Sight-Singing Scores of High School Choristers with Extensive Training in Movable Solfège Syllables and Curwen Hand Signs

Abstract

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.

Teaching Melodic Dictation in Advanced Placement Music Theory

“…can be hindered, in fact, by over-reliance on a note-to-note type of hearing because it detracts from larger-scale connections that are both more important musically than surface details and also more important pedagogically because they make the learning of hearing easier. (p. 110) Researchers have reported the efficacy of scale degree function in constructing tonal context during listening tasks (Gordon, 2007;Karpinski, 2000) and the popularity of solfège systems incorporating scale degree function for sight-singing instruction (McClung, 2001). Participants in the current study noted the usefulness of consistently comparing dictation pitches to the tonic and attending to harmonic and cadential patterns in relation to the key, to avoid errors and reinforce context.…”

Pitch Systems and Curwen Hand Signs: A Review of Literature

“…Each participant performed two sight-singing exercises of equal difficulty, singing one with hand signs and one without. McClung (2008) found no significant difference in the sight-singing accuracy of participants while using hand signs. However, significant differences emerged when the researcher divided participants according to previous instrumental experience.…”

“…Advocates of Curwen hand signs have cited their utility as a multimodal approach to music reading, noting that hand signs provide visual and kinesthetic reinforcement of solmization syllables (Apfelstadt, 1986; Demorest, 2001; Giles, 1991; McClung, 2008; Reifinger, 2013). A student using hand signs is thus equipped to feel and see the location of each scale degree and its intervallic relationship to other scale degrees (Choksy, 1999).…”

“…Given the short-term nature of many experimental studies on Curwen hand signs, McClung (2008) conducted a study of high school students who had extensive experience with hand signs. Each participant performed two sight-singing exercises of equal difficulty, singing one with hand signs and one without.…”

“…Additionally, participants with no instrumental experience performed significantly better without hand signs than with hand signs. McClung (2008) speculated that students without instrumental experience may not have the kinesthetic experience necessary to render hand signs useful. For these students, hand signs may have functioned as a distraction rather than an aid.…”