Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation
5-2017
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
M.M.
Department
Music Theory
Degree Program
School of Music
Committee Chair
Jemian, Rebecca
Committee Member
Bolding, Randi
Committee Member
Hogrefe, Eric
Author's Keywords
Sight-singing; music education; music theory
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to highlight effective sight-singing techniques used by successful choral directors in the state of Kentucky. The method used for this study was a non-experimental survey sent to thirty-four high school choral directors. Directors were selected to participate based on distinguished assessment scores received over the last five years (2011-2015). They were asked questions about their techniques, background in education, and placement of sight-singing in the curriculum. With a response rate of 65% the results indicated that the majority of directors had received or earned at least a master’s degree, had taught for at least six or more years, and received most of their sight-singing instruction from their undergraduate degree. The techniques of sight-singing used were movable-do (95.45%) for pitch and count singing (81.82%) for rhythm. Finally, the majority of the directors only spent 5-10 minutes of class time on sight-singing and 90.91% placed sight-singing at the beginning, during, or right after warmups. With these results, a sight-singing method model was created using vocal and choral warmups to assist in a sight-singing example. Suggestions for further research and studies are given.
Recommended Citation
Pollock, Marissa Lee, "Sight-singing pedagogy : a survey of high school choral directors." (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2698.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2698
