Previous sport research has demonstrated that athletes of higher levels employ imagery more than low-level athletes. Because there is currently little research on imagery's application in singers, the purpose of the present study was to investigate whether this finding is reflected in low-level and high-level singers. A study-specific…

Starting pitch selection--whether intentional or habitual or otherwise--has been theorized to vary according to multiple variables. The purpose of this study was to explore starting pitch selection in undergraduate nonmusic major singers by using four well known songs and nonsinging tasks. Participants were actively singing in a college choir and…

Overexcitability is a component in Dabrowski's theory of positive disintegration. This cross-sectional study investigated the psychological profile, including the five overexcitability dimensions (psychomotor, sensual, imaginational, intellectual, emotional), of three talented groups of dancers (n = 84), opera singers (n = 62), and athletes…

This review of literature is a synthesis of research surrounding the production of superior choral performance. Findings described in this review suggest director characteristics, rehearsal techniques, singer behaviors, and auxiliary supports that are important to, or common in, the creation of meritorious performance. Effects of instructional…

Purpose: Difficulties with intonation and vibrato control during the menstrual cycle have been reported by singers; however, this phenomenon has not yet been systematically investigated. Method: A double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial assessing effects of the menstrual cycle and use of a combined oral contraceptive pill (OCP) on pitch…

This article is based on a study of the role of play and experiential-learning activities beyond formal schooling in sixteen nations. The study, supported by Unilever PLC, gathered information from the mothers of twenty-four hundred children in countries in North America, South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia who described and rated their…

Linguistic tones play an important role in expressing lexical and grammatical meaning in tone languages. A small change in the pitch of a word can result in an entirely different meaning. A logical question for those who document tone languages is whether or not singers preserve linguistic tone when singing and if so, to what degree? I begin by…

Caregivers and early childhood teachers all over the world use singing and speech to elicit and maintain infants' attention. Research comparing infants' preferential attention to music and speech is inconclusive regarding their responses to these two types of auditory stimuli, with one study showing a music bias and another one…

Surveys play an important role in understanding the higher education landscape. About 60 percent of the published research in major higher education journals utilized survey data (Pike, 2007). Institutions also commonly use surveys to assess student outcomes and evaluate programs, instructors, and even cafeteria food. However, declining survey…

The purpose of this study was to examine the voice onset times of female trained and untrained singers during spoken and sung tasks. Thirty females were digitally recorded speaking and singing short phrases containing the English stop consonants /p/ and /b/ in the word-initial position. Voice onset time was measured for each phoneme and…

Vocal demands of teaching are significant, and this challenge is compounded for choral directors who depend on the voice for communicating information or demonstrating music concepts. The purpose of this study is to examine the frequency and intensity of middle and high school choral directors' voices and to compare choral directors' voices with…

This dissertation explores the way Kotiria/Wanano (E. Tukanoan, Kotiria hereafter) women of the Brazilian "Alto Rio Negro" (ARN) contrive (McDowell 1990) "kaya basa" "sad songs" using linguistic and musical resources to construct songs that express loneliness and other private emotions, while also creating alliances…

Community choirs in America furnish the primary musical setting for adult amateur singers wishing to continue their choral experiences after formal public schooling or college. Nearly 1400 community choral organizations--or those meeting the established parameters--were catalogued by ACDA for its 2007 "National Registry of Community Choirs". A…

Concern over worldwide literacy rates prompted the United Nations to establish the UN Literacy Decade (2003-2012) with one area of focus being to provide support to schools to develop effective literacy programs (UNESCO, 2005). This study addressed the area of providing support to schools to develop effective literacy programs by exploring the…

Songs convey emotion by means of expressive performance cues (e.g. pitch level, tempo, vocal tone) and lyrics. Although children can interpret both types of cues, it is unclear whether they would focus on performance cues or salient verbal cues when judging the feelings of a singer. To investigate this question, we had 5- to 10-year-old children…