Musical instruments in class singing: Confusion between musical functions and giving signals for classroom management

Abstract

The use of musical instruments (MI) and audio devices (AD) is an integral part of the practice of teaching and learning singing at school. Songs can be taught without MI or AD as the human voice suffices for singing. Yet, MI and AD are a tacit part of song teaching. What is their role and how do teachers use them?
The aim of this study is to investigate the actual use of musical instruments and audio devices among pre-service generalist teachers. This is still an unexplored field in music didactic. This study pursues a phenomenological approach to the analysis of videotaped lessons, lesson-based interviews, and personalised open-ended questionnaires collected longitudinally during the three years of teacher training. In this paper, I present the analysis of selected moments from three lessons of a pre-service generalist during the three years of training. The analysis shows the diverse use of AD and MI and reveals that it is not only a question of developing the skills needed to play a full accompaniment to singing, but also of using MI and AD in interaction with children to convey to them fundamental components of cultural musical practice.