dont have a set standard, like everyone should be able to sing this in this tone and blah, blah, blah. You know, rich tone. I pretty much mark it based on themselves. My rubric I use one for their big test. You can be not matching pitch and still do really well. Heres an example: There are seven categories and each one is out of five. So Ive got this one page and theres room for eight tests on here, so I can go back and compare their tests. So one category is tone and breath control, the other one is vowels, then there is diction, intonation, rhythm and tempo, phrasing and dynamics, and posture. So someone can come in and not be able to match pitch, and that is on intonation, I call that intonation/correct notes, thats out of five marks. But, I have kids coming in, like that girl Im thinking about, shes not always in tune but her tone is pretty good. She still has a pretty rich tone, its definitely like a 4 out of 5; vowels for choral singing, very important to have pure vowel [sings vowels]. So she can be doing her vowels, enunciating each of the consonants, has her rhythms and cut-offs very precise, do the dynamics as marked, have good posture, she can still score easily a 30 out of 35, easily, without singing the right notes. And I make sure I tell the kids that, I say, Thats only a part of it. Singing isnt just opening your mouth and having notes come out. Theres so much more preparation. You wouldnt find a runner who all of a sudden just goes and runs a marathon without warming up. Even playing a soccer game, you dont just kick the ball. They pull their leg back and then kick. For singers, our preparation is proper breathing. Im curious about music teachers and where and how they access current research in music education or in singing or music psychology, if they access any of it at all. So for me, I cant speak for other music teachers because I dont really know, and I wouldnt have known about accessing material if I hadnt done my Masters myself because thats when I really learned a lot about these journals and stuff that are out there and online. Even then, the only thing I do is if I see articles in the paper or something like that, although I dont really read the paper, its more a matter of I get my OMEA and the CMEA and I read those. Do they report on research there? Some people do. Ive actually written a couple of articles for them too, and then some are more from a practical point of view, but some people write in and they use excerpts of their theses or stuff like that. Its education, academic based research, but I dont know that the average music teacher would really know how to access academic literature on this. I think often people get caught up your school wants you, Would you guys mind performing for Commencement next week? or were running an assembly in three weeks. Can you guys do that? So you cant do the same thing over and over so youre always rushing to prepare. So in all those schools Ive taught at, weve had pretty big performance programs, performance after performance, and theres not enough time. For myself, I have a 2-year-old and a 3 -year-old at home and my husband works nights, so after school I get Monday and Tuesdays, I stay Mondays for choir and Tuesdays for my math help. And then I have to rush, every single night of the week, I have to rush out of here, get the boys from daycare, get them home, make supper, feed them, bathe them, get them ready for bed, read to them. And my kids are difficult to put to bed. So basically my whole night is gone. By the time I get them to bed, often I have to lie down with them, and putting them to bed can turn into a two or three hour process. And I end up falling asleep too and then I wake up the next morning and come back. Its very monotonous but it doesnt leave me a lot of time to do stuff myself. Thats why I was so excited you were coming because I love just thinking about different things. It was good to kind of think about what it is exactly that Ive done and what do I believe about this. And it reminds me of when I was doing my Masters too. I love reading the research, well some of it. And its interesting, all 116

the stuff thats out there, but I dont know, for myself, just this time. And even without young kids, its like going to conferences and you go to workshops and I tend to go to these things and I get so rejuvenated and I get full of ideas and stuff and then you get back into the drudgery of it, like gotta get this done and that done and its easy to forget about these things. So I dont know that, speaking for myself, I dont really access a lot of literature, unfortunately. Is there any way that you think that people could make it easier for you or music teachers to access stuff like that? Well, we have a board server but, you see, it just recently changed. There was a music folder we could all go on. They changed it to this whole new academic workspace or something. Its not taking very well. Its been a year and a half of them trying to get staff to use it and everyone is confused about it. So before there used to be a music folder and we could dialogue with each other. People could ask questions, it was great because we only have one or two PD days a year that music teachers can get together and talk. I find that always to be a great resource, talking to each other and passing information on. On the music folder, people would send in, Oh read this article that came up today. But now we dont have that folder anymore with this new workspace. No one really knows how to use it. So I feel kind of displaced. I really only access the other music teachers at this school here. So its a shame. If we had that music folder back again, it would be really helpful. So a kind of online community? Yes, where you could discuss things. Is there anything else that I havent asked or that you havent shared that you would like to before I finish? I think Ive covered everything that I can. I really just think that really trying as a music teacher to connect with your students is really important, I mean for any teacher, but with singing specifically. Its important to really make that connection and make the kids feel very comfortable so there is no stigma attached to, you know, not being able to match pitch. It can be fixed and the child just has to want to put the effort forward and the teacher just has to, like dont try and sweep it under the rug, just address it head on and it will be fine.

PROFILE OF TEACHER C

Current position: High school vocal and strings teacher (Grades 9-12) taught for 3 and half years in a university setting has been teaching in high school for 21 years interviewed in her office during end-of-year exam period

INTERVIEW WITH TEACHER C

In your experience, can you think of specific students that youve had who had trouble singing in tune? What things have you done with them to help? How did you first notice it? How did you try and teach them? I remember my previous school and then I had a student, well, that couldnt sing in tune so always the pitch wasnt there. I worked with him individually and actually I started first with 117

repeating some melodies, either I sang or I played on the piano and he had to repeat them. At the very beginning it wasnt so great because you never know if the kid is really totally tone deaf and cannot differentiate any pitches, relative pitches or is he just weak in using the vocal apparatus then this is why he cannot hear, also doesnt have any musical background. So I did all the exercises and I always do this, and actually this year I also have a few students that needed help like that. But the other guy from the other school was my big success. So it means that he wasnt totally tone deaf. So like I said, we did exercises and I played some melody lines and at first I played and I played another one with many, many, different notes, trying to see if he could at least hear the difference. And at first he couldnt differentiate and then I did exercises where I played a low note and a high note and [see if he could] recognize. Is it low, very high, or is it in the middle? And it wasnt very soon, but after almost a month he started recognizing the difference between low, middle, and high notes. So he couldnt [do this] before? He could not in the very beginning so I thought that he was really a lost cause. Although he was a very intelligent boy and his theory skills were great. And he had a friend who was in the same class and a very good singer, and I kind of involved him. I remember the other boy, the helper, because he was crying when I was leaving because he said I helped his friend, and I spent so much time [with him]. And actually, we both, after that month, we both spent time with him because I was using his help, him singing together with the other boy, because they were the same voice. So first, like I said, low, middle, and high notes, we had done it for some time that I was playing melody lines that were very familiar but I was changing it first. For example [sings example]. So the second time I played it, I played it completely different. So he could recognize right away that something was wrong. But later, I was doing these exercises changing only a few notes and then by the end of the month I finished with changing maybe two or three notes only. And he started recognizing this, so I didnt know at that point if he was doing this because he got used to it? Although I was changing the melodies so he could remember some of them, but I was usually using the songs everyone knows. He might have heard them somewhere. So he gave me a kind of promise that my time wasnt wasted because he started recognizing that this one is low, that one is higher and so on. And then we started singing because you know first you need to know if someone is completely off the ball or do they have some perception that something is wrong? Because sometimes, its like with language, I know that I should form my mouth differently. And probably with a private tutor I would have been much, much better. But because life is very fast and you have no time to spend on little or one word or something, yes? So then I was thinking about him, maybe he is in this regard almost like me that youve got used to certain format of your language, of your vocal apparatus or the speaking apparatus. And then you cannot form it differently because youve learned it that way. Its very interesting, I never thought of it like that. When you have languages like Russian, Polish, and they have a lot of [makes sound like je, je, je], how you form your vocal apparatus or speech then everything is involved: soft palate, your hard palate, tongue, everything, yes? And after, they say, supposedly there are some studies that say that every single average person who doesnt have any abilities to learn languages, there are people who learn languages like that, yes? Pope the 2nd knew 9 brilliantly. But he has a special ability to learn languages and there are people like that. But if you are an average person, then your vocal apparatus, with your mother tongue, gets formed until age 14. And later if you dont learn other languages after age of 14, of course you will learn them, but you will have an accent because your vocal apparatus is already formed. And it is formed because of 118

language. If the language is softer, doesnt have the hard [makes various sounds], then it is easier to later learn languages like English is rather soft compared to the other languages that have those double letters and jejeje and vice versa for a person who is English speaking, to learn the language that has many of those double letters is harder than the consonants. So speech is also very similar like singing. Singing is very similar to me because you know when you have a vowel it is easier, yes? And this is why singers, when they sing in different languages they sound better than when they are speaking it, because they dont have an accent. And you can sing in French, you can sing even in Japanese, because your singing voice always picks up the vowel and focuses on the vowel. Although here you should have diction comes from consonants more than vowels, but the sound comes from the vowel. So I was kind of very hopeful with the boy because he started recognizing it. And thinking about my own life experience with the language, I felt that maybe there is a problem with the format of his vocal voice. Maybe he just doesnt know how to use his vocal apparatus to sing the right pitch. And we worked on it, so then this is why when I brought the boy who was his friend, first of all, so [it was a] very comfortable environment. I asked him if he would be present, he was very happy actually [because] he is friends with whom he sits at the same desk and would like to do it. Was this a high school? High school, yes. This was a high school kid. And I think that this was at the end of his school, it must have been either grade 9 or 10. I usually got the kids in grades 9 or 10 in the first year. So it must have been either one or the other, I dont remember exactly, but he was a success story because we worked on it with him (I [say] we because the boy was helping too). When I asked them to sing, la, then that boy was singing la, [because he was] exactly the same voice [part]. I was singing la and then he had to repeat it and of course at the very beginning la was all over the place. But with forming his mouth in the right way, he was getting closer and closer and closer. And now, when you have a person who cannot hear properly the difference, I always go a few notes up and a few notes down, because if you want that particular note, those people have problems getting it right from the start. You need to bring them up to the note, so we started with any comfortable note that he could sing. He didnt know what he was singing. And then we were bringing him up to the notes that we required. And so many times, this was a repetitive, small-steps process and finally he got it. And now, there is this moment when you get something and you dont know if you get the right pitch or close to the right pitch by accident or you are getting it because you made a conscious choice to get to that note. So I think it took me around four months, because I know that at the end of the school year he was a success that he could more or less sing and recognizing even when something went wrong. And then the following year we worked on getting him the right pitch. So, in my opinion, he wasnt tone deaf completely. As you know, tone deaf is a person who will never be able, in my understanding. Although nobody knows it, you wonder what does it mean, yes? You mentioned some kind of analysis of the brain that tells you some kind of chemical imbalance on the right part of the brain, is somehow connected with hearing the relative pitch or not, but I had a tendency of thinking, and when I started working with him I thought that there was no way because everyone can hear. So he was a success story. We did small steps and we brought him to recognizing the pitch. Now also the training helps because during the year, grade 9 or 10, you learn intervals and like when I teach them intervals, we always have songs and the first notes of the song. For example [sings a few notes], I have all the names of the songs that are connected with the intervals and that helps the students. Now this year, it wasnt so successful but I think that there were many, many factors involved. Willingness of the 119

student, too. I mean how sometimes people are saying, Oh, Im tone deaf. Miss, you will never be able to do anything with me. And I see that, you know, like my first initial exercise is recognizing the different pitches. Low, high, repeating the small melody line here and there and different octave, different [tessituras]. And it depends also on the range because you cannot give somebody a melody that will be from the bottom C and then go two octaves high because, of course, the person never will be able to sing something like that, but something very simple. I think that this year, I wasnt very successful because of this boy who simply refused to do any work. He was more involved in his difficulty of creating a sound that, you know, he wasnt focused. He only wanted to he didnt care. So in a situation like that its hard to be successful or hard to even check him. The person completely doesnt want to do anything or just cannot hear the differences. Now, another factor could be the adolescence in male voices and I never had, I have to say, in my twenty years of teaching, I never had a girl that had problems with reaching a certain tone. Oh, really? No. And I was thinking about it when I looked at your email yesterday, I said, Well, let me think if I had any. I have some students who might [not have beautiful voices] and, again, for certain reasons were interested in developing it. Because, you know, I dont have very good voice given from nature, but with my vocal apparatus I can reach some sounds. You know, nice tone. I can do it if I want to and Ive sung all kinds of songs and I know what it takes. But I always tell my students that you might have much, much, more beautiful voices than me. And even the person that doesnt have a very good voice or thinks that, Im tone deaf. Because this is a very easy kind of description to use because its easy and nobody requires anything of you and right away youre off the hook, off of any responsibilities. But unless all the exercises and everything you did failed and all the use of the vocal apparatus and everything, and there is no process of changing voice. Like boys, usually every boy is, at one time or another in the spot that its hard for them to control, but it is more connected with hormones, process of changing voice and so on. Breath support also helps you. So all the vocal apparatus, you push the air, the vocal cords are vibrating and then all the [articulators] that you involve produces the sound. Now if any of them, and this is very simplified, but if any of these steps dont work then there is a big problem in reaching the relative pitch, the pitch that you want. Because either you are a naturally a good musical person and you can hear the pitches, but then on the other hand to the absolute of perfect pitch person, which also can be not so great. You mean having perfect pitch? Yes. I had a student who had a perfect pitch, at my other school, and he played cello. He was in pain, because of course if he were at the, I dont know, TSO orchestra or some professional orchestra maybe that would be less painful. But you can imagine when you can hear every tone, every pitch, and you can recognize which is G# and which one is A flat, and then people are playing out of tune. He was in pain all the time. If you are in a classroom or directing a choir and there is somebody that doesnt sing in tune, do you ever point the student out, or single them out, or tell them to mouth the words and sit at the back of the choir? What do you do when youre in a big group or choir setting and you dont want it to sound badly, how do you solve the problem? It depends. I think that, to be honest, if you are, lets say, before a competition or something, and you dont have time to work with the person where there is a situation that this person cannot keep that note all the time, for many reasons. We were talking about a student who is 120

going through voice changes; there is nothing you can do. You have to just pass. The more you will work on it; you might make more damage to his voice. Then I would say, in the worst scenario, I have to admit that I will say, Mouth this for a moment. Because usually there are some pitches that can be hard for the person to sing. And I think its less a crime than asking or changing the whole song or transposing it, because then you will have more people that wont be comfortable with it. So I think in every situation you are weighing which one is worse, which one will be at that moment easier and so on. Of course when you are in a classroom situation, you try as much as possible, to choose a program that will suit everyone. And most of the time you are successful. The voices, at that time, are not trained. They need to get better, or you need to work with them sometimes specially. And this is why you have sectionals. So you work on certain voices and although, like I said, I dont like admitting that in certain situation you have to do what you have to do. But its like, doctors also, when they cut they have to weigh if it is better to cut out if you have gangrene, [do you cut only] a little and you survive, or do you want to go by the book and do nothing and then everything goes wrong. You have to make a certain [choice]. You have to weigh what is worse and what is better, what is more beneficial. And if you can do something, you do it. If you cannot do it, especially with most boys and that process of changing voice and they are singing. But some teachers just believe that you shouldnt sing at all. Although Im not very fond of this whole idea, but there are teachers. Ive been to so many conferences and they say that the voice is muscles; everything is growing because boys are changing, the whole outlook is different and all the hormonal level and everything and they are growing. So if you leave them alone for that whole time then its less damage than if you are working with them, which I dont completely agree. Theres a very well known fact that if you want to train your voice, you have to always start after youve been through puberty. After already your voice feels at a certain place that its good material to start working on that. So its usually 18 or 19 years old when you want to try and seriously train male voices. [A previous student with a high voice] came to visit me after he graduated from [University] with MA in computer science. And he said that he still kept his very high voice. So hes like [feminine] because you last, but not so long. But he has changed physically, he has changed. He was much, much taller. He was much, much bigger. From a boy he changed to a man, but he said that he still sings with a high voice. So you see there are exceptions from the rules everywhere. How do the other students react if someone is very obviously not singing in tune? Do the other students make fun of them? Well, it depends. I dont think that we are in a different era; everything has to be equal; everything has to be accepted. And I think we are in beautiful times when there is no wrong, so I dont think so, no it doesnt really happen. Everyone is understanding. The biggest problems, usually, you have in grade 9 and 10, the beginning classes at high school level. So you try to encourage everyone to sing, even the ones who I dont think sang before. They might, even at the very beginning it sounds strange so they might have not so much laugh at the person, its just that, with interest, Oh, okay, that sounds kind of strange. But not to the point that would affect anyone or anything like that. It is like anything else; you put on a different dress or something and people notice, so I dont think it is a big deal. The first boy you were talking about, where you worked with him a lot and his friend helped you, is there time for teachers to actually do that? Where do you find the time? There is less and less time to do that. And its up to the teacher to find the time, extra on your own time. Because there is no time. I think that education is changing. There is so many 121

projects that you have to do and teaching is one of the few things that you have to do. Especially when you are the head of the department, and then you have so many different tasks to do and responsibilities that it is almost impossible. But you find your time if you want to help, then you help. If you dont and you can only afford the class time then thats it. There are all kinds of teachers, and there are the ones that only see you during the class time and thats it. And there are those who are more dedicated and they want to make a difference. Nothing has changed, I think. Although what has changed is the workload, that is much, much, more difficult to spend extra time. If I were to want to have a one-on-one basis, I would have to do it during the exam time. Today I have a student who wants to do something and prepare for a competition, and I spend extra time with her. But this is on my own time. What about the parents, at parent-teacher interviews, do you ever talk to parents about students that you have that have trouble singing in tune or do the parents care if their child sings well or not? It also depends. There are parents that are very excited and they would like to learn and they are happy their kid sings very wonderfully. They are [also] happy that they know their kid has potential but cannot reach it yet. At any phase, parents are very supportive. I have to say that this is out of the that it depends on the population. Sometimes music is felt as something that is not necessary. Music is the field that, although Socrates said that every well rounded person needs to have music in their background, not only math and history and languages and so on, but music as well. Some people might think that its not necessary, not important. I have students even, not so often right now, but years back I had students who never told their parents they are taking music. So their parents wouldnt get upset? Yes, because they want them to become doctors or computer scientists or whatever. Something that will bring better economic [security] later. At least they took it anyway You know me, Im very passionate about music so Im not taking no for an answer. Unless I get a brick wall and there is nothing that I can do. So I think that students who are with me, they have to do something and they either like it or, if they dont like it they dont like music itself and they wouldnt be taking music. They have choices, they could take visual arts, or they could take drama. So its not like they have to take music, they need to have one creative arts credit. So if they want to, they could only take one year of visual arts and thats it. So the people that end up in your class are usually ones who [want to be there]? They usually want to, well, grade 9 is usually the year when people who are taking whatever somebody decides for them or they think its going to be easy. Especially with vocal, not so much with strings, but with vocal I usually have students who are very motivated and they love to sing and those who think it will be a very easy course and I will just pass by and thats it. Have you ever had any students in your class who had learning disabilities of any kind, and if so did you notice that they had any more trouble singing than anybody else? Every single year I have students who are from the Special Ed. department who have all kinds of disabilities. And, if anything, I think that music helped them. Music is quite a phenomenon. Music therapy is fantastic, and Im not only talking about the effect of music to the persons mental state but I think that every person you know when you teach music you are using so many different methods. And, what do they call it, differentiated instructions. DI is very popular in the educational world. You can listen to music, you can play, you can sing, you can 122

analyze, you can do so many things and you can learn music through so many different ways. So I think that it doesnt matter what kind of disabilities you have. Unless you dont have limbs and then you have to still there are beautiful examples of people who are disabled and play with their feet, which I always show to my students, because I have one tape with a guy who lost his hands, his limbs, through the pregnancy of his mom. She took medication for headache or something and he was born without his limbs and he plays the guitar with his feet. And now I watch a video on YouTube, a girl who with her feet, she does anything. She was born without her hands, and shes also a pilot, first woman pilot and she finished aviation, can you imagine? She does everything with her feet, right now she 23 or 24. Thats amazing. Amazing. So I think that music helps in all kinds of situations, mental, physical or anything. And I think that kids sense that. I try to have projects that will be very close to their liking, grade 9, if they have final ISUs and we just finished Canadian singers. Now they can go from Celine Dion to country music, from pop to jazz, and all kinds of Canadian artists that they can [listen to] and perform. So everyone will find something that they like and it doesnt matter if they have disabilities in this and that, they will use it to learn what they want. You mentioned that you go to conferences. What kind of conferences are they and what kind of information is presented at these conferences, in terms of music education? I was talking about Ontario Music Education Association, OMEA its called. Every year they have a big conference in one of the places, either [convention location] or wherever. And they bring interesting people, they have conferences connecting with psychology, with mental state of the teacher. How the right mental state of the teacher can affect the kids. Of course when you are tired, you have less passion for your subject. You cannot deliver [your subject] the way you wish and the topics that you want. Also they say that if you love what you do then you never working one day in your life. So if you teach, especially music because you have so many choices. You can deliver same curriculum [using] what is very close to you. You dont need to do completely everything. You need to find the right type of music or right type of repertoire and the way you want to teach. And if you are passionate about it, then your classes are completely different. The conferences usually deal with the mental state of the teacher or mental state of the students, how to help them. Also there are conferences where you have special training sessions with all the different material as in: vocal repertoire, warm-ups, breathing exercises, how to help students who have all different problems as well. Also when you go into the conferences, sometimes you have tough situation or some kind of situation that you dont know how to deal with. And then you discuss it with your colleagues and then they tell you, Okay, I dealt with something like that. Who can go to these conferences? Everyone, you can go. Anybody. You need only to know about them, and of course there is a different fee for those who are members and those from outside. Students can even go, but usually students are less interested. Do you have access to current research being done in music education and music psychology? Every month they send me the magazines, if you are part of the OMEA, and Im [involved] with the Ontario Festival and then sometimes if I take my students, so they send information about that. But there are also, you would be probably interested in that, because it connects the psychology with the vocal field. I think TVO made a program [about] how the brain works [with] the singing, and they had Sting there. What is involved in composition, what is involved 123

in singing and so on [and] how this is all connected to the brain. Quite interesting. I watched just a little bit of this at home and he used the creative process. Actually Sting was attached to all the wires when he sang, and then they were checking his composition process. They had him wired and all the sensors were checking how his brain is working when he talks about it, when he sings it, when he uses all kinds of dynamic changes and expression and so on. Its quite interesting. I dont know who has done it but it was on TV. And the stuff you receive in your email, what kind of information is it? Well if I were to have time to read it I dont have time to read it. Sometimes I refer to things, Im a music teacher so music teachers have one computer for the whole department and we are never here in this room. We are in the classroom teaching. I think that it is much, much, easier being a Business or another teacher. You have computers in your classroom, you give a chance to your students to explore something on the computer and you have time for yourself. I can only do this on my own time, which is usually very late at night. So if I have a problem, I have to research on my own. I liked, I have to say, hard copies of the magazines that they used to send. This year everything has changed, everything is now computerized and I have to say that I dont like it that much. Because when you are travelling home from school, and sometimes I am going with my daughter, and when we switch driving, I could read something. But then with the computer, you have Blackberries or something but you know, Im getting older It makes it less accessible. Yes. Definitely. There is material and I think that maybe if I were to research more I would have found even more. There are some possibilities for teachers. You can go to conferences, maybe not exactly you have that year focus on what you want but there is always something that could be helpful. Do you have anything else that you would like to say? I would explore what is tone-deafness. And how much it has, since you are working on the statistics and the combination with the psychology, how much is a mental blockage and how much is not having desire to know it. Its like you might say, I dont want I hate math and no matter what I wont be studying it. And then you will be failing. But not realizing that you have talent but you are not giving it a chance. So I would probably get more into that aspect, how much is some kind of mental blockage where you dont want to do it plays in everything, than real tone-deafness. And sometimes Ive noticed that there are sometimes students who are returning, they take a year off or break to study something else and they come back and in grade 9, especially boys because I actually I never had a real situation with a girl. Maybe it is also connected with girls always sing, boys not all of them sing in the shower and so on. And girls are always the ones. But boys listen to music, but are not always active [with music]. They like to listen to it; they might jog to it, but not to sing unless they are really kind of passionate about music. I think that like 70% of boys, in my opinion, will listen to music and girls, 70% of girls will be singing. They are only few that will listen or who like to listen, but never sing, this is from twenty years of experience.

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PROFILE OF TEACHER D

Current position: private voice, piano and organ teacher (all ages) has been teaching for 25 years interviewed in her home

INTERVIEW WITH TEACHER D

Can you call to mind any students that youve had that had trouble matching pitches or singing in tune? Can you describe what their problems were like prior to working with you? I think it was a misconception of what vocal production is and phonation is. So when the sound starts some people just start off wrong and they push on their vocal cords when they do, they hear a sound in their ear and they think, Oh great, Im singing now! Theyre really going about it backwards and putting too much tension in the larynx, which spreads the vocal cords. So vocal cords are spread and now theres tension so they can make a really bad sound sometimes and really not know. They think theyre singing. You could give them a note on the piano and if they cant reproduce that note exactly, you play the note that they have produced. So they can hear the difference? Sometimes they do and sometimes they dont, but we know whether they can follow or not. So every time they sing a wrong note I would play the note that they had sung instead of the note I asked for. Its a way of getting them in a position where you can say, Okay, now every time I play you are going higher or you are going lower. And then just try to get it so they can come on the note that you give. So this particular person, was that their difficulty? Yes, absolutely, way, way off. Was it a semi-tone off? No, three notes. Two or three. Yes, all over the place. I would play different notes and just try to say, This note here, like [humming]. Theres the note, and they would go, [humming], and make a good sound on that note. So Id play [humming] and theyd be going [humming wrong note] or something. So obviously they have a misconception of whether that was up or down. Sometimes if you just use hand signals, it helps show the direction the pitch is. Youre pushing up, because you think its high so, youre pushing up your larynx. A lot of people do that. They think the note is going up if they see it on a page, it goes up, and so they push the larynx up. Up goes the chin, breath gets all screwed up. So then its learning to relax and get back down. Humming I find is bad, in particular with amateurs. If you say, Lets hum now, and theyll push it forward and if you push too hard, youre going to go right off pitch. I get people to think of the hum as going in rather than out, so drawing the sound in. Like, hmmmm, something tastes good. Does that work? Yes, it usually does. And so [humming]. See how that can push it into the wrong note. Of 125

course, you know theres harmonics on voices. On pitches there are harmonics. Then some singers, when they are pushing on the larynx or lifting too high the palate at the back or dropping into the passagia, they can bring in those different harmonics that can give them a false sense of tonality. With that student that you were helping, how long did it take before you got her to hear to what she was doing? Four or five lessons. We had her on the pitch and I really discovered that it was mostly laryngeal pressure and tension. Of course, she didnt know how to breathe right, so she was taking short breaths and pushing the air up. Vocal cords were spreading and the idea that she was singing, she felt she was singing because she felt sound coming out of her throat. So theres two things, the physical, you are not doing the right things. But then why do you think it is that she couldnt tell? Or could she tell? First, she could not tell. She got used to the sound, thats the only thing I can think of. She got used to the sound she was making. So she heard something in her own ear. Funnily enough, even this helps. Put your fingers in your ears and sing a pitch, you will be able to connect to it more because its inside of you. You can hear it echoing in your head. I did that a little bit. I did things where she would just sing one note, shift the vowels around. Sometimes a different vowel puts a note totally off pitch. Because again, if someones misconception of or misforming of that vowel. So I would go for the one that was right. I would search around until I found what was correct and then I went from there. If the range was limited to a certain octave, those were the notes I stayed in. You mean their own range? Yes, their natural range of speaking. Not where they thought, Oh, I have to sing a song now so somebody told me I was a soprano so I have to sing high notes. I find this puts a lot of young people off. Also the aspect of, and we get this a lot too, young kids who havent really been trained properly vocally so they say, Which voice do you want, my head voice or my chest voice? They have two voices, so which one do you want? And so they havent learned that there is a balance in the vocal cords and so they do the little squeaky girl sound or they do the big growly sound. Pushing the chest voice higher, if its pushed too high, it can break. And when it breaks, for sure someone is going to be out of tune. So, first of all, what you have to do is convince somebody that this is not a good thing to do. Thats hard if theyve always done that or if they want to do that. To them, it sounds okay? Yeah, if it sounds cool. They hear it on the radio, and they think theyre doing it okay. I guess thats an insensitivity that maybe they would have to it? So after 4 or 5 lessons, you were able to get this person to hear when she was doing it wrong? Yes. Did she continue to do it wrong but now she could tell, or did she start learning to do it right? She started learning to it correctly. And then realized, hopefully with a lot of explaining, what she had been doing wrong. But I think range has a lot to do with it. People that are put in choirs, often it is the wrong thing for them really. If theyre an alto, I mean maybe theyre a mezzo

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soprano, they are not high enough to sing soprano. This is a major problem with young singers. Teenagers and people in their 20s, the mezzos are always pushed into the altos. And then they come for their lesson and they sing flat. They might know something is wrong but not know what it is. If theyve just come out of choir rehearsal, theyre going to be out of key, out of tune, because theyve been pushing in the wrong area. Thats not good. Get out of the choir. I had a singer, one time, where whenever she came to her lesson, we took her lovely little small soprano voice and we worked on getting it even and very nice. It wasnt a fabulous voice but we evened it out and it was very pleasant. She started coming for lessons, everything was going fine, and then she changed her time and came at a different time. So whenever she came to the lesson it would start off and she was sharp the whole time. I kept saying, Youre sharp! Oh yeah, I know. And the voice was pushed up. Finally it clicked. Where have you been just before this lesson? In choir. What happened in choir? Well, the choir director said they didnt want any vibrato at all. So I pushed really hard on my voice to not have any vibrato. And she caused so much tension that then, when she came into her lesson, I said, Lets relax now. The tension let go and shoved her the other way. Shed been putting a lid on it to pull it down, and now the second she lets go and it just went all over the place. Absolutely, up, down. Very dangerous. I usually dont ask people to sing with white tone and no vibrato because I just dont think its healthy. Is there a healthy way to stop your vibrato? I think it depends on the voice. If the voice is bigger, a bigger voice in other words is like a bigger truck, it takes bigger breaks to stop it than it does to stop a little car, right? Lighter voices can turn it on and off a little bit easier than a larger developed voice. And so its not always a good thing. One girl, every time she was in choir, the director would yell at her, Stop sounding like [unrecognizable name]! Finally she just moved herself to the back. This was when I was working with her and of course we know that in certain school situations vocal students are required to be in choirs. Now the rules are different and I think a lot of the younger students dont have the technical facility to be able to make the switch from choral singing to solo. And if you ask a real soloist, a developed, professional soloist, to sing in a choir they would say absolutely not. They will say no, because they have to change something. The best people for a choir are undeveloped but nice singers, but not ones who arent really studying too hard. This girl, finally, in order to save her voice just moved to the back of the choir and held up the music and moved the mouth at all the rehearsals. We call that fishing. The girl that was drastically sharp, that scared me, but I did figure out what it was. I nailed it down and changed her lesson time so that she would not be coming for a vocal lesson right after she had one of these great big sessions. The other thing is, when she finished the choir I encouraged her to relax her voice, speak low, slowly, relax. Try to let the tension go and then vocalize very carefully. Wrong range has a lot to do with a lot of out-of-tune-ness. And thats the world we live in, people are being competitive. They want to push for the highest note or the lowest note or the highest/longest, lets see how long you can hold it. They push things out of line. I have a student right now that was singing a piece in B major, the top note is F#. The person can easily vocalize beyond that F#, but the way the words are and the pitch below and five notes below that pitch are starting on an eighth. The A up to the F#, were in two registers. He couldnt get over the break properly so hes singing in his heavy voice and then when he came

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to sing the high note, it always broke. I wouldnt push that break. Theres no point. So, we lowered the whole thing down a semi-tone. Well that shoves all the low notes down so now you have to be careful you dont push the low notes heavier or youre still going to have the same problem going up to that note because now its going to be an F. The way the singer hears the low notes and hears the high notes, they can get confused. So you can lower it five notes down and it still wouldnt solve that little problem. So they get stuck in the register, the way they think they have say those words, they push it forward in the larynx. And now the gap is just as hard. We moved from B-flat, B-flat didnt work, were now at A. Were now in the key of A. Whats the note up to E. So now we can drop the colour of the E a little bit, raise the colour of the A a little bit, and weve minimized the gap. So now that perfect fifth doesnt sound so wide. Now thats in tune. However, now the complaint that well get from singers, Oh, thats perfectly easy now, but the beginning of the song starts low so now we dont know what to do. Here is where breathing properly helps because you want to sing one phrase if its going to stay in a certain range. You can relax and sing in that perfect spot. If you take another breath, the next phrase might be a little higher then youll have to move it around a little bit. You cant sing everything exactly in the same spot, but if youve studied for twenty years, you can mix better. But younger singers cant always mix the way we know they are going to be able to later. They cant do it at first. Breath support, I think its one of the major causes of people being out of tune. Because they can start the sound on what we call residual breath, and we speak on that most of the time. They take a little breath, they think they are taking a deep breath, they hold their tummy muscles really tight and then they carry on and they sing a few notes and then they take another short bit of air on top of it, and away they go. The next phrase will be out of tune. They think they are supporting, because they can feel tension in their tummy muscles but the air pressure has changed. As the air pressure changes, it affects the frequency. The frequency speeds up or slows down the vibrato, if you are slowing down your vibrato, you are going to go flat. So thats again, no matter what key you are in. The breath support has to always be engaged to be the same. Can you think of anybody else that youve worked with, that you havent been able to get to sing in tune? Yes. I did. Theres one, I tried my best, I tried everything. It was a very sad situation. The young lady was in her 30s and had been singing since she was a young teenager and just doing it wrong the whole time. So we worked on technical stuff, and when I was with her every second I could stop her if it was wrong. I could feel it going wrong, hear it going wrong. Stop! Back up. Do it again. And I could keep her on track. Take her out in public or go to do an exam, and she would merrily just carry on, think about having fun with the song, and just slip every time. She slipped back into her old way. She couldnt get rid of it. And what was her old way, was she all over the place or was she just flat or sharp? It was really bad. It went all over the place. Some notes would break and other notes would be maybe a quarter tone/half tone off pitch. But her concept of, yes, she felt air going through her body so she thought she was singing well. She heard the words and we told her to open her mouth, she opened her mouth, she did all those things. But what she did is that she would start the phonation, at the beginning of the sound. Shed start it on the word she was on. So if she was on a word and, shed go [sings and] and start to try to push it into what she would feel is singing. There was no air flow activating first.

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You mean she would start in a speaking voice and then it would change? Yes, she tried to push it into singing, yes, whatever that word was, or that vowel. She did a grade 8 exam and did not badly. The 9, she couldnt make it. I think we worked really hard to crack these problems and she seemed to understand that there were problems. But the more she knew there were problems the more she felt that she couldnt really stop it. She couldnt get beyond the fact that she had an issue. When shed get nervous, shed just lose the whole thing. The vibrato would change; it would go fast and slow. I attributed all that to the lack of coordinating what the breath was doing and the vocal cords were far too vocal. That was one I could not help. She was of an ethnic persuasion where her sense of vowel use in English was distorted, so she couldnt seem to get the vowels clear in speech or in singing. So that was another problem. Did she quit or did you tell her you couldnt... No, she just didnt come back. We tried really hard, but in the end and one song would go along just fine. Smiled at her and kind of reminded her to breathe and shed nod. Everything would be fine for a while and then the very next phrase shed go [demonstrates sharp breath intake] and shed do this breath [demonstrates poor breathing technique]. Shed start singing, start going on the words and then sink. Unbelievably off somewhere else. The two major things, where people were out of tune because they were ill. And one came for a lesson and we started off and the voice broke. It broke on an easy pitch. The voice jumped an octave up and down on one note. I said, Oh dear. The breath was correct, so lets try another note. Does your throat hurt? No. Well, lets try another note, and three or four notes and the voice would just go [sings upward and downward off key]. She would say, I dont know what Im doing but something is wrong. I said, You will not sing another note until youve been to the throat doctor. Go to your GP and please ask them to send you to a throat specialist. And I said that they will say there is nothing wrong and you tell them that your voice teacher said you have to have a scope put down. Thats exactly what happened. GP looks down and doesnt see any redness or anything and says Theres nothing the matter with your vocal cords. Because what can you see coming down from there, not the whole picture, right? She goes to the voice specialist and he looks in and says, I dont see any problem. She said, My teacher said I needed the scope. And he said, I dont think you do but youre here so we might as well do it. Down goes the scope, he gets it in there, gives one shriek, Oh my God, I cant believe this. One side was just completely like she had a stroke. She was in her thirties. She hadnt had a stroke but it was flapping. So she had no control? Thats right, one side was flapping around. She could still talk because when we talk we always automatically add the pressure we need to add to make it clear. So she could talk, she couldnt control singing. One side was just flapping around and the other side was trying to do, well you cant have two strings vibrating together, one side holding its own right? She went back to her GP and it turned out that she had a heart problem. She was seriously ill. It showed up in her voice. Another time, I had a piano student who was a young woman in her early twenties. When she gave birth to her first child her voice dropped an octave and the hormones affected her voice so seriously, she sounded like a tenor. So I said to her, If you were singing, youd be in a different range. Her voice dropped. This can happen because of hormones. And her voice never came back. It stayed down there.

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Do you know anything about doctors that have examined that what goes on in the uterus is balanced with what goes on in the vocal cords? Because at some of the NATS conferences I went to there was a husband and wife team from France. She is a gynecologist, he is a laryngologist. He goes all over the world, to conferences explaining what theyve discovered. What theyve discovered is that the vulva is the same kind of tissue as the vocal cord. So premenstrual tension, water retention, cramping, pain, anything will all be reflected in the vocal cords in some way or another. I think Ive heard that at different times during your menstrual cycle it can affect how your voice sounds. Yes. Your voice can sound tired, weak. A student tries to push, then you go out of tune, because theres not a sense of control. I am usually very careful with my girls, but if I hear that things are not working at all and maybe the week before they were just plain fine. The delicate question is, Sorry, but are you getting your period soon? Yeah, in about 4 or 5 days, I feel horrible! And they do, they just lose control. Because of this research of these two doctors, professional singers in the world and opera singers in particular, it is in their contract, because of my menstrual cycle, up or down whichever side or whatever, if it affects my voice I am not required to get on that stage and sing. Because of these two doctors. Amazing work. Id like to read about that. I learned about it at NATS conferences. And also at NATS conferences, where they would show people who had strokes where it affected their voice and what exactly happens. And they show it, because the science of laryngology is 40 or 50 years old? And how much we take for granted, the vocal cords, its the smallest organ in the whole body. Very small, the size of a baby fingernail, and then theres the material around it. Looking at full screen visions of the scope and looking at the vocal cords of people who have had strokes, that is exactly what happens. One side just goes floppy. Just say they have a stroke and the left side of the body goes, most speech is usually the right side affected. So say they have a stroke and they cant talk. The right side, all the muscles are gone. The muscles and the vocal cords are right there in the throat, and theyre just hanging there flopping around. The other side is normal and there is nothing to vibrate against. In serious cases, theyve even used laser surgery now where they can take a little tuck. They take a laser, and they dont go in the front because of scarring or if they cut then they go in the back of the vocal cords so they dont get scarring tissue on the smooth side of the vocal cords. They go in the back and they pull the tissue back, tighten it at either end so that its not taut. Anchor it down. So that, to me, is quite amazing. So if somebody loses their voice because of that, we certainly know whats happened. Two very well known linguists that I know, one is at this school, head of Linguistics. The other person is head of Linguistics at [University]. And both lost their voices. Now that sounds like that shouldnt happen. These are people who have both had surgery, the surgeries were not really 100% successful because they waited too long before they realized their problems. I attribute some of that to the age that these people are and the fact that you have to be in really bad shape, you go to the doctor and say, Oh my voice isnt working right, and they go, Oh, well. Doctors are more aware now. When someone says theres something wrong, they have a really good look at it. But a few years ago it was always brushed aside. Oh if youre a singer, well just dont sing anymore! These two people, they didnt know each other but I knew both of them. Sometimes the surgery can just tighten up one of the little one that is flopping around a little bit, 130

or do a little tuck, or maybe get rid of some of the scarring tissue thats there. Not all these people develop nodes. Nodes are serious and in lots of cases they are irreversible. Some can be, if theyre caught early enough, they can be surgically removed the proper way or worked with and shaved down a little bit, relaxing the voice. If theyre caught early enough, youre safe. If its left, its like muscle tension anywhere. It can cause damage. So both these people lost their voices and never got them back. What was it that caused this? Well, I would say because I work with voice all the time, they were talking; both are lightspoken people. The man is a tall thin guy, he speaks lightly, and hes a nice sweet guy. The women has a very light speaking voice and I know I do too, but when Im in front of a large group of people I take deep breaths and I know how to send my voice without hurting my voice. I dont try to speak in a light voice loudly and thats what these two people were doing. Light voices trying to speak loudly, and they wrecked their voices and they are linguists. Unbelievable. Obviously, in that field, these people were not taught properly how to send their voices. There is a very interesting book called Your Voice Can Tell You. Radio announcers, if they arent careful, they wreck their voices because their voices are amplified. So they dont always have to project their voice properly. Turn on the radio and you can pretty well get an idea of who is talking properly and who is not by the way the resonance and the modulation of the voice. If their voice is pushed up like that, and you hear it like this and this person goes home from work tonight and I bet they wont be able to talk. Okay, radio announcers or people/singers who cannot sing a note without being behind a microphone. Take the microphone away and theyll invariably push and sing incorrectly. And they will likely go out of tune. My sisters voice was wrecked for a while when she was younger, when she had her children. Because whenever shed come home from work, she had her kids in daycare, she worked all day, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. Came home, raised her voice to the children and [squeaky voice]. Sore throats, laryngitis. If she were trying to sing, she would have had a serious problem. So its like the voice can get stuck in an upward-like position or stuck in a position. That muscular tension, we of course in singing call it registers, if you are stuck in one register or another and dont have an easy flow from one to the other, you are going to be going out of tune, if you try to push through those registers. One of my students, years back, I found out was teaching and came back to me, one of her students ended up swinging around back through my studio somehow. She said, Oh yes, back to my teachers teacher, yes youre the one that taught that theres no such thing as register changes in the voice. I was very upset, because I never taught any such thing, of course. I said, I didnt teach that at all, but what Ive taught people is how to get through the register breaks without having a problem. But they are there. When I work with singers I always start in the middle of where its comfortable and where they speak. Never mind if theres somebody else who said, Oh, youre not really a mezzo, youre really a soprano, or vice versa, I usually in some cases have disagreed. Ive had to deal with a student who couldnt sing in tune in the fall and [at the end of the semester] she could. Things were quite serious with the breath intake was wrong. When she got nervous she would forget what to do. What did your other teacher teach you? Im using different words, I had to be very careful what words I did use as to not upset her and say, Okay, your other teacher did something wrong. But we got something happening. Then everything was just starting to settle down and the voice started breaking all over the place. So I 131

said the same thing I said before, No more lessons until you tell me what the doctor says. Off she goes to the voice specialist, comes back, she has acid reflux. I said, You will not sing until that is gone. She missed six lessons and made up every one of those lessons and now that girl sings. Last year, she was singing everything full, full, loud, loud, loud; likely, a way to try to get through that problem that she was having and maybe the teacher thought, Oh well, she was not doing enough. I dont know what happened, what was between them, but I think some damage was done and we started over. You have a lot of different experiences. Yes. A young fellow came to me three years ago and all the training he ever had was a little bit of lessons in high school and he sang Broadway. He didnt sound bad, but he got into some very bad habits of pushing on larynx when he was performing. When he sings scales everything is fine, if he goes to sing a song you get this [leans forward]. Hes trying to deliver the song. So the gesture of the shoulder, the arm, the collapse of the breath and the twisting of the larynx, now weve got the tension in the neck, tension in the jaw, the whole thing, because of this idea that he had to deliver. Correcting all those little things, and bringing him back into the right alignment has taken a long time. Because its an attitude, just a natural emotion, like Oh Im going to sing a song, here I go, zoom! I say, Okay, now we have to change that, youre not going to go that way, youre going to go another way. You have to totally turn things around. To get rid of that, you really have to have something else to do. You cant just say, Stop doing that, and you try again and it doesnt work. You say, Do this instead. Replace it with something. I wont stick my neck out, I will think of singing out the back of my neck, Im going to sing backwards, I dont know, youve got to do something. Have you ever worked with someone with a known learning disability and did they have trouble singing in tune? No I dont think so. I dont think that has anything, I mean, I have someone right now who I think has a learning disability. It has not been diagnosed and I have not addressed this with this person, but he is a slow learner, very slow. And you can correct something fifteen times and hope it stays. I attribute a lot of that to that person trying to perform their own way instead of listening to how the teacher is saying, You perform this way, not that way. Paying attention, figuring out why its wrong, to let that slip come is serious. Okay so its a little thing, no. Its not little. Its big. So is it out of tune-ness? Out of tune-ness occurs if that problem is let go. For instance, mispronouncing a word in a foreign language, every time you would come to that same spot, Uh oh, are we going to make it this way or that way. Its like a kind of dyslexia, I know Im supposed to pronounce e-i-t-he-r ee-thur or eye-thur, but when I get there I forget which one is the right one and I always do the wrong one because I forget which one is the right one. Its a reflex, that where you go to the old one because you are nervous. So you do the wrong one for sure. My sister says, Her and me, because she forgets that the her is the wrong one. She knows its the wrong one but she cant remember the right one. So she gets nervous and shell say, Her and me, every time. To my mind, thats a kind of dyslexia, a learning problem. Okay. So with singers, here comes that vowel and [singing teacher]s told me to shape it like this, but right now Im not sure. Is it this one or that? And then if theyre nervous, theyll do the wrong one, over and over and over until we retrain the reflex to get the other one. You need a lot of patience. If thats happening, it will put the note out of tune. If its drastic alteration, thats wrong. And then someone is saying, Youre flat, youre flat, why are you flat? It might 132

be just the formation of that note or that placement, just that one. All of a sudden, everything is fine and then all of a sudden, boom! Down go the pencils. Flat! The adjudicators start accusing you of being flat. To me its never the last note that is flat its what was going on before. I have very good ears; I stop somebody before they get there and say, Just a minute. Where are you going? Do you know where youre going? And if theres a fuzzy little bit of a response, then that person is not in control. Organizing breath is a lot of it, if you can work on the rhythm of the music and the pace. In other words, to give the singer a good chance to get the breath right, instead of being pushed. Im very careful if I have someone who has that problem, that I dont give them a whole bunch of fast songs where there is no time to prepare. Learn how to get your breath right first and then sing fast songs next year. Dont just keep falling in the mud puddle, right? Okay. So thats got a lot to do with it. Those people who were sick, very scary. I am aware, Im not sure why some of these people are falling to me or I was especially tuned into them and found out what was wrong. I think some of that. It seems like not being able to sing well, like having your voice break, it seems like you wouldnt automatically think that one side of your vocal cords is not working. Yes. So this young lady that has thyroid disease in her family, Ive asked her to make sure that when she goes to a GP to just have it checked to make sure, because as soon as anything starts to swing either way, you might need some medication. Dont wait until youre sixty-some years old and say, Oh, by the way, I dont feel well. I havent felt well for years. And the doctor says, Gee, no wonder, you have thyroid disease. If youre going to get it, its going to show up earlier. What about somebody whos got a kind of post-nasal drip or a kind of stuffy nose? Lots of people do. When allergy time comes along and they live with it so they dont consider that its going to bother their voice, because thats part of their life. But it will. If theyre allergic in the springtime, their voice can get all croaky because youre stuffed up and its dripping down. If you drip onto the vocal cords too much you can get polyps. A polyp is not serious like a node. A node is definite muscular damage, tissue damage to the vocal cords. A polyp is just a little glob of glue that got stuck onto the edge of the vocal cords. I know someone who had it surgically removed. A glob was just taken away and everything was fine. But it was caused from allergies. And that person was a mezzo alto and the top notes started disappearing. One day one gone, the next day another gone, the next day gone; everything starts slipping downward. Hey, whats the matter here? So that was a case of caused by allergy. So if you get a vocal teacher thats maybe not sensitive to that and saying, Well, then youre not pushing enough to get that note properly, you better go home and practice. Now you get more tension because the person is trying to get a note and saying, Why cant I get that note? So if you are working intimately with a voice and youve got a nice healthy instrument and all of a sudden things start changing, I think you have to look at the physical aspect immediately: that girl with the heart problem, thyroids, acid reflux, allergies; having your period. Youve got to at least be aware that it is maybe around the corner. If its not, great, okay lets go on. Now we have to work a little harder getting over the break notes so every time you sing that note there youre not going to be off the pitch or hit it wrong or something. And Im saying, why have I run across five or six people, whatever, in my teaching that have had these problems? Probably other people wouldnt necessarily notice. I dont know. I think Im really tuned in to noticing? And I think its important to always be aware. Somebody comes in for a lesson and all of a sudden youll be trying to get them to sing 133

and nothing is happening. What are you going to do? Push, push, push? Usually ask where were you before you came in, what did you do? Oh, I just got out of an exam and I think I failed, or I just broke up with my boyfriend, some big thing maybe happened. You cant push that singer; I wouldnt. I had a pianist the other day. I spent an hour with her helping her with theory. We went to play her pieces, the week before were lovely; she couldnt play. Wrong notes, all over the place. Stop now, because if you try to push you are going to get so upset, it isnt worth it. Nothing is happening; you are in the wrong space right now. So theres another instrumentalist. A violinist came to me, he plays flat. Why? Because hes a little nervous and he forgets to hold his violin up and he forgets to bow properly. And I know that because bowing is like supporting your breath. Ill say, I dont know very much about violin, but are you supposed to hold it like that? (Of course I know hes not). Oh, yeah! See what I mean? So theyll do this and theyll lean the body and the next thing you know, every time the note goes flat, and Ill play it on the piano, Lets have this note. Oh, yeah! Howd your teacher tell you to get that note? This way. Well then do that right now. Oh, okay. So, whats that? It doesnt mean they have a serious learning problem, in his case he just got a little nervous and just lost track right then. So bringing them back on track, right? Keeping them focused, Oh, could you give a little more bow there so you get a little deeper in the string? Ah! The pitch is perfect. That sense of confidence, but also knowing what you are doing but having someone help you stay on the track so that now it is consistent. So theres a violinist that Ive been working with and helping, Ive found a few violinists like that. Different singers from different backgrounds. The little guy that sang Broadway will likely do it again someday with a better voice to take to it. And if he gets really nervous we get the Broadway sounds start creeping in. In French, they just go like this [snaps fingers], No Broadway! Oh yeah! So we get something else. I teach organists as well, if the bodys exhausted then the hands and feet dont coordinate. If your organ doesnt fit a student, is 67 and its too high, he has to pull his ankles, he cant play properly. The instrument doesnt get the body. I think the lucky thing for me is that I deal with the technical aspects from these different angles. Different instrumentalists, you know: organ, voice, piano. So we can end up finding and seeing kinds of issues that relate. Yes, its interesting the parallels. For instance, when you were talking about the strings. It seems like its really similar. Yes. Well, I can say to a violinist, You know, singers have to support or the sound doesnt come. You have to hold your bow right or the sound doesnt come. Well yes, I learned at my lesson. Okay, do it now, right now. Dont you dare go into your jury and forget. And I say to the singers, What if I hold my violin like this, am I going to get good sound? And they immediately say, Oh and I say, Why? Thats your string, this makes the string vibrate. What makes your string vibrate when you sing? The right posture and breath support, because your vocal cords are like two strings, hitting each other together. If clarinetists dont support? They squeak. They get some kind of squawk. Theyll blame it on the reed! A lot of times its not the reed; its not taking a proper breath! Hold your instrument properly; the air didnt go through the reed properly. Those are the major fields that Im involved in right now and I do find ways to, instead of just saying, Oh youre off the track, I try to help them. A lot of students sit at the piano too high or too low, mostly too high. What does that do? Puts the wrists off. Wrist goes off, the forearm 134

goes off, biceps go out, the shoulder gets tense, fingers, everything is wrong. Lower the bench, calm things down. Fix a bunch of problems.

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APPENDIX B: MBEA DISTRIBUTIONS

Distribution scores of MBEA
Figure 9 below show a distribution of scores on the MBEA melodic and rhythm subscales from a sample of 184,882 and 80,944 participants respectively, conducted by Dr. Lauren Stewart and reported on her website at www.delosis.com/listening/summary.html#graphs as of January 22, 2012. The respective average scores are 25.19 and 25.01.
Used by permission of the copyright holder.

Figure 9: Score distribution of melodic (task 1) and rhythm (task 2) subscales

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APPENDIX C: PARTICIPANT DETAILS

Informed consent form
Study Name: Researcher: Singing and cognitive differences Ana Luisa Santo M.A. student, Music, York University analuisa@yorku.ca

Purpose of the Research: The purpose of this project is to see whether differences in singing in tune are related to differences in cognitive ability. This is part of a larger Masters Thesis. What You Will Be Asked to Do in the Research: You will be asked to listen to some melodies and tell whether they are the same or different, as well as sing a familiar song, which will be tape-recorded. You will also be asked to complete some other tasks on the computer. Risks and Discomforts: We do not foresee any risks or discomfort from your participation in the research. Benefits of the Research and Benefits to You: You will receive $10 for your participation. The benefits of the research include understanding differences in singing ability, which would eventually help develop ways to teach singing to people with differing levels of ability. Participation: Your participation in the study is completely voluntary and you may chose to stop participating at any time. Your decision not to volunteer will not influence the nature of your relationship with the researcher or York University either now, or in the future. Withdrawal from the Study: You can stop participating in the study at any time, for any reason, if you so decide. If you decide to stop participating, you will still be eligible to receive the promised pay for agreeing to be in the project. Your decision to stop participating, or to refuse to answer particular questions, will not affect your relationship with the researcher, York University, or any other group associated with this project. In the event you withdraw from the study, all associated data collected will be immediately destroyed wherever possible. Confidentiality: All information you supply during the research will be held in confidence and unless you specifically indicate your consent, your name will not appear in any report or publication of the research. The tape-recorded singing will only be heard by the researcher and two assistants. Your data will be safely stored and only the

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researcher will have access to this information. Your consent form will be stored separately from your scores and tape so there will be no way of associating you with the data. Confidentiality will be provided to the fullest extent possible by law. All data and tapes will be destroyed upon the completion of the project. Questions About the Research? If you have any questions about the research in general or about your role in the study, please feel free to contact me or my Graduate Supervisor Rob van der Bliek by phone (416-736-2100, ext. 33694) or by e-mail (bliek@yorku.ca). You may also contact my Graduate Program Music, Accolade East Building, Suite 371, 416-736-2100, ext. 77432. This research has been reviewed and approved by the Human Participants Review Sub-Committee, York Universitys Ethics Review Board and conforms to the standards of the Canadian Tri-Council Research Ethics guidelines. If you have any questions about this process, or about your rights as a participant in the study, please contact the Sr. Manager & Policy Advisor for the Office of the Research Ethics, 5th Floor, York Research Tower, York University (telephone 416-736-5914 or e-mail ore@yorku.ca). Legal Rights and Signatures: I, consent to participate in Singing and Cognitive Differences, conducted by Ana Luisa Santo. I have understood the nature of this project and wish to participate. I am not waiving any of my legal rights by signing this form. My signature below indicates my consent. Signature Participant Date

Signature Principal Investigator

Date

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Participant Questionnaire
Please fill out this questionnaire to the best of your ability. Your answers will be completely anonymous, and they will help us better understand how singing and cognitive differences might be related. 1. Are you: male female

2. How old are you? __________ 3. Are you: left handed right handed

4. Has anyone ever told you that you were tone-deaf? (If yes, please give details). _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 5. Do you have trouble singing in tune or singing the right notes, or in the right key? (If yes, please give details). _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 6. In elementary or high school, did your music teacher ever tell you not to sing with the rest of the group, or to just mouth the words? Or, has anyone else ever told you to stop singing? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 7. Do you have any learning disabilities or developmental disorders, or suspect that you do? (e.g. ADHD, Aspergers, NLD, etc). If yes, please tell us which one(s). _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 8. Have you ever had any musical training besides music class in elementary school? (if so, in what instrument(s), including voice, and how many years for each instrument). _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 9. Do you have perfect pitch? (Perfect pitch means, for example, if you hear a note played on the piano, you know automatically know what its called for example, you know right away that its a c-sharp or b-flat without looking at the piano). yes no

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10. How often do you listen to music? rarely sometimes

often

11. Do you enjoy listening to music? (If no, please explain) _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 12. Have you ever had a head injury or are you aware of any brain damage? (If yes, please describe) _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________

Evaluation of participant singing abilities

Recordings of samples of participants singing were listened to by three professional singing instructors to establish an objective determination whether participants sang in tune or not.

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE EVALUATORS

Please listen to the cassette tape. The participant number is announced before each person sings. Most people sing O Canada; a few that didnt know O Canada sing Jingle Bells or Happy Birthday, or some combination thereof. For each participant, simply put a check mark in either the out of tune or in tune column, based on your professional judgment. (For example, if you feel the person sang mostly in tune but had a few minor mistunings because the notes were out of their range, this person would still be in tune.)

EVALUATION RESULTS
Table 1 below shows which participants (P#) were considered out of tune by three professional voice instructors represented by the symbols knowledge of each others ratings. Only participants that received an out-of-tune rating by two of the three voice instructors were subsequently included either in the Amusia group (if they also scored below the cutoff on the MBEA) or in the Tone Deaf group (if their MBEA scores were normal). . Evaluators had no

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P#
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Scored out-oftune

P#
16 17 18 19 20 21 22

Scored out-oftune

P#
31 32 33 34 35

Scored out-oftune

P#
46 47 48 49 50

Scored out-oftune

36 37

51 52 53

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

54 55 56 57 58

Table 1: Out-of-tune and in-tune ratings

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Participant characteristics
The following participant data is derived from both the questionnaires and the evaluations.
Table 2: Consolidated participant characteristics Music TD TD P# Sex Age training LD by by (yrs.) self other 1 M 26 0 2 F 19 0 3 M 19 >1 4 M 48 >1 5 M 22 0 6 M 70 >1(?) 7 M 19 >1 8 F 20 4 9 F 20 0 10* M 24 2 11 M 26 0 12 M 19 6 13 M 24 1 14 F 18 22 15 M 25 <1(?) 16 M 23 3 17 F 53 0 18 M 20 2 19 M 22 2 20 M 27 0 21 M 18 0 22 F 22 11 23 F 23 >1 24 M 29 1 25 F 21 0 26 M 32 8 27 F 51 2.5 28 F 18 14 29 F 23 0 30 M 20 11 31 M 23 0

TD by assess.

Group assigned A A N T A-R N A T N T T S T A A-R A-R A-R N A S A N A S N S T S T

142

P# 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46* 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58

Sex F M M M F F F M F M F M F F M F F F F F F M F F F F M

Age 21 26 19 20 53 22 20 53 18 18 19 19 46 19 22 21 23 24 22 31 20 18 27 22 23 20 26

Music training (yrs.) 9 2.5 8 2 0 26 20 0 12 1 0 18 0 3 8 0 25 17.5 0 26.5 65 0 >1 41 0 0 0

LD

TD by self

TD by other

TD by assess.

Group assigned S A N N A S S A S A A S A A S T S S A-R S S A A S N T N

Table key:
Music training (yrs.)number of years of private music instruction in any instrument including voice (note: multiple instruments were counted consecutively which accounts in some cases for years of training exceeding participants age.) LDindicates a self-ascribed learning disability TD by selfthe participant considers themselves tone-deaf TD by otherthe participant recalls being called tone-deaf by others TD by assess.the participant is assessed as out-of-tune by at least two raters Groupindicates the group into which the participant was placed for the purposes of statistical analysis pertaining to the current study: A=Amusic, N=Non-musician, T=Tone Deaf, S=Singer, A-R=Amusia-rhythm *These two participants were left-handed

143

APPENDIX D: EXPERIMENTAL DATA

Dependent Variable Corsi Forwards (block span) Corsi Forwards (total correct) Corsi Forwards (memory span) Corsi Forwards (TOTAL) Corsi Backwards (block span) Corsi Backwards (total correct) Corsi Backwards (memory span) Corsi Backwards (TOTAL) Clock Test Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer (N=16) (N=9) (N=10) (N=16) M=5.81 M=6.22 M=6.20 M=6.88 SD=1.515 SD=1.394 SD=1.317 SD=1.500 M=8.00 M=8.78 M=8.90 M=9.75 SD=1.932 SD=1.787 SD=1.853 SD=2.266 M=4.75 M=5.22 M=5.30 M=5.69 SD=1.000 SD=.972 SD=.949 SD=1.138 M=48.94 M=56.56 M=57.10 M=69.75 SD=22.472 SD=23.415 SD=23.335 SD=28.841 M=5.19 M=6.89 M=6.10 M=6.75 SD=1.047 SD=1.269 SD=1.524 SD=1.125 M=7.19 M=9.44 M=8.80 M=9.75 SD=1.940 SD=2.789 SD=2.044 SD=1.844 M=4.81 M=6.00 M=5.60 M=6.13 SD=.981 SD=1.414 SD=1.075 SD=1.025 M=39.06 M=67.44 M=56.30 M=67.38 SD=16.743 SD=30.936 SD=25.334 SD=22.479 M=51.69 M=54.33 M=51.70 M=55.44 SD=6.405 SD=2.739 SD=3.622 SD=3.794 Matrix Rotation M=15.75 M=16.00 M=16.20 M=16.63 SD=1.949 SD=2.398 SD=4.237 SD=2.473 Match to Sample M=26.56 M=27.33 M=29.30 M=29.38 SD=3.119 SD=4.796 SD=1.059 SD=1.204 Table 3: Means and Standard Deviations for each group on all tasks Dependent Variable F (4, 51) Corsi Forwards (block span) 2.471 Corsi Forwards (total correct) 2.440 Corsi Forwards (memory span) 2.218 Corsi Forwards (TOTAL) 2.622 Corsi Backwards (block span) 5.795 Corsi Backwards (total correct) 4.986 Corsi Backwards (memory span) 4.643 Corsi Backwards (TOTAL) 5.058 Clock Test 2.652 Matrix Rotation 1.089 Match to Sample 2.938 Table 4: ANOVADependent variable by groups
* indicates that the value is significant at the .05 level.

Amusia-rhythm (N=5) M=4.80 SD=.447 M=7.20 SD=1.095 M=4.60 SD=.548 M=34.80 SD=7.430 M=4.60 SD=1.673 M=5.80 SD=3.271 M=4.20 SD=1.643 M=31.00 SD=21.794 M=49.00 SD=5.523 M=13.80 SD=1.924 M=28.60 SD=1.140

p-value .056 .059 .080 .045* .001* .002* .003* .002* .044* .372 .029*

144

Multiple Comparisons (Tukey HSD)

Note: for all of the following Multiple Comparison tables the mean difference is significant at the .05 level; values falling below this level are indicated in the tables by *.

Mean Difference (I) Group Amusic (J) Group Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Tone Deaf Amusic Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Non-musician Amusic Tone Deaf Singer Amusia-rhythm Singer Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Amusia-rhythm Amusia-rhythm Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer -.410 -.388 -1.063 1.013 .410 .022 -.653 1.422 .388 -.022 -.675 1.400 1.063 .653 .675 2.075* -1.013 -1.422 -1.400 -2.075
*

(I-J)

Std. Error .584 .565 .495 .718 .584 .644 .584 .782 .565 .644 .565 .768 .495 .584 .565 .718 .718 .782 .768 .718

Sig. .955 .959 .218 .624 .955 1.000 .796 .374 .959 1.000 .754 .371 .218 .796 .754 .043 .624 .374 .371 .043

Table 5: Multiple comparisonsCorsi Forwards (block span)

145

Mean Difference (I) Group Amusic (J) Group Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Non-musician Amusic Tone Deaf Singer Amusia-rhythm Singer Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Amusia-rhythm Amusia-rhythm Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer -.778 -.900 -1.750 .800 .778 -.122 -.972 1.578 .900 .122 -.850 1.700 1.750 .972 .850 2.550 -.800 -1.578 -1.700 -2.550 (I-J) Std. Error .813 .787 .690 1.000 .813 .897 .813 1.089 .787 .897 .787 1.069 .690 .813 .787 1.000 1.000 1.089 1.069 1.000 Sig. .873 .782 .098 .929 .873 1.000 .754 .599 .782 1.000 .816 .510 .098 .754 .816 .095 .929 .599 .510 .095

Table 6: Multiple ComparisonsCorsi Forwards (total correct)

146

Mean Difference (I) Group Amusic (J) Group Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Tone Deaf Amusic Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Non-musician Amusic Tone Deaf Singer Amusia-rhythm Singer Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Amusia-rhythm Amusia-rhythm Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer -.472 -.550 -.938 .150 .472 -.078 -.465 .622 .550 .078 -.388 .700 .938 .465 .388 1.088 -.150 -.622 -.700 -1.088 (I-J) Std. Error .418 .404 .355 .514 .418 .461 .418 .559 .404 .461 .404 .549 .355 .418 .404 .514 .514 .559 .549 .514 Sig. .790 .655 .077 .998 .790 1.000 .799 .799 .655 1.000 .872 .708 .077 .799 .872 .229 .998 .799 .708 .229

Table 7: Multiple ComparisonsCorsi Forwards (memory span)

147

Mean Difference (I) Group Amusic (J) Group Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Tone Deaf Amusic Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Non-musician Amusic Tone Deaf Singer Amusia-rhythm Singer Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Amusia-rhythm Amusia-rhythm Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer (I-J) -7.618 -8.163 -20.813 14.138 7.618 -.544 -13.194 21.756 8.163 .544 -12.650 22.300 20.813 13.194 12.650 34.950
*

Std. Error 10.031 9.705 8.512 12.335 10.031 11.062 10.031 13.428 9.705 11.062 9.705 13.186 8.512 10.031 9.705 12.335 12.335 13.428 13.186 12.335

Sig. .941 .916 .120 .781 .941 1.000 .683 .492 .916 1.000 .690 .448 .120 .683 .690 .049 .781 .492 .448 .049

-14.138 -21.756 -22.300 -34.950*

Table 8: Multiple ComparisonsCorsi Forwards (TOTAL)

148

Mean Difference (I) Group Amusic (J) Group Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Tone Deaf Amusic Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Non-musician Amusic Tone Deaf Singer Amusia-rhythm Singer Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Amusia-rhythm Amusia-rhythm Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer (I-J) -1.701* -.912 -1.563 .588 1.701* .789 .139 2.289 .912 -.789 -.650 1.500 1.563* -.139 .650 2.150 -.588 -2.289* -1.500 -2.150*
* * *

Std. Error .523 .506 .444 .643 .523 .577 .523 .700 .506 .577 .506 .688 .444 .523 .506 .643 .643 .700 .688 .643

Sig. .017 .383 .008 .891 .017 .651 .999 .016 .383 .651 .702 .203 .008 .999 .702 .013 .891 .016 .203 .013

Table 9: Multiple ComparisonsCorsi Backwards (block span)

149

Mean Difference (I) Group Amusic (J) Group Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Tone Deaf Amusic Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Non-musician Amusic Tone Deaf Singer Amusia-rhythm Singer Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Amusia-rhythm Amusia-rhythm Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer (I-J) -2.257 -1.613 -2.563* 1.388 2.257 .644 -.306 3.644 1.613 -.644 -.950 3.000 2.563* .306 .950 3.950
* *

Std. Error .923 .893 .783 1.134 .923 1.017 .923 1.235 .893 1.017 .893 1.213 .783 .923 .893 1.134 1.134

Sig. .120 .381 .016 .738 .120 .969 .997 .037 .381 .969 .824 .113 .016 .997 .824 .009 .738 .037 .113 .009

-1.388 -3.644 -3.000 -3.950*

*

1.235 1.213 1.134

Table 10: Multiple ComparisonsCorsi Backwards (total correct)

150

Mean Difference (I) Group Amusic (J) Group Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Tone Deaf Amusic Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Non-musician Amusic Tone Deaf Singer Amusia-rhythm Singer Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Amusia-rhythm Amusia-rhythm Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer (I-J) -1.188 -.787 -1.313 .612 1.188 .400 -.125 1.800 .787 -.400 -.525 1.400 1.313* .125 .525 1.925 -.612 -1.800 -1.400 -1.925*
* *

Std. Error .479 .463 .406 .589 .479 .528 .479 .641 .463 .528 .463 .630 .406 .479 .463 .589 .589 .641 .630 .589

Sig. .111 .443 .018 .836 .111 .941 .999 .053 .443 .941 .788 .188 .018 .999 .788 .016 .836 .053 .188 .016

Table 11: Multiple ComparisonsCorsi Backwards (memory span)

151

Mean Difference (I) Group Amusic (J) Group Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Tone Deaf Amusic Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Non-musician Amusic Tone Deaf Singer Amusia-rhythm Singer Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Amusia-rhythm Amusia-rhythm Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer (I-J) -28.382* -17.237 -28.313 8.063 28.382* 11.144 .069 36.444 17.237 -11.144 -11.075 25.300 28.313* -.069 11.075 36.375 -8.063 -36.444 -25.300 -36.375*
* * * *

Std. Error 9.608 9.295 8.153 11.814 9.608 10.595 9.608 12.862 9.295 10.595 9.295 12.630 8.153 9.608 9.295 11.814 11.814 12.862 12.630 11.814

Sig. .037 .355 .009 .959 .037 .830 1.000 .049 .355 .830 .756 .279 .009 1.000 .756 .026 .959 .049 .279 .026

Table 12: Multiple ComparisonsCorsi Backwards (TOTAL)

152

Mean Difference (I) Group Amusic (J) Group Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Tone Deaf Amusic Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Non-musician Amusic Tone Deaf Singer Amusia-rhythm Singer Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Amusia-rhythm Amusia-rhythm Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer -.771 -2.738 -2.813* -2.038 .771 -1.967 -2.042 -1.267 2.738 1.967 -.075 .700 2.813* 2.042 .075 .775 2.038 1.267 -.700 -.775 (I-J) Std. Error 1.118 1.081 .948 1.374 1.118 1.233 1.118 1.496 1.081 1.233 1.081 1.469 .948 1.118 1.081 1.374 1.374 1.496 1.469 1.374 Sig. .958 .099 .035 .578 .958 .507 .370 .915 .099 .507 1.000 .989 .035 .370 1.000 .980 .578 .915 .989 .980

Table 13: Multiple ComparisonsMatch to Sample

153

Mean Difference (I) Group Amusic (J) Group Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Tone Deaf Amusic Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Non-musician Amusic Tone Deaf Singer Amusia-rhythm Singer Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Amusia-rhythm Amusia-rhythm Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer (I-J) -2.646 -.013 -3.750 2.688 2.646 2.633 -1.104 5.333 .013 -2.633 -3.737 2.700 3.750 1.104 3.737 6.438 -2.688 -5.333 -2.700 -6.438 Std. Error 1.963 1.899 1.665 2.413 1.963 2.164 1.963 2.627 1.899 2.164 1.899 2.580 1.665 1.963 1.899 2.413 2.413 2.627 2.580 2.413 Sig. .663 1.000 .178 .799 .663 .742 .980 .267 1.000 .742 .296 .832 .178 .980 .296 .073 .799 .267 .832 .073

Table 14: Multiple ComparisonsClock Test

154

Mean Difference (I) Group Amusic (J) Group Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Tone Deaf Amusic Non-musician Singer Amusia-rhythm Non-musician Amusic Tone Deaf Singer Amusia-rhythm Singer Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Amusia-rhythm Amusia-rhythm Amusic Tone Deaf Non-musician Singer -.250 -.450 -.875 1.950 .250 -.200 -.625 2.200 .450 .200 -.425 2.400 .875 .625 .425 2.825 -1.950 -2.200 -2.400 -2.825 (I-J) Std. Error 1.124 1.087 .954 1.382 1.124 1.239 1.124 1.505 1.087 1.239 1.087 1.478 .954 1.124 1.087 1.382 1.382 1.505 1.478 1.382 Sig. .999 .994 .889 .624 .999 1.000 .981 .591 .994 1.000 .995 .489 .889 .981 .995 .260 .624 .591 .489 .260

Table 15: Multiple ComparisonsMatrix Rotation

155

MBEA subscale correlations

The following tables give MBEA subscale correlations with visuospatial tasks showing significant values.
Significance (p-value) .049 .000 .002 .007 .001 .001

MBEA (melody subscale) and Corsi Forwards (memory span): Corsi Backwards (block span): Corsi Backwards (total correct): Corsi Backwards (memory span): Corsi Backwards (TOTAL): Match-to-Sample:

Strength .259 (weak) .445 (moderate) .400 (moderate) .351 (weak) .412 (moderate) .441 (moderate)

Table 16: MBEA melody subscale significant correlations with visuospatial tasks

MBEA (rhythm subscale) and Corsi Backwards (block span): Corsi Backwards (total correct): Corsi Backwards (memory span): Corsi Backwards (TOTAL): Match-to-Sample:

Significance (p-value) .004 .002 .006 .004 .002

Strength .369 (weak) .393 (weak) .354 (weak) .372 (weak) .395 (weak)

Table 17: MBEA rhythm subscale significant correlations with visuospatial tasks

156

Table 18: Mean scores on all tasks by gender* Dependent Variable Corsi Forwards (block span) Corsi Forwards (total correct) Corsi Forwards (memory span) Corsi Forwards (TOTAL) Corsi Backwards (block span) Corsi Backwards (total correct) Corsi Backwards (memory span) Corsi Backwards (TOTAL) Clock Test Matrix Rotation Match to Sample MBEA (melody subscale) MBEA (rhythm subscale)
*(males: N=29; females: N=29)

Female 5.90 8.14 4.90 50.66 5.66 7.86 5.14 46.34 52.79 15.83 28.03 23.66 24.24

Male 6.55 9.45 5.52 64.14 6.52 9.31 5.93 64.97 53.03 16.07 28.28 24.14 24.76

Table 19: t-test for equality of means by gender Dependent Variable Corsi Forwards (block span) Corsi Forwards (total correct) Corsi Forwards (memory span) Corsi Forwards (TOTAL) Corsi Backwards (block span) Corsi Backwards (total correct) Corsi Backwards (memory span) Corsi Backwards (TOTAL) Clock Test Matrix Rotation Match to Sample MBEA (melody subscale) MBEA (rhythm subscale)
* Significant at .05 level

t (56) -1.705 -2.537 -2.365 -2.055 -2.303 -2.207 -2.365 -2.760 - .185 - .343 - .323 - .498 - .474

p-value (2-tailed) .094 .014* .022* .045* .025* .031* .022* .008* .854 .733 .748 .620 .638

A negative t-value indicates that the female estimated mean was lower than the
corresponding male estimated mean.

Needed to have equal variances not assumed. df=48.760.

157

Table 20: Raw participant task data MBEA SUBSCALES Melody Rhythm b. span 18 15 22 29 24 23 23 21 24 26 23 19 28 27 24 21 27 26 24 28 8 5 8 8 6 5 8 5 5 6 VISUOSPATIAL TASKS Corsi Forwards tot. corr. 9 7 11 10 9 6 12 7 8 9 mem. TOTAL b.span span 5 4 6 6 5 4 7 4 5 5 72 35 88 80 54 30 96 35 40 54 6 4 8 8 8 2 8 6 6 6 Corsi Backwards tot. mem. TOTAL corr. span 8 5 13 10 12 1 12 10 9 9 5 4 8 6 7 2 7 6 6 6 48 20 104 80 96 2 96 60 54 54 23 24 29 30 30 27 30 29 30 30 54 56 55 56 58 41 55 57 53 52 12 18 16 17 18 17 15 17 16 19 Match Clock Matrix to Test Rotation Sample

P# 1 2 158 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Melody Rhythm b. span

Corsi Forwards tot. corr. 12 11 9 10 8 9 6 8 8 6 7 9

Corsi Backwards tot. mem. TOTAL corr. span 13 12 8 8 10 5 9 4 7 7 9 9 8 7 5 5 6 4 6 3 5 5 6 6 117 96 48 40 70 20 54 16 35 35 54 54

Match Clock Matrix to Test Rotation Sample

P#

mem. TOTAL b. span span 7 6 5 6 5 5 4 5 5 4 4 5 96 88 54 80 40 54 24 40 40 30 35 54 9 8 6 5 7 4 6 4 5 5 6 6

11 12 13 14 159 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

27 27 25 23 30 17 23 27 23 23 18 25

28 27 27 23 17 16 21 22 20 29 17 28

8 8 6 8 5 6 4 5 5 5 5 6

29 27 26 32 29 21 30 29 28 28 28 28

57 49 55 57 51 52 52 46 55 49 55 57

15 16 16 19 14 15 14 13 12 5 14 15

Melody Rhythm b. span 22 24 16 28 27 25 24 28 25 25 17 25 28 28 25 20 30 30 24 22 30 21 25 20 28 28 4 5 3 9 5 6 5 5 8 8 8 6 8

Corsi Forwards tot. corr. 6 8 4 14 7 10 7 7 10 10 10 10 11

Corsi Backwards tot. mem. TOTAL corr. span 6 4 30 9 4 11 6 6 5 10 13 11 7 8 11 6 3 7 4 4 4 6 8 7 5 5 7 54 16 77 24 30 35 70 104 66 35 48 88

Match Clock Matrix to Test Rotation Sample

P# 23 24 25 26 27 160 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

mem. TOTAL b. span span 4 24 5 5 3 8 4 6 4 4 6 6 6 6 6 40 12 126 35 60 35 35 80 80 80 60 88 6 4 7 4 5 7 7 8 6 5 6 8

28 29 23 30 30 29 15 30 28 30 23 30 29

40 57 42 57 52 59 50 57 54 58 57 49 51

15 20 12 20 16 14 11 17 18 13 16 18 16

Melody Rhythm b. span 19 27 29 20 27 22 22 24 20 18 25 27 23 24 27 28 26 29 22 16 27 25 18 27 30 23 5 5 8 8 8 6 5 5 8 6 8 5 8

Corsi Forwards tot. corr. 7 6 13 11 10 10 6 8 10 8 13 6 10

Corsi Backwards tot. mem. TOTAL corr. span 7 5 35 9 8 9 12 10 7 11 8 4 13 8 10 6 5 6 7 6 5 7 5 3 8 5 6 54 56 54 96 70 35 88 40 12 117 48 70

Match Clock Matrix to Test Rotation Sample

P# 36 37 38 39 40 161 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48

mem. TOTAL b. span span 4 35 5 4 7 6 6 6 4 5 6 5 7 4 6 30 104 88 80 60 30 40 80 48 104 30 80 6 7 6 8 7 5 8 5 3 9 6 7

30 30 28 30 30 30 26 28 30 24 30 29 30

44 58 52 42 57 58 50 48 59 50 59 57 59

15 19 11 18 15 16 15 17 17 18 19 18 17

Melody Rhythm P# 49 50 51 52 53 162 54 55 56 57 58 28 26 23 30 22 22 28 24 23 30 29 16 22 29 23 21 29 27 20 30 b. span 5 5 8 5 6 5 8 5 8 6

Corsi Forwards tot. corr. 8 8 11 7 10 7 10 8 10 8

Corsi Backwards tot. mem. TOTAL corr. span 7 5 42 8 11 10 8 8 10 6 7 10 5 7 6 5 5 6 4 5 6 48 88 60 48 48 70 24 35 60

Match Clock Matrix to Test Rotation Sample

mem. TOTAL b. span span 5 40 6 5 6 4 6 4 6 5 6 5 40 88 35 60 35 80 40 80 48 6 8 6 6 6 7 4 5 6

27 29 30 29 29 27 29 27 30 30

48 51 56 50 58 53 55 45 54 51

17 13 19 17 18 16 17 17 18 19