ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING Testing musical abilities of Estonian preschool children: Some preliminary results Laura Välja, Marju Raju, and Jaan Ross Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre AIRS 5th Annual Meeting Toronto 2013 ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING AIRS in Estonia • Pilot study (2010) - Marju Raju (Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre), 26 participants • Main study (2012) - Laura Välja (Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre), 43 participants ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING Item 5 Item 8 Sing favorite song Free composition to choice of picture Obtain information about favorite songs and accuracy and consistency of its production; determine music preferences and consistency of preference Measure song creativity and compare with results of Stadler Elmer, who also used pictures; pictures constrain themes but inspire lyrics ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING Participants Sex 21 22 Girls Boys ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING Age 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 9 8 7 5 5 4 3 1 2-year-olds 1 4-year-olds 5-year-olds Girls 6-year-olds Boys 7-year-olds 8-year-olds ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING Participants Native language 3 Estonian Russian 40 ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING Musical activities 23 20 curricular extracurricular ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING AIRS Test Battery - Item 5 Singing favorite song 30 25 24 20 15 12 10 4 5 3 0 children's song songs from young people's or adult repertoire other song number of participants don't have/can't sing ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING AIRS Test Battery - Item 5 Singing favorite song 30 25 24 20 15 10 12 5.5 5 4 5.8 3 4.7 5.7 0 children's song songs from young people's or adult repertoire number of participants other song average age don't have/can't sing ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING AIRS Test Battery - Item 5 Singing favorite song - results • children’s favorite songs mostly include those from the common repertory in contemporary Estonia • most kids are able to perform one or two verses and chorus of their favorite song • children’s musical preferences are related to their current activities in kindergarten or school ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING AIRS Test Battery - Item 8 Free composition to choice of picture ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING AIRS Test Battery - Item 8 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Free composition to11choice of picture 11 8 5 5 2 1 0 13 children 13 children 11 children 6 children Girls Boys ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING AIRS Test Battery - Item 8 Free composition to choice of picture 25 21 20 15 12 10 7 5 2 1 0 melody and lyrics (original composition) previously familiar song only melody number of participants only lyrics didn't fulfill the task ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING AIRS Test Battery - Item 8 Free composition to choice of picture 25 21 20 15 12 10 5.7 7 6.3 5 6 2 6 5.1 1 0 melody and lyrics (original composition) previously familiar song only melody number of participants only lyrics average age didn't fulfill the task ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING AIRS Test Battery - Item 8 Free composition to choice of picture pre-planned 6 6 non-tonal tonal 4 5 spontaneous ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING AIRS Test Battery - Item 8 Free composition to choice of picture Category pre-planned 6 6 non-tonal 4 5 spontaneous Pre-planned and tonal Spontaneous and tonal tonal Spontaneous and non-tonal Pre-planned and non-tonal No. of participants Avg Extracurricular age musical activities 6 6 3 5 4,8 3 4 4,5 4 6 6 2 ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING AIRS Test Battery Results 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Item Determine vocal range Minor third call-back Sing back „Brother John“ Sing favorite song Sing back interval, triad, scale Improvise ending of a song Free composition to choice of picture Sing back unfamiliar song „We Are One“ Sing „Brother John“ from recent memory No. of successful performances * 40 43 42 31 42 38 30 34 41 * a performance was considered successful, if the participant understood the task and provided some musical material ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING AIRS Test Battery - Item 8 Free composition to choice of picture • smallest number of successful performances in the main study • correlation between participant’s age and solving the task is weak • children are more focused on creating lyrics than melody • distribution of the performances in a 2D space (spontaneity vs compliance to the tonal canon) is roughly even ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SINGING Thank you for your attention!