Date of Award

Summer 2021

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

School of Music

First Advisor

Tina Milhorn Stallard

Abstract

Providing a process for reducing accompaniments to commonly assigned undergraduate vocal repertoire could aid instructors with limited piano skills in the applied studio setting. Through the use of questionnaires and an online survey, it was determined that there is a population of undergraduate instructors of voice that do not have an accompanist present to play during student lessons. Without an accompanist, many teachers are unable to play the pieces as written, which warrants the creation of reduced scores as useful alternatives to pre-recorded tracks.

An online survey was distributed to determine if the population of teachers was significant enough to warrant developing a reduction process. The survey was sent to undergraduate voice professors in the United States and Canada through the College Music Society, the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the author’s personal contacts and social media platforms. A qualitative approach was taken to gathering and analyzing data to determine there was a population of teachers that would find score reductions a useful resource. Four instructors from this pool of individuals were asked to complete more in-depth questionnaires and self-evaluate their playing of four original scores as well as the author’s corresponding reduced versions, providing feedback for each one. The self-evaluations and feedback given on the reductions allowed the author to conclude that while not necessary or completely effective for every teacher on every piece, reading from a reduced score when working on student repertoire in the voice studio is effective for instructors with limited piano skills.

Rights

© 2021, Lee Whittington Ousley

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