REVIEWER: Betty Starobinsky

TITLE: Music Listening Preferences in Early Life: Infants Responses to

Accompanied Versus Unaccompanied Singing
AUTHOR(S): Ilari, Beatriz and Sundara, Megha
LOCATION: Journal of Research in Music Education, January 2009, Volume 56/No. 4, pages
357-369

This article discusses the gaps in knowledge when it comes to studies dealing specifically
with infant perception of musical texture. Its purpose is to examine the preferences of infants for
a piece of vocal music, with and without accompaniment.
From birth, infants have incredible abilities to perceive, distinguish and remember a
wide variety of sounds. Infants exhibit clear auditory preferences in the beginning of life such as
the sound of their caregivers voices. It is from this that they are able to communicate through
speech and musical sounds found within their culture. From an early age, infants are also able to
use music to follow routines.
This study used the Headturn Preference Procedure to assess infant
preferences for accompanied and unaccompanied music. In infancy,
preference is measured by how long something or someone holds their
attention. The goal of the study was to see how long different groups of
infants can sit listening to a specific type of music. Using two versions of an
unfamiliar Chinese childrens song, researchers divided infants in Canada
into three groups of 5-, 8- and 11-month-old infants.

Infants and parents were seated. The parent and experimenter both
wore headphones to mask the music that was played and to prevent them
from influencing the infants responses. When the light was flashed to catch
the infants attention, the music began and continued to play until the infant
looked away for more than two seconds or until the end of the trial. Since
there were two different versions of the song, the researcher used an
analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine which version the infants
preferred.
Based on the results, the authors state that infants would prefer to
listen to the unaccompanied version of the song. All three groups of infants
in the study, regardless of the milestones they have achieved, or their
gender or age, listened longer to the a cappella version of the song, which
demonstrated an overall preference for this version of the song. The authors
state that there could be several possible reasons for this. One could be that
infants have an innate bias to human voices. Another is that a piece that is a
cappella might be preferred due to the simplicity in its musical structure.
Overall I feel that the authors did a good job in this study, although
there are a few shortcomings.
Young infants have clear preferences for music. Previous studies have
suggested that infants prefer consonant music, single timbres and high
pitched singing. This was important to consider when picking the song in
question.

The health of the infants were considered. They made sure that infants
were healthy, born at term, and free of ear infections and colds on the day of
testing which can affect an infants mood. Additionally, infants who fell into
these categories but did not complete testing due to equipment failure,
fussing, or parental interference were removed from the study leaving 60
participants. Even after all these considerations were made, due to gender
differences and milestones, infants were grouped according to gender and
age.
The musical stimuli was deeply considered and chosen due to the prior
research indicated by the authors. Two versions of a Chinese childrens song
were used for this study. It was sung in the Miao language by a 9-year-old
female child. Both versions of the song had an identical vocal part and were
matched for tempo and pitch, the only difference was one was accompanied
and the other was unaccompanied. Both songs were in AAB form, with a
clear tempo and beat. These songs were chosen due to three factors: the
music would be unfamiliar to the participants, sung in a higher pitch
(specifically by a female child) in an unfamiliar language, and both versions
of the song were included an identical vocal part.
There were some aspects of this study that may have biased the
outcome. For example, most often when an infant is with their caregiver
they tend to be more attentive to their surroundings, therefore being able to
focus for a longer period of time. This may have influenced the length of time
that the infants were able to sit for the music. Another issue that i had with

this study was that 60 infants is a small sample size which overall shows a
weak statistical significance between babies who preferred the accompanied
vocals to the unaccompanied vocals. It is a bit strange to be comparing the
attention span of 5 month olds to that of 8 and 11 month olds in that older
babies are able to focus longer on music than younger babies who are
inherently observing their surroundings rather than necessarily focusing on
the music.
While there were both pros and cons to this article I strongly believe
that a larger sampling may have proven the same outcome as this study
does. In my opinion babies probably show a preference to music without
accompaniment as they spend 9 months in the womb mainly listening to the
sound of their mothers voice, therefore enjoying the sounds of songs sung in
a cappella.
In the introduction, the authors state that this study is relevant and can
be applied for early childhood music education. By knowing what type of
music infants prefer, it can help teachers prepare their lessons and help
guide parents and caregivers more adequately. Similarly, these
considerations are made in my classroom. I take into consideration the music
that my students like to see if there are any teachable moments. If I can find
a teachable moment in music that my students like, or use it for a warm-up
or stretch, it will serve as a reward for the class and grasp their attention.
In the conclusion of the article, the authors are sure to mention that
just because the infants seem to prefer a cappella music, doesnt mean that

they should only be limited to hearing this type of music. For example when
demonstrating the core aspect of a song i believe it is important to initially
teach it unaccompanied by music. Once the concept of the song is
understood by the class the musical portion can be added to add depth to it.
This method follows that of almost any school subject, to start off simple,
allow the students to understand and then add to the complexity (notes,
chords, tempo, harmony in the case of music) in order to create a bigger
picture.
I believe that children of all ages should be exposed to all types of
music. First, not all students like the same type of music. By exposing
children to a variety of music containing a variety of instruments, it may
broaden their scope of music and allow them to increase their creativity.
Many of my students are visual learners, having to see the music to play the
specific piece. However, this does not mean that all of my lessons will only
contain visual components. It is important for students of music to hear the
notes as well in order to follow the tune as demonstrated in the Suzuki
Method of teaching music. In my opinion it is extremely important to provide
students with different methods of learning music in order to engage them
and to keep them interested in music. It is also a constant reminder that
each child is different, each child has different needs, and each child learns
differently. These are all important considerations when teaching, and such
modifications are important for me to address in my lessons.

The study briefly mentions that 5-month-olds and 11-month-olds listen significantly
longer to music than 8-month-olds. This proves that infants, regardless of age, have differences
in attention. This is important when developing lesson plans, because similarly the students that
we teach as educators also have different attention spans. This is also an important factor to
consider when teaching, and making sure to have varied activities throughout a lesson.

References:
Ilari, B., & Sundara, M. (2009). Music listening preferences in early life: Infants responses to
accompanied versus unaccompanied singing. Journal of Research in Music Education, 56(4)4,
357-369.