An Expert-Novice Comparison in Musical Composition

Abstract

The study reported here investigated expert and novice performance on a simple composition task. One Expert and three Novices were given a four phrase Bach Chorale with half of the first phrase and the soprano line provided. They were required to complete as much of the Chorale as possible within one hour. Think-aloud protocols were recorded and retrospective interviews were conducted. The protocols, scores and interview responses were compared. Only the Expert completed the task. The Expert was able to attend to the basic technical aspects of the task and to simultaneously consider part movement, balance and typical features of the genre. The Novices concentrated on chord-by-chord solution, applying the basic rules of harmony and largely neglected the shape and balance of the emerging score. The comparison of the protocols from the Expert and Novice provided evidence of characteristics of expertise found in problem-solving tasks in other domains.

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