Book Description

This study sought to examine the effect of playing songs by ear on the musical performance of middle school instrumental music students in order to clarify the efficacy of non-traditional methods of instrumental music instruction. Subjects were students in grades six through eight (N=114) in three schools. Classes were designated as control and experimental groups and two experienced instrumental music teachers delivered instruction to classes in both groups. Portions of the Music Aptitude Profile (MAP) and the pretest version of the Instrumental Performance Test (IPT), designed by the researcher, were administered to students prior to the study. The IPT included subtests for music reading, aural response, and ear-tune performance. During a twelve-week treatment period students in both groups learned a repertoire of common folk songs. Students in experimental group learned songs by singing and echoing them following a teacher model and then were introduced to the musical notation. Students in the control group were given the musical notation for the songs from the outset and were asked to perform and sing the songs after studying the notation. A posttest version of the IPT was administered after the treatment period. Three expert judges evaluated student performances in the areas of pitch, rhythm, and expression using a criteria-specific rating scale. A series two-way ANCOVAs using group and aptitude as independent variables and corresponding pretest scores as covariates were conducted on each subtest of the IPT. Though trends in the data could be identified none proved to be statistically significant. Based on the results of the study it was not possible to conclude that the experimental treatment had an effect on the performance of middle school band students. However, it could also be noted that learning to perform songs by ear did not significantly hinder students' ability to perform music using notation. As a result of the study, several conclusions about the nature and design of future research could be made.