The effect of song teaching practices with virtual and acoustical instrument accompaniment on musical hearing and singing skills

Particularly for general music knowledge, music genres with lyrics are taught intensively within music education at primary and secondary levels. Among these works with lyrics, there are school songs that can be used in music education (Educational music compositions, Turkish Classical Music, Turkish Folk Music, national and international popular songs, etc.). In this study, "Song Teaching with Virtual and Acoustic Instrument Accompaniment (VAIA)" was implemented and the development of the musical hearing and singing skills in students was examined after the experimental process. The research was conducted using mixed methods consisting of both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative dimension of the research, which was prepared by taking expert opinions, included a single group pre-test-post-test experimental design examining the effects of the Song Teaching with Virtual and Acoustic Instrument Accompaniment Practices on musical hearing and singing skills of 7th-grade students. The qualitative dimension consisted of a case study design prepared by consulting expert opinions, which implemented interviews with semi-structured and open-ended questions aiming to measure the effects of the independent variable. "content analysis" was used to analyze the semi-structured interview forms which were administered to determine the students' perceptions of the Song Teaching with Virtual and Acoustic Instrument Accompaniment process. "Musical Hearing Skill Assessment Form" and "Singing Skill Assessment Form" were administered as a pre-test to determine the readiness level of the experimental group students (N=14) in quantitative terms. Songs used in the experimental process were determined by consulting expert opinion among the genres "School Song", "Turkish Classical Music", "Turkish Folk Music" and "Popular Music" from the repertoire of the 7th Grade Music Lesson Curriculum for the Academic Year 2019-2020 by the MNE. Following a curriculum prepared by consulting expert opinion, the researcher applied the teaching of the selected 12 songs for ten weeks in 1-hour sessions outside the music lessons in group study hours and shot their videos. After the application phase, the "Musical Hearing Skill Assessment Form" and "Singing Skill Assessment Form" were filled out by the students again as a post-test and the field experts, who also watched the student videos, evaluated the test results. Also, the perceptions of the students who received education with VAIA Song Teaching Practices were determined by semi-structured interview questions in order to collect the qualitative data of the research. As the research result, it was determined that the experiment group's pre-test scores of musical hearing and singing skills were at a low level; the post-test scores implemented after the VAIA Song Teaching Practices showed that their musical hearing reached an average level, and their singing skills reached a high level. In the interviews conducted after the experimental practice, the students stated that the implementation of VAIA Song Teaching Practices made them love music, that it was educational, fun and helpful, that it developed musical hearing and singing skills, and that it was usable in extracurricular teaching materials and extracurricular activities. Keywords: Music Education, Virtual and Acoustic Instruments, Musical Hearing, Song Teaching, School Songs.