Journal of Research in Music Education

This study systematically investigated how and to what extent music listening was initiated by elementary school general music teachers. The specific problems of the study were (a) identification of activities and materials related to music listening and (b) the determination of how and to what extent assigned and assumed music listening was initiated in the selected classrooms. An observation instrument, the Elementary Music Listening Schedule (EMLS), was developed by which 18 elementary general music teachers were observed during 10 lessons. A questionnaire was designed to determine the content validity of the EMLS. Both the EMLS and the questionnaire were found to be internally consistent and accounted for each other in regard to materials, activities, and types of listening that occured in the observed lessons. The researcher concluded the following. 1. Participating teachers tended to think of music listening as a separate activity and not as one that permeated all music instruction. 2. Assigned listening appeared to be utilized mostly in singing or the playing of instruments as well as in traditional music appreciation lessons where students were asked to listen to a recording.

This study focuses on the effect of three methods of supporting/holding the double (string) bass on muscle tension and performance quality. Although representatives of all three methods of support are accepted as outstanding performers, the choice of which method to teach is usually made because of familiarity rather than individual student characteristics. Forty volunteer double bass students from Indiana University, University of Michigan, Oberlin College, and Eastman School of Music performed the double bass recitative from Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. Audio recordings of performances were rated. Muscle tension readings from the left arm, right arm, upper back, and lower back areas were taken using electromyography as the measurement tool. Results suggest nonsignificant differences in both performance quality and muscle tension.

Piaget's investigations of children's conceptions of time included a conclusion that young children (ages 4–8) equate greater velocity with longer duration, even when they are passive listeners. This was verified through his metronome experiments. This study investigated the principle that older children (ages 10–12) will begin to recognize that there is an inverse relationship between time and velocity, and correctly estimate duration of musical fragments. Results of the study support the time-velocity ratio principle using a metronome stimulus; however, there was no support for the principle with musical fragments as stimuli. Children in grades 2, 4, and 6 tended to select the second fragment as longer, irrespective of velocity.

This investigation was a survey of natural rates and ratios of reinforcements, time use, student attentiveness, and interruptions of student performance in 96 private piano lessons. Forty-eight teachers and two students per teacher voluntarily participated with student age ranging from preschool to older adult. Intervallic observation procedures were used with an observation form adapted for this investigation; pilot-testing of the form resulted in interobserver reliability of .85. Results indicated that student age was a significant factor in observed differences among twelve selected variables. Elementary students (preschool through grade 6) received highest rates and ratios of approvals, secondary students (grades 7 through 12) spent more lesson time in student performance, and adults (high school graduates to adults of retirement age) were most on-task during lessons. All students were on-task for at least 85% of the lesson time. The survey found that lesson time was largely divided between student performance and teacher instruction.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of musical training and age on the ability of string students to discriminate tempo change, and the effect of musical style, speed of a musical composition, and the direction of tempo change on the ability to detect tempo change. Subjects were 116 string students, age 7 through 18 years. Musical stimuli were chosen from familiar string literature. Each excerpt was generated by using synthesized tones and was recorded at a normal tempo, slower than normal tempo, and faster than normal tempo. Three presentations were made at each speed: tempo increase, tempo decrease, and no tempo change. The subjects' task was to identify the direction of the tempo change or no-change. Statistical analyses revealed a significant curvilinear relationship between score and years of musical training, and between score and age. Additional regression analyses indicated that speed, direction of change, and musical style each contributed significantly to tempo perception over and above musical training and individual differences. These findings confirm that tempo perception is a complex phenomenon and that several parameters of tempo discrimination have yet to be identified.