The Relationship between Developmental Tonal Aptitude and Singing Achievement among Kindergarten, First-, Second-, and Third-Grade Students

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between singing achievement and developmental tonal aptitude for students in kindergarten through third grade. In addition we investigated whether singing achievement differs according to grade level or school setting. Subjects (N = 162) were randomly selected kindergarten, first-; second-, and third-grade children from schools in two different school districts. Correlations between composite singing achievement scores and scores on the Primary Measures of Music Audiation-Tortal reflected no meaningful relationships between singing achievement and developmental tonal aptitude. Two-way analysis of variance revealed no significant interaction between school and grade. However, there were significant main effects for school and grade (p <. 001). With the exception of third-grade students, older students demonstrated greater singing achievement than younger students.