Literature on children's singing development is largely skewed towards findings based on English-speaking children. The present study aims to fill the gap in research through an investigation of the effects of age, gender and language on the singing competency of Cantonese-speaking children. One hundred and twenty children aged 7 and 9 years participated in the study. Sixty children were Cantonese monolinguals and 60 were English bilinguals. Each child performed individually a criterion song and two independent judges rated the recorded singing performance. Welch's model of Pitch-matching Development (2000) and Rutkowski's Singing Voice Development Measure (1998) were used to evaluate singing competency. Results suggest that melodic singing achievement and the ability to use a singing voice are moderately related singing behaviours. Evidence also suggests that gender and language but not age affects singing competency.

Musical creativity during early childhood is readily exemplified in vocal behaviours. This paper is a discussion of observations on children's performance of learned songs and self-generated songs. Longitudinal observations suggest that self-generated songs may be seen as referent-guided improvisation using source materials derived from learned songs. It is hypothesised that interactions with the environment, such as a need for the child to communicate emotions in play settings, could autonomously abstract novel sensory input into existing categories or distort aspects of existing ones to assume novel parametric combinations. Hence, using learned songs as referent, a child possesses a repertoire of learned musical features that allows her to create and improvise as a reaction to environmental stimuli. The resultant early songs, therefore, exhibit a distinctive sense of ownership endowed with rich creative instincts.

This article, which investigates the relationship between music and language in development and learning during early childhood, does so by considering the potentials and inborn abilities in early childhood, the environmental influences, and the interactions between music and language development in children. Finally, it discusses implications for education, suggesting an integrated approach to music and language learning.

Pitch is a psychoacoustic concept that has distinctive functions in speech and music across languages. The present investigation is based on a hypothesis that speakers of tonal and non-tonal languages may have distinctive vocal pitch behaviours. Ethnographic observations was conducted on the vocal development of a group of English and Chinese Canadian children over 42 months. Acoustic analyses were performed on recorded vocalizations to extract pitch. Comparisons of longitudinal vocal fundamental frequencies between the Chinese and English speaking children suggest possible language differences in the use of pitch to distinguish between speech and song production. Implications on strategies to provide more effective singing experience in a multicultural classroom are discussed.

Musicality is a quality possessed by someone often depicted with a sensitivity to, knowledge of, or talent for music. One prevalent contention related to musicality is the issue of nature versus nurture. Like most other forms of human competence, musicality may be viewed as a combined product of innate potential developed and nurtured through a learning process. Hence, musicality may be seen as a coalition of music aptitude and music achievement. Musical aptitude tests were conducted on 3490 Hong Kong students. Music achievement data were subsequently obtained from 2356 subjects. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was performed to investigate the effects of age and gender on both Music Aptitude and Music Achievement scores. The present investigation provided quantitative data as evidence for a framework to view diversity in student aptitude and achievement in light of their independent learning capabilities and musical potentials.