The Effects of Modeling and Sequence on the Expressivity of Young Voices

Choral method textbooks include various strategies on when and how to introduce expression in song acquisition including vocal modeling. In two previous studies, participants who learned expressive elements early in a song-learning sequence (infused-expression) performed those elements more accurately than those who learned them at the end of the sequence (post-expression). However, the infused-expression sequence had an expressive model throughout, whereas the post-expression sequence had an expressive model only at the beginning and end. The purpose of this study was to remove the modeling variance between sequences. Middle schoolers learned two songs with an expressive model throughout, using two different sequences (infused-expression and post-expression). We found no significant difference in expressive accuracy between sequences. When students learned a song with an expressive model, regardless of sequence, students sang with expression. Teachers should consider always modeling with expression regardless of whether or not the objective of the rehearsal is about expressive elements.