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Human singing: Towards a developmental theory

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DOI: 10.1037/h0094001

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Psychomusicology: Music, Mind & Brain
2011, Vol. 21, No. 1 & No. 2
Human singing:
Towards a developmental theory
S T E FA N I E S TA DL E R E L M E R
University of Zurich & Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences
a b s t r ac t—The aim of this article is to propose a
revision of models of singing development that identify
age-related stages of mastery of basic elements of the
Western-European music system. Instead, emphasis is
placed on structural and process-oriented approaches,
on growing meta-cognitive strategies, on conceptual
analyses that go beyond Western-European conven-
tions and on a methodology that allows assessing the
simultaneous configuration of linguistic and musical
elements in children’s vocal organization from an acous-
tical standpoint. Hence, singing is conceptualized from
various perspectives, conventions associated with sing-
ing are analyzed, and basic rules of children’s songs are
exemplified by careful examination of a single song. A
micro-genetic analysis of early song singing illustrates
a method for studying a child’s strategies in organiz-
ing a song. Finally, a seven-stage developmental se-
quence is proposed as a heuristic for further research.
k e y wo r d s —singing, development, children, devel-
opmental sequence of singing, theory, characteristics of
singing, conventions, language and music, analysis of
singing
1. i n t ro d u c t i o n
Human singing is an interdisciplinary domain
because it covers musical, linguistic, physiological,
cultural, psychological and developmental aspects.
The present article addresses theoretical issues
related to singing and its development. The devel-
opmental perspective entails the search for origins
and the investigation of general laws of emergence
of novelty in irreversible time (Valsiner, 2003).
The main interest concerns the following ques-
tion: How does singing development begin, and
what aspects of singing change during childhood?
© 2012 by Psychomusicology
DOI: 10.1037/h0094001
This article does not intend to give a thorough
literature review on empirical studies on children’s
singing (e.g., Stadler Elmer, 2002; Welch, 2006),
nor does it include a review of the development of
perception of music and language (e.g., McMullen
& Saffran, 2004; Patel, 2008), nor an exploration
of infant directed singing (e.g., Falk, 2009; Longhi,
2009). Rather, the focus is more theoretical. After
a brief historical review of ideas about the course
of the development of singing and after address-
ing the shortcomings of these ideas, there follows
an outline of a general framework within which
singing is considered as an elementary and univer-
sal form of human musical expression. For any
theory, careful conceptual analyses and descrip-
tions are essential; hence, the next two sections are
devoted to characterizing singing and to analyz-
ing conventions that apply to music and to singing,
including an illustration of the rules of children’s
song singing with a song in the German language.
Finally, hypotheses on a developmental sequence
of singing are proposed as a heuristic in order to
replace previous conceptions. An example of a
micro-genetic analysis of a very young child’s spon-
taneous song singing provides a representation
of this early emergent competence in its complex
organization.
Almost a century ago, the developmental
psychologist Heinz Werner (1917) published the
first empirical and pioneering study on children’s
singing development using phonograph record-
ings. He asked 45 children between the ages of 2.6
and 5 years to invent melodies with and without
Stefanie Stadler Elmer, Department of Psychology,
University of Zurich, & Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences
Correspondence concerning this article should be
addressed to Stefanie Stadler Elmer, Department of Psychology,
University of Zurich, Binzmühlestr. 14 Box 9, CH-8050 Zürich,
Switzerland. E-mail: stefanie.stadler@access.uzh.ch
13
Stefanie Stadler Elmer
given lyrics. Whereas Werner assumed that all of
these children would have been able to reproduce a
complex children’s song such as “Fuchs, du hast die
Gans gestohlen” (Fox you stole my goosey gander)
covering a vocal range of a seventh (11 semitones),
he characterizes their typical melodic inventions
as consisting of a small number of tones, small
vocal range, small intervals, falling directions, and
continuous repetitions. Further, he postulated a
falling glissando or portamento to be the melodic
nucleus from which the “Urmelodie”, the original or
primary melody in the form of a falling minor third
would have emerged. Most interestingly, he related
this early melodic form to the prosodic pattern of
calling names, thus emphasizing the relationship
between melody and prosody. This very phenome-
non was taken up and studied much later again by
Fulin (1974).
Interval acquisition
Werner’s (1917) study strongly influenced subse-
quent research in this domain (e.g., Kube, 1958;
Metzler, 1961, 1962; Nestele, 1930; Schünemann,
1929, 1930; Schwan, 1955; Walker, 1927). Over the
course of time, his search for the ontogenetic origins
of melody and regularities in melodic development
led to a simplification or reductionist conception of
singing development, the so called interval acquisi-
tion theory (Stadler Elmer, 1996, 2000, 2002). This
theory assumes that humans possess innate musical
structures that naturally unfold during develop-
ment. Some individuals are more musically gifted or
talented than others. Singing development occurs
by progressively organising the tonal space in a
fixed order: Initially, singing emerges around the
scale’s fifth note (also called sol, the dominant, or
V), followed by a descending minor third (mi or III),
then one tone above the dominant is added (la or
VI), etc. (e.g., Kube, 1958). Later on, this invariable
sequence has been explained as being derived from
the harmonic series embedded in complex tones
(e.g., Roederer, 1973). Analogous to Chomsky‘s
“Language Acquisition Device”, tonal structures are
assumed to develop according to a universal innate
program (e.g., Bernstein, 1976, also subscribed to
this position).
14
However, detailed analyses of singing neither
confirm an invariable sequence of introduction of
musical intervals with development (e.g., Dowling,
1984; Klusen, 1970; McKernon, 1979), nor any
universals in this respect (e.g., Nattiez, 1977; Nettl,
2000). The strongest argument against the notion
of an invariable sequence of acquisition of musical
intervals is the empirical evidence that sung inter-
vals as pitch categories are not as stable and fixed
as is often assumed (see below). The analogy with
Chomsky’s idea of an innate generative grammar
applied to music, the Generative Theory of Tonal
Music (GTTM) (Lerdahl & Jackendoff, 1983), has
not yet been proved fruitful in the developmental
context, since it is based on idealized assumptions
(Lerdahl, 2001), for instance “an experienced
listener”, and uses a blurred concept of innate musi-
cal competence (e.g., Imberty, 2000).
Linguistic Primacy
A second theoretical line is the idea of a linguistic
primacy (Stadler Elmer, 1996, 2000, 2002). It reflects
a common agreement of several researchers (e.g.,
Hargreaves, 1986; Moog, 1968, 1976; Rutkowski
1997; Welch, 1986, 1998; Welch, Sergeant, &
White, 1998) that in both song acquisition and
singing development, words appear first, followed
by rhythm, contour, and intervals, in that order.
Related to the assumption of a linguistic primacy,
singing development is described as beginning with
speech-like chanting of the song text, to singing in a
limited pitch range (Welch, 2006).
Taking a position contrary to the notion that
children prioritize the words or lyrics while sing-
ing is the work of Papoušek and Papoušek (1981),
Kelley and Sutton-Smith (1987), and Stadler Elmer
(e.g., 1998). The relationship between linguistic
and musical elements in song-singing is not addi-
tive, but a synchronized hierarchical organization
with inextricable links between the two systems
(e.g., Baroni, Dalmonte, & Jacoboni, 1995). In all
societies, one is always singing something (Nettl,
2000), lyrics or linguistic elements. Hence, prob-
ably in most singing, language or some linguistic
elements are an inseparable component, and
historically, lyrics have been the link to poetry

(e.g., Langer, 1942). Moreover, song production
and song interpretation capacities are hypothe-
sized to be pre-adaptations that enabled language
in phylogeny (Rousseau, 1781; Vaneechoutte &
Skoyles, 1998) as well as in ontogeny (Longhi,
2009).
Contour schema theory
A third idea about the developmental course of
singing is the contour schema theory. Davidson (1985,
1994) focuses on the range between the highest and
lowest pitch of a sung phrase, and he assumes that
development proceeds as an increase of the pitch
range the child uses while reproducing or inventing
a song. A child would create melodies with contour
sizes proportional to her or his chronological age. A
three-year-old child would reduce any melody to the
interval size of a third, a four-year-old to the size of
a fourth, and so on, reaching with the age of six or
seven years the contour size of a sixth.
None of these theoretical conceptions have
proved to be convincing. Apart from a lack of
conceptual clarity on the defining features of sing-
ing, on structural and functional features of singing
in relation to music and language, on innate musi-
cal competencies, and on the nature of human
cultural development, there are severe method-
ological problems. Most often, children’s singing,
song learning or inventions are analyzed on the
basis of mere listening or rating, or on the basis of
selected acoustic features, but hardly ever has the
analysis of children’s singing been based on acous-
tical properties and on the configuration of several
structural features dynamically unfolding in time
(Stadler Elmer & Elmer, 2000). Using a combi-
nation of listening and acoustic measures is most
desirable (see Baumann, 1998), since the human
ear is very sensitive, but perceptually and conceptu-
ally biased by cultural experience. Moreover, in the
current context, the concepts of music and singing
and structural features cannot be restricted to the
Western tonal system, but need an interdisciplinary
approach in a general cultural framework. Hence,
the remaining part of this article deals with basic
conceptual and theoretical considerations about
human singing and its development.
Human singing
2. s i n g i n g : a n e l e m e n ta ry a n d
universal human expression
Humans differ from most other nonhuman
primates by their huge potential for articulating
vocal sounds. Vocal variability has also been docu-
mented in primates (e.g., Geissmann, 2000). During
evolution, human vocal capacity differentiated into
specific forms such as speaking, singing, laughter,
crying, etc. that became possible in part through
the evolution of neural control of respiration
(Vaneechoutte & Skoyles, 1998). Human vocal vari-
ability is enormous, considering the 6,000 to 7,000
languages and the indeterminable ways of musi-
cal use of the voice in different cultures. This huge
vocal variability becomes only apparent through
inter-cultural studies. These expressive forms play a
crucial role in the communal life of humans. From
birth on, the voice enables the human to contact
others, to elicit reactions, to transmit information,
and to express emotional states. At the beginning,
this occurs through uncultivated, involuntary
signals, then through idiosyncratic and inter-subjec-
tive signs, and later, at a higher level of psychological
functioning, the linguistic and musical symbols
of the surrounding culture are integrated, and
actions become voluntary (Stadler Elmer, 2002).
During this process, the already existing vocal and
corresponding mental and affective structures are
constantly reorganized through selection, variation,
and integration. The mechanisms of building gener-
alized mental and affective structures are a result
of the organism’s vital tendency to reproduce and
achieve adaptation to the environment. This princi-
ple of self-organization is also known as a principle
of equilibrium (Piaget, e.g., 1974) or autopoiesis
(Maturana & Varela, 1987) or as dynamic systems
theory (von Bertalanffy, 1933; Luhmann, 1998).
Dynamic systems approach
The dynamic systems approach offers a heuristic
to examine the continuous process of interaction
among the constituents of a system. Whereas the
human infant starts to adapt to the human-
specific ways of vocal communication, parents
and caregivers intuitively provide a specific kind
15
Stefanie Stadler Elmer
of infant-directed dialogue. Extended prosodic
and melodic modulations, repetitions, and recip-
rocal imitation are part of “intuitive parenting”,
a universal predisposition in both counterparts
of parent-infant communication (Papoušek &
Papoušek, 1987). Communication is a product of
co-evolution that functions from early in ontogeny
and is controlled by non-conscious subsystems of
behavioral regulation. The musical characteristics
of this interaction were emphasized by Papoušek
and Papoušek (1981, H. Papoušek, 1996; M.
Papoušek, 1996), and since then recognized as
belonging to the roots of human musicality (e.g.,
Dissanayake, 2000, 2008; Trevarthen, 1999, 2008).
Growing evidence of pre-natal hearing capacities
(Lecanuet, 1996), research on early sources of
musical stimulations in infant’s caregiving envi-
ronment – particularly in infant-directed speech
and singing (e.g., Bergeson & Trehub, 1999; de
l’Etoile, 2006; Falk, 2009; Longhi, 2009; Papoušek
& Papoušek, 1981, 1987) – and research into early
vocal development (e.g., Masataka, 2003; Vihman,
1996; Yeni-Komshian, Ferguson, & Kavanagh, 1980)
gave rise to the re-conception of development of
music and language, and to reconsider the old idea
of the “musical origin of language” by Rousseau
(1781) and others (see e.g., Brown, 2000; Mithen,
2005; Vaneechoutte & Skoyles, 1998). The grow-
ing research literature suggests that infants very
early have well-developed perceptual capacities to
segment the stream of audio-stimuli (e.g., Fischer,
2009; Jusczyk, 1997) at the basis of acoustic para-
meters that are relevant to both music and language.
From birth on, infant vocalization has a complex
structure, and already the newborn’s cry melody
seems to be influenced by the surrounding speech
prosody, possibly as a result of a predisposition for
vocal learning (Mampe, Friederici, Christophe, &
Wermke, 2009). Vocal development is targeted to
adapt in three directions: i) singing, ii) speaking,
iii) social rules regarding the control of affective
vocalizations, such as crying, yawning, laughing, etc.
Adapting to the environment’s (vocal) culture can
also be described as starting with pre-conventional
activities (sensori-motor, mental) that become more
conventionalised, and finally, show post-conven-
tional organisation of actions and thoughts.
16
Semiotic perspective
Both primary directions of vocal development
– speech and singing – can be understood from
a semiotic perspective, the phenomena of affective
self-regulation through signs (Branco & Valsiner,
2010). Affective states or affective phenomena are
quasi-structured fields (“affective fields”, cf. Lewin,
Vygotsky, Bühler, as described by Valsiner, 2005;
Branco & Valsiner, 2010) which undergo different-
iation through signs or semiotic mediators. A person
obtains an orientation towards the immediate and
anticipated future through affective fields. Already
during early infant development, vocal play and
vocal rituals with caregivers are affective phenom-
ena, and they are precursors of singing as well.
Singing, as music making, is play (for definitions
see e.g., Hetzer, 1995; Huizinga, 1980; Saner, 1993);
it emerges from the earliest vocal play which signals
the infant’s state of wellbeing or her or his expres-
sion of a joyful activity as an opposition to signalling
basic needs (H. Papoušek, 1997, 2001). Joyful vocal
play as a precursor of singing is executed as mono-
logue, but it is also characteristic of the early vocal
communication between infants and caregivers. At
this early state, such pre-musical interactions regu-
late affective states, both in parents and infants
(e.g., M. Papoušek, 1996). Interactive games also
create “proto-narrative envelopes” (Stern, 1995), a
proto-semiotic form of experiencing time such as
duration, and changes between tensions and relax-
ations (Imberty, 2000), and sound (pitch, timbre,
loudness). Originally in ontogeny, singing and
making music are profoundly social, together with
language, and are associated with shared moments
of pleasant and playful emotions.
Apart from a biological orientation that
is related to the nervous system, the person’s
phenomenological orientation is influenced by the
subjective experience of affective phenomena. In
early social contexts, vocal sounds become mean-
ingful and symbolic, both by producing them and
by listening to them. Music making with others,
and especially singing, is a powerful cultural means
to elicit and synchronize collective affective states.
The collectively shared signs and symbols not only
represent affective phenomena but also regulate

and create emotions, thus providing a personal
and cultural orientation. Singing, in particular,
enables quasi repetition of past affective states at a
later time, enhances social attachment, feelings of
social belonging, but also the reverse, social exclu-
sion, thereby influencing cultural identity (Stadler
Elmer, 2004). Vygotsky (1971) speaks about “trans-
formation of affective phenomena” or about the
reproduction of socially constructed moods or
affective states.
3 . c h a r ac t e r i s t i c s o f s i n g i n g
Among the elementary and universal musical activi-
ties – perception (hearing) and motor movements
– vocalization or singing contains the basic musi-
cal features: pitch patterns (melody), their temporal
organization (rhythm), loudness, and timbre. These
parameters are organized according to explicit
and implicit cultural specific norms. These are
addressed in the next section, and the discussion
to some extent overlaps with the previous section
where elements of music have been referred to.
Vowel prolongation
The transitions between speaking (and its pros-
ody), chant, and singing are not sharp. Singing
and speaking are difficult to define as separate
modes, because they intertwine, and because crite-
ria depend on the culture. When Dowling (1984)
analyzed his children’s vocalizations, he used prolon-
gation of vowels as a criterion for distinguishing the
more singing-like from the more speaking-like utter-
ances. So far, this criterion – prolongation of vowels
– seems to me the most simple and culture-free
defining criteria for singing: if vowels are prolonged,
then pitch becomes accentuated and can be modu-
lated. This creates the impression of singing.
Moreover, duration of vowels is measurable which
may be useful in research contexts. Usually, sing-
ing includes language or linguistic elements such as
vowels and consonants, syllables, phonemes, words,
or text (lyrics), and linguistic and musical compo-
nents are usually inseparably linked together. In the
early periods of vocal development, a distinction
Human singing
between precursors of singing or speaking does
not make sense, because the beginning differentia-
tion between them has to be determined by criteria
that are relevant in the infant’s activities and in her
or his socio-cultural context. Dowling’s criterion is
necessary and helpful but not sufficient.
Temporal organization
For singing, another characteristic criterion
concerns the temporal organization by regular pulses,
periodic accents that – together with the regu-
lar pulse – constitute meter and phrases. Phrases
are defined by several features: they occur during
exhalation in children’s songs; they last two or four
measures (Stadler Elmer, 2002); and they corre-
spond to melodic motives. Song phrases are easy to
repeat and to vary. Repetition and variation belong
to the very nature of musics and songs (see below),
and these features are clearly distinct from sentences
used in dialogic speech (Stadler Elmer, 2002).
Moreover, in children’s and in folk songs, phrases
are bound to the lines of the lyrics, normally shar-
ing the same meter. Thus, song singing shares with
poetry the metrical structure or rhythmic rules.
Also, the social temporal organization for singing –
at least in Western culture – occurs mostly as a joint
or simultaneous activity, whereas speaking is mostly
organized as turn-taking. Yet, there are exceptions
for both modes. Functionally, speaking supports
more cooperative communication (requesting,
referencing to objects, sharing information, etc.,
see Tomasello, 2008), the syllables or words are
articulated faster, and in general, speaking is more
economical from a physiological point of view. For
instance, pitch range for speech is usually smaller
than in singing.
Singing is at the same time music and language,
but the temporal framework of singing differs in yet
another important aspect from speaking: in chil-
dren’s songs, each syllable is bound to a distinctive
pitch of the melody. Hence, the number of pitches
in the melody corresponds in a specific way with
the number of syllables of the lyrics. The syllables
are framed within the timing rules of the song such
that the durations of the pitches may be doubled
or subdivided in order to integrate all the lyrics’
17
Stefanie Stadler Elmer
syllables. Moreover, the stress pattern of a language
is retained by synchronizing stressed syllables of
the words with the accentuated beats in the meter
(Stadler Elmer, 2012).
Repetition and variation
The main functions of music or singing are
related to the characteristic features of repeti-
tion and variation (Knepler, 1977; Meyer, 1956).
Although precise repetition of a temporal event is
impossible, the impression of repetition is a very
important illusion in the context of singing and of
music in general. It is achieved by creating acoustic
similarity between the past and the present event.
Repetitions are variations, but the latter usually
denotes deliberate modifications of the original. In
comparison to speech, song singing contains peri-
odicity by the meter that synchronizes pitch and
syllables. It is mainly the temporal organization
that facilitates the creation of coherent and redun-
dant units (e.g., phrases) that are easy to repeat
or to alter during repetition. As a redundantly
structured temporal event, a song and the related
affective experience can be transposed from the
past to the present, and thereby it provides an
orientation for the future. It is a cultural tool for
creating affective states or “repeating” or trans-
forming them across time. In this sense, song
singing functions as affective and mental frames
that are based on past experiences, and prepare
for the unknown future. As a collectively shared
tool to repeat previously experienced affective
states, song singing allows anticipating social
participation. Hence, song singing always refers to
both individual and to collective memories, experi-
ences, and affects. The musical origin of language
hypothesis (Vaneechoutte & Skoyles, 1998, see
above) fits well with Valsiner’s (2005) hypothesis
that mental processes were only possible through
the differentiation of affects. The primitive forms
of music, such as dance and singing, involve move-
ments and emotional states characteristic of play,
social mutuality, and ritual. For Molino (2000) it
is the control or mastery of the temporal organiza-
tion of such activities that underpins all types of
syntactic constructions.
18
Human symbolizing acts
Two different but complementary philosophical
ideas give additional reasons for a cultural foun-
dation of singing and music making in general:
Cassirer (1948) defines cultural forms (such as
music making and singing) first of all as symbolic
in their nature, and not rational. According to
him (and others, e.g., Langer, 1942), culture is the
result of human symbolizing acts. Huizinga (1980)
considers all cultural achievements as originating
from acts of playing. As previously mentioned, both
cultural philosophers’ ideas – the human mind’s
symbolizing acts and play – address basic cultural
dimensions of singing. The human voice first of all
expresses feelings or affects. The early singing-like
imitative or explorative vocalizations already are
playful and social, and are acts of meaning-making.
A peculiar and early emerging characteristic of
singing-like vocalizations – compared to the more
speech-like sounds – are accompanying, dance-like
body movements. The way the body is stirred while
vocalizing, may indicate a young child’s intention
either to sing (and play) or to speak (Stadler Elmer,
2003). In the case of the intention to sing, the child
may accompany her vocal utterances by regularly
moving parts of the body in a dance-like manner,
or regularly moving an object to create sounds,
whereas the intention of speaking does not include
regular motor movements, but can be observed
typically in dyadic situations as communicative acts
such as referring to an object, requesting, or sharing
information.
Types of singing
Besides various characteristics of singing and
speaking, different kinds of singing should be distin-
guished, because the singer has intentions that
guide – together with the ability to control the
vocalization – the degree to which the singing is
adapted to social expectancies and conventions. For
solo song or solo melody singing, the main types are
reproduction and invention. A reproduction follows
some conventions, but invention may (deliberately)
deviate from rules or conventions. Both may be
performed spontaneously or on request. Opposite

to solo singing is joint singing (choirs etc.) and poly-
phonic singing (canons etc.), and instrumentally
accompanied singing (by drums, guitar chords,
piano, etc.). Vocal range and pitch matching are
used for diagnostic purposes. Although they are
vocalizations, they generally are not considered as
“proper” singing because the melodic and semio-
tic aspects are lacking. There exist also expressions
for singing that appears dysfunctional: monotone
singers (e.g., Joyner, 1969), poor pitch singers (e.g.,
Welch, 1979).
These different ways of characterizing or defin-
ing singing are not complete. They need to be
supplemented by investigations into culture specific
patterns and techniques of using the voice musi-
cally in ritualized or repetitive social contexts and
the constructed affective fields. Song singing is
a powerful example for a cultural tool to socially
guide children (or humans in general) into desir-
able directions. Beginning with the regulation of
infants’ physiological states (excitation and inhibi-
tion), singing helps to differentiate these feelings
and transform them into a subjective experience
which Valsiner (2008) calls a general immediate
and pre-semiotic feeling. Later, the person may
use singing or other cultural tools to construct a
personal “inner infinity” (William Stern, as cited in
Valsiner, 2008) while being involved in the context
but, at the same time, distancing from the here-and-
now setting. This affective synthesis is the center
of aesthetic experience (Vygotsky, 1971). A learnt
song is primarily a socially shared experience with
an affective field that – as internalization – can be
transformed and used as a cultural tool to recre-
ate the previous affective field in a new context.
Song singing may be used deliberately as a means
to induce affective states in oneself or in others in
order to manipulate, channel or shape individual or
collective experiences.
4 . c u lt u r a l c o n v e n t i o n s
Reproduction and invention
Already newborns’ vocalisations are structured and
may be described in musical terms (e.g., Wermke &
Human singing
Mende, 2009), but they are not yet conventionalised.
Any singing is shaped sounds (prolonged vowels
etc.) that express somehow cultural conventions.
In order to study the mental processes underlying
the organisation, the aforementioned distinction
between spontaneous and requested song reproduction
and invention is useful to avoid misunderstandings
or overgeneralizations. When a person spontane-
ously or on request invents a new song, she or he
decides the organisational rules on her own while
singing. While reproducing a song, the person more
or less “knows” to follow given rules. Often the two
forms (invention and reproduction) coexist, and the
singer intends to apply certain rules and simultane-
ously claims some personal or collective freedom
in performance. The performance often devi-
ates unnoticed from the score (see e.g., Seashore,
1938; Vurma & Ross, 2006), and often, performers
only partly follow the instructions given by scores.
Therefore, precise intonation in singing is a desid-
eratum, and in practice, sung melodies are usually
inaccurate with regard to intervals or pitch catego-
ries, but much less to contour. Because singing also
entails producing syllables, words, or lyrics, it is not
only a musical issue, but as previously mentioned,
most of the time it is the synchronous organisation
of both linguistic and musical components.
Arom (2000) identifies two criteria he consid-
ers as culturally universal: all music production
(including singing) “implies an act of intentional
construction”, and it “is set in motion by a formal
process, itself the result of convention” (p. 27).
The infant’s intention to sing or to speak marks an
important milestone in the process of differentiat-
ing between the two modes.
Rules of pitch and time
The most important rules of any music system
concern the organisation of pitch and time. A melody
may emerge from mere pitch modulations of some
vowels, even if the pitch pattern does not follow
identifiable cultural rules. Such primitive melodies
emerge in early infant’s vocalisations (e.g., Papoušek
& Papoušek, 1981).
Music is either measured by regularly paced
elements or by an isochronous temporal pulse;
19
Stefanie Stadler Elmer
seldom is it unmeasured and without relation to any
kind of timekeeper (Arom, 1991, 2000). There is
general consensus that time in music is hierarchically
organized beginning with bottom-up durational
periodicity, with strong and weak accents, and
grouping (e.g., Patel, 2008). In singing, the breath
provides higher order timing at the level of group-
ing, because singing occurs during exhalation (see
section 3 above). Usually, the duration of the phona-
tory process creates a phrase that may coincide
with the given phrase of a song. In most Western
cultures, phrases are organised by periodic pulse
patterns of stressed and unstressed beats. The time
interval between two beats defines the basic dura-
tional unit in a piece or song, and long or short time
intervals determine the tempo. A stressed or strong
beat is attained by increasing its intensity (loudness)
or extending the duration, thus creating accents.
There are two basic patterns of cyclic alternations
of strong and weak beats: they have either two or
three beats, a strong and weak beat, or a strong beat
and two weak beats. These metrical patterns can be
combined and thus are building blocks for gener-
ating musical sequences. Any such periodic pulse
pattern with stressed and unstressed beats is called
meter. In music scores, it is usually represented by bar
lines, and as a rule, the first beat is always stressed.
In the children’s song in Figure 1, the notation indi-
cates that basic beat pattern consists of two quarter
notes, hence, a strong and weak beat. This binary
meter is visualized by the bar lines and, in addi-
tion, by long and short vertical lines. Whereas beat
and meter form the basic temporal structures at the
Figure 1. An example of a traditional children’s song in the German language. Language matters because of specific phonological
rules, for example, stress patterns. The vertical lines represent the regular beat; the long and short lines represent strong and weak
accents, respectively (meter). A bar always begins with a strong beat. The phrases and sub-phrases are marked by curly brackets and
the rhymes by square brackets.
20
lowest level of the hierarchy, rhythm is built on top
of them. In Figure 1, the melody’s rhythm consists
mostly of eighth notes that are derived by subdivid-
ing the basic unit of the quarter note, thus, in a bar
yielding four eighth notes as durational equivalence
to two quarter notes.
Most musics use periodicity and symmetry as
basic temporal formal principles (e.g., Arom, 2000)
at all hierarchical levels. Accordingly, at the high-
est level, phrases in children’s songs are comprised
by either two or four measures (as an example, see
Fig. 1). They are organized by the meter, the most
important means for creating and maintaining
temporal coherence. In song singing, the metri-
cal structure of the melody corresponds to that of
the lyrics such that the pitches on a strong beat
are synchronized with the stressed word syllables,
and respectively, unstressed syllables or one-sylla-
ble words coincide with weak beats. This metrical
structure in turn is a prerequisite for easy repeti-
tion of phrases or units. With regard to the lyrics,
the specific linguistic means of rhyme also contri-
bute to the coherence; so does the typical ending
on the fundamental keynote in children’s and folk
songs (Stadler Elmer, 2002, p. 131). In the song in
Figure 1, there are two rhymes, /hopp – Galopp/ and
/Steine – Beine/, marked with a bracket. Their posi-
tions are symmetrical and corresponding in the
second and fourth, sixth and eighth, and tenth and
twelfth bar; in other words, each of the two parts
is positioned at the end of a two-bar phrase. When
the child discovers the rules behind these and other
patterns, he or she has an advantage in organizing

and memorizing the song. Children often spontane-
ously accompany singing with body movements (with
or without instruments) that helps them to create
and maintain a steady beat or pulse. Such tempo-
ral organisations allow repetitions and variations that
both are – as previously mentioned – basic features
of music making (Knepler, 1977; Meyer, 1956).
In contrast to verbal dialogues, typical singing is
structured in coherent temporal units. The dense
and redundant temporal organisation resulting
from the lyrics and the melody reduces cognitive
demands and allows even young children to partici-
pate in joint singing and spontaneous movements
(e.g., Stadler Elmer, 2002; Moog, 1968).
Sets of pitches
Prolonged vowels allow accentuating pitch and
making it a salient property of the vocal sound. By
this, a melody can be created by contrasting these
pitches and by modulating them and forming a
somehow ordered sequence. In contrast to instru-
mental music or to music theory that usually deal
with fixed pitch categories, singing can use the
pitch dimension very flexibly. A singer may intend to
follow more or less conventional rules (see above).
Nevertheless, conventions apply. In all cultures,
a set of salient pitches is selected from the pitch
continuum (which orders sounds in terms of their
highness and lowness) (Arom, 2000; Patel, 2008).
In Western music theory, the interval of an octave –
given by two frequencies related by the ratio of 2:1
– is subdivided into 12 pitch categories or semitones
that are the basis for various scales. The most usual
scales are the diatonic (major, minor) and penta-
tonic scale. The names of the notes of the major
scale are c, d, e, f, g, a, b, or in terms of relative (or
French solfège) names (of Italian origin) do, re, mi,
fa, sol, la, ti. Children’s songs are typically composed
in a major scale (Stadler Elmer, 2002). Within the
diatonic scales, one note – the tonic – defines the key
of the scale. All other pitch categories relate to the
tonic and have different functions. As mentioned
previously, most melodies of folk songs and of chil-
dren’s songs end on the tonic. Unlike fixed pitch
instruments like the piano, the voice (and some
instruments, e.g., string instruments) allows for
Human singing
pitch production along a pitch continuum and the
possibility, therefore, of creating pitch patterns
and melodies within the entire pitch continuum of
the vocal range without restrictions to fixed pitch
categories. Even in performances of professional
singers, perceived pitches may deviate from the cate-
gories given by the notation (e.g., Seashore, 1938).
The deviations remain unnoticed or are perceived
within tolerated category boundaries (cf. e.g., Siegel
& Siegel, 1977; Vurma & Ross, 2006).
The pitch categories and metric, isochronous
temporal pulses are the basic material from which
can be formed an infinite number of melodies.
According to the ethnomusicologist Nettl (2000)
the most simple and widespread music “consists of
songs that have a short phrase repeated several or
many times, with minor variations, using three or
four pitches within a range of a fifth” (p. 469). This
kind of melodic structure is found in children’s
games and ditties and in many recordings of ancient
rituals in European folk cultures.
5 . a h y p o t h e t i c a l d e v e l o p m e n ta l
sequence of singing
As in other developmental domains, the organ-
isation of musical and vocal actions and thoughts
changes with some regularity across the early life-
span at least, and researchers would like to be able
to characterize these changes. Two necessary – but
not sufficient – conditions for developmental pro-
gress in singing are a functional voice and functional
hearing. Both allow activities such as modifying
vocal utterances and participation in socio-cultural
events related to music and singing including social
guidance. The participation in social interactions
entails feelings of belonging together by virtue of
the experiences of shared attention, mutual expec-
tancies, and joint vocalisations. Vocalizations are
a prototype of a low psychological function that is
the basis for generalizing and internalizing affective
states (Valsiner, 2005).
To investigate the emergence of novelty – here
in vocalizations – implies focusing on the changing
qualities in the individual’s behavioral organisa-
tion. The following hypothetical description of the
21
Stefanie Stadler Elmer
developmental course of singing takes the form of
subsequent stages. The concept of stages is fraught
with misunderstandings. The stages are neither a
theory themselves, nor are they related to chrono-
logical age or to the Western tonal system. They are
a heuristic to describe the sequence or chronological
order in which new qualities emerge in the child’s
behavioral organisation. The analysis of singing as
a process entailing consecutive vocal productions in
the form of learning a new song or inventing new
ones – rather than as a single event – reveals the
mental strategies underlying the vocal organisation.
This developmental sequence represents a
synthesis of previous studies, and it is the current
result of theoretical considerations as outlined
above. It attempts to summarize our current knowl-
edge in a hypothetical manner and sketches the
process of how children grow up in their culture and
adapt to conventions related to singing and music.
To date, seven stages are conceptualised, which
are subdivided into three large phases: the pre-
conventional, conventional, and post-conventional
phase. The assumption is that the child acquires the
conventional rules of the surrounding culture; that
is, she or he gradually gains understanding of the
basic units and the rules for reconstructing exist-
ing musics or for constructing new ones. The stages
allow for interpreting a person’s musical or singing
behavior in terms of developmentally relevant crite-
ria such as emerging consciousness about structural
and functional aspects of musics and songs, grow-
ing control about actions and thoughts, increasing
differentiation and integration, and growing
de-contextualisation.
Stage 1: Beginning co-evolution of innate expressive
pre-dispositions with the social environment
The newborn infant is able to hear, to vocalise,
to execute motor movements, and to start coordi-
nating these processes and actions. Vocalisation
serves to express and elicit affection and emotion.
The infant is highly susceptible and adaptable
to sounds directed to her by parent‘s intuitive
use of “motherese” (e.g., Fernald & Kuhl, 1987).
“Musical” features such as melody or prosody and
repeated rhythmic patterns are characteristic of
22
the communication with infants (e.g., Dissanayake,
2000, 2008; M. Papoušek, 1994, 1996; Trevarthen,
1999, 2008). They are a source for joyful exchange.
The universal presence of specific features of intui-
tive parenting, for example, the musical aspects of
the voice, suggests some innate pre-dispositions in
both parents and infants (Papoušek & Papoušek,
1987). The infant’s extensive exploration of the
vocal potential (alone or in dialogue) represents an
original form of playing. Infant-parent dialogues
show a high incidence of reciprocal imitative
sequences including vocal patterns (M. Papoušek,
1996), hence a high rate of repetitions and varia-
tions. Infants are sensitive to temporal features in
the multimodal sensory information provided by
mothers, and they are able to organise and coordi-
nate their behaviors selectively (Longhi, 2009).
Stage 2: Deferred imitation, emergent rituals, and
extended vocal play
Vocal dialogues (infant-parent) promote simul-
taneously the infant’s pre-linguistic and pre-musical
communicative competence (e.g., M. Papoušek,
1996). Repeated experiences of similar sound
patterns and rules established between parent
and infant yield some kind of intimate “rituals”
that are based on mutually expected interactions
and shared affective experiences. Often, prosodic
features cannot be distinguished from melodic
ones. Established rules also concern turn-taking
and simultaneous matching of vocal sounds. Kessen,
Levine, and Wendrich (1979) reported that three to
six month-old infants are able to match vocally single
pitches. Reciprocal imitation of vocal patterns is a
basic activity in early parent-infant dialogues. In the
infant’s monologues, delayed or deferred imitation
of previous vocal patterns can be observed. They
reveal an increasing integration of vocal patterns
that had previously occurred in dialogues, and
vice versa, patterns of vocal play are transferred to
dialogues. Such observations identify deferred imita-
tions that indicate emergent mental representations
of the sensori-motor structures (singing). In recent
years, the early beginnings of musical and singing
development have been described and conceptu-
alised by various authors (e.g., Dissanayake, 2000,

2008; Tafuri, 2008; Trevarthen, 1999, 2008; Welch,
2006).
Stage 3: Intentions to produce singing-like or speech-
like vocalizations
The beginning of the intention either to produce
more singing-like or more speech-like vocalizations
marks a differentiation between the two modes
(Stadler Elmer, 2003). Such intentions may be iden-
tified when the child changes from one mode to the
other. He or she uses vocal patterns to express gener-
alized feelings that are related to a more playful
and ritualized vocalizing mode or to a more serious
mode for satisfying basic needs and for referential
cooperation. The more singing-like vocal patterns
are observable as glissandi-like or continuously glid-
ing pitches or sustained pitches, repetitions and
variations of melodic patterns, accompanied by
regular body movements or by regularly moving an
object, supporting a regular timing, and a relaxed or
playful mood. The more language-specific prosodic
patterns, for example, asking, complaining, or
initiating contact, have short vowels and a smaller
pitch range than the singing-like mode. By chang-
ing occasionally between the two vocal modes, the
child externalizes the intention to create meanings
by using characteristics of one or the other cultural
system. As observers, knowledge about contextual
and cultural specific habits in the child’s environ-
ment is necessary for identifying or interpreting
the child’s vocal patterns and expressed intentions.
Also, the child’s body positions and movements
provide crucial cues to identify the child’s musical
or verbal-communicative intentions. Often, adults
are not sensitive to an infant’s pre-musical utter-
ances and tend to interpret vocalizations primarily
as pre-speech utterances.
Stage 4: Sensori-motor strategy: auditory-vocal
coordination to produce song fragments or entire
songs
The sensory-motor strategy denotes one aspect
of the child’s early singing that has the following
characteristics: The child has the ability to imitate
melody fragments or entire songs with amazing
Human singing
accuracy by coordinating hearing and vocaliza-
tion, possibly orienting on the signal’s absolute
pitch level but not in the sense of pitch catego-
ries. Already the infant shows precursors of this
vocal ability by matching pitches or other single
and selected features (e.g., Kessen et al., 1979;
Papoušek & Papoušek, 1989). But the child at this
stage imitates larger units. The child may join in
singing accurately by adapting pitches, syllables,
and timing to another person‘s singing. When sung
alone, fragments or entire standard songs may also
sound reasonably clear. Deviations from conven-
tional rules do not concern the melody, the rhythm
or the lyrics per se, but rather structural aspects:
the child may omit or replace elements in low posi-
tions of the hierarchical organisation, may omit or
replace unfamiliar phonemes or words, may simplify
or omit temporal features, or may omit or replace
fragments of the melody and lyrics (e.g., Stadler
Elmer, 2002, 2006; Stadler Elmer & Engelberger,
2008). While concentrating on coordinating listen-
ing with vocalising, the child may thereby focus the
overall temporal framework, melody, or the mean-
ing of the lyrics. This sensori-motor strategy, as we
call it, does not yet include either mental concepts
meeting conventional musical and linguistic rules
or meaning to guide and monitor the singing struc-
ture. Thus, attention may be paid to less important
sound features at the expense of culturally relevant
ones. At this pre-conventional stage, it is hardly
predictable what a child selects to express. Still, for
her, certain events are easier to grasp, for example,
familiar patterns, small units with repetitive sylla-
bles and notes, and cues at hierarchically favorable
positions (beginning, ending (rhymes), metrical
weights, accents) in comparison to long and rich
variations in the lyrics, the melody, or their timing
(Stadler Elmer, 2002).
The sensori-motor strategy yields productions
that include accurate parts but also the child’s lack
of understanding of conventional rules (e.g., tonal
relations) and linguistic and musical concepts. For
example, breathing may occur at any time the child
wishes. Thus, the rule that breathing should take
place between phrases would be violated (Stadler
Elmer, 2002, child Andy). Although the building
blocks or units of one’s own singing are not yet
23
Stefanie Stadler Elmer

understood, the ability to co-ordinate listening and
vocalising makes possible joint and solo singing in
some fashion, even for songs with lyrics in a foreign
language. This type of imitative performance is typi-
cal for this stage. Metaphorically, it may be compared
to the function of a tape recorder. The child fixes
sound in memory like a die, said Roman Jakobson
(1968) about the same phenomenon in children’s
speaking. Outcomes of this strategy are easily over-
estimated (a child prodigy) or underestimated, with
accurate song singing mistakenly expected later.
Apart from imitation, the child at this stage may
extensively exert vocal play with amazing stamina,
integrate and vary imitated features from previously
sung songs, accompany invented stories with sing-
ing, and create a rich and unconventional variety of
sound patterns.
Figure 2 shows an extract of the analysis of a
spontaneous song production by a girl at age one
year and eight months (for more details see Stadler
Elmer, 2012). The girl’s production lasted 133 s.
During this time, she was rocking on a wooden horse
and she sang her abbreviated version. She repeated
phrases A and B1 nine times, but omitted B2 and A’
(see Fig. 1). She did not omit elements at the lower
hierarchical levels of notes or syllables. Whereas the
melody clearly shows her musical intentions to sing
that particular song, the articulations of the sylla-
bles or the word formation is far more difficult for
her.
Stage 5: Generalising examples, idiosyncratic song
repertoire and idiosyncratic singing rules
Often, songs form parts of rituals and thus
connote a particular place, mood, people, or other
peculiarities. Children first learn examples, rather
than general rules, but then discover rules through

Figure 2. Excerpt of spontaneous song singing (Stadler Elmer, 2012, p. 773). The x-axis represents time (in secs); the y-axis represents
the pitch continuum with notes of the C major scale identified (“H3” refers to note B3, in accordance with European note-naming
convention). The narrow solid line shows the melody of the model song (Hopp, Hopp, Hopp) represented in Figure 1 (transposed here
to the key used by the caretaker presenting the song to the child). The large dots connected with dot-and-dashed lines represent the
child’s singing. Pitch production is shown either by dots with beginning and ending glissandi or by lines, all positioned according to
pitch and time. This data, based on acoustic analysis, results from two computer programmes, a pitch analyzer and a notation viewer
(see Elmer, 1994; Stadler Elmer & Elmer, 2000).

24

examples. An orientation to examples is observa-
ble when she replaces a new song partly by familiar
song components. While learning a song, at this
stage, the child combines the sensori-motor strat-
egy of the previous stage with adopting already
acquired exemplary patterns. She has not yet inte-
grated general song singing rules. Pre-conventional
singing structures may concern all song compo-
nents: the lyrics, melody, and their timing. Unclear
articulation, neologisms, omissions, incompat-
ible semantics, repetitive melodic parts, levelling
out metric and melodic nuances, reducing inter-
val sizes, etc. are characteristic (e.g., Davies, 1986,
1992; Moog, 1968; Stadler Elmer, 2002). Invented
and spontaneous songs show particularly well that
she uses both idiosyncratic and inconsistent rules.
At this stage, conventional rules of song singing
are largely ignored or are inconsistently changed
according to highly subjective criteria. The emer-
gence of some stable and generalized patterns – for
instance, phrase repetition, ending on the tonic –
marks the beginning of conventionalized singing.
Stage 6: Conventional rules on song singing are
implicitly integrated
The growing repertoire of songs provides the
opportunity for generalising from exemplary songs
and distinguishing general from idiosyncratic rules.
General rules can and do therefore emerge and are
applied across various singing contexts, including
invented songs. Conventions such as isometric verses
(i.e., verses with the same meter), rhymes, endings
on the tonic note, tonal structures within melodies,
larger and complex organised phrases, stable key
due to stable pitches, are implicitly integrated into
singing. Pre-conventional features such as neolo-
gisms, micro-intervals, glissandi, key instabilities
etc. diminish. The conventions are not consciously
reflected, but rather they are normative, and rules
described as “accurate-inaccurate” are implicitly
known and used to control singing (Stadler Elmer
& Hammer, 2001). The child starts to understand
that singing is a socially shared activity guided by
conventions. Growing self-control starts inhibit-
ing spontaneous, playful and (pre-conventional)
creative singing. Taste and preferences start to be
Human singing
influenced by the social (sub-) group and contribute
to building a personal and social identity.
Stage 7: Beginning reflection of actions, means,
symbols, and concepts
Previously implicit structural knowledge mani-
fested in song singing and music making becomes
subject to conscious reflection. Failure and success
in musical activities cause thinking about how the
means used yield certain outcomes. The reflec-
tion of actions and the growing awareness of
biographical chances and cultural rules give way to
post-conventional thinking and creative handling
of symbolic means. Generalized affective patterns
become recognized, and singing and music making
are deliberately used as tools to create ways of
feeling or manipulating intrapersonal and interper-
sonal moods and affective states. Cultural symbols
are increasingly used in various ways to create and
reproduce musics (e.g., songs) and to participate
as a member of a socio-cultural group. The person
begins to conceptualize and understand cultural
domains – such as music, language, poetry, art, etc.
– as a means for psychological distancing and as
abbreviated and hyper-generalized affective semi-
otic fields (Branco & Valsiner, 2010; Valsiner, 2005)
that form aesthetic experiences (Valsiner, 2008).
6. c o n c lu s i o n s
Independent of the theoretical background applied
to singing and its development, there are some inevi-
table axiomatic statements to take into account:
r
Human beings organize sounds and thereby
construct and use signs to regulate both inter-
personal and intrapersonal psychological
processes.
r
Singing as the earliest and universal musical
expression in development originates in affec-
tive states of playfulness and is of profound
socio-cultural nature.
r
The study of the development of singing requires
a general or even universalistic view. So far,
the Western tonal system served as the main
25
Stefanie Stadler Elmer
standard to describe musical activities. The rich
varieties of music cultures and multi-cultural
environments inspire new ideas on devel-
opment and new research strategies. Music
making is rooted in repetitive and varied play-
ing with sounds, all irrational, but structured
and full of affective and symbolic meanings for
the creators sharing these experiences.
Research questions, therefore, must focus on
how individuals participate in such cultural prac-
tices of music and meaning making processes; how
they adopt and use conventions of their environment
as cultural tools for regulating emotions; how they
learn to structure and control their actions, thoughts
and affective states; how singing and music making
externalize mental and affective states; and how
cultural traditions are transmitted and changed.
The present research domain particularly needs
agreement on terminologies to describe conven-
tionalized and un-conventionalized singing, and
reliable methods to analyse the structure of this
expressive behaviour. Only detailed and reliable
descriptions allow studying the strategies a person
uses while organising the relevant parameters. It is
not only through single and quantitative parameters
that will help understand how children develop, but
also needed is the analysis of a complex action and
its organisation within a cultural setting including
social guidance.
A culturally sensitive micro-genetic method –
as proposed by Stadler Elmer and Elmer (2000)
– includes the social and cultural context, and
analyzes singing at an acoustic level yielding a
configuration of pitches, pitch qualities, syllables,
and timing. The stable, unstable, and varied parts
in subsequent events reveal the singer’s habitual
and newly emergent strategies. Such methodology
provides descriptions of singing events as complex
organisations unfolding in time. These make it
possible to gain access to the intentions and mental
processes of the creator, and allow applications to
other cultural music systems, and in bi-cultural
and multicultural contexts. As a universal activity,
singing and its development is a vast and interdisci-
plinary research area that is not yet well established.
It concerns an irrational and playful human domain
26
of making sense with the most immediate and
powerful bodily expression. At the intersection
between biology (nature) and culture, there is still
much to discover.
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biogr aphy

Stefanie Stadler Elmer
is Lecturer of Psych-
ology at the University of
Zurich (UZH) and Head
of Music Research at
the Kalaidos University
of Applied Sciences,
Zurich, Switzerland. She
received her PhD from
the University of Bern
Stefanie Stadler Elmer and her Habilitation
from the University of
Zurich. Important book publications are: Spiel und
Nachahmung (Play and Imitation, 2000); Kinder
singen Lieder (Children Sing Songs, 2002). Her main
interests in research and teaching concern the
development of music and language, song singing,
and methods to foster early development in these
domains. She is involved in several research proj-
ects at national and international levels, e.g., as a
collaborator in AIRS (Advancing Interdisciplinary
Research in Singing), supported by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada, and UMSIC (Usability of Music for the
Social Inclusion of Children), an interdisciplinary
project funded by the EU.

30

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