We examined how movement impacted listeners’ perceptions of choral performances. Participants ( N = 115; n = 60 nonmusic majors, n = 55 music majors) viewed excerpts of Moses Hogan’s “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel” under four conditions: good tone/expressive movement (GT/EM), good tone/static movement (GT/SM), poor tone/expressive movement (PT/EM), and poor tone/static movement (PT/SM). They rated tone quality and overall expressivity for each excerpt. We found a significant multivariate main effect for the examples. For both tone quality and expressivity, participants rated the examples in the following order from highest to lowest: GT/EM, GT/SM, PT/SM, and PT/EM. There was a significant interaction between the examples and participants’ major. Music majors rated the GT/EM example higher than the nonmusic majors but rated the other three examples lower than the nonmajors. Expressive movement seemed to enhance ratings of expressivity when performed with good tone but detracted when the tone was poor. In written responses, majors distinguished between expressive movement and tone consistently, while nonmajors could not consistently separate what they were seeing from what they were hearing.

In this study, we examined the effects of multiple reference pitch sources on collegiate singers’ accuracy in pitch-matching and intonation tasks. We also investigated which reference pitch source participants preferred and for what reasons. Participants ( N = 99) sang a two-measure excerpt of Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine after listening to the starting pitch of A on a pitch pipe, the piano, a vocal hum, or a tuning fork in two conditions. For one tuning fork condition, participants’ starting pitch was an A, the same pitch as the tuning fork. For the other tuning fork condition, their starting pitch was a G, a different pitch than the tuning fork. We selected two pitches for analysis, each corresponding to the first syllable of the word Joseph. We then analyzed pitch deviation of the two target notes from the reference pitch in each condition. Participants were most accurate in response to the piano and least accurate in response to the tuning fork when their starting pitch was a G. Participants expressed preference for the piano (37.12%) as their pitch source, followed closely by the pitch pipe (33.33%).

Growth mindset, or the belief that talents and abilities are malleable and can grow, is known to hold immense benefits in the world of education. What benefits could it hold for our students’ musical growth as well? This article explores the many benefits of instilling a growth mindset into our ensembles by examining research in educational psychology and general music. This article provides an overview of the benefits of a growth mindset as well as strategies to help ensemble instructors implement the concept into the classroom.

The purpose of this study was to explore adolescent self-views of singing ability through both implicit theories (i.e., fixed mindset and growth mindset) and self-concept meaning systems in the context of a choral hierarchy. Using a survey instrument modified from Dweck (1999) to measure self-theories of singing ability, I gathered data from middle and high school participants currently enrolled in a hierarchical choral structure. I analyzed descriptive statistics of survey responses to items designed to measure implicit theories of singing ability, singing self-concept, and goal orientation and differences among participants by ensemble placement in implicit theory and self-concept scores. In addition to these quantitative measures, I coded open-ended responses to two failure scenarios and examined participant responses by ensemble and gender. Both implicit theory and self-concept scores were higher for participants at the top of the choral hierarchy. Open-ended responses indicated that failure scenarios were associated with lowered self-concept and shame in ensemble placement, especially for female-identifying participants.

Many music educators are concerned about building healthy classroom communities as they prepare to transition to online or blended learning environments. Research involving distance education has indicated that several techniques in the design and delivery of online instruction can increase students’ sense of community, commitment to the course, and overall learning experience. The purpose of this research-to-resource article is to provide music educators with research-based strategies for establishing and connecting students to a sense of community in courses delivered partially or entirely online.