The effects of gesture use on young children's pitch accuracy for singing tonal patterns

The main purpose of this study was to examine the effects of gesture use on young children's singing with regard to improving pitch accuracy. The second purpose was to examine the differences in gesture use among boys and girls and different melodic motions. Eighty Taiwanese young children, five to six years old, participated in this experiment. The children were asked to sing six tonal patterns with and without gestures, which subsequently were evaluated by three professional music teachers. The results showed that gesture use had immediate positive effects for young children in aiding their pitch accuracy. The effect of gestures for girls was greater than for boys. However, the level of gesture effects in melodic motions was different. Gesture had a greater effect for repetition, ascending patterns and large leaps. Sweeping and opening—closing arm gestures especially appeared to work very successfully. This suggests that gestures provided a kinesthetic sense of motion, which can be an effective tool in aiding singing.