Journal of Research in Music Education

The purpose of this study was to measure the relationship between humor perceived in music and the self reported music preference opinions of subjects representing four different age levels. We administered a listening test composed of humorous and nonhumorous song excerpts in three popular music styles to 445 subjects in Michigan, Missouri, and Pennsylvania. Male and female listeners in Grades 3, 7, and 11 as well as college undergraduates participated in the study. Perception of humor was largely a function of age, with younger listeners perceiving significantly more humor than older ones until age levels began to approach adulthood in the upper grades. Higher levels of perceived humor were significantly associated with higher levels of preference. Listener age exerted a distinct influence on overall preference scores, which were highest with the youngest listeners, were lower in the middle age-groups, and rose again at the college level. Listener gender was influential in the case of some music examples.

Forty-two students at a specialist school for able musicians and 20 of their parents were interviewed about the circumstances that led to these young people's commencing instrumental study, changing teachers, and taking up new instruments prior to the point where they were recognized as ready for specialist music education. The results showed that parents' sustained support and intervention were vital to developing excellence, and that the student's first teacher's personal characteristics had a marked effect on future levels of development. Students showed a high level of mobility between both instruments and teachers. The principal driving force for these transitions lay with the parent or the child rather than the teacher, who rarely suggested a transition. The implications of these results for understanding the process of high- level development are discussed.

In this study, I examined the effects of learning procedure and performance tempo on the ability of middle-school-level instrumentalists to perform previously learned rhythmic passages in novel test melodies. Sixty-four advanced- and intermediate-level middle school band students practiced four three-measure rhythmic passages, using one of four learning procedures for each rhythmic passage, until achieving a specified performance criterion, and subsequently performed lest melodies that included the same rhythms. The learning procedures represented verbal and manual techniques that are common in rhythm instruction in instrumental classes and that had been used regularly in daily lessons in which all subjects participated. Performances were evaluated on the basis of tempo accuracy, rhythm accuracy, and pitch accuracy. Results indicate no significant multivariate effect attributable to learning procedure; however, significant differences were found among performance tempi, p < .02. Subjects' tempo accuracy was adversely affected by differences between the tempo at which specific passages were originally learned and the tempi at which they were subsequently performed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of three rhythm presentation modalities on the recall of rhythm patterns. Seventy first graders, 70 third graders, and 70 fifth graders were tested either visually, auditorily, kinesthetically, or with combinations of these modalities. Each child was asked to memorize and clap six rhythm patterns of increasing difficulty, which were presented either iconically (visually), by playing a resonator bell (auditorily), by patting the child's hand (kinesthetically), or through combinations of these treatments. Grade level was significant (p < .0001). Test scores from students who were presented rhythm patterns using a multimodality presentation indicate that students were not confused by the multisensory input. The first-grade visual test results were significantly lower (p < .05) than results with older children. These findings suggest that the incorporation of learning modalities into music teaching methods could result in more efficient learning of rhythm patterns. Although the visual met hod for first graders was not as effective as other presentations, older children were successful with all combinations of leaching presentations.

Music instruction was instituted in the Boston Public Schools by Lowell Mason in 1838. During the 1860s and 1870s, a strong music program was developed in Boston under the leadership of the Committee on Music, Luther Whiting Mason, and other music staff members. Education historians have described the growth of bureaucratic urban school systems in the nineteenth century. This article deals with the development of the Boston music program, with its centralized administration, specialized music supervisors, and teacher-training programs. Textbooks were published and a curriculum organized to meet the needs of the expanding urban school system. The Boston School Committee endorsed music to promote good discipline and encouraged music performances to bring the school system positive publicity. The music program declined in the economically depressed 1870s because the music staff was cut while the school population increased. Nevertheless, the Boston program became a model for music programs throughout America and abroad.

The tempo perception and performance abilities of 80 elementary students in Grades 3-6 were investigated by means of two tests of tempo perception and one test of tempo performance. Scores for (a) the detection of gradual tempo changes, (b) the discrimination of differences in tempo pairs, and (c) the steadiness of tempo performance increased in a linear fashion from Grade 3 to Grade 6. Although scores for the accuracy ofreproducing a given tempo also increased with grade, a linear trend was not found. “In-tempo” responses increased significantly with grade level. The effect of training was significant only for the accuracy of reproducing a given tempo. All perception and performance scores increased as tempos increased, and subjects most often performed faster than the given tempo. The correlations among all measures tended to increase in strength with grade level, and all correlations involving the aggregate of scores from Grades 3-6 were significant.