The Effect of Piano Accompaniment on Kindergartners' Developmental Singing Ability

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of piano harmonic accompaniment on singing ability of kindergarten students during a year of music instruction. The study used a pretest-posttest control-group design with an additional posttest measure. Both the pretest and posttest were the individual rote-singing of “Pinto Pony,” a four-phrase song with a range from the D to the A above middle C. The additional posttest was Gordon's Primary Measures of Music Audiation (1979). Results showed that: (a) no significant differences existed in singing ability between the two groups of kindergartners who had accompaniment and no accompaniment during a year of instruction, and (b) no significant differences existed in the composite scores of the PMMA between the experimental and control group.