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Singing Strings: National Content Standard No. 1 in the School Orchestra Rehearsal

When addressing the National Standards for Music Education, string teachers often overlook the first content standard, “singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music,” assuming that they and their students are exempt from any type of singing activity.1 They mistakenly consider singing as a teaching technique intended solely for their colleagues who direct choral ensembles or teach general music classes, or assume that they must search for a piece of orchestral literature that includes choral accompaniment. Instead of using singing as an aid to teach musical skills and knowledge related to string performance, emphasis is directed exclusively toward the development of technique and association of fingerings with notation.2 The purpose of this article is to consider published teaching strategies and research studies related to singing in instrumental music education and to suggest ways in which these resources may be used to enhance beginning and advancing levels of orchestra instruction. Beginning string classes can offer particularly fertile ground for using singing as a teaching aid. Many students come to first-year orchestra rehearsals with substantial singing experience but are never required to vocalize by teachers who advocate a “fingerboardpushing” pedagogy. Authors of teaching strategies related to the National Standards recommend that singing be used to promote proper phrasing, dynamics, and musical expression among beginning instrumentalists.3 Furthermore, researchers have found that singing activities, particularly when related to tonal understanding, may improve beginning instrumentalists’ melodic abilities. Charles Elliott investigated the effects of vocalization on the sense of pitch of beginning instrumental students.4 Following a full school year of daily instruction, he found that students who sang method book exercises on a neutral syllable prior to instrumental performance demonstrated significantly greater gains in sense of pitch than students who did not. Specifically, students who sang were better able to discriminate between two aural pitches, memorize short tonal melodies, convert aurally perceived sounds into musical notation, and convert musical notation into aural sounds. Carol MacKnight investigated the effects of solfège and tonal pattern training on the sight-reading achievement and aural-visual discrimination of beginning instrumentalists.5 She found that introducing pitches using tonal patterns, as presented in a researcherdesigned method book, was more effective than “finger-symbol” associations, as presented in a traditional method book. In a similar study, Patricia Grutzmacher examined the effects of solfège and tonal pattern training on the sight reading achievement and aural recognition of beginning instrumentalists.6 She discovered that using aural and printed tonal patterns with harmonization and singing was more effective than instruction based exclusively on traditional method book notation. These two studies suggest that traditional method book instruction may not be sufficient to successfully develop the aural-visual musicianship of young instrumentalists. Nevertheless, even when using a standard method book without tonal patterns, aural activities related to singing and solfège can foster ear playing and sight reading skills that are so crucial to the development of independent musicianship.7 Using a familiar method book melody, such as “Merrily We Roll Along,”8 sing the tune to students on a neutral syllable and ask them to repeat before viewing the related notation. After students are comfortable singing the three-pitch melody, introduce the concept of resting tone and add movable Do solfège syllables. Allowing students to experience sounds prior to notation will afford them an opportunity to develop correct intonation and tone quality, as well as instrumental technique. Students should also have opportunities to experiment aurally with the three pitches by improvising and composing original works. While this aural process should occur first, introduction of notation should not be delayed considerably. By teaching sight-reading as a natural extension of familiar aural melodies, students will resist the temptation to rely on notation and associated instrumental fingerings as an alternative to correct aural development. Singing