Journal of Research in Music Education

This study examined first-, third-, and fifth-graders' (n = 73) ability to hear two simultaneous melodies. Two familiar melodies and one unfamiliar melody were used as the stimuli. The pairs of simultaneous melodies were presented in different register and timbre combinations. The children were asked to press specially labeled keys on a computer keyboard to indicate which song(s) they heard. Responses were recorded by a computer. The older children identified two simultaneous melodies faster and more accurately than the younger ones did. While 70% of the first graders reported hearing two melodies and identified them with 75 % accuracy, more than 95% of the fifth graders reported hearing two melodies and identified them with 97%) accuracy. Children who were able to correctly identify two simultaneous melodies identified the melody in the upper register first significantly more often than the one in the lower register. However, when the melodies were played with contrasting timbres (trumpet and piano), they tended to identify the trumpet melody before they identified the piano melody regardless of register. Children who were only able to identify one melody tended to focus on the upper melody when the timbre was the same in both registers, but when the melodies were played with contrasting timbres, they attended to the trumpet melody regardless of register.

This study was designed as an examination of teacher perceptions about factors affecting the successful teaching of the National Standards for Music Education. Subjects of the study were music specialists and fourth-grade classroom teachers—or generalists—from public elementary schools throughout Florida. A survey was administered to both groups to determine opinions regarding the feasibility of implementing each of the nine National Standards for Music Education (singing, playing instruments, improvising, composing/arranging, reading/notating, listening/analyzing, evaluating, understanding music as it relates to other subjects, and understanding musk as it relates to history and culture) by rating seven items (contact time, resources, assistance, ability, training, interest, responsibility, and level of assistance). Results indicated that, with respect to all seven items, music specialists are considerably more amenable to the implementation of all nine standards than are general educators. Certain standards are more feasible for both music teachers and generalists to integrate, whereas others should be solely implemented by music teachers. Music specialists are less dependent on the assistance of generalists, but the generalists need the assistance of music specialists to successfully implement most standards. Both groups expressed a concern about the lack of time and resources to effectively teach what is required by most standards.

We prepared a survey instrument to determine the purpose, format, and content of courses available to undergraduate elementary education majors at institutions accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). We examined the types of music courses offered to elementary classroom teachers, the content of the courses, the instructor's purpose for each course, and factors that influenced curricular decisions. We mailed the questionnaire to 530 schools listed in the NASM directory. An initial and two follow-up mailings yielded 316 responses (60%). The Kruskal-Wallis test for independent samples revealed statistical significance beyond the .01 level for the fundamentals course, F (2, 27) = 17.17. The study's results show there was stronger agreement among respondents who taught fundamentals courses than among respondents who taught methods or combined courses.

We investigated the effects of variations in tone quality on listeners' perception of both tone quality and intonation. University music and nonmusic major instrumentalists and high school students participating in instrumental ensembles served as listeners (N = 116). High-quality digital samples of clarinet, trumpet, and trombone tones were used. The original tone quality of each instrument was manipulated to produce experimental stimuli of “bright” and “dark” relative to the unaltered tone quality. Results indicated that the more inexperienced instrumentalists rated stimuli that were relatively “brighter' in tone quality as sharper in intonation, and conversely, stimuli of relatively ”darker' tone quality were judged to be flatter in intonation. For the brass instruments, listeners judged the unaltered and bright tones as better in tone quality than tones that were relatively dark. However, for the clarinet tones, the bright tone quality was judged to be worse than unaltered or dark-quality stimuli.

Calvin Brainerd Cady (1851-1928) was an influential American music educator who developed a theory of music education that emphasized the unification of children's thoughts and feelings. Focusing on the development of artistic music-conception (the ability to hear music in the mind), Cady taught music's intellectual and emotional aspects simultaneously. Cady demonstrated the effectiveness of his theory through successful music education practices at John Dewey's laboratory school and at his own Music-Education School. Cady was a significant reformer who pioneered several new activities and principles that became standard practices. His practical theories and effective practice influenced many music educators and the course of American music education history. His unification of thought and feeling in the music curriculum is still relevant to current and future music education practices.

The purpose of this study was to design a valid and reliable instrument—the Ralston Repertoire Difficulty Index (RRDI)—to measure the difficulty of solo vocal repertoire. Another aspect of this study was to determine the RRDI's ability to be used by voice teachers of all experience levels and to discriminate songs' difficulty into levels. Seven criteria—range, tessitura, rhythm, phrases, melodic line, harmonic foundations, and pronunciation—were incorporated in the instrument. The RRDI was tested by 34 postsecondary voice teachers. Results of the study showed that each criterion was significantly related to one overall rating established by Boytim (1982). The results also indicated high validity and reliability, and analyses revealed that the RRDI discriminated across difficulty levels and was used similarly by teachers of all experience levels.

This replication is the third causal-comparative study of expert and novice instrumental music teachers seeking to determine characteristics that may define successful, outstanding band directors, using methodology refined in two previous studies (Goolsby, 1996, 1997). Here, 10 expert and 10 novice teachers prepared an identical composition for a rated performance. A total of 216 rehearsals were analyzed to establish frequency distributions for 30 teaching and performance variables and for sequential patterns of instruction. Results showed that novices used more time overall and spent more time in verbal instruction while preparing the composition. The expert teachers spent a greater percentage of the rehearsals performing than novices did. Differences for frequency distributions indicate that novice teachers stopped and restarted more frequently without providing instruction; experts addressed balance, style, tone, and intonation more than did novices.