The researcher attempted to determine whether instruction using colored rhythmic notation affected first- and second-grade students' rhythm-reading skills. As a regular part of general music classes, 64 experimental-group students participated in reading, clapping, and vocalizing rhythms notated in color. Seventy control subjects participated in identical activities in which rhythms were notated without color. Subjects were tested individually using both colored and uncolored notation. Results after the 23-week treatment period revealed that the experimental group scored slightly higher when reading both colored and uncolored notation than did the control group. Group differences on the colored-notation task were statistically significant (p < .05). Experimental and control-group means did not differ significantly (p > .05) when reading uncolored notation. Comparison between the scores of each group on the task similar to the training mode (color-trained students reading colored notation versus control students reading uncolored notation) also showed the experimental mean to be slightly but significantly (p < .05) higher. A positive affective influence was noted in that 78% of all students favored the colored-notation task as the exercise they liked performing the most.
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