Explores the adoption of aspects of Welsh social identity by members of an American college choir specializing in Welsh repertoire. Drawing on questionnaires, face-to-face and email interviews, and recordings of the choir in performance, a picture is built up of the singers' attitudes towards Welsh people, culture, and language, and their…

Offers a retrospective of group singing in the United States and notes that the nation's citizens are becoming music spectators possibly due to the advances in technology. Emphasizes the importance of teaching students about songs that are representative of U.S. history. (GG)

Explains a method of measuring music students' understanding and retention in order to justify the school music program. Rates students on three scales, including performance of tonal pattern, rote song, and rhythm pattern. Recommends the use of similar objective classroom evaluation to demonstrate learning success. (LS)

A primary-grade teacher describes how she uses singing to teach phonics in her classroom. Notes how children are helped to integrate the three cuing systems of language--semantic, syntactic, and graphophonemic--as they read and sing together. (ET)

Examines changes in children's singing games in Portugal since the 1940s with the assumption that cultural changes have altered significantly the nature of these games. Finds that children sing less, use poorer melodies, and mix speech and singing more, but that they employ more complex forms of physical activity. (DSK)

Tests the reliability of Rutkowski's Singing Voice Development Measure for use in general music classrooms, grades one through six. Indicates that the rating scale, although originally designed for young children, is reliable for use when children in grades one through five perform a short, major song in solo. Reports on ancillary problems. (DSK)

Observes that composition is seldom taught in music classes. Suggests that teachers cultivate student creativity and meet the National Standards for Music Education through composition activities with their beginning, intermediate, and advanced choirs. Presents activities that can be used at all three levels. (DSK)

Critiques scholars who argue that theories of music and theories of musical perception are, and should be, fundamentally different. Reviews research on music perception and how it is used in aural training programs. Makes suggestions for improving the field of aural training and music-education research. (DSK)

Argues that singing and songwriting activities can complement a wide range of literacy learning activities, and offer emerging readers learning opportunities with active participation. Provides examples of singing and songwriting activities that support early literacy instruction in the areas of letter names and sounds, phonemic awareness, print…

This article examines possible causes or intensifications of vocal fatigue in adolescent singers. Factors considered include the adequacy of the singing technique, the strenuousness of the musical task, the physical singing environment, the singer's general condition, and the expectations imposed by the musical leader. Possible management…

An African-American education professor describes the positive influences that a favorite elementary-school music teacher, also African-American, had on her development. Miss McGruder played the piano enthusiastically and sang classical, old standards, soul, and rock-and-roll music, urging students to sing along. (MLH)

Integration of technique and imagination is an essential but rarely explicitly discussed topic in music education literature or in the performing arts classroom. Exploring how master teacher Phyllis Curtin puts the two together and how students describe their integrative experiences in her class, the author tackles the paradoxes and complexity of…

This article provides some research-based tools to describe and evaluate vocal development of the young singer. It offers resources and literature reviews relating to teachers' understanding of their learners as individuals and measurement of their learners' musical achievement. It focuses on one thing all music teachers strive to do: evaluate…

Middle school choral students and their teachers can benefit from studying and performing a musical. The students can apply their vocal skills to the exploration of this important genre of American music. Outstanding chores members will have opportunities to perform as soloists and to master dramatic roles. The teachers can express themselves…

Music educators in many countries have attempted to close the gap between two musical worlds: that of pupils' musical culture outside school and that of the classroom. However, while the former musical world, represented by various popular musics, now makes up a major part of curriculum content, the informal learning practices of the musicians who…