Data analysis for each parameter:

• 6 people out of 7 found that relaxation in playing was positively affected by the singing after one week of practicing. 1 person did not think singing had an impact on relaxation in the playing.

Hypotheses

From my personal experiences my hypotheses are the following:

When practicing a singing and playing exercise taken from the cello repertoire, singing positively affects the playing on the following parameters:

• Relaxation 
• Rhythm and sense of pulse
• Intonation
• Phrasing
• Focus 
• Timbre
• Perception of the musical context

To test if my assumptions and perceptions are shared by others as well I have run an experiment; I have asked 7 cellists to practice an excerpt from the opening phrase of the first movement of the Piano Trio No.1, Op.8 by Johannes Brahms, singing and playing for one week. 

I have chosen this excerpt for the following reasons:

• It is a very relevant piece of music in the cello repertoire.
• The first phrase of the movement comes back in the piano, and later in the cello, giving space to sing the cello part and play the piano part and later switch, meaning that the same musical material that has been sang will be played and vice versa. I think this is an added value to the exercise because it provides different angles to experience the same musical material.
• The piece fits the singing range, which stays between a comfortable octave (B to B).
• I have asked the participants to sing in the octave they found more comfortable; this is possible and doesn’t create harmonical problems when combining the playing with singing because of the features of the piece. If the singing would be lower than the cello in other excerpts there might be a problem in the sense that the harmonic role of the two voices would be compromised. I believe this to not be the case in regards to the exercise I presented. 

This is the score of the exercise the participants have been provided with.

In the original score I marked in yellow what has been used as singing material and in red as playing material. I used the musical material between bars 1-12. I have repeated bars 5-12 switching the singing with the playing. 

The following are the instructions the participants were provided with:

Questionnaire Template

• 6 people out of 7 mentioned that the main focus in playing is on phrasing. 1 person did not mention phrasing as the main focus point.

Introduction

In the first part of the research I have explained why and in which way singing and playing has an impact on the development of general musicianship skills over a long term-time of constant practice.

In my own practice I have noticed signs that lead me to believe that practicing singing and playing is helpful and relevant on the short term as well, when approaching a new piece (especially orchestral parts and chamber music).

I have been practicing chamber and orchestral music involving singing and playing (playing the cello part and singing the voice of another instrument) and I have found that this way of practicing has helped me in the following ways:

When singing and playing I am focusing on the timbre and sound colours I imagine. I have noticed that this helps me enormously to achieve the atmosphere in my actual playing. Singing and playing passages from orchestra or chamber music, forces me to be really aware of what is happening in the orchestra or in the parts the other instruments are playing. I feel having this background knowledge will automatically give more information and context to the isolated cello part.

I have also noticed that when it comes to playing the passage in the real orchestral or chamber music setting, the passage is internalised in a way that allows me to not only think about the technical difficulties of it, but leaving me room for detaching from technical issues, and focusing my attention on listening, phrasing, colour, timbre and timing.

I notice that, since singing and playing is a very complicated task, being able to sing and play requires much more effort than just playing. Only playing becomes then an easier task, which allows me to detach from the technical difficulties of the piece and focus on the musical side of it.

Specifically I feel that singing and playing has an effect on these parameters:

1. Relaxation: my relaxation on the instrument improves. When performing passages that I have been working on and transformed into singing and playing exercises, I feel I have more control over what is happening technically when I come back to the playing only, and I henceforth, can let my body go and relax. Physical relaxation is also related to better tone quality.
2. Rhythm: this is due to the fact that when practicing with singing, the bigger picture is always the most important thing. When a mistake is made, the most important thing is to not stop and go on. When a rhythm mistake happens in a sing and play exercise, the most important thing is to keep the bigger pulse. Since I focus a lot on it when practicing the exercises, I feel like I have trained myself to value the importance of the pulse when performing as well. For instance, I find myself more aware when I am rushing.
3. Intonation: practicing the exercises also made me very aware of my intonation throughout my repertoire practice. I feel like my intonation in a piece gets better because singing and playing acts as a way to actively canalise my attention to the intonation. I feel I cannot intonate passively because singing requires me to have a mental image of the sound in my head, so it is a process connected to the inner hearing. In my experience intonation does not get better just because singing is involved, but because intonation when playing, is an active point of focus if singing is involved.
4. Phrasing: when coming back to only playing after practicing singing and playing, the phrasing and the musical idea is clearer. Singing helps me shaping the phrase.
5. Timbre: I could more easily find right colours and timbres; this is because of the physical relaxation when performing, as well as the ability to detach from the technical difficulty of the passage and listen to myself and the general sound of the ensemble, or orchestra and seek the sound I imagine.
6. Focus: when playing my focus shifts to the music and not the technical difficulties of the piece.
7. Context: singing and playing is a way to better understand the musical context and the different musical roles of different instruments in a specific piece. I feel that singing and playing helps me prepare better and study a passage in context.

Target Group

The participants are all conservatory students in their bachelor’s or master’s or post graduates. I chose to get in touch with high level players because I was aware of the difficulty of the task. The cello part itself, a part from being written in an uncomfortable tonality, presents various technical challenges both for the left hand as well as the bow technique. Having to sing on top of that makes this singing and playing exercise accessible to advanced players only.

• 4 people of out 7 found that rhythm and sense of pulse in playing was positively affected by the singing after one week of practicing. 3 people did not think singing had an impact on rhythm in the playing.

• 6 people out of 7 found that phrasing in playing was positively affected by the singing after one week of practicing. 1 person found that singing unconsciously had an impact on the phrasing in the playing.

• 7 people out of 7 found that singing had an impact on the perception and understanding of the musical context of the piece.

Data analysis for each participant:

• Daniel found that singing had a positive impact on playing on 6 of the 7 parameters. He found that signing had somehow an impact on intonation in the playing.
• Tiago found that singing had a positive impact on playing on 6 of the 7 parameters. He found that signing had no impact on rhythm in the playing.
• Gábor found that singing had a positive impact on playing on 6 of the 7 parameters. He found that singing had no impact on intonation in the playing.
• Marie found that singing had a positive impact on playing on 6 of the 7 parameters. She found that singing somehow had an impact on intonation in the playing.
• Marianne found that singing had a positive impact on 5 of the 7 parameters. She found that singing somehow had an impact on intonation in the playing and she found that singing had no impact on rhythm in the playing.
• Galya found that singing had a positive impact on 4 of the 7 parameters. She found that singing somehow had an impact on intonation in the playing and she found that singing had no impact on relaxation and timbre in the playing.
• Nil found that singing had a positive impact on playing on 5 of the 7 parameters. He found that the focus in playing somehow detached from technical issues and he found that singing had no impact on rhythm in the playing.

Data Analysis

Daniel: questionnaire 

Tiago: questionnaire

Gábor: questionnaire

Marie: questionnaire

Marianne: questionnaire

Galya: questionnaire

Nil: questionnaire

• 3 people out of 7 found that intonation in playing was positively affected by the singing after one week of practicing. 3 people found that intonation in playing did not automatically improve, but they became more aware of it in their playing. 1 person did not think singing had an impact on intonation in the playing.

• 6 people out of 7 found that the timbre in playing was positively affected by the singing after one week of practicing. 1 person did not think that singing had an impact on timbre in the playing.

• 5 people out of 7 found that keeping the intonation of the singing and playing was the most challenging aspect. 2 people found that coordination was the most challenging aspect.
• 2 people found that there were no aspects in their playing that did not benefit from practicing with singing. 4 people mentioned that when singing and playing intonation of the playing was compromised more than when playing alone. 1 person mentioned that when singing and playing vibrato in playing was compromised. 
• 3 people mentioned that phrasing was the aspect that improved the most in their playing over the week. 1 person mentioned that intonation was the aspect that improved the most in their playing over the week. 1 person mentioned that the consciousness of the piece was the aspect that improved the most in their playing over the week. 2 people mentioned that relaxation and freedom was the aspect that improved the most in their playing over the week. 

Observations

Coming back to my assumptions, after  analysing the data gathered, I can conclude that I observed similar tendencies in the answers given to what I expected. 

All of the participants' playing benefitted in most of the parameters analysed, with the lowest number of parameter positively affected per participant being 4 and the highest being 6 out of 7.

The parameter that the least people though had benefitted from singing is rhythm. Marianne observed that she thought singing did not affect the rhythm because the two voices are most of the time homorhythmic. Maybe results would have been different if more rhythmical variation was provided in the two voices.

Only one person’s intonation in playing did not benefit from singing; this person also expressed he had difficulties singing in tune; this leads me to suppose that in order for singing to have an impact on the intonation in playing, being able to sing in tune is required. 3 people expressed that intonation in playing did not directly improve after singing, but that singing made intonation being an active point of focus. This is the first step to improve intonation because the fact that more attention is drawn to tuning, is sharpening the hearing, which will lead to the search for better intonation.

The parameter that the most people though had benefitted from singing is the perception of the musical context of the piece, with 7 people out of 7 claiming singing helped in this.

Phrasing was the parameter that improved the most for the most people (3 out of 7). 

Interesting to mention that two people thought that improvement in relaxation when playing came from the fact that breathing is actively involved in the singing. 

Conclusions

I can affirm that singing and playing was overall beneficial for everyone to different degrees but the parameters positively affected were always more than the ones that had not been affected. This supports my hypotheses. 

CHAPTER VI - PRACTICE BASED RESEARCH

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