Alisha Reeve MUSE 258 Citation Teaching Kids to Sing 1992 Chapter 2: The psychomotor process Kenneth H.

Phillips The Psychomotor Process for Teaching o Four steps Teacher provides model Student sees and interprets Student imitates Students analyzes feedback on their effort o Elizabeth Simpson More complete version of this 7 levels with the higher level utilizing skills learned in the lower levels Some contain subsets One of these is the Emotional set, which in music is extremely important because without the proper mindset it can be impossible to succeed o Singing is dependent on both psychological and physiological factors Pitch Perception o Some may have physical hearing loss o Mode of teaching can help those with psychological problems of poor pitch perception Attention to pitch o Simply moving a child from the outskirts of the class to the middle can improve childrens focus on pitch o Classroom environments should be free of distractions Proper Feedback o Feedback can have a great effect on a childs attentiveness and ability to sing in tune o Children are more likely to sing in tune alone than in a group until about 3rd grade o Visual feedback can also help, pictures of high and low objects can improve pitch accuracy Teaching Mode o If musical examples are presented in an enthusiastic way, students are more likely to listen o Students should be the basis of the learning process o Three learning modes Visual

Auditory Kinesthetic Learners general prefer one of these o Mixed modality teacher reaches the highest number of students and is the more comprehensive o Students are more likely to perceive pitch accurately if they hear it modeled accurately The female voice and the childs voice are the best for this purpose Children respond best to male voice produced in the falsetto rather than an octave below Tonal Memory o The ability to remember what is heard also effects accurate pitch production o Affected by age and the amount of material to be remembered o Edwin Gordon Audiate-inner hearing required for tonal memory o Tonal memory can be improved through games such as echoing sung tonal patterns and other exercises o The concept of same-different is also important o Repetition Vocal Coordination o Singing is a psychomotor skill that involves coordination of the vocal folds, the breath, resonators and articulators o Inaccurate singers may have problems with vocal control in these areas o Two actions produce pitch Movement of the vocal folds Flow of the pressurized air column Phonatory Adjustments o These adjustments are basically involuntary and thus do not to be taught to students, but experienced by students o A variety of exercises should be used to help students discover their head voice and develop flexibility in the vocal muscles Breath Coordination o There are two main ways of breathing, clavicular breathing, using the intercostal muscles, and diaphragmatic breathing which is used for singing o Young singers need to experience both and learn how to employ the correct mode until it becomes automatic Inaccurate Singing o There are more boys who sing inaccurately than girls o The number of inaccurate singers decreases with age o Both psychological and physiological maturity have an affect on singing ability

Causes of Inaccurate Singing o Four main causes Environmental Lack of exposure Organic Mental retardation, physical defects, disease Psychological Pitch discrimination, poor memory, lack of confidence Poor vocal control Caused by poor breath support, straining, etc o Research show children exposed to music generally have more success singing than those who arent o 18 months to 3 years in a very important time for children to hear singing in order to develop appropriately Remediation for Inaccurate Singing o 3 ways Pitch perception Additional drilling Instruction in vocal techniques o Familiar tonal patterns are best to use

Reflection For a music educator the basic teaching model is very helpful. Giving a model, getting a response and giving feedback are very important in the classroom. Students who are having problems learning will be comforted by feedback and students how are doing well still need to be praised for their good work. It is also very good to know how to work with a singer who is having problems matching pitch or singing accurately. If you can properly diagnose the problems and work to fix it you are showing the student that you care and want them to succeed.