The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of piano harmonic accompaniment on singing ability of kindergarten students during a year of music instruction. The study used a pretest-posttest control-group design with an additional posttest measure. Both the pretest and posttest were the individual rote-singing of “Pinto Pony,” a four-phrase song with a range from the D to the A above middle C. The additional posttest was Gordon's Primary Measures of Music Audiation (1979). Results showed that: (a) no significant differences existed in singing ability between the two groups of kindergartners who had accompaniment and no accompaniment during a year of instruction, and (b) no significant differences existed in the composite scores of the PMMA between the experimental and control group.
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