Journal of Research in Music Education

In a publication issued to commemorate the jubilee year of the tonic sol-fa movement in 1891, Samuel McBurney (1847–1909) was accorded the title of “the Stanley of Sol-fa” in recognition of his pioneering work in propagating the tonic sol-fa method in Australia. Born in Scotland, where he received his early musical training in tonic sol-fa, McBurney emigrated to the colony of Victoria in the southeast of mainland Australia, where he commenced a lifelong propagation of the tonic sol-fa system. On a return visit to Britain he qualified for a doctorate in music from the University of Dublin to prove that tonic sol-fa could be applied to the highest levels of musical scholarship and was subsequently appointed as inspector of music for Victorian state schools. He contributed significantly to music education through his teaching activities and his numerous publications, including textbooks, songbooks, choral compositions, journal articles, and a kindergarten music teaching method. However, McBurney's principal contribution was to lay the foundations for music teaching by the tonic sol-fa method in Victorian schools.

The body of research on music conservation is briefly outlined and critically evaluated; although most of the results of this research are in line with predictions from Jean Piaget's theory, there are many reasons the analogy with nonmusic conservation tasks may be invalid. These issues were investigated in the present study by comparing the performances of equivalent groups of 6-year-olds and 8-year-olds in the United Kingdom and the United States on “pitch transposition” and “rhythmic inversion” music conservation tasks that employed either familiar or unfamiliar tone sequences (common nursery rhyme tunes or “statistical approximations to music” respectively) as stimulus materials. Significantly more conservation-type responses were produced by 8-year-olds than by 6-year-olds, and were evoked more by familiar than unfamiliar tone sequences over all conditions. There were no other significant main effects or interactions. Although these results could broadly be interpreted as supporting Piagetian theory, the strong stimulus effect suggests that familiar and unfamiliar sequences may be processed differently, such that an explanation in terms of the development of conservation-type abilities may be inadequate.

The present study was an attempt to investigate musicians' tempo note preferences within a musical context. Using relatively familiar orchestral music as stimuli, the study tested the ability of subjects to discriminate how an altered excerpt differed in tempo from its unaltered presentation by asking subjects to select a beat note for each trial. One hundred randomly selected subjects participated in the study. A representative list of eight relatively familiar orchestral works was specifically selected because of the ambiguity of the perceived rhythmic organization, that is, either in oneness (dotted note as beat note) or in threeness (undotted note as beat note), regardless of the actual notation. Subjects heard each of the eight excerpts three times, at increased, decreased, and unaltered tempi. The amount of tempo change in either direction was 12%. Thus, an original tempo of (•) = 164 beats per minute (bpm), for example, was heard at altered tempi of (•) = 184 bpm (increased) or (•) = 144 bpm (decreased). Subjects selected a beat note for each example and estimated the speed (in beats per minute) of each beat note selection. Results of the study indicate that: (a) subjects preferred dotted notes for those examples that were faster compared to those that were slower, (b) subjects preferred undotted beat notes for the slower presentations, and (c) musicians were not accurate in estimating tempi. Subjects' estimations of beat speed were inaccurate and consistently faster than the actual tempi presented.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between home musical environment and musical attributes among second-grade (primarily) Mexican-American school children. Parental musical involvement with child, attitude toward music, and other aspects of the home musical environment were examined as sources of variance in tonal and rhythmic perception and school musical achievement. Data from 116 students and their parents were analyzed by means of setwise multiple regression. Although analyses revealed that scores on the Home Musical Environmental Scale (HOMES) were not significantly related to tonal or rhythmic perception, the results did show a statistically significant relationship, p < .001, between scores on the HOMES and musical achievement as assessed by the subjects' music teachers. The scores on the HOMES account for 20% of the variance in musical achievement scores. Additionally, an important finding in this study is that not all home musical environmental variables are related in the same degree to musical achievement.

To compare college students' opinions of computer-based melodic dictation instruction and classroom instruction, 75 students enrolled in sophomore music theory who had been exposed to both approaches were surveyed. A 34-item questionnaire evaluated students' opinions of the hardware, software, and departmental requirements regarding the computer-based instruction and asked for comparisons of this tutelage with the classroom instruction they had subsequently received. While hardware and software received generally favorable reviews; students basically related a negative opinion of the computer-based melodic dictation instruction. This opinion was based on the following three points: The computer program required too much time outside class, too much progress was expected in too little time, and pacing (the increase in difficulty levels) was not consistent throughout the program. On the basis of student comments, several suggestions regarding construction of computer-based instructional materials are presented.

The preferences of a group of 92 fifth-grade students were compared with the preferences of a group of 14 music teachers for 20 common instructional objectives. Each objective was demonstrated for the students, who indicated on Likert-type scales how much they would like to achieve that objective. Teachers' responses on similar scales were obtained through written questionnaires. Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests revealed significant disparities between students and teachers for 10 of the objectives. The students' most favored objectives included instrumental playing within a tune context. Teacher-preferred objectives for which students' attitudes were generally negative included those that required listening and knowledge of harmonic and melodic rhythm and formal structure. In order that achievement may be demonstrated through student-preferred activities, it seems that restatement of objectives low in preference is desirable.