How Children's develop their vocal expression
GUEST: Stephanie STADLER ELMER
University of Zürich (CH)
MICROANALYSES OF CHILDREN'S SINGING
incl. computer aided analyses and audiofiles
Joyfull and spontaneous singing is an activity to be found universally in almost all children at all times. In musically stimulating environments, they gradually and playfully adapt their vocal expression to the cultural conventions.
In the past, musical abilities were often considered to be inborn and predetermined by genes. A person was stocked with musical talent by nature (or by god) as a gift or not. Today, in textbooks musical development is described along chronological age, telling the reader the age at which the child is expected to be able to behave `correctly' in terms of our Western musical rules. For example, at a certain age, the child should be able to reproduce songs correctly. In this view, deviations are considered deficient.
According to constructivist theories of development -- which I favour instead -- musical development must be seen as a constructive and simultaneously adaptive process resulting from the activity of idiosyncratic structures. These are rooted in the physical structures given at birth, mainly hearing, vocalisation, and motor movement.
From the very beginnings, these elementary musical activities are embedded in a social environment. Especially intuitive parental behaviour fosters the development of vocal communication.
The child's vocal expression gradually adapts to surrounding conventions with respect to speaking and singing. Repeated vocalisations allow to infer the state of already acquired knowledge of the cultural rules. Spontaneous and requested song reproductions and song inventions contain rich information about a child's implicit unterstanding of cultural rules. Accuracy is only one among many other criteria to be observed. It is the entire organisation of singing with respect to melody (pitch and its timing), lyrics, meter, and other behavioural aspects (accompanying movements etc.) that are the focus of our research interest. We observe how the vocal organisation changes over time. It is important to remind that originally, children's emotional states while singing is related to joy, play, and well-being.
VARIOUS SINGING CONTEXTS WITH IMPLICIT OR EXPLICIT RULES
It is helpful to distinguish two different types of singing rules: inventing new songs by setting one's own rules, and song reproduction by accepting given rules. These two types occur either on request or spontaneous. Note that these distinctions are not clear cut and depend on context and its effective implicit or explicit social expectations.
In order to study the structures of singing and its changes with time, I asked children between 2 to 9 years of age to learn new songs that were presented with a picture book, and to invent songs. Their singing was audio or video taped. Each of a child's consecutively produced songs is stored in the computer. Analyses of these data allow new insights into children's singing. For instance, a two-and-a-half-year-old may reproduce a song or song fragments with amazing similarity with the model. Yet, this does not mean the child would understand the rules. Rather, this kind of
singing is still sensorimotor imitation. Particularly invented songs show that the child still neglects the cultural rules. Singing is organised with variable and idiosyncratic rules valid for the moment. The child does not yet understand the necessity to organise singing according to some common sociocultural rules. Hence, at this stage, deviations from rules are quite common. For instance, the child may take a breath in the middle of a word.
Every new song or fragments the child acquires add new possiblities to combine and generalise elements and rules. A growing song repertoire leads away from generalising examples, and facilitates the internalisation of rules. This stage, when rules are implicitly integrated into singing, song inventions particularly show that the child makes use of conventions on singing, e.g. rhymes, stable key, ending on the tonic.
Since the organisation of a song's lyrics and melody form a parallel hierarchy that is synchronized by the underlying beat, it seems evident that most children inform themselves by the temporal framework. Repetitive patterns are recognised at the basis of meter, periodic melodic patterns and lyric passages. Only rarely children change a song's temporal pattern, i.e. usually, children don't add syllables or tones. Missing elements are substituted in order to maintain the temporal framework. Particularly interesting are songs invented by children, either by request or spontaneously. Song inventions reveal the rules a child selects and applies, and show how poetic and musical means are creatively used.
Musical development as manifested in singing may be best understood as a continuous process of simultaneous imitation and playful exploration. This process is essentially fostered by a stimulating environment. The child actualizes already acquired perceptual and motor structures, uses them to play, explore, and to create new events. By these activities she or he gradually acquires musical and linguistic conventions on how to synchronise lyrics and melody to form a song.
There is no doubt that a musically stimulating environment fosters a child's musical development. It is not direct teaching of musical rules that is most effective. Rather, education should focus on observing, rediscovering, and fostering children's creativity, curiosity, and pleasure with respect to their playing with sounds and to improve playing together.
Furthermore, we have to give up the idea that musical development would directly depend on chronological age. The latter may give some hints to possible experiences and growth, but does not deliver reliable information about a child's level of musical development.
Altogether, we conclude that the ideas of a predetermined musical ability and of musical genius have to be given up. Ability in this domain is always the result of several conditions: physical conditions, the individual's adaptive coactions with a stimulating social environment, practice, and well-directed instructions.
A NEW METHOD FOR ANALYSING AND REPRESENTING SINGING
In psychological and cross-cultural (e.g. ethnomusicological) research the analysis of songsinging had always been an intricate and serious obstacle. Singing is a transient and mostly unstable patterning of vocal sounds that is organized by applying more or less linguistic and musical rules. Traditionally, a sung performance has been analyzed by mere listening and by using the western musical notation for representing its structure. Since this method neglects any in-between categories with respect to pitch and time, it proves to be culturally biased. However, acoustic measures as used in speech analysis have had limited application and were primarily used to quantify isolated parameters of sung performances.
For analyzing and representing the organization of pitch in relation to the syllables of the lyrics, and its temporal structure, we devised a computer aided method in combination with a new symbolic representation. The computer programm provides detailed acoustic measures on pitch and time. We reduce the redundancy of the detailed information by a notation system that shows pitch and time each on a continuous scale, including glissandi, breathing, joint singing, and instructional help. By combining acoustic with auditory analyses, this method allows to describe reliably sung performance's structures with respect to the organization of pitches, together with syllables, and their timing.
The resulting configuration of data includes qualitative aspects such as stable and unstable pitches. Such microanalytic descriptions are very useful for studying the nature of sung performances, their structures, and processes of change due to learning and development.
Click here WAV to hear ULLA's song
This is Ulla's first solo reproduction of this song at the age of two years and seven months. Event 25 means that previously, I sung this song 13 times for her, another child produced ten times a variation of it, and once the two children sung together. Note that there are only minor deviations from the model.
In the past, musical abilities were often considered to be inborn and predetermined by genes. A person was stocked with musical talent by nature (or by god) as a gift or not. Today, in textbooks musical development is described along chronological age, telling the reader the age at which the child is expected to be able to behave `correctly' in terms of our Western musical rules. For example, at a certain age, the child should be able to reproduce songs correctly. In this view, deviations are considered deficient.
According to constructivist theories of development -- which I favour instead -- musical development must be seen as a constructive and simultaneously adaptive process resulting from the activity of idiosyncratic structures. These are rooted in the physical structures given at birth, mainly hearing, vocalisation, and motor movement.
From the very beginnings, these elementary musical activities are embedded in a social environment. Especially intuitive parental behaviour fosters the development of vocal communication.
The child's vocal expression gradually adapts to surrounding conventions with respect to speaking and singing. Repeated vocalisations allow to infer the state of already acquired knowledge of the cultural rules. Spontaneous and requested song reproductions and song inventions contain rich information about a child's implicit unterstanding of cultural rules. Accuracy is only one among many other criteria to be observed. It is the entire organisation of singing with respect to melody (pitch and its timing), lyrics, meter, and other behavioural aspects (accompanying movements etc.) that are the focus of our research interest. We observe how the vocal organisation changes over time. It is important to remind that originally, children's emotional states while singing is related to joy, play, and well-being.
VARIOUS SINGING CONTEXTS WITH IMPLICIT OR EXPLICIT RULES
It is helpful to distinguish two different types of singing rules: inventing new songs by setting one's own rules, and song reproduction by accepting given rules. These two types occur either on request or spontaneous. Note that these distinctions are not clear cut and depend on context and its effective implicit or explicit social expectations.
In order to study the structures of singing and its changes with time, I asked children between 2 to 9 years of age to learn new songs that were presented with a picture book, and to invent songs. Their singing was audio or video taped. Each of a child's consecutively produced songs is stored in the computer. Analyses of these data allow new insights into children's singing. For instance, a two-and-a-half-year-old may reproduce a song or song fragments with amazing similarity with the model. Yet, this does not mean the child would understand the rules. Rather, this kind of
singing is still sensorimotor imitation. Particularly invented songs show that the child still neglects the cultural rules. Singing is organised with variable and idiosyncratic rules valid for the moment. The child does not yet understand the necessity to organise singing according to some common sociocultural rules. Hence, at this stage, deviations from rules are quite common. For instance, the child may take a breath in the middle of a word.
Every new song or fragments the child acquires add new possiblities to combine and generalise elements and rules. A growing song repertoire leads away from generalising examples, and facilitates the internalisation of rules. This stage, when rules are implicitly integrated into singing, song inventions particularly show that the child makes use of conventions on singing, e.g. rhymes, stable key, ending on the tonic.
Since the organisation of a song's lyrics and melody form a parallel hierarchy that is synchronized by the underlying beat, it seems evident that most children inform themselves by the temporal framework. Repetitive patterns are recognised at the basis of meter, periodic melodic patterns and lyric passages. Only rarely children change a song's temporal pattern, i.e. usually, children don't add syllables or tones. Missing elements are substituted in order to maintain the temporal framework. Particularly interesting are songs invented by children, either by request or spontaneously. Song inventions reveal the rules a child selects and applies, and show how poetic and musical means are creatively used.
Musical development as manifested in singing may be best understood as a continuous process of simultaneous imitation and playful exploration. This process is essentially fostered by a stimulating environment. The child actualizes already acquired perceptual and motor structures, uses them to play, explore, and to create new events. By these activities she or he gradually acquires musical and linguistic conventions on how to synchronise lyrics and melody to form a song.
There is no doubt that a musically stimulating environment fosters a child's musical development. It is not direct teaching of musical rules that is most effective. Rather, education should focus on observing, rediscovering, and fostering children's creativity, curiosity, and pleasure with respect to their playing with sounds and to improve playing together.
Furthermore, we have to give up the idea that musical development would directly depend on chronological age. The latter may give some hints to possible experiences and growth, but does not deliver reliable information about a child's level of musical development.
Altogether, we conclude that the ideas of a predetermined musical ability and of musical genius have to be given up. Ability in this domain is always the result of several conditions: physical conditions, the individual's adaptive coactions with a stimulating social environment, practice, and well-directed instructions.
A NEW METHOD FOR ANALYSING AND REPRESENTING SINGING
In psychological and cross-cultural (e.g. ethnomusicological) research the analysis of songsinging had always been an intricate and serious obstacle. Singing is a transient and mostly unstable patterning of vocal sounds that is organized by applying more or less linguistic and musical rules. Traditionally, a sung performance has been analyzed by mere listening and by using the western musical notation for representing its structure. Since this method neglects any in-between categories with respect to pitch and time, it proves to be culturally biased. However, acoustic measures as used in speech analysis have had limited application and were primarily used to quantify isolated parameters of sung performances.
For analyzing and representing the organization of pitch in relation to the syllables of the lyrics, and its temporal structure, we devised a computer aided method in combination with a new symbolic representation. The computer programm provides detailed acoustic measures on pitch and time. We reduce the redundancy of the detailed information by a notation system that shows pitch and time each on a continuous scale, including glissandi, breathing, joint singing, and instructional help. By combining acoustic with auditory analyses, this method allows to describe reliably sung performance's structures with respect to the organization of pitches, together with syllables, and their timing.
The resulting configuration of data includes qualitative aspects such as stable and unstable pitches. Such microanalytic descriptions are very useful for studying the nature of sung performances, their structures, and processes of change due to learning and development.
Click here WAV to hear ULLA's song
This is Ulla's first solo reproduction of this song at the age of two years and seven months. Event 25 means that previously, I sung this song 13 times for her, another child produced ten times a variation of it, and once the two children sung together. Note that there are only minor deviations from the model.
Click here> WAV to hear Tom's song:
Tom spontaneously invented a new song in connection with a picture in a picture book. Because this happend unexpected, the recording includes some disruptive signals. Interestingly, at the very first go, Tom invented a new song with lyrics and a melody. He
created a coherent unity that suit the picture's content. Both lyrics and melody show unconventional features, e.g. neologisms and microintervals. This pitch analysing programm, devised by F.J. Elmer, is available at: http://monet.physik.unibas.ch/~elmer/pa
Tom spontaneously invented a new song in connection with a picture in a picture book. Because this happend unexpected, the recording includes some disruptive signals. Interestingly, at the very first go, Tom invented a new song with lyrics and a melody. He
created a coherent unity that suit the picture's content. Both lyrics and melody show unconventional features, e.g. neologisms and microintervals. This pitch analysing programm, devised by F.J. Elmer, is available at: http://monet.physik.unibas.ch/~elmer/pa
© Stefanie Stadler Elmer
STADLER ELMER, S. (2000). Spiel und Nachahmung. Über die Entwicklung der elementaren musikalischen Aktivitäten. (Wege Musikpädagogische Schriftenreihe, Band 12) 2000, 196 S. Aarau: HBS Nepomuk Verlag ( Postfach CH-5001 Aarau).
STADLER ELMER, S. (1997). Approaching the song acquisition process. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 133, 129-135.
STADLER ELMER, S. (1998). A Piagetian perspective on singing development. Jahrbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Musikpsychologie, Bd. 13, 108 - 125. Göttingen: Hogrefe.
STADLER ELMER, S.(2000). Stages in singing development. In J.Tafuri (ed.). Quaderni della SIEM. Semestrale di ricerca e didattica musicale, Anno 10, N. 16 (2), 336-343.
STADLER ELMER, S.(2001). Liedersingen mit Kindern: Strukturgenese im sprach-musikalischen Ausdruck. In S. Hoppe-Graff & A. Rümmele (Hrsg.). Entwicklung als Strukturgenese. Lengerich: Pabst-Verlag.
STADLER ELMER, S.& ELMER, F.-J. (2000). A new method for analyzing and representing singing. Psychology of Music, 28 (1), 23-42. (click PDF)
STADLER ELMER, S.& HAMMER, S. (2001). Sprach-melodische Erfindungen einer 9-jährigen. Zeitschrift für Entwicklungspsychologie und Pädagogische Psychologie, 33(3), 138-156.
Prof. Dr. phil. Stefanie Stadler Elmer
e-mail: stadler (<click)
URL: http://www.psychologie.uzh.ch/institut/angehoerige/dozierende/stadler.html
Tonhöhenanalyseprogramm siehe: click>http://monet.physik.unibas.ch/~elmer/pa
Prof. Dr. phil. Stefanie Stadler Elmer
STADLER ELMER, S. (2000). Spiel und Nachahmung. Über die Entwicklung der elementaren musikalischen Aktivitäten. (Wege Musikpädagogische Schriftenreihe, Band 12) 2000, 196 S. Aarau: HBS Nepomuk Verlag ( Postfach CH-5001 Aarau).
STADLER ELMER, S. (1997). Approaching the song acquisition process. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 133, 129-135.
STADLER ELMER, S. (1998). A Piagetian perspective on singing development. Jahrbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Musikpsychologie, Bd. 13, 108 - 125. Göttingen: Hogrefe.
STADLER ELMER, S.(2000). Stages in singing development. In J.Tafuri (ed.). Quaderni della SIEM. Semestrale di ricerca e didattica musicale, Anno 10, N. 16 (2), 336-343.
STADLER ELMER, S.(2001). Liedersingen mit Kindern: Strukturgenese im sprach-musikalischen Ausdruck. In S. Hoppe-Graff & A. Rümmele (Hrsg.). Entwicklung als Strukturgenese. Lengerich: Pabst-Verlag.
STADLER ELMER, S.& ELMER, F.-J. (2000). A new method for analyzing and representing singing. Psychology of Music, 28 (1), 23-42. (click PDF)
STADLER ELMER, S.& HAMMER, S. (2001). Sprach-melodische Erfindungen einer 9-jährigen. Zeitschrift für Entwicklungspsychologie und Pädagogische Psychologie, 33(3), 138-156.
Prof. Dr. phil. Stefanie Stadler Elmer
e-mail: stadler (<click)
URL: http://www.psychologie.uzh.ch/institut/angehoerige/dozierende/stadler.html
Tonhöhenanalyseprogramm siehe: click>http://monet.physik.unibas.ch/~elmer/pa
Prof. Dr. phil. Stefanie Stadler Elmer
This webpage belongs to: http://musicpedagogy.weebly.com