The effect of singing the melody in the practice of the piano

Abstract

The aim of this study was to test a hypothesis that if learners created more precise auditory representation from singing a melody, they could learn piano playing to reach at a higher level of performance. Seven novice piano players of varied ages learned to play novel musical pieces with and without singing their melodies. The time period of practice sessions for learning each melody with and without singing conditions was equalized. After all practice sessions, their performances were recorded to MD. The players themselves and 13 qualified piano teachers as a third party evaluated recorded music based on preciseness of performance with the given score, naturalness of the melody, and appropriateness of expression of the music. In addition, the present experimenter counted the percentages of error-free notes. The mean values of each of these variables for the singing and non-singing conditions were compared within each of the learners. It was found that four of the players attained higher scores under the singing condition than the non-singing condition whereas the others were opposite. The former group of players was found to have greater experience of daily singing than the latter group of players. Within each participant, the results of the evaluation were fairly consistent among the self-judgments, the third party’s evaluations, and the percentage of error-free notes. It was concluded that the auditory representation articulated by singing could play a role in facilitating learning piano playing for the learners having familiarity with singing.