Educators and theorists have long advocated the use of singing, or more specifically, vocalization, as an instructional technique in instrumental music classrooms. These scholars contend that vocalization activities afford students unique ways of representing aural and notational stimuli and may aid in the comprehension and performance of instrumental music, especially for beginners.
While the first content standard of the National Standards for Music Education includes the statement that music students from kindergarten through grade 12 should have experiences singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music, teachers of beginning instrumentalists often fail to use singing as an instructional technique in the classroom, and few instrumental method books even include it.
However, an overwhelming amount of research shows that vocalization may, indeed, have a positive effect on the training of instrumentalists. The findings of studies by Grutzmacher (1987), Lee (1996), MacKnight (1975), and McDonald (1987) indicate that vocalization using movable Do solfege syllables may have a positive impact on beginning instrumentalists, while Sheldon (1998) observed similar results with college students. Additionally, Davis (1981) and McGarry (1967) found that vocalization may be employed, to a high extent of effectiveness, with scale degree numbers and pitch letter names.
While this doesn't even touch the tip of the iceberg in terms of justifiable research for the advocacy of vocalization in instrumental music programs, I think it is important, as educators, to find the actual source of the absence of this instructional process. I think this most certainly has to do with the fact that for many band students, singing seems to be an unreasonable task because it is too far out of many of their comfort zones. If we force our students to make a leap that is beyond their level of comfort, we risk all sorts of behavioral problems and having the flow of our class disrupted. Our first reaction to something like this that doesn’t work is to get rid of it and try something else. However, perhaps all our students need is some kind of stepping stones that help them bridge the gap and become more comfortable with this highly beneficial practice.
As we discussed in class, if singing is part of instrumental music learning from the first days of instrumental study, students will not be hesitant about it. It will just be accepted as another aspect of what it means to be an instrumental musician. Of course a good general music program that utilizes a lot of singing can really help here too. In addition, with older students who may be reluctant singers, start with humming. It is less threatening and can provide a stepping stone (as you mention in this post) to eventual singing.
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