The Effects of Feedback on Sight-singing Achievement

White, Adam Griffith

doi:https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-a063-gk52

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The Effects of Feedback on Sight-singing Achievement

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Sight-singing skills are a key component in empowering choristers to make music independently. Advances in technology have made visual feedback displaying the accuracy of a sight-singing attempt available to singers. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of computerized visual feedback provided by the SmartMusic interface on sight-singing achievement among choristers (n = 77) from two suburban high schools. Over a period of five-weeks, choristers engaged in weekly sight-singing assessment sessions where they sight-sang a melody, reviewed that melody for 90 seconds, then sang that melody again. Using a matched-group design, participants were assigned one of three groups: those viewed feedback following their initial attempt, those who viewed feedback following their follow-up attempt, and those who did not view any feedback. Sight-singing scores were evaluated by group for improvement during each assessment session, and from pretest to posttest. Results determined that while students made significant improvements on a melody following a sight-singing attempt, those improvements were not affected by feedback condition. Posttest scores were not significantly higher than pretest scores for any group. These findings suggest that though feedback may be an important component in the development of sight-singing skills, the computerized feedback provided in this study was no more effective than receiving no feedback at improving sight-singing achievement. Findings also suggest that teachers should use this available feedback to adjust the difficulty of sight-singing assessments to fit the ability levels of students. Furthermore, students were unable to transfer learning from practice with a click-track and note indicator to performance without these features so teachers should design summative assessments to match the task presented during formative assessments. This technology may be best utilized as a supplement to good teaching but is not designed to replace a quality teacher.

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