Preparing to facilitate seniors' music participation: A comparison of music education majors' and senior citizens' repertoire of common songs

This study examined whether a basic song repertoire of folk-type melodies which can be accompanied with principal triads exists in the senior citizen population and compared this repertoire with that of music education students whose principal instrument was voice or piano. An audiotape of the tunes of 25 standard songs, assumed in previous research to be known by everyone who has finished 6th grade, was played for undergraduate music education students (n=73) and for healthy, active senior citizens (n=94). Many of the older people were involved in music activities such as the senior choir at church. Music education majors identified significantly more tunes than did the older listeners. Further analysis indicated that there is a good deal of overlap in the repertoires of these two groups. Fourteen tunes were recognized by 80% of the seniors; the 10 songs identified by these seniors were 10 of the top 14 identified by the college students. Six songs could not be named by 51% of the students; seven songs could not be named by 51% of the seniors; these two lists contained four commons elections ('Down in the Valley', 'Kookaburra', 'Shalom Chaverim', and 'Tinga Layo'). Given the growth of the senior segment of the American population, the expansion of services for them, and the popularity of including music activities among these services, it would appear that music education students' basic knowledge of a repertoire of songs which are known to older people and which can easily be accompanied with principal triads is adequate, even though the range of songs which could be identified was broad (9-23) and the mean correctly named was merely 70.7% of a set which other investigators, teachers, and professional organizations have said represent a minimal repertoire for all citizens beyond the 6th grade.