Journal of Research in Music Education

The monitorial school, developed in England in the late eighteenth century by Joseph Lancaster and Andrew Bell, was adopted in the early nineteenth-century in American schools. Educators hoped that this system, which was designed to extend the teacher's efforts by means of student assistant teachers, would provide training for children at minimal expense—up to three hundred pupils per teacher. The first three volumes of the American Journal of Education (1826–1828) were devoted almost entirely to discussions of the monitorial system and to schools that used it. Ezra Barrett's Sabbath School Psalmody was planned and published in 1828 to assist teachers in presenting music rudiments by means of this system. The most significant characteristic of the system was that the assistant teachers, or monitors, learned given lessons and then instructed other members of the class by means of prepared questions and answers. The monitors and their groups repeatedly recited the questions and answers until the information was assimilated.

Henry Kemble Oliver, a teacher, church musician, and hymn-tune composer who taught in monitorial schools during the 1820s, related his observations of the monitorial system before the first annual meeting of the American Institute of Instruction in 1830. He first spoke well of the system, principally because a large number of pupils could be accommodated by a single teacher, saving time and money. However, Oliver also pointed out the superficiality of the instruction and other adverse effects that outweighed the advantages. The influence of monitorial schools declined in America during the first half of the nineteenth century with the development of public schools.

Studies have shown that wind instrumentalists tend to score lower on tests of aural acuity than do string players and pianists. Several explanations have been advanced to explain this deficiency among wind players. Research studies show that the students participating in both an instrumental and a vocal ensemble tend to score highest on tests of aural acuity. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the effect of daily vocalization practice on the sense of pitch of students in selected beginning band classes.

The experimental sample consisted of six selected beginning band classes of heterogeneous grouping. The six groups were equal in size, academic achievement, and extracurricular musical activities. A pretest of pitch discrimination and tonal memory revealed the groups were similar with respect to these abilities also. There were three control groups and three experimental groups. Instructors for the control groups were allowed to conduct their band classes as usual throughout the school year. Experimental-group instructors conducted their classes in the usual manner except to teach their students to vocalize previously designated pitches and exercises selected from the class text. A posttest given to all groups at the end of the school year revealed that: (1) Regular participation in band class resulted in improved pitch discrimination and tonal memory abilities. (2) Regular practice in vocalization during the band class had a significant effect on the sense of pitch of students in the experimental groups, who scored significantly higher on the posttest than the students in the control groups. (3) Brass and woodwind players were affected equally by the vocalization procedure. (4) Private piano study was a factor in the posttest results, especially on the test where subjects had to match musical sounds with notation. (5) Regular participation in an extracurricular vocal ensemble had little effect on posttest results.

The purpose of this study was to devise and evaluate a self-instructional program for the development of three musical concepts—pitch, duration, and loudness—in preschool children. Programed materials that included cassette tapes and illustrated books were developed. The response modes required of the children included drawing circles and lines, playing various musical instruments, and turning a page when a castanet was heard.

Sixty-two preschool children participated in the study. The results indicated that: (1) the subjects in the experimental groups were able to learn the concepts of pitch, duration, and loudness as measured by a preschool musical concepts test; (2) preschool children easily acquired the concept of loudness, but pitch and duration seemed more difficult for them to perceive; and (3) the subjects' reactions to the program, especially their desire to return each day, indicated that self-instructional materials can be developed that will hold the attention of preschool children.

This research used a factorial analysis of variance to examine preferences for tonal stimuli that differed in frequency, intensity, or wave form. For the sample of music majors, wave form appeared to have the greatest effect on preferences; pure tones were most preferred. The main effect for intensity also was significant, as was the interaction of intensity and wave form. For the sample of nonmusic majors, the predominant influence on preferences seemed to be intensity. The nonmusic majors preferred the softer of the two levels. In addition, the main effect for wave form was significant, as were the interactions of wave form with intensity and frequency with intensity.