Melodic Recall: Qualitative Insights on Singers’ Strategies for Memorizing Scores of Simple Songs

In a choral setting, memorizing multiple choral scores and maintaining the stability of recall can be a challenge. This study investigates strategies for memorizing scores of simple songs. Music college students with extensive choral experience memorized three unfamiliar songs and recalled them after brief one minute practice. A mixed-methods research design facilitated the integration of multiple types of data, including performance accuracy, self-ratings of sight-singing strategies, and descriptive statistics of eye movements. Results, based on Mishra’s (2005) theoretical model of memorization, indicated that students employed Holistic (singing the whole song) and Segmented (singing phrases) memorization approaches more frequently than Additive or Serial approaches. During memorization, students relied on the conceptual, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic components of memory. Good skills in sight-reading, chunking, and the use of structural cues played a key role in facilitating successful melodic recall. The pedagogical implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.