519052

research-article2014
IJM0010.1177/0255761413519052International Journal of Music EducationWallace

Practice Article

International Journal of

When instrumentalists sing

Music Education
2014, Vol. 32(4) 499­–513
© The Author(s) 2014
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DOI: 10.1177/0255761413519052
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Katherine Wallace
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Abstract
This study was designed to investigate the impact that choral singing has on instrumental students’
development as musicians. Instrumental music students (N = 23) enrolled in a choral elective
module at a tertiary music conservatory completed an eight-item questionnaire. Descriptive
answers were collated and interpreted revealing six broad-based learning outcomes relating to
physical awareness, ensemble skills, theoretical and aural skills, musicality and interpretation,
aesthetic awareness, and communication and meaning. This article explores each learning outcome,
as well as the experiential learning environment that is created when instrumentalists step outside
of their major discipline into the choral experience. The self-reflective surveys ultimately revealed
that participation in a choir can have immense impact upon instrumental students’ development
as well-rounded musicians, fostering the development of musicianship and personal artistry.

Keywords
choir, choral, ensemble, experiential learning, instrumental students, singing

In his “very short introduction” to music, Nicholas Cook defines the popular view of a great musi-
cian as “an artist whose technical skill is taken for granted, but whose artistry lies in his or her (but
usually his) personal vision” (Cook, 1998, p. 12). Isaac Stern further defines this “artistry,” which
he calls “musicianship,” as “discerning what is possible in making something beautiful” (Stern
quoted in Frost, 1991). A lot of time and effort goes into trying to teach a music student such musi-
cianship or artistry; but, as in most educative fields, it is not what is taught but what is learned that
really counts. Ultimately, the elusive “personal vision” that makes an artist great is simply labeled
“the thing that cannot be taught.” Yet, when a person tries something new, things that “cannot be
taught” may be learned through experiential and intuitive learning processes. Stepping out of one’s
comfort zone into new musical experiences, such as when a classical instrumentalist becomes
immersed in choral singing, pushes a musician to take on new perspectives and to think in different
ways in order to meet the various challenges that are posed by the experience. Such experiences go

Corresponding author:
Katherine Wallace, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, 3 Conservatory Drive,
117376, Singapore.
Email: [email protected]
500 International Journal of Music Education 32(4)

a long way toward helping the student musician form his or her personal vision, and hence build
artistry and musicianship.
Being privileged to lead the Chamber Singers ensemble at a new, university-affiliated music
conservatory with strong orchestral and piano performance streams, I attempted, through a qualita-
tive case study, to address the question of how the choral experience impacts instrumental musi-
cians. Because of my dual role as researcher and teacher, the interpretive and qualitative nature of
the research methods, and the ultimate aim of improving my own (and others’) teaching, this study
naturally incorporated many elements of action research, a method that has been increasingly advo-
cated as a viable model for arts-based educational research (May, 1993; Strickland, 1988). The
Chamber Singers ensemble, a performance elective module, involved twice-weekly, 115-minute
long rehearsals, and two concerts (of the same repertoire) in each 13-week-long semester. The mod-
ule drew predominantly from the orchestral and piano students in the conservatory (before the
implementation of a voice department), as well as from other faculties on campus. Over a period of
eight semesters, instrumentalists who were enrolled in Chamber Singers for the first time were
asked to voluntarily undertake a survey in which they responded to self-reflective questions on their
recent choral experience. During this time 128 students enrolled in the module (some of them taking
the module more than once); of these, 64 students were instrumental majors or students majoring in
other subjects who currently played an instrument in amateur, student, or semi-professional ensem-
bles. In total, 23 students completed the survey. The surveys asked students to compare their experi-
ences as an instrumentalist and as a singer, in solo and chamber situations, rehearsals and
performance, and to reflect on whether their singing experience caused them to think about or expe-
rience music in a new way. The survey consisted of eight questions:

1. How is singing different from playing an instrument?

2. How is singing in a choir different from playing in a chamber ensemble?
3. How is singing in a choir the same as playing in a chamber ensemble?
4. How did you feel before and during your first choral performance?
5. What things did you have to do during the choir performance that were different from per-
forming on your instrument?
6. Did your experience in Chamber Singers give you a different perspective of music-mak-
ing? (please explain)
7. Did your experience in Chamber Singers cause you to think about music and performance
in a new or different way? (please explain)
8. What did you learn that might be useful to you as an instrumentalist?

The answers were, of course, varied, from “nothing that I can think of (in regard to solo playing)”
to “Lots!” (answers to question no. 8); but all of the students made valuable observations on the
similarities or differences of choral and instrumental music-making. Among the 176 different com-
ments, a pattern of recurring issues emerged. In addition to answers that detailed a general emo-
tional response (“I had a lot of fun” or “I now enjoy music more”), students’ observations touched
on six specific areas of music-making, relating to physical awareness, ensemble skills, theoretical
and aural skills, musicality and interpretation, aesthetic awareness, and communication and mean-
ing. Within these six areas, specific learning outcomes could be clearly identified, causing myself,
as both researcher and choral instructor, to reflect on what and how students learned during the
choral experience. In an attempt to merge etic and emic approaches, this article is both a summary
of the research outcomes, with specific quotations from student comments, and a more thorough
reflection on the part of the researcher/instructor on each of these six learning areas, as well as the
nature of experiential learning in a music environment.
Wallace 501

Experiential learning
In examining student responses to the survey, it became clear that learning occurred as a cognitive
and behavioral process undertaken during rehearsal and performance (and perhaps also during
personal reflection), producing an intuitive understanding appropriated by the student performer
through experiential learning, rather than from external analysis of choral music, or intellectual
comprehension of choral techniques. Learning to be a musician is always inherently experiential.
A person cannot learn to perform music simply by reading, writing, and thinking about perfor-
mance, but must actively perform. When experiential learning comes within a cross-disciplinary
environment, however, the rate of learning intensifies. For an instrumental student, the choral
experience is akin to an experiential-learning practicum that takes engineering or education stu-
dents out of the classroom and plants them in the midst of an activity, foreign because of its new-
ness, but intimately related to their field of study. The learning experience then becomes a process
that incorporates reconstruction, re-learning, transformation and adaptation (see Kolb, 1984 for
further amplification of these four aspects). “[E]ducation must be conceived as a continuing recon-
struction of experience,” wrote John Dewey in 1897 (cited in Kolb & Kolb, 2005, p. 194). Alice
and David Kolb build on this basic tenet of experiential-learning theory, saying “All learning is
relearning … Learning is best facilitated by a process that draws out the students’ beliefs and ideas
about a topic so that they can be examined, tested, and integrated with new, more refined ideas”
(Kolb & Kolb, 2005, p. 194). When conservatory music students are faced with different, even
dialectically opposed, sonic and social musical environments, they must reflect, adapt, and act;
their beliefs and ideas about music will indeed be tested and refined. The choral experience neces-
sarily incorporates various aspects of learning —cognition, emotion, perception, and behavior—
that are ignited by engagement with conflict and difference. “In Piaget’s terms,” write Alice and
David Kolb, “learning occurs through equilibration of the dialectic processes of assimilating new
experiences into existing concepts and accommodating existing concepts to new experience”
(Kolb & Kolb, 2005, p. 194). When instrumental students are exposed to the choral environment
with its new and different techniques, styles, sounds, and social interactions, pre-existing ideas and
practices are challenged and tested. Sometimes they are reinforced with positive new application,
while other times they are broken down and reconstructed into a stronger musical ethos.

Physical awareness
In the late 20th century, musicologists began to address the mind–body dichotomy that they per-
ceived in musical thinking and performance. Music, they suggested, is a discipline that has tradi-
tionally identified with the mind, and particularly the mind of the composer. As Suzanne Cusick
puts it, “an art which self-evidently does not exist until bodies make it and/or receive it, is thought
about as if it were a mind-mind game” (Cusick, 1994, p. 16). This thinking is heightened by the
traditional concert hall experience that accompanies performance, where the audience sits still,
silent and in darkness, engaging with the music aurally and mentally at a significant distance from
the performer, aided by copious instructive program notes. Within other disciplines, however,
especially in the sciences, music is freely recognized as an intensely physical activity, both for the
listener and the performer. Neurologist Frank Wilson observes that “there is a growing apprecia-
tion that the musician is involved in a lifelong … physical and aesthetic engagement of the highest
level, of the use of his intellectual, emotional, and physical faculties” (Frank Wilson, in Shetler,
1990, p. 34). In spite of recent research (see, for example, Cook, 1999; Davidson, 2005; Rink,
1995, 2002; Small; 1998), classical instrumental music is still too often thought of as “cerebral” or
“intellectual” music. On the other hand, jazz, world music, and vocal music defy the legacy of
502 International Journal of Music Education 32(4)

classical instrumental music, which often ignores or conceals the performing body, instead freely
engaging and even demanding physical awareness in the act of music-making.
In choral music, the physicality of vocal production is one of the scariest but most rewarding
experiences for instrumentalists who sing. Participants in the student surveys regularly commented
on the physical nature of singing, and the need to be more aware of their bodies and physical sensa-
tions in order to control breath support, tone color, tuning, and blend. This is potentially quite chal-
lenging for instrumental musicians who are used to making music by (as J. S. Bach reputedly said)
“placing the right finger on the right key and producing the right note at the right time.” Students
observed that the physical production of sound was the single most formidable difference to instru-
mental performance:

[There is a] different way of producing sound … ie. we make the sound with our body directly through our
voice, [that] in some ways requires more courage. (IS, piano)

[I had to be] doubly sure that I was not letting nerves affect me because … tension/nerves are much more
of a hindrance when your whole body is part of your “instrument.” (WY, viola)

I found it sometimes much harder since in chamber ensemble the instrument can sometimes cover your
mistakes but in singing you cannot rely on [that]. (CY, clarinet)

Students new to choral singing spoke of being more nervous during the performance than during a
solo or orchestral performance, and of being unsure of the amount of control they would have over
the voice, breath, or body. Almost every student commented in some way about the “use [of] dif-
ferent parts of the body to produce sound” (AL, horn), attesting to a heightened awareness of the
physicality of music-making. Wind players commented on the similarities or difference of the use
of breath, and many found that singing improved many physical aspects of their instrumental
technique:

[It is a] reminder of good posture and relaxation and good breath support. (BH, bass trombone)

I found that singing needs more support from the diaphragm and it actually strengthened my diaphragm.
(JS, bassoon)

The air that’s needed to sing might be more than when playing an instrument, so in a way, hopefully, my
air support has improved. (ET, trumpet)

The experience of making music directly with their bodies, without an external instrument, was,
for these students, a journey of discovery. “Discovering the voice as an inherent instrument,” wrote
one violist, “[allowed me to] discover instincts and inflections in music” that she was not previ-
ously aware of. Whether or not such discovery is consciously articulated, a heightened awareness
of the physicality of music-making gained during the choral process has a tremendous impact on
students’ performance as instrumentalists.
Studies in the role of the body in the production and perception of music linked physical aware-
ness with expressivity of playing and communication of musical ideas, “suggesting a strong link
between the physical production of expression and its correlated expressive sound effect”
(Davidson, 2004, p. 146). Scholars who have analyzed the physical aspects of instrumental perfor-
mance (including musicologists, psychologists, music teachers, and performers) find that reso-
nance of sound, accuracy of notes, dexterity of delivery (especially of rapid or florid passages),
articulation, phrasing, and interpretation, all depend upon the physicality of the performance.
Wallace 503

Whether related to breath control and embouchure in a wind player, or posture, fingering, or bow-
ing in piano and string players, musical technique and musicianship is physical, and thus an aware-
ness of the body must accompany the music-making process. As Kaastra (2008) writes, “paying
attention to the body is a central aspect of developing technique. Performance requires physical
awareness. It requires internal listening, repetition, and “feeling” the relationships between notes”
(p. 151). Yet students are not always taught how to attend to the physical sensations of playing. The
embodied experience of choral singing develops an increased sensitivity to physical sensation dur-
ing the music-making experience that can transfer to any instrumental environment, whether in the
practice room or in performance. In Chamber Singers, students learn to pay attention to the rela-
tionship of sound and body:

In singing, your body is your instrument and anything you do to your body will affect how your voice
comes out. Also … it’s far more based on sensation rather than sight, since I can’t see my instrument when
I sing anyway. (YH, piano)

Any other instrument may be seen as an “external” one … whereas the voice is an “internal” instrument
… singing requires me to be aware of my entire body, how I use it, more than playing an instrument. (WY,
viola)

For these students, choral singing produced a heightened awareness of the body and its role in
the act of music making—an awareness that they could transplant directly into performance
with their “external” instrument. As such, these students were able to build greater control
over and engagement with every aspect of their mind and body in the production of sound and
meaning. As Liz Garnett argues, “singing in a choir structures the ways in which people
inhabit, use and experience their bodies” in a way that focuses on the “transformation [rather]
than on the exclusion of the individual” (Garnett, 2005, p. 250). Too often, instrumental play-
ing becomes a mind–instrument relationship; the body of the individual performer is ignored
in rehearsal and obscured in performance. The physicality of singing compels musicians to
re-engage with their bodies in a way that will produce transformative un-learning of this habit,
realizing a psychosomatic awareness and a more holistic approach to their instrumental
performance.

Ensemble skills
Instrumentalists engage in group music-making all the time, in orchestra, chamber ensembles,
piano duets or lieder recitals, yet somehow the choral experience is different from all of these; sing-
ing in a choir yields valuable lessons in ensemble skills that can be transferred from one experience
to another. Students’ ensemble singing reinforces the kind of work they do in orchestra or instru-
mental chamber music, but often they are required to approach the collaborative effort from a dif-
ferent angle. This new vantage point gives them an increased understanding of ensemble, improves
their appreciation of an individual’s role in collaborative performance, and strengthens basic
ensemble skills common to the music-making experience, despite, or sometimes because of, the
very different styles of music being performed.
Students observed that singing in a choir and playing in a chamber ensemble require equally
demanding ensemble skills. Many found the experience essentially the same:

[playing in chamber ensemble and singing in choir] is very similar, I use all the musical elements I have
learned over the years playing in different ensembles and apply them to choir. (BH, bass trombone)
504 International Journal of Music Education 32(4)

Working in singing choir or percussion ensemble have [the] same point. Both of them require a lot of
co-operation, because you are not represent[ing] yourself but [the] group. (AP, percussion)

Others described the experience as being quite different:

It was a different feeling to be part of an equal section where we were doing the same thing. (BH, bass
trombone)

[In] the choir performance [we] need to cooperate more [than in orchestra] since the voice is a part of our
body and we cannot control it as well [as our] instrument … And the intonation [is] more difficult than
playing in a chamber ensemble. (TX, flute)

For instrumentalists whose ensemble experience was limited (especially pianists and harpists), the
chamber experience was hugely beneficial. Students commented:

As a pianist, I don’t play in the orchestra a lot, so singing in the choir makes me listen to the others more,
not only the rhythm, but also the timbre. (BP, piano)

[Participating in Chamber Singers] helped me to understand better the roles that each of us play when
being a musician in a small group of musicians. (KH, harp)

For these students, singing in a choir presented a new musical field in which to examine their indi-
vidual and corporate musical identities.
Elaine Goodman summarizes the skills needed for good ensemble performance as “coordi-
nation (keeping time), communication (aural and visual signals), the role of the individual and
social factors” (Goodman, 2002, p. 165). All of these aspects surfaced in the surveys as stu-
dents commented on the skill set needed for ensemble performance, whether it was something
they were using for the first time or something that was being reinforced by the choral experi-
ence. Aural communication was the most common skill listed, and students who were per-
forming inner parts for the first time, or singing the melody when they were used to playing
inner voices, were most challenged by having to “listen to others and let your own part fit in”
(ZY, strings). Students found that they had to listen more than they were used to, especially for
intonation, but also for blend, balance, unified (or staggered) breathing, entrances, time-
keeping, and rhythmic unity. Visual communication also played a significant role in the
ensemble:

[I learned that] to play in a chamber ensemble successfully I need to really listen, blend and subdivide just
as I would in choir. (BH, bass trombone)

Playing in an ensemble requires many ensemble skills like anticipat[ing] other[s’] response … and eye
contact. (JS, bassoon)

Along with concrete techniques such as aural and visual communication, students also commented
on the more abstract nature of chamber singing and the shared goals of ensemble performance,
stressing the need for cooperation and teamwork in order to deliver a musically excellent
performance:

The environment also has to be supportive in order for the ensemble (choir or chamber) to function well.
There has to be a common goal amongst all members. (YH, piano)
Wallace 505

You have to have teamwork and a certain amount of “telepathy” with others in the group during entries.
Musicality remains something that we want to have. (KH, harp)

Students found that the ensemble skills practiced in Chamber Singers —listening, blending, being
aware of the relationship of parts within the whole, striving for harmonic and rhythmic unity— as
well as social and individual roles, transferred directly to instrumental ensemble situations:

Choral singing … helped me learn a lot about blending and how to work as an ensemble member. It
reinforced the idea that not everybody is on the same level and consequently, how I can help others get up
to a closer level with the stronger members in the ensemble. (YH, piano)

I have learned when I play in orchestra I need to cooperate more with others, [and] listen [to] other people
playing whether you play in orchestra or chamber music. (TX, flute)

The skills used by instrumental students in orchestra and chamber groups are not only reinforced
through participation in vocal ensembles, but are imbued with new or increased comprehension
and competence by the choral experience.

Theoretical and aural skills

The impact of the combined aural and kinesthetic experience found in singing goes beyond indi-
vidual and ensemble awareness, enhancing many conceptual aspects of music as well. Participating
in non-instrumental music-making, students learn new approaches to specific theoretical or techni-
cal aspects of music, which can in turn be applied to their classical instrumental performance. The
theoretical skills needed for choral singing are, of course, the same as those used in classical
orchestra or chamber ensembles; but being in a different aural environment and exposure to a vari-
ety of musical styles challenges instrumentalists to listen, analyze, and produce sounds differently:
“Technical matter[s] like balance and tuning [are] also different since we are dealing with different
sound production” (IS, piano).
Students may be exposed to different tuning systems such as just intonation, and learn to hear
“differently” in a choral acoustic; they may experience performing an inner voice part, perhaps for
the first time; they may simply be challenged by having to produce a pitch by thinking or hearing
it internally first, instead of relying on fingering. In addition, Chamber Singers affords frequent
sight-reading practice, which, educators and musicians agree, coincides with better sight-reading
skills (Lehmann & McArthur, 2002, p. 143).
Many technical issues surfaced in the student surveys, either as points of difficulty, learning, or
simple observation. Among them were blend, finding pitches, breathing, phrasing, intonation, tone
color (especially as it affects pitch), unity of tempo, and sound projection. Again, the students’ big-
gest response to the new challenges was to “listen more,” both to themselves and to those around
them:

When playing in a chamber ensemble, your hands should know what you’re playing, so you can use your
ear for listening to others. When singing in a choir, you have to use your ear to listen to yourself as well as
others. (ZY, strings)

I have noticed that it’s more difficult to tell whether you’re in tune or not in a choir (a cappella) unless you
listen really carefully to the people around you … Every choir member has to constantly listen to what
goes on around them to get the full musical picture and for tuning purposes. (YH, piano)
506 International Journal of Music Education 32(4)

When students are challenged by a different means of producing sound, they will respond by listen-
ing more intently to the sound around them. The repeated experience will improve their ability to
tune, blend, and balance their part within the choir, and ultimately within any music ensemble. “I
learnt the process of choral technique and sound blending. And I think this can be applied/expanded
in other chamber music” (ZY, strings). Through the listening experience, students’ aural skills
necessarily improved, impacting all areas of their musical life.
Improvement of aural skills is perhaps the biggest technical benefit to a student’s musicianship
that singing provides. Mark Wolbers advocates singing within band or orchestral rehearsal as a
means to developing aural skills and improved intonation:

When students are properly guided, singing can help them develop their aural perception and provide an
alternative to a “button-pushing” mentality. This mistaken frame of mind suggests that playing in tune
requires simply having the instrument pulled to the correct length while fingering the right note. Students
must be taught to hear the music they are producing, not just to simply see it. (Wolbers, 2002, p. 38)

While for some the learning process was intuitive, many students articulated the “need to have a
strong ear training skill in order to have a stable pitch” (JS, bassoon), as their sight-reading and
aural skills were stretched. Initially, inexperienced singers can be apprehensive about the new
demand for aural proficiency, but eventually their listening skills are heightened to a degree that
has a profound effect upon their performance in many areas.
One of the most effective boosts to aural proficiency is exposure to a different voice-part than
the student commonly performs. In Chamber Singers, a female double bass player may sing first
soprano, a flutist is placed in the alto section, an oboist or trumpet player sings tenor, a solo violin-
ist contends with reading bass clef as a baritone, and a percussionist becomes their own melodic
instrument. “You don’t need to worry about the pitch and range of voice when you play percussion.
It’s the opposite of singing,” writes one percussionist, “singing takes a lot of practice to achieve
your correct pitch and big range of voice” (AP, percussion). Singing an inner or outer part for the
first time requires the student to listen differently and to make different responses to tuning, har-
mony, and voice leading:

The thought process is different. With singing, I am forced to always plan, read other parts to find pitches,
etc. (HO, oboe)

It’s direct translation from brain to singing unlike brass. So I need to have very strong pitch memory. (FH,
French horn)

Guided by the choral director, students singing simple or complex harmony are challenged to hear
their sound in relation to chords and lines, to identify what chord tone they are singing (root, third,
fifth, etc.), what role they play in cadential phrases, and to tune accordingly. Using a movable-do sys-
tem of solfeggio during sight-reading, warm-ups, and tuning exercises encourages students to hear
their pitches in terms of function. (If students have already been taught a fixed-do system, they tend to
rely upon their own sense of perfect—or near-perfect—pitch, and do not listen for harmonic/melodic
function; in this case, one could implement a number-system to encourage students to hear their note
in relation to the key and chord). Moving from piano-accompanied to a cappella music removes the
final comfort-object, pushing the students to rely completely upon themselves for tuning and balance;
as a result, pitch-memory, intonation skills and harmonic understanding are strengthened.
The wide variety of genres that students are exposed to in Chamber Singers, many of them
completely different from those encountered in solo and orchestral instrumental performance,
Wallace 507

emphasize different analytical, technical, and theoretical aspects of music, producing a variety of
important benefits. Singing a Bach chorale underscores the basic theory of harmony and voice
leading, but also translates what students may have used simply for practice in aural skills classes
into a beautiful and meaningful piece of music. Singing a Renaissance motet places immense
responsibility on each section to uphold their line as a complete and cohesive melody, while bal-
ancing sometimes quite complex interrelationships of polyphony. Singing a modern, chromatic
piece offers further challenges to tuning and harmony in the singing of atonal intervals, chromatic
scalar passages, or tone clusters. An African or Cuban piece might expose orchestral students to
world rhythms in a way that engages their entire body, creating a powerful kinesthetic memory;
whereas a jazz arrangement gives students experience with rhythmic and tonal flexibility in a
dynamic, non-classical way.

Musicality and interpretation

One of the most important aspects in the creation of a personal vision or artistry is a musician’s
approach to musicality and interpretation. It is here, more than in the areas of technique and musi-
cianship, that only so much can be taught—the rest has to be learned individually, intuitively and
experientially, and again, an experience outside a person’s regular field can stimulate the learning
process. Experience in the choral discipline —exposure to things like verbal syntax, breath-based
phrasing, chromatic cluster singing, stagger breathing, nuances of vocal tone color, and expressing
music through movement or facial expression— forces students to explore music in different ways,
adding to their strategies for interpretation and understanding.
Choral singing, with its emphasis on breath, articulation and phrasing, often presents students
with a different approach to musicality and interpretation than instrumental music-making. This is
particularly evident in the case of pianists and string players, who may be new to the idea of the
breath being a fundamental part of music, phrasing, and interpretation. Students found that inter-
connections between the breath, verbal speech and syntax, and musical line was immeasurably
clearer in a vocal context, but was something that could be immediately applied to instrumental
playing. Many remarked on being able to produce a more “lyrical” or “smooth” phrase on their
instrument, after experiencing choral approaches to musical line and expression:

Believe it or not, with words, our way of interpreting musical notation can be different. (IS, piano)

The voice is special as it is the most innate “instrument” that humans have—thus, some musical instincts
like line, phrasing, etc., come more naturally to me when I sing. (WY, viola)

Singing is often used in early childhood music education, as a precursor to playing familiar reper-
toire on an instrument: “singing should be a common and natural part of all early lessons”(McPherson
& Gabrielsson, 2002, p. 110). As students become more experienced, however, the practice of
singing their instrumental repertoire, while still highly beneficial, is often laid aside. Students’
experience in Chamber Singers reminded them how singing their music during personal rehearsals
can stimulate creative thinking regarding interpretation and expressiveness. Many students made
intuitive connections between the physical and/or mental act of singing and expressive playing on
their instruments, and, for some, these remained conscious strategies for improving instrumental
performance:

I now try to sing in my mind when I play. (GF, flute)

508 International Journal of Music Education 32(4)

Previously, my piano teacher would tell me to “sing” the line but I could never quite do it convincingly
enough, even when he brought in the anecdote of thinking like a violinist with vibrato and seamless bow
changes. It’s only when I actually learnt to sing that I truly understood what he meant. (YH, piano)

Music teachers from J. B. Arban to C. P. E. Bach have advocated listening to good, artistic singing,
and practicing singing oneself, to facilitate an excellent interpretation of line and phrasing. “Lose
no opportunity to hear artistic singing,” wrote C. P. E. Bach in 1753. “In so doing, the keyboardist
will learn to think in terms of song. Indeed, it is a good practice to sing instrumental melodies in
order to reach an understanding of their correct performance” (C.P.E. Bach, 1949, pp. 151–152).
Nuances in dynamics, shape, and direction of individual notes and phrases, the interaction of lines
and voice parts, and their impact on harmonic goals and cadences, all take on a new meaning when
seen from the perspective of embodied singing. Vocal syntax adds another dimension that can also
stimulate creative thinking about musicality and interpretation. One student shared verbally how,
after two semesters in Chamber Singers, she started inventing words that not only fit the rhythm
and melodies of her piano repertoire, but also expressed what she felt was their emotional content,
in her attempt to create an individual, musical interpretation. Many students commented on the
lasting impact of their choral experience, especially as it concerned musical phrasing, line, and
direction:

[Chamber Singers] helped me be more aware of musical phrasing. (VV, viola)

Over the semester more and more I found myself thinking about how I could make x phrase more musical
and what I/we could do with the line. (BH, bass trombone)

Chamber Singers shaped my … skills and musical interpretation in a way that is so integral [now] to my
identity as a musician. (ZC, violin)

These self-reflections confirm the impact that the choral experience has on the construction of
musicality and interpretation. With the experience of vocally producing a musical line and phrase
fully assimilated, students’ concepts of musicality were reinvented, ready for positive new applica-
tion to their instrumental performance.

Aesthetic awareness of a broader discipline

Since Roland Barthes’s essay “The Grain of the Voice,” the voice has been recognized as a site
where individual identity merges with social process (Garnett, 2005, p. 250). The social dynamic
of a choir, as well as the variety of musical styles and forms it engages, moves students beyond
their familiar instrumental world to a concept of musical community that is inclusive, dynamic,
and ever-expanding. The learning experience becomes a site where “social knowledge is created
and re-created in the personal knowledge of the learner” (Kolb & Kolb, 2005, p. 194). This nexus
of the individual and the social furthers an awareness of music as a discipline with diverse aesthet-
ics and ever-expanding, multilayered communities. The broader the musician’s experiences, the
more he or she has to draw on in the formation of his or her own artistic vision.
Unless taking place in a specialty choir such as a madrigal group, jazz ensemble or oratorio
choir, the choral experience typically encompasses a wide range of genres, styles, eras, and com-
posers. Exposure to music and musicians from other cultures and time periods, especially those
outside the Classical–Romantic tradition, allows instrumental students to broaden their range of
musical experience:
Wallace 509

I’m happy to experience in Chamber Singers as I learn many different styles of music that we seldom touch
on in classical music playing. (JS, bassoon)

It’s good to be exposed to other genres of music instead of just purely classical in a conservatory. (ET,
trumpet)

Chamber Singers allowed me to be exposed to a wide range of music at one time, of different genres. This
broadened my perspective of music-making … I am [now] so much more aware of the various types of
music that exist in musical discourse from history to the present. (WY, viola)

My experience in Chamber Singers … was very enriching … I genuinely enjoy[ed a] multiplicity of

musical experience. (ZC, violin)

With the aid of a variety of texts and languages, students begin to perceive music as a mode to
explore different cultures, to understand culture’s impact on music, and to create meaning
within their own specific cultural contexts, especially within the global context of the interna-
tional concert hall. In addition to a diversity of musical styles, the social community of the
choir, which, in the case of this study, included students from various academic backgrounds
with different levels of choral experience, exposes musicians to a world outside of orchestra
and their major studio:

[I gained] an insight into the choral world, which functions very differently. (HO, oboe)

My experience also helped me to think about performance in a different way because of the way the
Chamber Singers class is put together—we are one choir singing together for the first time, I know some
classmates who take choir singing very seriously and some who take their (music) majors seriously. Some
of us have prior experience of different degrees, while some don’t. This experience has made me realize
the many challenges of performing in such an environment, and also, the potential that it brings. (WY,
viola)

The heterogeneous social milieu of the choir, along with the diversity of repertoire, enables stu-
dents to build a cultural and aesthetic understanding of the broader musical community, forming a
more holistic approach to music and to their individual artistic vision.

Communication and meaning

The concept of artistry, which “appears to be the most important factor for the enhancement of [a]
performance,” is rooted in “understanding the emotional content of the piece … [and] transmitting
the musical intention” to the audience (Coimbra & Davidson, 2004, 211, p. 209–210). While music
is universally concerned with communication and meaning, instrumental students regularly focus
on their instrument rather than the audience, or hide in the midst of a large orchestra, relying on the
conductor to take responsibility for musical communication. Choral singing pushes instrumental
students into an experience of music-making that is inherently concerned with communication,
literally and figuratively, through the performer’s voice. “Voice is an essential element of self-
identity … It helps to define who we are and how other people experience us. It conveys our inner
feeling states, both to ourselves and to others” (Welch & Sundberg, 2002, p. 265). Many students
find that communicating musical meaning through the voice comes quite naturally, though some
understandably find it quite different from non-texted instrumental music:
510 International Journal of Music Education 32(4)

It [is] more like speaking in a way. Communicating music with the help of words is different [from] only
playing musical instruments. (IS, piano).

In a chamber ensemble/orchestra, it is significant that music speaks without words; however in a choir,
lyrics are central to the message that is being communicated. (WY, viola)

I think music [functions] to explain all about people’s emotion. [Using my] voice can let me feel more.
(CT, clarinet)

Singing thus opens up a new communicative freedom and naturalness that can influence instru-
mental performance; it also forces students to consider the “others” with whom they are
communicating.
Instrumental students who are used to playing in an orchestra or sitting at a piano often feel
uncomfortable standing, facing the audience, holding a music folder, looking up from the music,
and communicating through their posture, facial expression, energy, and, of course, their voices.
Their first performance, while scary, will also be exhilarating:

[I was] Excited! Nervous, in a way, since it was my very first choral experience. It [was] really interesting
to experience different feeling[s] during the performance since you can see the audience directly, [and you]
need to see the conductor and score at the same time. (IS, piano)

The choral experience teaches musicians to gauge audience response and communicate directly
and intimately with their audience. Students experience the energy that such communication can
bring to a performance, and also feel a freedom and confidence that comes from the absence of a
physical barrier such as a music stand or instrument as well as from making music with nothing but
their own bodies, especially when singing from memory. These experiences contribute signifi-
cantly to creating meaningful musical communication in other performance situations:

[Choral singing helped me] build more self confidence and [taught me] how to relate with the audience.
(IS, piano)

I learnt more about the ways to deliver music to the audience. (ZY, strings)

[I now try to] express the music more. When you play a piece, you can put your own feeling in the music.
(TX, flute)

One insightful student remarked, “I always feel that music-making is about touching and reaching
out to others … It’s about finding enjoyment and delight, but at the same time it’s also about
responsibility” (YH, piano). Most musicians would agree that they have a responsibility to com-
municate something to their audience, but few would find it easy to agree on the what or how of
this ideal. Communication of musical meaning is surely one of the hardest things to teach; in fact
it constitutes a major part of “the thing that cannot be taught.” Yet it can be learned. Experiences in
different musical contexts is an important learning avenue that can foster creative strategies for the
communication of musical meaning

Conclusion
The goal of much experiential learning is to take students out of their comfort zone in order to
present extra challenges that deliver an opportunity to apply knowledge and skills already acquired
Wallace 511

in the classroom; in the course of the learning process, related knowledge and skills will be
relearned, reconstructed, transformed or enhanced by the experience (Taylor, 2005). Practitioners
of this pedagogy aim “to engender in our students a love for learning across all disciplines, a pas-
sion for creating knowledge through experience, and an excitement about enhancing knowledge
and skills in order to give back to their community throughout the remainder of their lives” (Taylor,
2005, p. 375) — worthy goals indeed, and goals that resonate strongly for the student musician.
Of course, much of the responsibility for students’ learning falls on the educator, in this case the
choral director. As Gorelick (2010) challenges, “choral conductors must function as educators who
involve student singers in experiences which lead to musical learning and aesthetic responsive-
ness” (p. 79). Choral singing is, all too often, simply a fun activity rather than an experience that
challenges the singer intellectually, physically, and in terms of ensemble. But in its ideal state, the
experience “combines all three components of human behavior, the psychomotor, the cognitive,
and the affective,” allowing singers to learn “significant musical behaviors and understandings …
[and] develop aesthetic responsiveness” (Gorelick, 2010, p. 79). During this study, I found that the
very act of filling out a survey imparted a reflective posture to the intuitive and behavioral process.
Prompting students to reflect on the challenges and differences of the choral environment com-
pleted the learning experience and encouraged ongoing application of the concepts learned. The
research process, and in particular the identification and articulation of specific learning outcomes
related to music-making both for vocal and instrumental students, was also highly invigorating for
myself as an instructor of choral music.
Exposure to and experience with music outside their major discipline can have immense impact
upon emerging professional instrumentalists, particularly on the creation of a personal vision or
artistry. Participation in choral settings will enhance a conservatory-trained music student’s profi-
ciency in specific technical and theoretical areas, stimulate creative strategies for musical interpre-
tation and communication, and provide an intuitive cultural and aesthetic understanding of music
as part of a broader sociological context. What may initially be perceived by string, wind, or piano
students as a “fun elective” will not only contribute to their mastery of music fundamentals, it will
also inevitably have an impact on their formation of a personal performance identity and interpre-
tive voice, one far greater than they might anticipate. Like any musical activity that pushes students
out of their comfort zone, the choral experience will ultimately impact how students learn about
music, how they approach their instrumental concert repertoire, and how they perceive of them-
selves as performers. In this way they will learn “the thing that cannot be taught.”

Acknowledgements
This article evolved out of a joint panel given at the 2009 Performer’s Voice Symposium, at the Yong Siew
Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore. Thanks to Ty Constante and Tony Makarome
for their initial partnership and subsequent support.

Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit
sectors.

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Author biography
Katherine Wallace, PhD, is an active scholar, performer, and choral director, with a keen interest in vocal
music of the Renaissance. Her research on lute-songs, iconography, and female performers has been
Wallace 513

published in international journals and edited books, and presented at numerous conferences including ISME
Beijing, 2010, RSA Los Angeles, 2009, and AMS Washington, 2005. Katherine holds a PhD in Music and an
MA in Comparative Literature from the University of Alberta, Canada. She has taught at Rice University and
the University of Houston in the USA, and is currently Assistant Professor at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory
of Music, National University of Singapore.