The singer’s GPS: Rethinking traditional pitch instruction methods for straight-tone singing in commercial voice teaching

The purpose of this quantitative true-experimental study was to determine instruction- type efficacy on pitch accuracy in straight-tone singing as used in commercial music, by the examination of differences in pitch accuracy scores of 59 female collegiate voice majors (N=59) at a large university in mid-Atlantic United States. In this double-blind study with post-test only control group design, the control group (n=19) received traditional corrective verbal cues (TCVC). Treatment groups received either real-time visual feedback (RTVF) with TCVC (n=20), or performed audio feedback (PAF) with TCVC (n=20). Data were collected via a demographics survey, audio-recorded vocal response and visual-recorded vocal response using the Sing and SeeTM software. Data was analysed using a one-way analysis of variance, and results show that the average gain in pitch scores of female students who received RTVF instruction were significantly better than female students who received TCVC instruction and PAF instruction. These findings suggest that private voice instruction may yield better pitch accuracy through the use of visualization, thereby lightening the cognitive load of the student.