Measuring Singing Voice Development in the Elementary General Music Classroom

The primary goal of this study was to examine the reliability of Rutkowski's Singing Voice Development Measure for use in the general music classroom, Grades 1-6. Results indicated that the rating scale, although originally designed for young children, is reliable for use when children in Grades 1-5 perform a short major song in solo. Results from ancillary problems indicate that (a) elementary children may have a better use of their singing voice when performing a major song than a minor song, and (b) a large portion of the children sampled did not have full use of their singing voice.