This article proposes that extramusical skills can be taught in the music classroom alongside music skills. * A A S H istorically, music skills have never been the only skills taught in a music classroom.Teachers have often used the inherent attributes of music to offer students a variety of opportunities to practice many of the skills they need to resolve life's daily challenges successfully. The ability to commit to a project or goal, to understand how personal success is often tied to the success of others, and to realize that there are many ways to measure and experience success are all examples of skills that enhance a students' ability to achieve objectives in both the music classroom and elsewhere. In education, such skills are referred to as societal and emotional skills.For the most part, these skills are a subtext to the music curriculum. Checking our colleague's lesson plans, we would rarely, if ever, find a lesson marked "teach students skills needed to get along." But, it has become increasingly beneficial for music teachers to design lesson strategies that include appropriate emotional and societal skills to enable students to succeed in the music classroom.1 As one music colleague explained, "My
Randomly chosen high school choristers with extensive training in solfège syllables and Curwen hand signs (N = 38) are asked to sight-sing two melodies, one while using Curwen hand signs and the other without. Out of a perfect score of 16, the mean score with hand signs was 10.37 (SD = 4.23), and without hand signs, 10.84 (SD = 3.96). A repeated-measures ANOVA revealed no statistically significant difference, F(1, 37) = .573, p = .454. These findings support the results of five earlier studies; however, because earlier studies were limited to students who were minimally trained in movable solfège syllables and Curwen hand signs, this study expands the knowledge base. Relationships between performance scores and instrumental experience, class grade, sight-singing experience, and hand sign experience were also examined. A pedagogical strategy for linking Curwen hand signs with students' preferred modes of learning (especially the kinesthetic mode) is recommended.
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