Gestures and Body-Movements in the Teaching of Singing - A Survey into Current Practice in Australia and Germany

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine

A survey investigates how gestures and body-movement function as teaching and learning tools in one-on-one voice instruction among members of two professional voice teaching organisations in Germany and Australia. A terminology devised by the author classifies movements by pedagogical intent. Results show frequent teacher use of gestures for enhancing, illustrating, and demonstrating explanations, alongside encouraging students to use gestures and body-movements to support understanding and learning. Commonalities outweigh differences.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background

Survey Purpose and Hypotheses

Gestures and body-movements in the teaching of singing: a survey into current practice in Australia and Germany Julia S. A. Nafisi The University of Melbourne; Monash University Abstract In order to investigate the use of gestures and body-movement as teaching and learning tools in one-on-one voice teaching a survey was conducted amongst members of two professional voice teaching organisations in Germany and Australia. The survey questionnaire implemented a terminology devised by the author that distinguished the movements encountered according to their pedagogical intent. It could be shown that a significant number of voice teachers in both surveyed countries regularly use various gestures to enhance and/or illustrate explanation and/or demonstration; and an almost equal number of voice teachers in both countries regularly encourage their students to use various gestures and/or body-movements to facilitate understanding and learning of physiological functions, thought concepts or musical ideas. Differences between the two respondent-groups were outweighed by commonalities and whilst the survey confirmed the prevalence of this teaching and learning tool it also highlighted the wide scope of possibilities and idiosyncrasies inherent in this issue. Key words: Gesture, Body-Movement, Vocal Pedagogy, Teaching Practice Australian Journal of Music Education 2014:1, 77-93 Background The role of the body in singing can be viewed from several different angles: as vocal tone production requires the coordinated functioning of various interconnected physiological mechanisms, the singing voice is a bodily instrument. From this ‘the body learns’-perspective, singing is a motor skill with all consequent implications for the learning process and the application of some central principles of perceptual-motor learning to voice instruction is arguably of great value for vocal pedagogy (Verdolini, 1997, 2002; Nisbet, 2010; Maxfield, 2011) . On the other hand, and without contradicting the above, there is the capacity of the body to communicate, to be a medium that may help the brain-or indeed the body itself-learn. Confirming long standing propositions about the power of body-language (Fast, 1977; Argyle, 1975; Pease, 2006) there is mounting evidence that “movement enhances and informs perception”(Rosenbaum, 2010, p. 29) and that gestures help the thinking process (Beattie, 2003; Goldin-Meadow, 2003; Kendon, 2004; McNeill, 2004; Seitz, R. J., 2000; Seitz, J. A., 2005) and also help learning in general (Goldin-Meadow, 2004). Apart from the capacity of communicating to others it seems that gestures’capacity to communicate (Hostetter, 2011) includes the communication with one-self. This perspective could be called ‘the body helps learning’. There is a well-documented tradition of utilising gesture and body movement as teaching and learning aids in music education and choral rehearsal. The Swiss music educator JaquesDalcroze first developed a method of learning and experiencing music through movement in the late 19th century. His method became known as Eurhythmics and within only a few decades two other music educators conceived their methods which should prove equally influential: the Kodály-Method and Orff Schulwerk. Despite certain differences, all three methods utilise an intrinsic connection between music learning and movement (Crosby, 2008, Jaques-Dalcroze, 1921; Kodály, 1965; Plummeridge, 2006) . It should be noted that in particular Dalcroze and Orff address the conceptual understanding of music which isnot the main focus of this study. Yet, in view of their ongoing and far-reaching influence, a mention of these music-education-pioneers seems only natural in this context. Movement is also widely used in choral practice with plenty of studies attesting a significant positive effect of gesture and movement on learning and understanding of both vocal and musical concepts in the choral rehearsal (Wis, 1999; Bailey, 2007;

FAQs

What is the main focus of the survey?

The survey examines how gestures and body-movement are used as teaching and learning tools in one-on-one voice teaching.

How are movements classified in the study?

The study uses a terminology devised by the author to distinguish movements according to their pedagogical intent, including categories for gestures and body-movements.

What did the survey find about teaching practice in Germany and Australia?

A significant number of voice teachers in both countries regularly use gestures to enhance and illustrate instruction, and many also encourage students to use gestures and body-movements to facilitate understanding and learning.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine