ABSTRACT
Singing is a highly enjoyable experience. It also constitutes the most widespread mode of musical expression. All people across cultures have taken part in singing in some form. This pleasurable experience is most likely rooted in the early exposure to maternal singing, which is swiftly imitated by the infant. Infants spontaneously sing around the age of 1 year. At 18 months, the child begins to generate recognizable, repeatable songs (Ostwald, 1973). These spontaneous songs have a systematic form and display two essential features of adult singing: discrete pitches, and the repetition of rhythmic and melodic contours. They are unlike adult songs, however, because they lack a stable pitch framework (Dowling, 1984). It is later, around the age of 5, that children appear to hold a stable tonality and a regular beat as adults do (Dowling & Harwood, 1986). Thus, by the age of 5, children have a fairly large repertoire of songs of their own culture and display singing abilities that will remain qualitatively unchanged in adulthood, unless the child receives musical tutoring or is regularly practicing in a choir or ensemble. Thus, even without much practice, the ordinary adult seems to be endowed with the basic abilities that are necessary to sing simple songs of their culture.
