We all have lots of practice listening to music, but we can develop habits of listening for specific aspects of the music that relate to our goals-whether they are to write it down, improvise over it, or something else. When we read music from notation, for example, if we have developed certain eye-movement habits and procedures, we will be much faster and more accurate. Second, we are developing habits, and especially habits of attention. For example, we internalize the feeling of conducting a measure “in three” so that we can use that feeling to identify what’s going on in music and we internalize the sounds of the different notes in a scale and their relationships so that we can draw on these sounds in our own music-making or music-imagining. These skills belong in two big categories.įirst, we are developing internalized knowledge and physical structures. While the word “aural” indicates that we think of these skills as relating to the ear, in many ways they focus more on the brain. Many schools and departments of music reserve curricular space for aural skills in classes called “aural skills,” “ear training” (or “ear training and sight singing”), “musicianship,” or other terms.

The conclusions drawn from the three research questions show that there is a measureable effect on retention as a result of learning using songs at every age/academic level, that there are many other benefits from using songs in the classroom, and that the most effective teaching strategies use songs as a supplement to other teaching methods.“Aural skills” are the core skills used by all people involved in music. A student survey was distributed in three of those classes 94 surveys were returned showing student perceptions of the effectiveness of singing to learn. The researcher observed a total of six classes in Spanish and English. 36 teachers responded to the survey, providing perception data that was then used to select two teachers who use songs in their lessons for observation. 360 surveys on the effectiveness of singing in the classroom were sent to teachers from schools across the United States and internationally from Germany, Belgium, and Sweden. The two-part study of both teachers and students focused on the use of singing during lessons in middle school and high school as a supplemental teaching tool to aid student retention and recall of concepts in areas such as math, science, and language arts. This study investigated the relationship between singing and learning in non-music classes. These findings light up the discussion on the validity and reliability of models that have been taken for granted in assessing music performance in auditions and contests, and illustrate the need to better discuss evaluation criteria. For intervals, the lowest agreement was kappa = 0.406 and the highest was kappa = 0.792 (on average, kappa = 0.637). For melodic sight-singing considering the ten tonal melodies, on average, the weighted kappa (κ w) were: κ1 w = 0.296, κ2 w = 0.487, κ3 w = 0.224, and κ4 w = 0.244, ranging from fair to moderate. Agreement was conducted using weighted kappa. Intervals were scored considering a 3-point Likert scale. Interjudge agreement on melodic sight-singing was tested considering four items in a five-point Likert scale format as follows: (1) Intonation and pitch accuracy (2) Tonal sense and memory (3) Rhythmic precision, regularity of pulse and subdivisions (4) Fluency and music direction. Participants were recorded while sight-singing 19 intervals and 10 tonal melodies. Fifty out of 152 participants were randomly selected and blindly assessed by three judges, who evaluated students based on given criteria. However, little evidence of agreement among judges has been provided in the literature. Assessment criteria for sight-singing abilities are similar to those used to judge music performances across music school programs.

Benefits of aural training in music