Music Reading Ability of Beginning Wind Instrumentalists After Melodic Instruction

Teaching techniques and materials that would treat music reading as a process and emphasize the structure of the melodic line were researched, developed, and then tested with 90 fourth grade students, each studying a wind instrument of his/her choice for a year. Control and experimental groups were set up with the groups and their teachers statistically equated. The only variation in treatment of the two groups was in the method of introducing pitches. The experimental group was introduced to pitch through a series of tonal patterns, while the control group learned a new pitch by letter name, fingering, and sound.

The study showed that tonal pattern instruction is superior to note identification teaching techniques in development of both sight reading skills and auditory-visual discrimination skills. The experimental treatment was particularly effective with students of low musical ability as measured by the Watkins-Farnum Performance Scale, a test of instrumental sight reading.