Journal of Research in Music Education

This study's four purposes were to: (1) determine which music vocabulary words were listed for study in first-grade basal music series textbooks; (2) compare the oral vocabulary of first graders with the vocabulary listed for music instruction; (3) look at the relationship between word frequency in the general oral vocabulary of first graders taken from a pre-existing source and the oral music vocabulary of 42 first graders interviewed in the present study; and (4) compare the frequency of selected music terms with the frequency of those same terms used in general oral vocabulary. These research objectives were developed to provide useful information about what first-grade children already know in relation to what they are expected to learn, and to target the specific words or concepts that might need particular attention in the primary music curriculum. Little consistency was found in the music vocabulary listed in three basal music series textbooks. Forty of a total 147 music words were listed in more than one of the textbooks, and 23 of the 40 terms were already within the general oral vocabulary of first-grade children. A correlation of .82 was found between oral music vocabulary and general vocabulary, suggesting that children possess a lexicon that is used to describe their various life experiences, and that music words are not reserved specifically for discussions about music. Finally, 110 words were selected and compared on their frequency of use in music and general vocabularies.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among children's aural perception of tonal patterns and children's symbol use in drawing and selection tasks based on tonal information. Children's performances on perception, drawing, and selection tasks were investigated for developmental trends within and across tasks. Sixty-four children, ranging in age from 4 years, 7 months, to 12 years, 8 months, were tested for their performance on aural perception of tonal patterns (PMMA/IMMA), selection, and drawing tasks. A principal components analysis showed perception, selection, and drawing to load on one factor. When factor scores were examined for differences by age with a one-way ANOVA, age was shown to be a significant effect, F(3, 60) = 7.58, p < .001. Post-hoc comparisons showed that children at the youngest level differed significantly (p < .01) from those at the two older levels on the literacy factor, with scores on all tasks and factor score means revealing a linear trend in children's musical development of symbol use.

This study is an examination of the effect of two instructional procedures for teaching songs to children: (a) immersion, in which the teacher presents the song in its entirety repeatedly, always from the beginning of the song to its conclusion, and (b) phrase-by-phrase, a method whereby the teacher fragments and then gradually connects song phrases toward the creation of a meaningful whole. Thirty-nine second-grade children from two classes were taught two traditional children's songs using both methods in a counterbalanced design. Results showed that children taught through the immersion method performed the songs with fewer errors than did those taught through the phrase-by-phrase process. A discussion of children's need for musical and textual continuity (which the immersion process provides) is followed by recommendations for future research.

The primary goal of this study was to examine the reliability of Rutkowski's Singing Voice Development Measure for use in the general music classroom, Grades 1-6. Results indicated that the rating scale, although originally designed for young children, is reliable for use when children in Grades 1-5 perform a short major song in solo. Results from ancillary problems indicate that (a) elementary children may have a better use of their singing voice when performing a major song than a minor song, and (b) a large portion of the children sampled did not have full use of their singing voice.

I investigated whether children can demonstrate awareness of musical expression by discriminating between expressive and mechanical music fragments, performing familiar songs, and describing the fragments and songs. I further examined global or age-specific tendencies in scores and possible relationships among behaviors. Children (N = 60) from kindergarten, Grade 2, and Grade 4 completed three tasks in which they heard, played, and discussed expressive music. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and correlation coefficients were calculated to address the research questions. Results indicated task improvement with age, significant differences between kindergarten and fourth-grade scores in perception and description, and a significant relationship between perception and description, both overall and in kindergarten.

Effects of development and implementation of an interactive multimedia computer program on the achievement and attitude of 44 sixth-grade saxophonists were investigated. For 3 weeks, the control group (n = 24) participated in band while students in the experimental group (n = 20) individually worked on the computer program during 8-15 minutes of their daily band class. Following treatment, students and band directors (n = 4) completed attitude surveys. Additionally, students completed written cognitive and videotaped performance assessments subsequently analyzed by two independent judges. Findings indicated that (a) band directors believed that they had covered assessed material in class; (b) experimental students demonstrated significantly higher levels (p < . 001) of perceived knowledge and performed significantly better (p < . 001) than did control students on written and videotaped assessments; and (c) students and directors indicated acceptance of the computer program. Data suggest that proper development and application of educational multimedia computer programs may benefit instrumental education.

The objective of this study was to gather descriptive information about orchestra programs that can be used as baseline data when considering the needs of school string programs. Of the 1,345 surveys sent to schools offering orchestra instruction, 652 were completed. Orchestra teachers were asked to describe themselves, their schools, and their orchestra's curriculum, students, and music. Findings indicate a continued enrollment increase in school orchestras in the 1990s, although the number of orchestra teachers has remained relatively stable. Also, larger schools are more likely to offer orchestra instruction. The majority of orchestra students and their teachers are white. More than two-thirds of students who begin to play stringed instruments in the schools continue playing them until graduation. Twenty percent of orchestra students are in the upper 10% of their graduating class, even though they make up less than 5% of the student population.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there were any relationships between adjudicated teaching effectiveness scores, assessed by the Survey of Teaching Effectiveness (Hamann & Baker, 1995), an observation-based assessment instrument, and social skills scores, assessed by the Social Skills Inventory (Riggio, 1989), a self-report instrument, of preservice teachers. Subjects for the study, N = 138, were music education and elementary/secondary education students preparing to be teachers at three universities in Ohio and Oklahoma. From regression analysis, it was found that (a) Emotional Expressivity, an individual's skill in nonverbal communication, (b) Emotional Sensitivity, an individual's skill in receiving and interpreting nonverbal communication of others, and (c) Social Control, an individual's ability to engage others in social discourse, were related to teaching effectiveness among preservice teachers.

Student motivation and achievement in relation to Attribution Theory were examined in this study. Public school students (N = 1,114) were asked to respond to items on Asmus's Music Attribution Orientation Scale, indicating those causes that they attributed most to succeeding or failing in music. Results showed that, collectively, students placed more importance on ability and effort as causal attributions. Gender, school level, and school system were found to have significant effects on student response. Implications for teaching and future research are discussed.

This study is an examination of intonation trends of experienced wind instrumentalists with regard to harmonic intervals. Factors of interest were tuning system, location, interval type, direction of deviation from equal temperament, and group. Subjects (N = 16) were experienced wind instrumentalists (8 professionals, 8 advanced students). Subjects recorded a duet, first playing the melody with a synthesized harmony line, and then vice versa. Target intervals were analyzed, converted to cent distance, and compared. Results indicated that deviation was greatest when compared to just tuning and least when compared to equal tempered tuning. For cent deviation from equal temperament, thirds and sixths were performed slightly less in-tune than fourths, fifths, unisons, and octaves. Location affected direction of deviation as subjects played sharp and less in tune when performing below the stimulus. The student group performed less sharp than the professional group when performing below the stimulus and less in tune when performing above.

A model predicting student intentions to continue in a high school band program was developed and tested. Past research indicates that socioeconomic level and academic competency predict musical aptitude and achievement; these factors may also predict intentions to continue studying music or continue participating in a band program. Factors that may mediate the relation between socioeconomic level, intellectual competency, and intentions—such as students' attitudes toward the band program and their extracurricular musical activities—were also examined. Students provided information about their socioeconomic levels, current grades, attributions for performance in band class, extracurricular musical activities, and perceptions of the attitudes of their parents, band teachers, and the school toward the band program. In addition, band teachers evaluated each student's performance in band. Structural equation modeling indicated that socioeconomic level and teacher evaluations predicted intentions to continue both directly and indirectly through students' outside musical activities and through support for the program by their parents, band teachers, and the school. Implications of these findings for band instruction and suggestions for future research are presented.

This study is an investigation of the role of some key characteristics of teachers in the development of students' musical ability. Interviewing 257 children who differed in the extent of their instrumental mastery, we discovered that the most successful learners regarded their teachers differently from those children who ceased music study. The more successful learners rated their first teacher higher than did other learners on personal dimensions such as friendliness, and rated their current teacher higher than did other learners on task-oriented professional dimensions such as pushiness. Additionally, the highly successful learners studied, on average, with more teachers than did the other learners; these learners also generally received more individual instruction than did the children who eventually ceased lessons. These findings confirm the importance of matching teacher characteristics to the changing requirements of learners in enabling the development of high levels of musical expertise.