3".X-1.I.NA .
{31:de
..

 

. . ‘
77¢ ‘ . . .
.93.: V . . ‘ , x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.-
z).la.

 

.2: .35 5, : ‘ . n3 .. I ‘ ,
@213 .. ME 3%? ., , _ g A . g y... a

K .2...

 

THESIS

I???

l”

"Immlll‘illlllllllljllllgllml "

3 1293 0181

This is to certify that the

The ‘ffl’cté a? disse 3:622;th £51“; (Ml/MW,
”/7 04¢,“ MwflWfM/(MMJ am afa-wM
got M~M gz/fit Via/9v (ta/é m- 16‘0”» W

presented by
06‘ - Lc‘ OAJWJ/

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

f/ D degree in Maflib EAULCI‘K‘iO fl

 

Major professor

Ww a. PM-
U
DateLJt’Lljl lb]. ’96]?

MS U is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution 0-1

 

- — ffig v ‘4 —

 

LIBRARY
Michigan State
University

 

 

 

PLACE IN RETURN Box to remove this checkout from your record.
To AVOID FINE return on or before date due.
MAY BE RECALLED with earlier due date if requested.

 

DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1M WWpfiS-n“

 

 

THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT INCIDENTAL LISTENING EXPERIENCES ON
PERFORMANCE ACHIEVEMENT AND DEVELOPMENTAL MUSIC APTITUDE
OF FIRST-GRADE SUZUKI VIOLIN AND NON-VIOLIN STUDENTS

By

Da—Li Chang

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
School of Music

1999

ABSTRACT

THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT INCIDENTAL LISTENING EXPERIENCES ON
PERFORMANCE ACHIEVEMENT AND DEVELOPMENTAL MUSIC APTITUDE

OF F IRST-GRADE SUZUKI VIOLIN AND NON-VIOLIN STUDENTS

Da—Li Chang

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of incidental listening
experiences on the performance achievement of beginning Suzuki violin students and
developmental music aptitude of first-grade students. The following specific problems
were investigated: (a) the efl‘ects of difl‘erent listening experiences (a wide variety of
music, only repeated Suzuki repertoire, none) on the performance achievement of first-
grade beginning Suzuki violin students, (b) the efl‘ects of these difi‘erent listening
experiences on the developmental music aptitude of first grade students whether receiving
Suzuki instruction or not, and (c) the effects of Suzuki violin instruction on the
developmental music aptitudes of first-grade beginning Suzuki violin students.

The sample consisted of 170 Taiwanese first-grade students; 66 in three Suzuki
groups and 104 in three non-Suzuki groups. The Primary Measures of Music Audiation

(PMMA) was administered to all subjects as a pretest. Students in the three Suzuki

groups received the same Suzuki violin instruction but different daily listening treatments.
The three non-Suzuki groups received the same three listening treatments as the three
Suzuki groups. At the end of the 21-week instructional period, PMMA was again
administered to all subjects as a posttest. Students in the Suzuki groups were also
individually audiotaped performing “Twinkle Variation A” and “Yankee Doodle.” Their
performances were rated by three independent judges on Intonation, Rhythm, and Tone
Quality on a researcher-designed rating scale.

Results suggested that simultaneous incidental listening to the piece studied and a
variety of other music is most profitable for performance achievement, although statistical
significance was not achieved. The Rhythm aptitude mean gains of non-violin students
who received typical Suzuki listening treatment were significantly greater (a=.05) than
those who did not receive any listening treatment. In the population with high pre-
instruction Tonal aptitude, Suzuki students who did not receive the listening treatment
were found to improve significantly (or.=.05) in Rhythm and overall music aptitude
compared to students who received neither Suzuki violin instruction nor listening
treatment. It was also found that the overall music aptitude of first grade students was

significantly improved (p=.01) after 21 weeks of beginning Suzuki violin instruction.

Copyright by
DA-LI CHANG

1 999

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Judy Palac, my advisor, who
dedicated many hours guiding me through the dissertation process. I would also like to
thank the other committee members, Dr. John Kratus, Dr. Cynthia Taggart, and, Dr.
Walter Verdehr for their suggestions to refine this study. I would also like to give special
thanks to Dr. John Kratus, the director of music education at Michigan State University,
and other faculty of the music education department, who helped me from the beginning
of my pursuit of the Ph. D. degree.

I would like to extend my gratitude to my students, their parents, and the teachers
and their students who participated in this study. Without their cooperation, this study
could not have proceeded. I would also like to thank my family who helped to recruit
subjects and fi'iends who supported me through their prayers.

Finally, I would like to give my deepest appreciation and love to my wife, Fang-

Chen, for her constant support and encouragement throughout the years at MSU.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................... ix
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1
The Role of Listening in the Suzuki Method ......................................................... 2
Listening and the Development of Music Aptitude ...................................... 6
Music Instruction and the Development of Music Aptitude ............................. 7
The Focus of This Study .................................................................... 8
Summary ........................................................................................................... 10
Purpose and Problems of the Study .................................................................... 13
Definitions ......................................................................................................... 14
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ...................................................................... 15
The Effects of Music Listening on Instrumental Performance Achievement ........ 15
Guided Aural Models ............................................................................. 15
Unguided Aural Models .......................................................................... 23
The Effects of Listening on Musical Response and Developmental Music
Aptitude ....................................................................................................... 29
The Efi‘ects of Music Instruction on Developmental Music Aptitude ................... 36
Summary ........................................................................................................... 55
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................ 58
Sample ............................................................................................................... 58
Preparation of Listening (Treatment) Tapes ....................................................... 59
Preparation of PMMA Testing Cassette in the Chinese Language ....................... 60
Procedure .......................................................................................................... 61
Research Instruments ......................................................................................... 64
Primary Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA) .................................... 64
Performance Achievement Test .............................................................. 66
Data Analysis ..................................................................................................... 67
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION .......................................................................... 69
The Effects of Incidental Music Listening on Instrumental Performance
Achievement ................................................................................................ 69
Results ................................................................................................... 69
Results for “Twinkle Variation A” .............................................. 70
Results for “Yankee Doodle” ...................................................... 74
Interpretation ......................................................................................... 78

The Effects of Incidental Music Listening on Developmental Music Aptitude ..... 85

Results ................................................................................................... 85
Comparison among Suzuki groups .............................................. 85
Comparison among non-Suzuki groups ....................................... 9O
Interpretation ......................................................................................... 95
The Effects of Suzuki Instruction on Developmental Music Aptitude ................. 98
Results ................................................................................................... 98
Interpretation ....................................................................................... 102
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................................................... 106
Summary of the Study ...................................................................................... 106
Purpose and Problems .......................................................................... 106
Procedure ............................................................................................. 106
Analysis ................................................................................................ 108
Results and Conclusions ....................................................................... 109
The effects of incidental music listening on performance
achievement ........................................................................ 109
The efi‘ects of music listening on developmental music
aptitude ............................................................................... 111
The effects of Suzuki instruction on developmental music
aptitude ............................................................................... 112
Implications for Music Education ..................................................................... 114
Recommendations for Future Research ............................................................ 116
APPENDICES
APPENDD( A: Repertoire for a Wide Variety of Music Listening .................... 120
APPENDIX B: Repertoire for Typical Suzuki Listening ................................... 124
APPENDIX C: Permission Letter From GIA Publications ................................ 127
APPENDIX D: UCRIHS Permission ............................................................... 128
APPENDIX E: Letter To Parents of the Suzuki Subjects ................................. 129
APPENDD( E: Letter To Parents of the Suzuki Subjects (Translation) ............ 131
APPENDIX F: Consent Form for Suzuki Subjects ........................................... 133
APPENDIX F: Consent Form for Suzuki Subjects (Translation) ...................... 134
APPENDD( G: Letter to the Principals ............................................................ 135
APPENDIX G: Letter to the Principals (Translation) ....................................... 137
APPENDIX H: Letter to Parents of the Non-Suzuki Subjects .......................... 139
APPENDD( H: Letter to Parents of the Non-Suzuki Subjects (Translation) ..... 141
APPENDIX 1: Consent Form for Non-Suzuki Subjects .................................... 143
APPENDIX 1: Consent Form for Non-Suzuki Subjects (Translation) ............... 144
APPENDIX J: Twinkle Variation A ................................................................. 145
APPENDIX K: Yankee Doodle ....................................................................... 146
APPENDIX L: Performance Achievement Rating Scale ................................. 147
APPENDD( L: Performance Achievement Rating Scale (Translation) ............ 148
APPENDIX M: Sample of PMMA Test Sheet, Tonal Subtest .......................... 149

BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................... 1 50

viii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Performance Achievement Scores for “Twinkle Variation A” ............................ 71
Table 2 Comparison of Performance Achievement for “Twinkle Variation A”

(ANOVA) ........................................................................................................ 71
Table 3 Comparison of “Twinkle” Performance Achievement When Pre-Instruction

PMMA Tonal, Rhythm Scores and Practice Amount Were Used as Covariates

(General Factorial ANOVA) ............................................................................. 73
Table 4 Adjusted Performance Mean Scores for “Twinkle Variation A” ........................ 74
Table 5 Performance Achievement Scores for “Yankee Doodle” ................................... 75

Table 6 Comparison of Performance Achievement for “Yankee Doodle”
(AN OVA) ........................................................................................................ 75
Table 7 Comparison of “Yankee” Performance Achievement When Pre-Instruction

PMMA Tonal and Rhythm Scores and Practice Amount Were Used as Covariates

(General Factorial AN OVA) ............................................................................. 77
Table 8 Adjusted Performance Mean Scores for “Yankee Doodle” ................................ 78
Table 9 PMMA Pretest Results of All Suzuki Students .................................................. 86
Table 10 PMMA Pretest, Posttest, and Gain Scores of Suzuki Groups .......................... 88
Table 11 Comparison of PMMA Sores Among Suzuki Groups (ANOVA) .................... 89
Table 12 PMMA Pretest Results of All Non-Suzuki Students ........................................ 92
Table 13 PMMA Pretest, Posttest, and Gain Scores of Non-Suzuki Groups .................. 93

Table 14 PMMA Pretest, Posttest, and Gain Scores of Listening (Group 5) and

Non-Listening (Group 6) Students Without Suzuki Instruction ....................... 94
Table 15 Pre-Instruction PMMA Scores of Suzuki (Group 3) and Non-Suzuki

(Group 6) Students............ ............................................................................. 99
Table 16 Comparison of PMMA Scores Between Suzuki and Non-Suzuki Groups

(Independent-samples 1 Test) .......................................................................... 99
Table 17 Comparison of PMMA Scores Between Suzuki and Non-Suzuki Groups

for Students With High Pretest PMMA Tonal Scores

(Independent-samples t Test) ........................................................................ 101
Table 18 Comparison of Pretest and Posttest PMMA Scores of Suzuki Students

Without Listening Treatment (Independent-samples t Test) ........................... 101
Table 19 Comparison of Pretest and Posttest PMMA Scores of Non-Suzuki Students

Without Listening Treatment (Independent-samples 1 Test) ........................... 102

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

This study investigates the relationships of incidental listening to recorded music
and music instruction to instrumental performance achievement and development of
musical aptitude. Incidental listening is an important component of Suzuki pedagogy.
Listening to recorded music of pieces they have learned, are learning, or will learn in the
near future is a part of Suzuki students’ daily duties. Although Suzuki teachers have
experienced and anecdotally reported that repeated incidental listening to an audiotape
model of pieces students are learning helps them to learn easily and perform well, few
controlled studies on this phenomenon exist. Edwin Gordon (1986, p. 72) also afiirms the
value of incidental listening; however, he suggests that listening to a wide variety of music,
rather than repeated listening to a limited repertoire, helps increase children’s
developmental music aptitude (Levinowitz, 1989, p. 81). Research has not yet been done
comparing these two types of listening. The common threads of research that inquire into
music listening and musical learning concern the efiects of using recorded models in
instrumental learning and the identification of environmental factors that influence
children’s musical response and capabilities.

Gordon purports that music aptitude is developmental in the early years of life. It
can be afi‘ected during the first nine years not only by the musical environment but also by
music instruction. In response to Gordon’s views, many studies have been done to

examine the concept of developmental music aptitude and to evaluate which instructional

approach is most efi’ective to develop music aptitude. That it may develop as a result of
appropriate music instruction is supported by research. However, no definite conclusions
have been reached by studies on the effects of Suzuki instruction on the development of

music aptitude.

The Role of Listening in the Suzuki Method

The Suzuki method, according to Suzuki himself, should be called the “mother
tongue” approach (Starr, 197 6). Suzuki believed that every child has the potential to
speak his native language and that the process through which a child learns to speak his
mother tongue is a marvelous educational process (Suzuki, 1981, p. 5). The newborn
baby hears his mother tongue at birth and continues being exposed to this language
throughout his or her youth. As long as he is a normal child, he can fluently speak this
language at age five or six, no matter how dificult it is. Thus, obviously, there must be
listening before speaking. Suzuki believed that “what does not exist in the environment
cannot be developed” (Suzuki, 1983, p. 12). By repeated stimulation and practice, the
child can develop abilities and make them his own (Suzuki, 1973, p.3).

When the concept of the mother tongue is applied to music education, a rich
musical environment should be established fi'om birth, rather than waiting for formal
lessons to begin, just as the baby has been exposed to his native language fiom his birth,
long before his formal schooling. Suzuki felt that “musical education should start shortly
after birth, with the baby being exposed to repeated playings of a single selection of
music” (Starr, 1976, p. 7). Rather than listening to various recordings throughout the day

or listening to classical music on the radio all day long, Suzuki suggested that repeated

listening to limited repertoire is more efi‘ective. He felt that exposure to a wide variety of
music may lead the child to assimilate some of the general characteristics of the music, but
that repeated exposure to limited repertoire leads the child to memorize the melody (Starr,
1976, p. 7) and also teaches note sequences, pattern recognition, pitch sensitivity, and
sensitivity to musical expression (Bigler & Lloyd-Watts, 1979, pp. 24-25). In Suzuki’s
opinion, having the melody memorized is invaluable to instrumental learning. First, it
motivates the child to want to play the music. Second, the child will be able to pay
attention to his playing without being distracted by notation. However, repeated limited
listening is not the only type of listening suggested by Suzuki; he also encouraged
advanced students to listen to a variety of recordings of the same work to learn
interpretation (Starr & Starr, 1986; Mills,l974).

Suzuki believed that “man is the product of his environment” (Suzuki, 1983, p. 37)
and that the newborn baby naturally has the ability to accustom himself to the environment
just as he accustoms himself to the sounds of the “mother tongue.” He did not believe in
innate ability; in contrast, he believed that “it is a superior environment that has the
greatest efi‘ect in creating superior abilities” (Suzuki, 1983, p.13) and that “the only
superior quality a child can have at birth is the ability to adapt itself with more speed and
sensitivity to its environment than others” (Suzuki, 1983, p. 13). Therefore, he suggested
that babies should listen to famous works and beautiful music from birth, regardless of the
difficulty of the music, instead of out-of-tune lullabies sung by a mother (Suzuki, 1981, p.
9). He also believed that students internalize good music by listening to it continuously
(Suzuki, 1981, p.25). He said, “From my tests of twenty years, I have found that young

children who have been given a chance to listen to good music acquire a good sense of

music -- just like naturally being accustomed to their mother tongue” (Starr, 1976, p. 7).
Applying this belief to violin teaching, Suzuki had children listen to the performances of
famous violinists like Fritz Kreisler many times, while he taught them the technique of
violin playing and tone production. He believed that in this way, the children would
internalize the sensitivity of Kreisler, and perhaps even surpass Kreisler. He believed that
in some sense, the children would be having a lesson with Kreisler when they listened to
Kreisler’s performance. Kreisler taught them musical sensitivity, and Suzuki taught them
the technique of violin playing. (Suzuki, 1981, p. 25)

Suzuki constantly reiterated the importance of listening for instrumental learning.
He told mothers that “the young child’s rate of progress is directly dependent upon the
amount of listening he does” (Starr, 1976, p. 7). Attentive listening, however, is not
required for the young child. He can listen while having breakfast, playing in the sandbox,
or riding his bicycle. Suzuki teachers believe that the child can “easily absorb the sounds
without seeming to be paying any attention to the music” (Starr, 1976, p.7). However, in
addition to unconscious listening, concentrated listening is necessary for the advanced
student to distinguish some delicate nuances in the music (Starr, 1976, p.8).

Suzuki teachers usually suggest three phases of listening for their students. First,
the student should listen to the piece that he is studying. Second, he should listen to
recordings of the pieces that he will study in the near future so that the time to learn new
pieces can be shortened. Third, he should listen to the pieces that he has learned earlier to
keep them flesh in his memory (Starr, 1976; Slone, 1982).

Although the specific relationship between listening and performance has largely

not been researched, there is general agreement among music educators on the value of

inclusion of music listening in instrumental performance instruction. Suzuki is neither the
only one nor the first one who held this opinion. Schleuter (1984) offered that listening to
recorded models of music helps to develop skill in producing tone quality in instrumental
learning. Hartshorn (1953) stated that recordings have great potential value in the
development of pitch, tempo, tone quality, phrasing, and dynamics in instrumental learning
of elementary school students (as cited in Folts, 1973, p. 6). In the beginning instrumental
music program of the Manhattanville Music Curriculum Program (MMCP), listening to
tape-recorded models was included in the activities of beginning instrumental music
instruction (Thomas, 1970, as cited in Schleuter, 1986, p.82).

Audio recordings may serve as aural models in the learning of performance. The
aural model generates in the listeners internal images of performance, which have been
recognized by music educators and psychologists as having a strong relationship to
performance learning. Steven Keele (1976, p. 126) believed that the detailed music
templates that are established in the brain by listening provide children models to compare
with their own performances and to recognize their own errors. Wickes (1982, p. 23)
suggested that a clear mental image of the music to be learned would make music practice
easier. Schleuter (1986) concluded that “there is little doubt that eficient practice
depends upon the development of internalized models of performance” (p.82). In the
performance pedagogy NLP, which stands for Natural Learning Process, programming
the brain with good musical images is listed as the first step of performance learning
(Kohut, 1985, p. 18). Most studies that have investigated the relationship of the aural
model to performance achievement have made positive comments on the effects of the

aural model.

Lienin thvlmthi i

Music aptitude is defined by Edwin Gordon as the potential to learn music
(Gordon, 1986, p. 3). In contrast to the belief that music aptitude is hereditary, Gordon
purports that music aptitude is a product of both nature and environment (Gordon, 1986,
p. 4). He believes that everyone is born with some level of music aptitude, but this can be
affected by the environment in the first nine years of life. From birth through
approximately age nine, one’s music aptitude can either increase, decrease, or remain the
same but will never be higher than that with which one was born. After approximately age
nine, music aptitude will no longer be affected by any environmental factors or music
instruction and will not continue to fluctuate. It will stabilize and remain at about that
level throughout life. After age nine, one’s music aptitude scores may increase fi'om year
to year, but his/her percentile ranks will remain relatively constant (Gordon, 1986, p. 4).
The terms “developmental music aptitude” and “stabilized music aptitude” individually
represent two stages of music aptitude: before and after aptitude stabilization.

According to Gordon (1986), listening is one of the environmental factors that
may influence the development of music aptitude. Just as a young child needs to hear
conversation to develop his language ability, exposure to music, either unconscious or
conScious, is important for the development of musical ability. Schleuter (1984)
suggested that “informal exposure through listening to music is the first step in the process
of developing an awareness of tonality” (p.67). Gordon (1986) believes that “the child
unconsciously absorbs what he hears but does not comprehend” (p. 71) and that the
quality and quantity of the music a child unconsciously listens to helps him to acquire the

ability to recognize music styles and elements, which is the basis of his comprehending

music at a later time (p.72). He considers unconscious listening to be of greatest value to
the young child and suggested that “no efi‘ort should be made to make the young child
listen to what is being played, nor should the playing of the music be discontinued if the
young child does not appear to be attending to it” (Gordon, 1986, p. 72). Brand (1985)
seconded Gordon’s view by asserting that the child can benefit from listening to music
without the need to attend to it. It appears to Gordon that “the most crucial time for
unconscious listening to music is before age three” (p. 72).

To provide appropriate music listening experience, Gordon suggested that all
styles of music should be heard, including classical music of different eras, ethnic music
from various cultures, popular music, jazz, and so on (Levinowitz, 1989, p.81). Many
educators have agreed that exposure to a wide variety of musical styles and elements is
appropriate for young children (Bentley, 1975, p. 28; Kenney, 1989, p. 35; Matter, 1982,
p. 307; Metz, 1989, p. 50). Gordon recommended several criteria for music that is good
for tonal and rhythmic aptitude development. The difficulty level of music is not a
concern because high quality “adult” recordings are favored by Gordon over those
intended for children. Good tone quality is the foremost criterion in consideration for
music for listening. Following tone quality, timbre, dynamics, tonality, tempo, and meter
are of concern. Music with fiequently changing timbre and contrasting dynamics is
preferred. Gordon believes that “the more contrasting dynanrics sections and contrasting
timbre sections the music has, the better the impression it will make on the young child”
(1986, p. 72). The children should also have opportunities to listen to melodies in various
tonalities, such as major, minor, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, and aeolian

(Levinowitz, 1989, p.81). This idea was supported by Schleuter, who suggested (1984)

 

Sli

it:

Up.

that children be provided with opportunities for repeated listening to recorded songs with
melodies in various modes. For rhythmic development, Gordon (1986) suggested that
many different tempos and meters should be heard. However, a piece of music with
frequent changes of tempo or meter is not appropriate. Children may not learn the need
for stability of tempo if the tempo within a piece exaggeratedly changes. In Gordon’s
Opinion, “a given selection, or at least a major part of a selection, should remain in the
same tempo and the same meter,” but different pieces of music in different tempos and

meters should be heard (p.74).

Music Instruction and the Development of Music Aptitude

Gordon believes that developmental music aptitude is a result of the interaction of
innate capacities with environmental influences, including music instruction. In his study
in western New York (1979), PMMA was administered to seventy-seven 5- to 8- year-old
children in a community school and 75 children of the same age in a private academic
school. The test results were compared to the scores of children who participated in the
standardization program of PMMA The 7 — and 8-year-old children attending the
community music school were found to score significantly higher than the standardization
group on the Rhythm test. Most children who attended the community music school lived
in a very poor neighborhood where musical opportunities were limited, but they may have
had higher innate music aptitude as reflected by their interest in studying music. The
standardization group represent a stratified sample of typical children, who probably
demonstrated a normal distribution of innate capacities and who had broader cultural

opportunities but less systematic music instruction than the community music school

children. Gordon believed that the quality instruction the 7- and 8-year-old children
received in the community music school compensated for their meager cultural
opportunities, and their significantly higher rhythmic scores might be accounted for by
their high innate capacities and intensive ballet instruction in the community music school.

Gordon also purported that instructional procedures in music must be considered
for their effects on developmental music aptitude (1980, p.29). He suggested that
“instruction is best adapted to children’s individual musical differences by exposing each
group to tonal and rhythm patterns of different difliculty levels that are performed at
various levels of skills.” (1986, p.83) He conducted a study in West Irondequoit, New
York (Gordon, 1980), in which some students received eight months of specified music
instruction following the suggestion of the PMMA manual, which accommodated
students’ individual needs as evidenced by PMMA test results, and some students received
traditional music instruction fiom teachers without this knowledge. The students whose
individual musical needs were cared for received significantly higher PMMA scores than
the students who did not receive such individual care.

The influence of instruction on the development of music aptitude, according to
Gordon, may not be always positive. He stressed that appropriate music instruction is
necessary to maintain or increase a child’s music aptitude. If, after a child receives music
instruction for a period of time, his music aptitude is found to decrease, the music
instruction may have been inappropriate for him. Furthermore, the effect of instruction on
developmental music aptitude varies according to the age of child. The younger the child,
the stronger the influence of instruction (Gordon, 1986, p. 103; Taggart, 1997). The

influence of instruction upon developmental music aptitude must be taken seriously by

educators, given that music aptitude will stabilize at a level that is dependent upon its
development in the first nine years of life and that a child’s music achievement cannot be
expected to reach a higher level than his stabilized music aptitude allows (Gordon, 1986,
p. 4). Several studies have been conducted in order to explore the factors in instruction
that are responsible for the development of aptitude (DiBlassio, 1984; Dowdy, 1996).
The efi'ects of some existing well-known movement and instrumental pedagogies on
musical aptitude have also been examined and compared (Blesedell, 1991; Cemohorsky,

1991; Stamou, 1998; Woodrufi‘, 1983).

Summary

Because Suzuki advocated that talent is not inborn, and that man is the product of
his environment, he gave people an impression that he believed that people are born with
equal ability. However, since he admitted that people may be born with difi‘erent skill
levels of adapting to the environment, he in fact admitted that pe0ple may be born with
different talent or aptitude, similar to Gordon’s opinion. While acknowledging the
inequality that people could be born with, both Suzuki and Gordon advocated that the
environment may largely influence a person’s ability development or music aptitude. But
there are some difi‘erences between their issues. First, Suzuki believed that environment is
stronger than innate difi‘erences for a person’s ability development. For Gordon,
environmental factors contribute to a child’s music aptitude development before age nine,
but no matter how favorable his environment is, a child’s aptitude cannot be higher than
that he was born with. Second, to Suzuki, listening is the most important factor the in

environment that influences a child’s instrumental learning since Suzuki obviously did not

10

mention any other environmental factors in his writings or lectures. But to Gordon,
listening as well as singing and moving may influence children’s aptitude development.

Both Suzuki and Gordon borrow ideas fiom the learning process of language
speaking and apply them to the process of musical learning; for them, in the same way that
incidental listening to conversation is important to language development, incidental
listening to music is the same important to musical learning. They both insist that children
should be exposed from birth to beautiful music of high tone quality, regardless of the
dificulty of the music. Furthermore, in addition to incidental listening, attentive listening
is considered by Suzuki as important for advanced instrumental students, and also is
important to developmental music aptitude fiom Grodon’s viewpoint. However, Suzuki
implied that out-of-tune lullabies sung by a mother may cause a negative influence, since
the environment molds a person. For this reason, he appeared to encourage listening to
musical recordings rather than hearing a mother singing. Somewhat contradictory to
Suzuki, Gordon does not specifically state any possible negative influence of listening on
developmental music aptitude. He considered that, in addition to hearing recorded music,
the child should have opportunities to listen to adults sing or hum directly to him as long
as the performance is with pleasant tone quality. He said both types of listening are
equally important (Gordon, 1986, p. 72). Another difference between them in the matter
of listening is that Suzuki preferred repeated listening to limited repertoire but Gordon
encouraged a wide variety of listening.

Although Gordon does not mention any probable negative influence of listening on

developmental music aptitude, he implies that inappropriate music instruction may

11

negatively influence the development of music aptitude. The effect of music instruction on

developmental music aptitude should be carefully considered.

The Focus of This Study

The effects of incidental listening experience on performance achievement and on
development of music aptitude of beginning violinists are the focus of the current research.
The practice of regular listening in the Suzuki method, which originates in the theory of
the mother tongue, lies at the heart of the Suzuki method. Although Suzuki teachers have
experienced that listening to an audiotape model of pieces students are learning helps them
to learn easily and perform well, the large body of literature about listening in the Suzuki
approach is all based on anecdotal evidence. Suzuki suggested that incidental listening is
an important means of musical exposure. In his view, the child’s musical progress directly
depends upon the amount of listening he or she does, and he commended the mothers who
devised means to increase their children’s listening by letting their children listen to music
no matter in what they were engaged. From a practical viewpoint, it is almost impossible
for most children to listen to music without engaging in other activities. Therefore,
incidental listening may be the most common and practical type of listening for young
children. It is imperative to have more knowledge of the effect of incidental exposure to
music on the development of children’s performance achievement and music aptitude.

Two different types of listening experiences will be investigated. Suzuki,
approaching music fiom the angle of instrumental performance achievement, advocated
the effectiveness of repeated listening to lirrrited repertoire. Gordon, who emphasizes the

development of music aptitude, advocates a variety of listening. The influences of the two

12

types

8min.

Unite
weal
resul
11109

to th

“Pt
ac‘ri

Speg

'9
V

types of listening experiences on performance achievement and developmental music
aptitude will be compared to no listening and also to each other in the current study.
Furthermore, since the Suzuki method is widely adopted by music programs in the
United States and has received much attention all over the world, the strengths and
weaknesses of this method should be firrther identified and investigated by research. The
results of studies on the influence of the Suzuki method on music aptitude are few, and
those are rather inconclusive. The current study will seek to contribute more information

to the efi‘ect of this method on music aptitude.

Pumose and Problems of the Study

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of incidental listening
experience at home during the instrumental instruction period on the performance
achievement and developmental music aptitude of beginning Suzuki violin students. The
specific problems of the study are as follows:

1) to investigate the efi‘ect of difi‘erent incidental listening experiences (a wide variety of
music, typical Suzuki repertoire listening, none) on the performance achievement of
first-grade beginning Suzuki violin students in temrs of pitch, rhythm accuracy, and
tone quality.

2) to investigate the efi‘ects of difi‘erent incidental listening experiences (a wide variety of
music, typical Suzuki repertoire listening, none) on the development of music aptitude
of first-grade students.

3) to investigate the efi‘ects of Suzuki violin instruction on the developmental music

aptitude of first grade students.

13

Definitions

Incidental/Unconscious Listening: Listening occurring in the environment that
is not focused or conscious or is not expected to have any specific effects.

Attentive/Conscious Listening: Listening with attention or with specific
purposes.

Aural Model: As used in this study, the aural model is the performance of music
on an audiotape that is played through an audio cassette tape recorder.

Unguided Aural Model: Aural model that contains only the performance of
music without any guidance or practice assistance.

Guided Aural Model: Aural model that contains verbal instruction in addition to
performance of music.

Music Aptitude: The potential to achieve in music.

Developmental Music Aptitude: Music aptitude that can be affected by the
environment, approximately before age nine.

Stabilized Music Aptitude: Music aptitude that cannot be afi‘ected by the
environment, approximately after age nine.

Audiation: Hearing and comprehending in one’s mind music that is not physically
present.

Performance Achievement: Accomplishment in instrumental or vocal

performance measured in terms of intonation, rhythm, etc.

14

cl:

Fe

is

(a

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

The Effects of Music Listening 9n Instrumental Performance Achievement

The efi‘ects of aural models on performance achievement have been examined by
several researchers. Most of them used guided aural models; only a small number of them
used unguided aural models. The unguided model contains only performance of music,
without any guidance or practice assistance, while the guided model contains verbal
description in addition to performance of the music to assist practice. Guided aural
models were found by most studies to have a significant influence on the learning of
performance, but most unguided aural models did not demonstrate the same efi‘ects.
manganese;

Researchers have demonstrated that the recorded guided aural model is efi‘ective in
assisting elementary age students to practice after receiving a teacher’s instruction. F olts
(1973) compared the relative effects of practicing with and without recordings on flute,
clarinet, and trumpet performance. Dependent variables were tone quality and
performance skill, which is the aggregate of six skills measured by the Watkins-Famum
Performance Scale, including articulation, expression, pitch, repeats, rhythm, and tempo.
The subjects were ninety 4'”-, 5"‘-, and 6m-grade students with one-half to one and one-half
years of instrumental experience. The subjects were divided into control and experimental
groups on the basis of initial achievement scores on the Watkins-Farmm Performance

Scale. Students from both groups received instruction fiom the same teacher and

15

I‘M

practiced the same material for the same amount of time during the 14 weeks of treatment.
Students from the control group practiced the exercise repeatedly to work for accuracy,
without the assistance of recordings. Students fiom the experimental group practiced with
the recordings, which entailed the student to first listen to the recorded performance and
then to play the exercise with recorded piano accompaniment. Results indicated
significant difierences in performance skill between the groups favoring the experimental
group, both for comparisons by instrumental types and by entire groups. There was not a
statistically significant difi‘erence between the groups in tone quality. However, since the
experimental group made greater gains than the control group by both instrumental
sections and entire groups, Folts suggested that a longer period of treatment might result
in a statistically significant difi‘erence in tone quality as well.

Zurcher (1975) studied the efi‘ects of cassette-recorded, model-supportive practice
on six musical performance variables: pitch accuracy, tempo stability, pitch matching,
fingering and slide position errors, rhythmic accuracy, and time spent in practice. Forty-
three beginning 4'”-, 5'”-, and 6m-grade trumpet, horn, trombone, and baritone students
from two elementary schools in Baldwin, New York, served as subjects. The subjects
were randomly assigned to two groups that received either an experimental or a control
treaMent for the first week’s practice of the 6-week experiment. The groups then rotated
treatments in each successive week. There were no control and experimental groups in his
study. Students in both groups had equal opportunities to receive control and
experimental treatments. The subjects who received the experimental treatment received a
method book and a tape that included instructions, reminders, and model “play-along”

performances of the lessons on the subject’s own instrument, but the subjects who

16

of:

received the control treatment only received the method book. All subjects received a
weekly 15-minute individual lesson from the investigator. During the private instruction,
tests of the previous week’s assigned material were administered. After the test, new
instruction was given, and new lesson booklets and/or tapes were distributed. Previous
booklets and/or tapes were collected each week so that the subjects could not repeat
lessons. Both weekly and cumulative measurements were analyzed. Cumulative scores
(an experimental and a control score for each subject) indicated that model-supportive
practice was significantly more efi‘ective than traditional practice for pitch accuracy, pitch
matching, rhythmic accuracy, and increasing time spent in practice, but not for tempo
stability and fingering or slide position errors. Weekly scores were not normally
distributed, and in general did not draw out the difference found in the cumulative
analysis. Although a difference was shown between the two treatments in total practice
time, Spearman rank correlation coefi'rcients showed no correlation between total practice
time and performance achievement. Thus Zurcher attributed the performance difi‘erences
of the experimental and control treatments to the model supportive practice.

Guided audio and audiovisual models can be effective self-instructional practice
materials for both children and adults. Puopolo (1971) designed a 10-week sequence of
programmed materials to assist the self-instruction of beginning elementary trumpet and
comet students. Fifty-two 5"‘-grade beginning trumpet and comet students were
randomly assigned to experiment and control groups. Each weekly lesson was
programmed on tape for self-instruction. The content of the tape consisted of a model
performance of all lesson material, a simple piano accompaniment for all model

performances, and verbal instructions. All students had 20 minutes of monitored, self-

17

directed practice of the same material in each school day, except that the students in the
experimental group practiced according to the format of the programmed tape and the
students in the control group practiced without the programmed tape. The Watkins-
Farmmr Performance Scale was used as the posttest. The results of the study indicated
that programmed practice was significantly (.01 level) superior to practice without the
programmed practice tape as evidenced in performance achievement. Additionally, a
questionnaire was administered to the experimental subjects showing that 80% of the
experimental subjects preferred more model performance and less verbal explanation on
the programmed tape.

Arant (1970) investigated the efi‘ects of a guided aural model as self-instructional
material for beginning college voice students. Arant programmed the lesson material on
an audiotape that included verbal instruction and performance of exercises. Twenty-six
beginning-level college voice students were randomly assigned to two groups. Both
groups were instructed by the researcher for eight weeks and three days. The
experimental group used the programmed materials without live instruction in 25-minute
voice laboratories four days a week. They also had a five-minute individual session with
the instructor once a week. In the individual session, the instructor listened to the singing
of the student, made comments and answered the student’s questions. No additional
practice time was required for the experimental group. The control group met twice a
week for 50-minute traditional voice classes. The students were expected to have at least
one hour of out-of-class independent practice each week. Both the experimental and
control group covered the same material during the experimental period. Four dimensions

were measured with a pretest and posttest: breath management, tone quality, vowel purity,

18

and consonant pronunciation. There was no significant difference between the two groups
in the amount of improvement for each of the four rating categories and the overall rating.
In addition, the amount of improvement in all categories was found to be significant for
both groups. The researcher concluded that self-instruction using the guided aural model
was equally as effective as traditional voice class instruction. However, the distribution of
practice time could be a confounding variable in this study, because there is evidence that
a greater number of practices for less time (as in the experimental group) is more efi‘ective
than a smaller number of practices for a greater amount of time (as in the control group)
even when cumulative time is equal (Magill, 1998, p. 240).

Simpson (1970) found that the guided aural model can be effectively used in
rehearsal situations. He used programmed listening material during the high school band
rehearsal to teach musical concepts and improve performance achievement. A typical
programmed tape included 1) a performance of the entire composition being studied, 2)
identification of certain inherent characteristics relating to the composition, and 3) two to
five performances of a smaller section of the total composition that best illustrated the
focus concept being studied. Half of the 60 subjects were assigned to the experimental
group and worked with the programmed tape during one of their five regularly scheduled
band rehearsals every week. During that time, the control group subjects were rehearsing
in another large instrumental ensemble. After 20 weeks of instruction, Simpson reported
that, according to student responses in listening to music and his observation of student
performances, sensitivity to music style and intelligent performance of the experimental
subjects improved through the listening experience. However, he did not define intelligent

performance in his paper and no statistics were given.

19

Linklater (1997) compared the effects of using guided video and guided audio
models to assist home practice on visual and aural performance skills. Subjects in
Linklater’s study (1997) were 146 5th- and 6th-grade beginning clarinet students. The
subjects were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: a videotape, a modeling
audiotape, or a nonmodeling tape that consisted only of instrumental accompaniments
with no clarinet performance. A beginning method book that contained numerous
photographs of exemplary performance practice was used for all three groups. The
modeling video- and audio-tapes consisted of two parts. The first part was a narrated
instructional sequence, paralleling the content of the method book. The second part was
model performance and instrumental accompaniment of 11 songs in the method book.
Students were encouraged to listen to the model performance and play with the
accompaniment. The treatment lasted for 8 weeks, after which all students returned their
video and audio cassette tapes and method book. Amounts of student practice time, tape
use, and parental involvement were recorded during the treatment period. At the end of
the treatment, a researcher-designed performance achievement test was administered to
determine the immediate effect of modeling on performance ability. Two firrther tests
were also conducted at the 20th and 32nd week of treatment to determine the retention of
performance achievement. Both visual and aural performance skills were measured.
Visual criteria included embouchure, hand position, instrumental position, and posture.
Aural criteria included tone quality/mtonation, articulation, rhythmic accuracy, and
melodic accuracy. Results indicated that videotape group students scored significantly
higher on the aggregate of visual performance criteria than did students in the

nonmodeling audiotape group immediately after the treatment. However, this advantage

20

and

was not retained in the second and third test, during the time the students no longer had
access to visual models. There were no immediate significant differences among the three
groups for all aural criteria. However, the second test showed that the videotape group
students scored significantly higher on tone quality/intonation than did the nonmodeling
audiotape group students. Also, this tone quality/mtonation superiority was retained at
levels near statistical significance (p=.08) for the third test. Although not statistically
significant, the modeling video group had the highest mean scores (visual, aural, and
composite), followed by the modeling-audiotape group, with the nonmodeling audio
group having the lowest mean scores immediately after the treatment. No significant
difi‘erence among the three groups was found for the amount of practice time, tape usage,
and parental help. However, the video and modeling-audio groups generated higher
practice time, tape usage, and parental involvement than did the nonmodeling audio group.
The researcher attributed most of the non-significant differences in the study to the
possibility that an insuficient amount of music was included on the tapes; the students
might have stopped using their tapes too early since many of them believed that they had
completed all their song materials ahead of schedule. Another possible explanation the
researcher suggested was that the length of the treatment period was insufficient to result
in a larger difi'erence in performance achievement. No explanation was provided for why
the videotape group scored significantly or almost significantly higher on tone
quality/intonation than the nomnodeling audiotape group for the second and third test, but
not for the first test.

Similar to Linklater, Quindag (1993) compared the effects of using guided video

and guided aural models at home to assist practice on both visual and aural performance

21

(.5

dis

skills, but used a difi‘erent instrument. Twenty-tlrree 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-grade beginning
string students were randomly assigned to one of three groups: guided aural modeling,
guided aural-visual modeling, and no modeling. An instructional script coinciding with the
contents of the instruction book, String Builder, Book 1 (Applebaum, 1960), was
recorded with the model performance of the exercises for each instrument on both
audiotapes and videotapes. However, it appeared that the instructional procedure did not
lead the students to listen to the model performance but only to play with the model. All
subjects were instructed by the investigator in a traditional school string class and were
required to practice at home for at least 90 minutes a week. The subjects who received
tapes were required to practice along with their audiotape or videotape. The subjects
without tapes were required to practice with the instruction book. The treatment period
was 10 weeks. The overall aural and visual performance skills were measured by four
string faculty members fi'om Bob Jones University using a researcher—designed evaluation
form. No significant relationship was found among subjects’ aural and visual performance
scores. However, the group that received guided aural modeling scored higher on aural
criteria than those receiving guided aural-visual modeling and those receiving no
modeling. The group receiving guided aural-visual modeling had higher scores on visual
criteria than those receiving aural modeling and receiving no modeling. The group that
received no modeling scored the lowest on both the visual and aural criteria.

There were only 23 subjects in the study and they were equally distributed in three
groups. Therefore, the number of students in each group was small. Also, these subjects
came from three grade levels playing different string instruments. The non-homogeneous

distribution of age and instruments may have afl‘ected the results of this study. The

22

researcher suggested that a larger sample size consisting of students on one instrument
and at one grade level might produce more reliable results.
els

The unguided recorded aural model is a tape recording that contains only
performance of music, without separate piano accompaniment or verbal description. The
unguided audio model did not demonstrate significant effectiveness in assisting home
practice in Anderson’s (1981) investigation. His experiment lasted for 8 weeks. A sample
of 80 clarinet students was drawn from two 6th-grade centers in the Austin (Texas)
Independent School District. Each school had 20 students in the control group and 20
students in the experimental group. Both the control and experimental groups used the
same band method book for practice at home and rehearsed in the woodwind classes at
school. The subjects in the experimental group were provided a cassette tape that
contained solo clarinet performance of the exercises to which to listen at home. The
subjects in the control group were not provided with any tapes. In the woodwind classes,
each student in both groups was required to pass or complete as many of the exercises as
possible. The students were allowed to pass the exercises only if they were performed at a
steady tempo without making any pitch, rhythmic, or articulation errors. However, the
researcher did not specify who served as the judge. Measures of pitch reading, rhythm
reading, tempo accuracy, and intonation accuracy were selected to represent both sight-
reading and performance skills. In addition to the selected sight reading and performance
skills, the number of completed exercises was also compared.

The Watla'ns-Farnum Performance Scale (F orm B) was given as a pretest to

determine equivalency of the experimental and control groups on the four selected sight-

23

[116

[1’6

(ll?

reading skills. After 8 weeks of treatment, the Watkins-Farnum Performance Scale
(Form A) served as the posttest measure of the four selected sight-reading skills. The
Practiced Performance Evaluation Test that is on the “final check-out” page of the band
method book was assigned for home practice at the beginning of the final week of
treatment and was used as the posttest measure of the four performance skills. The
amount of home practice time during the treatment period was also recorded but was not
controlled for the analysis of performance and sight-reading skills, because little
correlation was found for the amount of home practice with all selected performance and
sight-reading skills. The statistical analysis indicated both the experimental and control
groups made significant pretest-posttest gains for two sight-reading skills: pitch-reading
and rhythm-reading. No significant differences were found between the experimental and
control group with regard to either the performance and sight-reading skills measured or
the number of music exercises completed during the study. These results appeared to
indicate that tape-recorded aural models used in the study did not significantly help
students learn the selected performance and sight-reading skills.

Hodges (1974) examined the effects of unguided aural models on the performance
of students in beginning band class when these models were presented in rehearsals.
Seven classes, four fi'om one school and three fi'om the other, constituted the experimental
groups, and an equal number of classes fi'om each school constituted the control groups.
The total number of subjects was 200. Subjects in both schools used the same method
book, and each school had one teacher teaching all classes in that school. Rehearsals were
held for 40 minutes every other school day in a mixed-instrument format. Subjects in both

groups were taught in a like manner except that the subjects in the experimental group

24

incl
let
it
incl
The

fin:

001T
dili—
Schc
achi
Woo
allra

le\‘el

listened to aural recorded models during rehearsal. The content of the aural model
included exemplary performance of selected exercises fiom the method book in use, and
kept pace with the materials on which the students were working. Solo performances of
six instruments: flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, horn, trumpet, and trombone, were
included and each instrument was heard by the students every time the tapes were played.
The experimental group heard the tapes about 3 to 5 minutes in nearly every rehearsal, and
fingered their instruments following the music in their books while listening to the tapes.
After 14 weeks of instruction, each subject’s performance of three etudes was tape
recorded. Each student had one week to prepare the first and second etude with the music
score. The model performance of the first etude for all six instruments was heard by
students in the experimental groups, but no one heard a model performance of the second
etude. The third etude was a sight-reading exercise. The performance tapes in terms of
pitch accuracy, rhythm accuracy, tempo stability, tone quality, dynamics, and total
combined performance skills were rated by three judges who were either woodwind or
brass specialists. In order to control for the teacher effect, comparisons were made only
between each teacher’s (school’s) experimental groups and his own control groups. No
comparisons were made between students in different schools. No statistically significant
differences were found on any of the measured performance skills for all etudes in either
school. There were also no statistically significant differences in the performance
achievements on all etudes between the experimental and control groups for either
woodwind or brass instruments. It appeared that students in the group where recorded
aural models were presented during the rehearsal did not achieve a higher performance

level than students in the rehearsal without recorded aural models. However, three to five

25

minutes of listening every other school day is a lot less than most music educators
recommend and may be not enough to produce any significant differences.

Fortney (1992) exanrined the immediate efi‘ect of unguided recorded aural
modeling on performance achievement, and both found significant results. F ortney (1992)
compared the relative effectiveness of 4 practice methods—aural modeling, silent analysis,
free practice, and sight-readinguon the performance ability of advanced elementary school
instrumentalists. Forty 6th-grade band students were randomly assigned to one of the 4
practice conditions. They were asked to sight-read the etude (Study No. 10, 24 Arban-
Klose-Concone Studies for Band Instruments, Rusch, 195 5) for the pretest and were
asked to perform the composition again for the posttest after a 2-minute practice session.
During the practice session, the modeling group listened to a tape recording of the etude
with the printed music available; the silent analysis group mentally rehearsed the etude; the
free practice group practiced the etude on their instruments; and the sight-reading group
practiced an unrelated etude. The tape recording of the etude used with the modeling
group was performed using a violin so that no bias would exist toward any of the band
instruments. The performance of subjects was rated for pitch accuracy, rhythm accuracy,
and articulation. Statistical analysis of the pre-post gain scores revealed that modeling
was the most effective practice method and was significantly better than sight reading at
the .05 level. Both modeling and silent analysis were more effective than fi'ee practice.
Additionally, practice of any kind was better than simply sight reading.

Rosenthal (1984) examined the efi‘ect of aural models and verbal instruction on the
performance of music major students. Forty-four graduate and upper-level college

woodwind or brass major students served as subjects and were randomly assigned to one

26

of 4 practice conditions. The models used for the practice conditions were: (1) guided
model: an audiotape with combined aural script and model performance; (2) model only:
an audiotape with model performance only; (3) guide only: an audiotape with verbal
explanation only; (4) practice only: without tape. The performance model of the e’tude
was recorded by a professional violinist so that no instrument was favored. Each tape
lasted approximately six and one-half minutes. The subjects who were provided with
tapes listened to them first, then were allowed to play the assigned étude for 3 minutes.
The subjects in the practice only group were allowed to play the étude for 10 minutes.
Results indicated the model only group was significantly superior to all other groups on
the accuracy of notes, rhythms, dynamics, and tempo. For the performance of
phrasing/articulation, the effect of the model only was not significantly superior to that of
other conditions but still generated the highest score. The guided model group was
significantly superior to guide only and practice only groups on the accuracy of notes,
rhythms, dynamics, and tempo.

Rosenthal, Wilson, Evans, and Greenwalt (1988) compared the efi‘ects of another
5 types of practice conditions: model alone, singing, silent analysis, practice, and sight
reading, on the performance achievement of woodwind and brass college students.
Subjects for this study were 60 graduate and upper-level undergraduate students majoring
in either a woodwind or brass instrument. Subjects were randonrly assigned to one of the
5 treatment groups and were asked to practice 3 minutes with the method corresponding
to their group. The “Etude No. 96” fi'om a collection for various brass instruments by P.
Bona (1969) was used for practice and also for the performance model. The results of the

study showed that the modeling group had the highest ratings in tempo, notes, and

27

The

[fill

511

articulation accuracy, and had the second highest ratings in rhythm and phrasing/dynamics.
The modeling groups also scored significantly higher in rhythm, phrasing/dynamics, and
tempo than the singing group.

The eficacy of the guided aural model on the learning of instrumental or vocal
performance appears to be supported by the findings of the studies presented above.
Unguided aural models are effective for a very short time of practice, according to the
studies of F ortney (1992) and Rosenthal (1984, 1988). However, these researchers
provided their subjects with music scores so that they could read along when listening to
the aural models. Therefore, the studies of Hodges (1974), Fortney, and Rosenthal (1984,
1988) may not be studies of incidental, or unconscious, listening. Research that focuses
on the efi‘ects of incidental listening on performance achievement is rare, except for the
study of Anderson (1981).

Although the aural model treatment used in Anderson’s study is a type of
incidental listening, similar to that of the present study, the studies differ in several ways.
First, Anderson’s study might be more likely to determine whether using aural models for
home practice effectively aids performance achievement when the instrumental instruction
is held in school-setting mixed woodwind classes. In the present study, the type of
instruction is closer to private, although the instruction was given in a small group setting
and large group lessons were given every other week. Second, the subjects in Anderson’s
study obviously were not beginning students as are the subjects in the present study, since
they were in grade six and were able to practice the songs without much help fiom the
teacher. Third, nowhere in Anderson’s study was it revealed whether the testing song for

performance skills was included in the aural tapes. Also, because the testing piece was not

28

assigned to students for home practice until the beginning of the final week of treatment, it
seems that the students studied the piece by themselves without much help from the
teacher. In the present study, both test pieces were taught by the researcher and one of
those was included in the models. Furthermore, the present study is designed to have a
much longer treatment period (20 weeks) with the expectation that significant results may
be demonstrated alter a longer period of aural exposure. Finally, the present study

investigated violin performance rather than clarinet, as in Anderson’s study.

The Effects of Listeninan Musi_cal Responswd Developmental Mus_ic Aptitude

According to Gordon’s theory, the music aptitude of a child before age nine is
influenced by the quality and quantity of musical stimulation in his environment. Aural
exposure is a kind of musical stimulation and the amount of aural exposure has been found
by research to be related to children’s musical response and capability. Shelton (1965)
investigated the factors in the home musical environment that influence the musical
response of first-grade children. Eighteen “musical” and twelve “unmusical” children were
selected according to their ability to sing in tune, discriminate pitches and melodic
direction, respond to rhythms by bodily movement, and respond to contrasting tempos and
moods while listening to music, etc. The researcher went into the home of each subject
and interviewed the parents and others in the family to determine what the musical
environment had been previous to the child’s entering first grade. The interview sought
information about children’s opportunities for music listening and participation, parents’
musical backgrounds, parents’ listening preferences, and kindergarten and church musical

experience. On the basis of these findings, the home environments were rated as musical,

29

average, or unmusical. The results indicated that 75% of the musical homes produced
musical children, while 73% of the unmusical homes produced unmusical children. The
number of opportunities to hear records played in the home was found to have a close
relationship to the children’s musical responses. The researcher suggested that parents
should provide frequent opportunities for children to hear music.

Reynolds (1960) investigated the factors in the home musical environment that
may contribute to children’s ability to sing in a definite tonality with rhythmic and melodic
delineation (awakened musicality). Eighty-five children fiom six kindergartens served as
subjects. The families of the children were all residents of small communities of fewer
than one thousand population or were from farms surrounding these communities. The
researcher believed that the musical home environment in such a setting would be less
confounded by outside factors than in an urban setting. All of the children in the study
were asked to sing a song at kindergarten entrance. The recordings were rated by five
judges on a 0-5-point rating scale. Children whose average score fell between 2.5 and 5.0
were considered musically awakened; the others were considered musically unawakened.
Eleven of the 85 children were found to be musically awakened at kindergarten entrance.
The researcher interviewed the parents of each child in the study to seek information about
the children’s opportunities in music listening, music participation, and the parents’
musical background, participation, and attitude, and so on. Results indicated that
musically awakened children had many more musical listening opportunities than musically
unawakened children in terms of hearing the mother singing, the piano playing, children’s

recordings, classical music recordings, radio music, and school concerts.

30

The study of Lineburgh (1994) supports the idea that music stylistic discrimination
can be fostered by exposure to musical prototypes without direct instruction. Four
hundred thirty children from 13 kindergarten and 13 second grade classes were involved in
the study. All classes in each grade were randomly assigned to one of two experimental
groups or one control group. Before treatment, a preparation lesson was given to all
subjects in the three groups. In the preparation lesson, a prototypical example of piano
music was played from each of three composers: Mozart, Debussy, and Joplin. Before
each example was played, the name of the composer was announced; then the music was
played and the children lined up in a designated way when the classroom teacher signaled
them to do so. The children were asked to line up in three difi‘erent ways depending on
the composer of the music played. The three ways of lining up were: single file, boys’
line/girls’ line, and with a partner assigned in advanced. The students got into a single-file
line when the Mozart example was played, a girls’ line and a boys’ line when the music of
Debussy was played, and lined up with a partner when the music of Joplin was played.
During the 4 weeks of treatment, one of the experimental groups listened to 40 pieces of
music of the three composers (13 or 14 pieces for each composer) without repetition,
while the other repeatedly listened to one piece by each composer. The control group did
not listen to any music. All music selected met the researcher-designed criteria for
prototypicality of each composer’s musical style. Music was played twice each school
day, a piece each time, and the children lined up according to the composer of the music
as they were taught in the preparation lesson. Either before or after the music played, the
composer of the music and the specific way of lining were pronounced each time so that

the connection between the music, composer, and the specific way of lining up could be

31

established for the children. No verbal instruction about the prototypicality of the three
composers’ music styles was given. A style discrimination test was given to all subjects
before the treatment began (at the end of the preparation lesson) as the pretest, and then
after two weeks as the nridtest, and again after four weeks as the posttest. In addition to
the style discrimination test, all subjects were administered the PMMA test before
beginning the treatment. The style discrimination scores were covaried with the PMMA
composite scores when the AN COVA test was conducted. Results indicated that the
second grade scored consistently significantly higher than the kindergarten. The second
grade also increased significantly more than the kindergarten on both the midtest and the
posttest. For kindergarten, both experimental groups had significantly larger gains
between the pretest and the midtest than the control group. The experimental groups also
had larger gains fi'om nridtest to posttest than the control group, but not significantly so.
The group which heard nonrepeated examples had slightly larger gains from pretest to
midtest and from pretest to posttest than the group which heard repeated examples. In the
second grade, the group which heard nonrepeated examples had significantly larger gains
from pretest to midtest and fi'om pretest to posttest than the group which heard repeated
examples and than the control group. However, the group that heard repeated examples
did not have larger gains than the control group on both midtest and posttest. Lineburgh
concluded that for both kindergarten and second grade, students in the group that heard
difi'erent examples throughout the treatment excelled faster than the students in the group
that heard the same examples repeated throughout the treatment and the students in the
control group. She also concluded that style discrimination can be learned without any

direct teaching for style by children as early as the kindergarten year.

32

Although previous research has demonstrated that music listening opportunities at
home or at school significantly affect children’s music response and music capability, the
study of Elliott (1995) did not find a significant relationship between exposure to
background music and kindergarten children’s music aptitude, as measured by PMMA. A
variety of music examples was selected as background music, and these were played when
children were engaging in their daily classroom activities. The selected music styles
included Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Irish, Alpine, Bavarian, Jewish, Jazz,
Afiican, West Indies Calypso, Twentieth Century, Contemporary Popular, Impressionist,
Rag, Tango, Scottish, and March. A variety of tempos and instrument settings (from solo
to orchestra setting) was included. The dynamics in the music ranged fi'om no contrast, to
little contrast, to some contrast, to greatly contrasting. The meters included
simple/compound duple and simple/compound triple. The tonalities were major, minor,
and modal. The sample was students of five kindergarten classes at an elementary school
in Escambia County, Florida. Three classes constituted the experimental group and two
classes constituted the control group. Before the treatment, the PMMA was administered
to both experimental and control groups as the pretest. The 47 subjects of the
experimental group were exposed to two hours of the selected background music every
school day for 14 weeks, and the 36 subjects of the control group engaged in the daily
school activities as usual without listening to the selected music. At the end of the
treatment period, the PMMA was administered to both experimental and control groups
again as a posttest. The pretest scores were used as a covariate to adjust the posttest

scores when doing statistical analysis. No significant difi’erences were found between the

33

adjusted music aptitude scores (tonal, rhythm, and composite scores) of the experimental
and control groups.

The researcher suggested several explanations for the insignificant results. First,
because the sample was drawn mainly from families of middle class or higher
socioeconomic status, they may have enjoyed rich musical stimulation at home and outside
of school before the treatment. This was reflected in the high pretest PMMA scores in
both the experimental and control groups. Since the musical environment at home was
not controlled, the results may have been confounded by the presence of music and
musical activities at home. Second, Elliott reported, “since informal instruction tends to
elicit a random response rather than a specific measurable response, test results may not
demonstrate that learning has taken place. Students in the music babble stage may acquire
music information before they have the ability to place it into tonal and rhythm categories”
(p. 58). Although a background listening program may not show immediate results in
improving music aptitude scores of kindergarten students, the aural presence and
perception of music in early years might lead to higher music aptitude scores in later years.
Third, kindergarten-age children probably benefit more in term of music aptitude from
actively engaging in music-making rather than passively absorbing aural presentation of
music. \Vrthout attention directed to music and enhanced by singing and moving, listening
may not efiecfively improve the development of music aptitude. Fourth, although PMMA
is a reliable measurement for developmental music aptitude, the researcher indicated that
the reliability of PMMA for kindergarten children has room for improvement. Last, the
researcher suggested that, for kindergarten children to make significant improvement in

music aptitude, 14 weeks of passive exposure to background music might not be long

34

enough. Another study conducted by F lohr (1981), found 12 weeks of active music-
making instruction to result in a significant increase in music aptitude in children about this
age (five years, three months on average). The researcher implied that “passive”
(incidental) listening requires longer treatment time than “active” music-making to result
in significant music aptitude improvement.

Just as in the study of Elliott, an objective of the present study is to investigate
whether music aptitude can be effectively enhanced by incidental exposure to music. No
efi‘ort was made to direct children’ s attention to the music played in the present study;
however, unlike the study of Elliott, the music is not deliberately relegated to the
background, either. The design of Elliott’s study was to compare the effects of listening
and no listening, while in the current study, different music listening experiences and no
listening are compared. Furthermore, both experimental and control groups had music
activities, which included singing, chanting, listening, moving, and playing, in their
kindergarten classroom. Therefore, the study of Elliott more closely resembled one
determining how music aptitude developed when children were exposed to an additional
background music listening program when general music instruction is present. In
addition to investigating the effect of listening on students who receive general music
instruction in their regular school curriculum, the current study also investigates the effect
of listening on children who are involved in Suzuki instruction as well as their regular

school general music instruction.

35

3p]

the

011]:

The Efi‘gs pf Music Instruction en Developmental Music Aptitude

The relationship of music instruction and developmental music aptitude has
recently received much attention in research. The study of Taggart (1997) investigated
the efi‘ects of age-appropriate instruction on the developmental music aptitude of 3 to 8
year old children. The effects of age-appropriate instruction are compared to no
instruction at all. The sample consisted of 183 preschool to second grade children in at-
risk schools in Lansing, Michigan. They were given 20-rninute music instruction twice a
week by a music specialist for an entire school year. This instruction consisted of singing
and chanting in a variety of tonalities and meters, tonal and rhythm pattern instruction in
major and minor tonalities and duple and triple meters, and movement instruction that
involved both continuous, fluid movement and movement on the beat. Previously, there
had been very little music instruction as part of the students’ school curriculum. Audie, a
Gordon-designed music aptitude test for preschool children, was administered to all
preschool children immediately prior to and after the instruction. PMMA was
administered to children in grades K-2 immediately before and after the instruction period
and also alter a summer of no instruction. Results indicated that, except for the tonal
scores of preschool children, post-instruction scores were significantly higher than pre-
instruction score for all age levels. The younger the children, the greater the differences.
The children in grades K-2 were tested again after a summer of no instruction and the
aptitude scores were found to continue to increase even after the instruction stopped. The
scores were also found to be significantly higher than the aptitude scores of the children at
the same grade level the year before, who at that time had not received this treatment and

only had minimal music instruction fi'om the school curriculum. Taggart (1997) concluded

36

that (a) appropriate music instruction significantly aids the development of music aptitudes
of children fi'om age 3 to 8; (b) the influence of music instruction on the development of
music aptitudes varies according to the age of the child, and the younger the child is, the
greater the influence; (c) the effect of appropriate music instruction on developmental
music aptitude holds over time. The increase in music aptitude during the summer for the
children who had received music instruction for a school year was significantly greater
than the increase caused by maturation alone.

Flohr (1981) sought to detemrine the influence of short-term music instruction on
developmental music aptitude as measured by PMMA Twenty-nine children enrolled in
the Child Development Center at Texas Woman’s University in Denton participated in the
study. The mean age of the subjects was five years and three months. They all had
received music instruction once a week for three months preceding experimentation. The
subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The Music-I group received
instruction focusing on improvisation experience. They used Orff xylophones in their
improvisation activities, including question and answer games, improvising to a bordun,
improvising extensions to phrases, and playing in response to verbal stimuli. The Music-II
group received typical classroom music instruction consisting of singing, playing
percussion instruments, dancing, and movement. No music instruction was given to the
control group. Both Music-I and Music-II groups received 25 minutes of music
instruction twice a week for 12 weeks. PMMA was administered to all children at the
beginning of the experimentation and again after the 12 weeks of instruction. The pretest
scores were used as a covariate to adjust the posttest composite scores when doing

statistical analysis. Although no significant difi‘erences on the adjusted posttest scores was

37

00

Val
Wei
Sam
Sch
and

H103:

found among the three groups, when the scores of the two music groups (Music-I and
Music-II) were combined and compared to the control group scores, a significant
difference was found on the adjusted PMMA composite posttest scores favoring the
combined music group. The PMMA composite mean scores of the combined music
groups also demonstrated significant improvement during the 12 weeks of instruction.
The control group’s composite mean score was nonsignificantly lower on the posttest than
on the pretest. Based on the results of the study, Flohr (1981) concluded that a 12-week
period of instruction could yield to a significant positive efi‘ect in music aptitude and the
results supported the theory that “a young child’s music aptitude as measured by PMMA
is influenced by instruction” (p. 223). However, since there was no statistically significant
difi‘erences among the three groups before the two music groups were combined, the
relative efi‘ectiveness of the two types of instruction was unknown. Flohr (1981) also
suggested that the effects of instruction on the change of music aptitude may be temporary
because the control group children received music instruction once a week during the
three months preceding experimentation and their aptitudes decreased after 12 weeks of
no instruction, though not significantly so.

In order to support his concept of developmental music aptitude and the overall
validity of PMMA, Gordon (1979) administered PMMA to 77 5-8-year-old children in a
well-known community music school in western New York State, and 75 children of the
same age in a highly respected private academic school. Most children in the private
school came from privileged families who might have enjoyed rich musical environments
and more cultural opportunities, whereas the children who attended the community school

mostly lived in a very poor neighborhood where musical opportunities were limited. The

38

private school had two required periods of Orfi‘ instruction a week and Suzuki instruction
was offered as an elective. Private instrumental lessons, voice instruction, music theory,
and ballet constituted the curriculum of the community music school. The test results
from students at each school were compared to each other and to the results of children
who participated in the standardization program of PMMA, in which developmental music
aptitude was normally distributed. Results indicated that except for the tonal scores of the
5-year-old children, the children in the private academic school scored significantly higher
than the standardization group. Children in the community music school also had higher
tonal and rhythm mean scores than those of the standardization group at age levels 5, 7,
and 8. However, only the mean rhythm scores at age levels 7 and 8 showed significant
difl‘erences. No data were reported for age level 6 because only three 6-year-old children
were tested in the community music school. No statistically significant difi‘erences were
found between the children in the two schools although most scores for students in the
private academic school, who were provided plenty of music learning opportunities, were
moderately higher than the scores of those in the community music school.

Gordon (1979) explained the practical and statistical differences in the study as
resulting from early informal environmental cultural influences and innate music capacities.
The children in the private academic school probably had the same distribution of innate
music capacity as that in the standardization group, but since they enjoyed more cultural
advantages and rich school or community music activities, it was reasonable for them to
have demonstrated higher overall developmental music aptitude. Gordon also attributed
the fact that the 5-year-old children in the private academic school demonstrated

significantly higher scores than the children in the standardization group on the rhythm test

39

and not on the tonal test to the emphasis on eurhythmic activities in the private academic
school, and the emphasis on pentatonic songs in the Orfi‘ program, which have been shown
to be linriting for children’s tonal aptitudes.

The overall non-significant difi‘erences between the subjects in the private
academic school and those in the community music school were also an outcome of the
equalizing of innate capacity and environment, according to Gordon (1979). The children
in the community music school probably had a higher level of music aptitude than the
children in the private academic school, which was suggested by their interest in attending
the community music school. On the other hand, the children in the private school
enjoyed a much richer environment than the children in the community music school. The
same might be said of the overall non-significant difi‘erences between the community music
group and the standardization group. The children in the community music school may
have had a higher level of music aptitude but the children in the standardization group may
have had broader cultural opportunities. However, because the standardization group had
less systematic music instruction and the community music school ofi‘ered intensive ballet
instruction, Gordon suggested that the continuing quality instruction received by the 7-
and 8-year-old children in the community school compensated for their poorer cultural
opportunities and enabled them to significantly surpass their counterparts in the
standardization group on the rhythm test.

In another study by Gordon (1980), PMMA was administered to 167 children in
kindergarten through grade 3, enrolled in an inner-city school in Rochester, New York,
where over 98% of the student body was black. Thirty-nine children in kindergarten, 44

in grade 1, 42 in grade 2, and 42 in grade 3 participated in the study. The kindergarten

40

children received music instruction fi'om their classroom teachers and children in other
grades received instruction from a music specialist twice a week. Their PMMA scores
were compared to those of the culturally heterogeneous standardization group as reported
in the PMMA manual. Results indicated that the differences on the tonal test significantly
favored the standardization group at every grade level. For the rhythm test, the inner-city
school children had systematically higher scores in the first, second, and third grades, and
a statistically significant difi‘erence was found at the third grade. Gordon attributed the
systematically lower tonal scores of inner-city school children to their lower
developmental tonal aptitude, and their systematically higher rhythm scores to the quality
of their exposure to rhythm in school or out of school. However, no explanation was
provided for their lower developmental tonal aptitude. He reported that benefits from
participation in structured rhythmic activities do accrue as evidenced by the pronounced
superior developmental rhythmic aptitude of the inner-city school third grade children (p.
29). Thus, Gordon concluded that instructional procedures in music for young children
are of primary importance.

Several studies have been designed to explore the factors of music instruction that
may influence the development of music aptitude. DiBlassio (1984) attempted to
determine which type of tonal instruction and rhythm instruction, if any, might best afi‘ect
a child’s developmental music aptitude. Sixteen first grade classes, 376 students total,
from 4 schools in Wilmington, Delaware, participated in the study. One hundred eighty-
nine students fi'om 8 classes in 2 schools participated in the tonal part of the study, and
187 students fiom 8 classes of another 2 schools participated in the rhythmic part of the

study. The 8 classes that participated in the tonal part of the study were randomly

41

“’0
in 6

sub

assigned to 4 tonal groups, and the remaining 8 classes were randomly assigned to 4
rhythm groups. For 12 consecutive weeks, each group was taught tonal or rhythm
patterns fi'om 7 to 10 minutes once a week within the framework of their regular music
classes. Before the treatment, the tonal group students were administered the tonal
subtest of PMMA, and the rhythm groups were administered the rhythm subtest of
PMMA All tonal groups were taught the same tonal patterns, but in different modes.
The students in Group I were taught tonal patterns in both major and minor; the students
in Group II were taught tonal patterns in major, minor, dorian, and mixolydian; the
students in Group HI were taught tonal patterns in major, minor, and atonal; and the
students in Group IV were taught tonal patterns in pentatonic. The students would listen
to a particular tonal pattern and then sing the pattern in ensemble. All rhythm groups were
taught the same rhythm patterns but in different meters. Group I was taught duple and
triple; Group II, duple, triple, and combined; Group ID, duple, triple, unusual paired, and
unpaired; Group IV, duple, triple, combined, unusual paired, and unpaired. The students
would listen to a rhythm pattern and then march, swing their arms, tap their feet, and echo
in ensemble. At the end of the treatment, the tonal groups were re-administered the tonal
subtest of PMMA, and the rhythm groups were re-administered the rhythm subtest. The
gain scores on the tonal tests were analyzed by a two-way AN OVA (4 treatments x 2
tonal aptitude levels). The same method was used to analyze the rhythm gain scores.
Students who scored at or above the 50"I percentile on the pre-instruction tonal test were
designated high aptitude students. The same criterion was used for high rhythm aptitude
students. Analysis indicated no significant interaction and no significant differences among

treatments for both tonal and rhythm aptitudes. However, a significant main efi‘ect was

42

found for both tonal and rhythm aptitude in the analysis. Low aptitude students made
greater gains than high aptitude students, regardless of treatment, in analysis of both tonal
and rhythm aptitude.

The study of Dowdy (1995) attempted to determine the relationship between
movement activities and rhythm skills and aptitude in children ages 7 and 8. The sample
consisted of 47 second- and third-grade students fiom two classes (both contained second
and third graders) in Medora Elementary school in Louisville, Kentucky. Determined by
chance, one class of 23 students served as the experimental group while the other class of
24 students served as the control group. The control group received regular music lessons
on rhythm. The experimental group received the same lessons but with movement
activities. The instructional period was 12 consecutive weeks, one 30-minute class per
week. All students were adrrrinistered the Music Achievement Test (MAT) by Richard
Colwell and the PMMA as pre- and post-test measures. Only part three, meter
discrimination, of MAT, and the rhythm subtest of PMMA were used for the test. The
data were analyzed by comparing the pre-post gains of the experimental group to those of
the control group. Results indicated that the use of movement in addition to regular music
instruction did not significantly increase either the students’ rhythm skill as measured by
MAT, or their rhythm aptitude as measured by PMMA Also, both control and
experimental groups showed a significant increase on their posttest MAT, but they
showed no significant improvement on their posttest PMMA.

Some studies have adopted several well-known methods to supplement their own
instruction procedures and have attempted to determine whether these methods would

have a greater efi‘ect upon the development of music aptitude than traditional methods.

43

Moore (1987) investigated whether school-setting instruction emphasizing rhythm and
movement would have an efi‘ect upon the students’ rhythm aptitudes. There were three
groups in the study. Group 1, which served as the experimental group, received
instruction that emphasized rhythm and movement activities. The lessons employed
rhythmic speech and movement, singing, and the playing of small percussion instruments
adapted fi'om the Orfi‘ approach materials. Many chants, songs, and dances with
locomotor and nonlocomotor movements were included. Gordon’s taxonomy of rhythm
patterns was used in progressive order throughout the lesson plans. Group 2 received
more traditional instruction that emphasized singing and listening activities. No emphasis
was placed on rhythm or movement exercises. Group 3 received no music instruction in
school. Group 2 and Group 3 were control groups. Four intact second and third grade
classes fiom the Virginia public schools were randomly assigned to serve as Group 1
(n=85) or Group 2 (n=80). Group 3 (n=95) were students randomly selected fi'om second
and third grade classes in the North Carolina public schools. Each of the groups was
comparably divided between second and third graders, between males and females, and
between black and white students. Both Group 1 and Group 2 received half-hour lessons
twice a week for 10 weeks. Prior to the treatment period, all subjects completed a
researcher-designed Music Experience Questionnaire to provide information on previous
formal and informal music experience. PMMA was administered to all subjects as the
pretest and posttest. Results of data analysis indicated that the rhythm aptitude of the
experimental group significantly improved after 10 weeks of treatment. Significant
improvement was not demonstrated in either control group. No significant change was

found in the overall music aptitude of the experimental group as compared to that of the

two control groups. It was also found that there was a correlation between previous
music experience and tonal scores on PMMA. According to Moore (1987), this
suggested that early music experiences for these students probably contributed to their
tonal aptitudes. Moore concluded that evidence fiom this study supported the idea that
specific types of music instruction can have influence upon rhythm aptitude.

McDonald (1987) investigated the effect of an investigator-designed recorder
instruction method in which the sequential objectives were logically ordered using Edwin
Gordon’s empirical model of music learning sequence. Performance achievement on the
recorder and change in developmental music aptitude were compared to those produced
by a traditional method that stressed note reading. Subjects were 27 third grade students
in a laboratory school of a regional Midwestern university, and were randomly assigned to
the control (n=14) or the experimental group (n=13). Students in both groups received
four 15-minute lessons each week for 12 weeks. The experimental group received an
instruction sequence in which children (a) first learned to sing the song by rote; (b) phrase
by phrase, sang the pitches on neutral or sol-fa syllables without rhythm, then played the
pitches without rhythm on the recorder and chanted the rhythmic pattenrs on neutral or
Gordon rhythm duration syllables, then played the combined tonal and rhytlun patterns on
the recorder; (c) learned the notations of these tonal and rhythm patterns much later when
several songs had been learned. The control group received instruction that involved a
teaching-learning procedure in which individual fingerings, pitches, and rhythm symbols
were presented in isolation one at a time and assembled together in playing songs fi'om
notation. PMMA was administered to all children before and after the treatment as the

measure of developmental music aptitude. The children’s recorder performance

45

achievement was measured with an investigator-designed rating scale. Five songs and
three dimensions: melodic accuracy, rhythmic accuracy, and executive skills accuracy,
were measured. Results indicated that the mean increase in rhythm aptitude and
composite aptitude scores was significantly greater for the experimental group than the
control group. The mean increase in the tonal scores was higher for the experimental
group, although it was not significant (p=.071). The experimental group also
demonstrated significantly higher performance scores in all dimensions and in the
composite than the control group.

How existing well-known pedagogies and learning theories act on the development
of music aptitude has drawn much research interest. Cemohorsky (1991) investigated the
efi‘ects of movement instruction adapted from the theories of Rudof Von Laban upon the
rhythm performance and developmental rhythm aptitude of kindergarten and second grade
boys. The subjects consisted of 30 boys in kindergarten and 33 boys in grade two from
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, fi'om upper socio-economic backgrounds. Before the
treatment, the rhythm subtest of PMMA was administered to all subjects. The treatment
was a total of 23 weeks of movement and rhythm instruction; two 40-minute music classes
a week for grade two and three 20-minute classes a week for kindergarten students.
Rhythm and movement instruction were included in only two of the three weekly
kindergarten classes to ensure equal amounts of instruction at each grade level. Rhythm
instruction was based on a modification of Edwin Gordon’s Jump Right In: The Music
Curriculum (1986), and was given twice every other week to all students during the first 5
to 10 minutes of the music classes. Students developed sequential skills in audiation and a

vocabulary for rhythm patterns in duple, triple, and unusual paired meter, as well as in

(n

combined and unusual unpaired meters during the rhythm instruction. Movement
instruction, based on the theories of Laban, was given to all students for 5 to 10 minutes in
music class twice each week. The movement lessons included activities using 5 effort
elements: body awareness, weight, flow, time, and space. Students developed a
vocabulary of movements which could be sequentially recalled when performing or
listening to music. During the last two weeks of instruction, subjects were taught three
chants: one in duple meter, one in triple meter, and one in unusual paired meter. The
chants were performed on a neutral syllable. Students were asked to move their bodies
when performing the chants. At the end of instruction, each student was re-administered
the rhythm subtest of PMMA and was tape-recorded while performing the three chants.
All students performed each chant on a neutral syllable with or without movement. The
tape-recorded performances were rated for rhythm performance achievement on an
investigator-designed five-point continuous scale by two judges. The combined judges’
ratings of all three chants represented the student’s total rhythm performance score. The
rhythm aptitude gain scores fi'om pretest to posttest and the rhythm performance means
were analyzed by a two-way AN OVA between grades and the level of music aptitude.
Students who scored at or above the 81‘ percentile on the pre-instruction rhythm test
were designated as having high rhythm aptitude. Results indicated that for rhythm
aptitude, no significant interaction was found between grade and aptitude level, nor was a
main efl'ect found for grade. However, the main effect for level of developmental rhythm
aptitude was statistically significant. The students with low rhythm aptitude had higher
mean gains than students with high aptitude scores in both grades. For the analysis of

rhythm performance, the interaction between grade and aptitude level was not significant,

47

nor were main efi‘ects for grade and level of rhythm aptitude. Although it may not be
concluded that movement instruction has an efi‘ect upon the rhythm performance of boys
in kindergarten and grade two, according to Cemohorsky, it may be concluded that
movement instruction has an effect upon the developmental rhythm aptitude of boys with
lower rhythm aptitude.

Blesedell (1991) compared the efi‘ects of Dalcroze-based movement instruction
and Laban-based movement instruction on the rhythm achievement and rhythm aptitude of
three- and four-year-old children. Two intact classes of three-year-old children and two
intact classes of four-year-old children fiom two private preschools in Pennsylvania
participated in the study. The classes were randomly assigned to one of the two methods
of movement instruction. Each class of children received one 30-minute lesson each week
for 10 weeks from the researcher. All lessons of children who were assigned to the
Laban-based method (n=12 for the 3-year-old group, and n=13 for the 4-year-old group)
focused on 4 of the 16 basic movement themes described by Laban: awareness of body,
weight and time, space, and flow. Children assigned to the Dalcroze-based method (n=l4
for the 3-year-old group, and n=12 for the 4-year-old group) received lessons adapted
from Findlay’s applications of Dalcroze eurhythmics, which focused on the use of the
whole body; physical coordination through rhythm; listening skill; integration of body,
mind, and emotion in rhythm expression, and freedom of expression. Three things were
measured: rhythm aptitude, rhythm performance, and movement performance. For the
measure of rhythm aptitude, Audie was administered to all children prior to and following
the instruction. For the measure of rhythm performance, all children were videotaped

performing rnicro-beats and macro-beats on a small hand drum to a researcher-designed

48

rn

criterion song. Three judges independently rated their performances using a researcher-
designed 5-point continuous rating scale. For the measure of movement performance,
another researcher-designed S-point continuous rating scale was used. Children’s
movement performance from the 1", 5'”, and 10‘ll lessons were videotaped and rated by
three judges. The combined ratings of the three performances represented the child’s
movement performance. From the observed means, Blesedell concluded that Dalcroze-
based instruction might be preferable for guiding the rhythm achievement of three-year-old
and four-year-old children and Laban-based instruction might be preferable for guiding the
movement abilities. A significant difference was found for the pre-instructional and post-
instructional Audie scores on both melody and rhythm subtests for all children. Blesedell
concluded that any type of movement instruction is beneficial for the musical development
of preschool children and that instruction increased developmental aptitude.

Woodrufl‘ (1983) sought to determine the predictive validity of PMMA and the
efi‘ects of Suzuki violin instruction on the developmental music aptitude of kindergarten
Suzuki violin students. Two classes of kindergarten students in Manhattan, New York
participated in the study. One class had 13 students and the other class had 10 students.
The two groups of students were taught separately by the same violin Suzuki teacher over
a period of 12 weeks. The students in both groups received between eighteen and twenty
30-minute lessons during the 12 weeks of training and were taught the first two phrases of
“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” in A major. PMMA was administered to all students prior
to and at the conclusion of the 12-week training period. At the end of the training, each
student was individually tape-recorded performing 14 performance tasks that were taken

directly from the first two phrases of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. The tape-recorded

49

performances were rated independently by two judges for both tonal and rhythm
achievement. Each student’s tonal performance achievement was assigned to a lS-point
scale, as was the rhythm performance achievement. The composite performance score
was the sum of tonal and rhythm performance scores; thus, 30 points was the highest
possible composite score. To detemrine the predictive validity of PMMA, the pre-training
tonal, rhythm, and composite scores on the PMMA were correlated with the
corresponding achievement rating scores for both groups of students. To determine the
effect of Suzuki training on developmental music aptitude, the pre-training tonal, rhythm,
and composite scores on the PMMA were correlated to the corresponding post-training
scores. The post-training scores on the PMMA were also correlated with the
corresponding achievement rating scores for both groups of students.

Results indicated that for the first group (n=13), the pre-training PMMA tonal,
rhythm, and composite scores correlated with the corresponding achievement rating
scores with coeficients of .67, .41, and .59 respectively. Those coefficients demonstrated
that the pre-training PMMA were significant predicators of achievement. However, for
the second group (n=10), the pre-training PMMA tonal, rhythm, and composite scores
only predicted the corresponding achievement with coefiicients of .31, .02, and .15
respectively, much lower than the coeficients obtained fi'om the first group. Since the
split-half reliabilities of the pre-training PMMA for both groups were satisfactorily high
(tonal, rhythm, and composite were .94 , .56, .79 respectively for the first group, and .85,
.60, and .81 for the second group), and the inter-judge reliabilities for the achievement
rating was unusually high (ranging between .91 and .98), Woodrufi‘ (1983) suggested that

the diversity of results between the two groups might be due to the fact that similar

50

training could have a different effect upon the two groups of students. The correlation
coeficients between the post-training PMMA and achievement scores, which were .61 for
tonal, -.21 for rhythm, and .19 for the composite for the first group, and .39 for tonal, .00
for rhythm, and .14 for the composite for the second group, were generally lower for both
groups than those between the pre-training PMMA and achievement scores.

The diverse results in PMMA predictive power between the two groups also
appeared in the correlations between pre-training and post-training PMMA scores. For
the first group, the pre-training PMMA scores were correlated with the post-training
PMMA scores by coefficients of .47, .02, and .37 for tonal, rhythm, and composite. For
the second group, the pre-training PMMA scores were correlated with the post-training
PMMA scores with coefiicients .96, .28, and .86 for tonal, rhythm, and composite. The
pre- and post- PMMA correlation coefiicients tended to be higher for the second group,
and the coefiicients of rhythm correlations were much lower than those of tonal
correlations for both groups.

Although the mean tonal, rhythm, and composite PMMA scores increased slightly
for both groups after training, observing that PMMA rhythm and composite scores did not
accurately predict rhythm achievement of the second group (coefiicients were .02 and -.22
respectively), and that there was not any correlation (coeflicient was .00) between post-
training PMMA rhythm scores and rhythm achievement scores for the second group,
Woodrufl' (1983) suggested that the rhythmically rigid training that Suzuki instruction
ofi’ers may have had a negative influence on the developmental rhythm aptitude of the
students of the second group, to the extent that rhythm achievement could not be

predicted by the PMMA rhythm subtest (p. 38 and p. 41).

51

86.

file

11151.

Because of the inconsistent results between the two groups, and the fact that the
groups were not randomized, and the fact that true Suzuki instruction was not utilized if
there was no parental involvement, nor private or small group instruction, the conclusion
drawn by Woode concerning the influence of Suzuki instruction on rhythm aptitude
may not be viewed as conclusive. More research is needed to further examine the effects
of Suzuki instruction on the development of tonal and rhythm aptitude.

Another study that also examined the efi‘ect of Suzuki instruction on
developmental music aptitude was conducted by Stamou (1998). Unlike Woodrufi‘, she
drew her sample from string programs of three community music schools in cities near
Lansing, Michigan, and initially involved more 5-8 year old subjects. A control group was
also included for contrast. Thirty-six beginning Suzuki students (16 five-year-olds, 6 six-
year-olds, 8 seven-year-olds, and 6 eight-year—olds) constituted the experimental group.
They received a 20- to 30- minute private Suzuki violin or cello lesson and a 45- to 60-
minute Suzuki group lesson every week for 22 weeks. Among students in the
experimental group, some had had at least one early childhood music class before age 5.
The control group consisted of 73 students from 4 classes (18 students in kindergarten, 17
in first grade, 19 in second grade, and 19 in third grade) in a public school in Okemos,
Michigan. Students in the control group received general music lessons as part of their
school curriculum for 30 nrinutes twice a week during the experimental period. The
general music instruction was taught by a music specialist with an emphasis on singing and
elements fiom Kodaly and Orff methodologies. PMMA tonal and rhythm subtests were
administered to all students as the pre- and post-test. At the end of the 22-week

instructional period, twenty-six Suzuki students were audiotaped performing the “Twinkle

52

Theme” and were rated by three judges on intonation, rhythm, and expression, using a
researcher—designed 5-point rating scale.

Three problems were examined in this study: (a) the effect of Suzuki instruction on
developmental music aptitude of beginning Suzuki string students; (b) the extent to which
PMMA scores can predict beginning students’ performance achievement after 22 weeks of
Suzuki string instruction; (c) the effect of early childhood music instruction on Suzuki
string students’ firture performance achievement. In order to determine the efi‘ect of
Suzuki instruction on developmental music aptitude, the changes in aptitude of Suzuki
students (experimental group) were compared to those of the general music students
(control group). Students were selected from the control group to match the age, and
pre-instruction PMMA Tonal, Rhythm, and Composite scores with those of the
experimental subjects. A paired-samples t test was conducted to ensure that there were no
significant differences on the pre-instruction PMMA Tonal, Rhythm, and Composite mean
scores between the experimental and control subjects with whom they were matched. The
post-instruction PMMA scores of the two groups were compared as a whole group, and
also at each age level. When the post-instruction PMMA scores were compared between
the matched pairs, no significant differences were found on the post-instruction PMMA
scores between the two groups. However, from the observed mean, the Suzuki students
tended to have slightly higher post-instruction PMMA Tonal and Composite mean scores
and slightly lower Rhythm scores than the general music students. When post-instruction
PMMA scores of the two groups were compared at each age level, still no significant
differences were found. However, post-instruction PMMA Composite mean scores of the

Suzuki students tended to be higher than those of the general music students at all age

53

levels except the 8-year-old students. Also, although post-instruction PMMA Rhythm
mean scores of Suzuki students were slightly lower than those of the general music
students with whom they were matched, it was found that the Rhythm mean scores of the
6- and 7-year-old Suzuki students tended to be higher than those of the matched general
music students.

In order to determine whether pre-instruction PMMA scores of the experimental
group subjects were predictive of their instrumental performance achievement at the end
of the 22-week instructional period, pre-instruction PMMA Tonal, Rhythm, and
Composite scores of Suzuki students were correlated with their Intonation, Rhythm,
Expression, and Composite performance achievement ratings. Results indicated that pre-
instruction PMMA Tonal and Composites scores were predictive of Intonation, Rhythm,
Expression, and Composite performance achievement scores. Pre-instruction PMMA
Rhythm scores were found to be predictive of Rhythm, Expression, and Composite
performance achievement scores, but not Intonation performance achievement. This
result was significant at the .01 level. To determine the efi‘ect of early childhood music
instruction on performance achievement, Suzuki students were divided into two groups
according to whether or not they had received early childhood music instruction before
age 5. The Suzuki students who had had early childhood music instruction before age 5
constituted Group 1 (n=21), and the remaining Suzuki students constituted Group 2
(n=3). The two groups did not significantly differ in mean age and pre-instruction music
aptitude, although students in Group 1 tended to have higher pre-instruction PMMA
Tonal, Rhythm, and Composite scores than students in Group 2. The string performance

achievement of the two groups was compared, and no significant differences were found.

54

However, Stamou concluded that Group 1 students tended to receive higher ratings in
Intonation, Rhythm, Expression, and Composite performance achievement than students
in Group 2.

Stamou (1998) concluded that Suzuki students tended to have lower rhythm
aptitude than general music students, based on a comparison of students aged fi'om 5 to 8.
Because the involved sample size was small at each age level (especially for age 6 to age
8) in her study, the efiects of Suzuki instruction on developmental music aptitude
compared to general music instruction at specific age levels need further investigation.
Also the number of non-early childhood Suzuki students used for that comparison was
extremely low. Unlike her study, which involved students fiom 5 to 8 years old, part of
the present study focuses on the effect of Suzuki instruction on the developmental music
aptitude of first grade students (6 years old), and involves a much bigger sample size at

that age level.

Summgg

The research reviewed in this chapter focuses on three major areas: (a) the effects
of music listening on instrumental performance achievement, (b) the effects of listening on
musical response and developmental music aptitude, and (c) the effects of music
instruction on developmental music aptitude.

The studies presented in this chapter regarding the effect of music listening on
instrumental performance achievement focused on the effects of attentive listening which
mostly involves the guided aural model. Positive effects were usually demonstrated, but

not always statistically significant. Although the unguided aural models demonstrated a

55

significant effect in helping students’ performance learning when allowable practice time is
very short, their effect in assisting home practice was largely not examined. No study
focused on the effect of incidental listening on performance achievement when
instrumental instruction was given outside of school and in a private lesson format. Since
early stimulation and learning is a trend in current education, studying how formal learning
may be assisted by informal stimulation for young children is very important.

The studies that focused on the efi‘ect of environment on children’s musical
performance all suggested that there is a connection between children’s informal musical
experience and their musical response. Children tended to be more musical if their parents
were musical and they had more opportunities to hear family members singing or playing
instruments, music recordings, and attending school or community concerts. Musical
listening was demonstrated as an effective method to teach musical style discrimination.
Nonrepeated listening to many prototypes of music tended to be more effective than
repeated listening to a few prototypes of music for teaching musical style discrimination.
Background music does not appear to have a significant influence on the developmental
music aptitude of kindergarten children when general music instruction is present. More
research is needed to establish the relationship of musical listening and the development of
music aptitude at other age levels or when no music instruction is involved.

From the studies presented in this chapter that investigated the efl’ects of
instruction on developmental music aptitude, it appears that music instruction is at least
partially responsible for the increase of developmental music aptitude. However, no
significantly different effects were found between different methods of general music

instruction. For instrumental pedagogy, the effect of the Suzuki method on music aptitude

56

has been examined at the kindergarten age level, and has been compared to that of general
music instruction at all age levels for which PMMA is appropriate. Since no conclusive
results were obtained fiom previous studies, and development of music aptitude varies
according to age, as suggested by Gordon and Taggart (1997), it is possible that music
instruction might have a different influence on developmental music aptitude of children at
different age levels. Studies that involved a greater number of subjects at a specific age
level are needed, so that the effects of Suzuki instruction on aptitude may be more clearly
established.

The present study seeks to shed more light on the relationship of incidental
listening to performance achievement and to developmental music aptitude by comparing
three kinds of listening treatments. It also seeks to illuminate how additional Suzuki
instruction may influence the development of music aptitude of first grade students who

receive general music instruction in the regular school curriculum.

57

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

The procedures described in this chapter are designed to investigate (a) the efl‘ect
of difi’erent incidental listening experiences (a wide variety of listening, typical Suzuki
listening, none) on the performance achievement of first grade beginning violin students
after 21 weeks of Suzuki instruction, (b) the effect of different incidental listening
experiences (a wide variety of listening, typical Suzuki listening, none) on developmental
music aptitude of first grade students, and (c) the effect of Suzuki violin instruction on the
developmental music aptitude of first-grade beginning Suzuki violin students. The
subjects, research procedure, research instruments, and the data analysis methods will be

discussed in detail in this chapter.

Sands

One hundred and seventy first-grade students in Tainan, Taiwan, were involved in
this study. Sixty-six students from various elementary schools who did not have previous
instrumental experience constituted the Suzuki groups while 104 students fi'om 3 intact
classes of two elementary schools constituted the non-Suzuki groups. The sample for this
study represented various educational, occupational, and socio-economic backgrounds.

All subjects who volunteered to receive Suzuki violin instruction were pre-tested
using Primary Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA) and were divided into three groups

(Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3) so that each group had equivalent level of PMMA

58

Composite scores. Three intact first grade classes fi'om two public elementary schools
formed three non-Suzuki groups (Group 4, Group 5, and Group 6) individually. Subjects
in both Suzuki and non-Suzuki groups received general music instruction from their home
room teachers in schools as part of their school curriculum while the Suzuki groups also
received weekly violin instruction fi'om the researcher. Three difi‘erent listening treatments
were given to the three Suzuki groups and three non-Suzuki groups. Group 1 (n=22) and
Group 4 (n=35) were assigned to listen to a 30-minute tape, consisting of a wide variety
of music of difi‘erent styles, tonalities, meters, and instrumental settings. Group 2 (n=22)
and Group 5 (n=3 5) were also assigned to listen to a 30-minute tape daily, but theirs
consisted of repetitions of the first 9 pieces of Suzuki Violin Book I. No listening tape was

assigned to students in Group 3 (n=22) and Group 6 (n=34).

Preparation of Listening (Treatment) Tapes

Two difi‘erent listening tapes, each 30 nrinutes in length, were prepared to provide
two different listening treatments: either a wide variety of music listening, or typical
Suzuki listening. For the varied music listening experience, a tape of fifleen pieces of
different styles, tirnbres, dynamics, tonalities, meters, and instrumental setting was
assembled by the researcher from quality commercially-available recordings. Renaissance,
Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Ethnic/Folk Song, and Jazz styles were included. Most
pieces were in major or minor tonality and duple or triple meter. One piece was in aeolian
tonality, and one piece in unusual paired meter (5/4). The instrumentation included solo
performances of violin, piano, trumpet, and bassoon, as well as a vocal duet, chorus, string

quartet, Afiican instrument (Kora), and orchestra. The dynamics of these pieces ranged

59

fi'om soft to loud, and no contrast to high contrast. A detailed description of those pieces
is given in Appendix A. The typical Suzuki listening experience was provided by
researcher-recorded audiotapes consisting of the first 9 pieces on the Suzuki Violin Book 1
CD, repeated 3 times (see Appendix B). Music from quality commercial compact disks
was duplicated on two master cassettes (one for each listening treatment), and each master
cassette was duplicated onto 80 cassette copies. For a variety of listening, 22 copies were
made for group 1 and 35 copies were made for group 4. For typical Suzuki listening, 22
cOpies were made for group 2 and 35 copies were made for group 5. Twenty-two copies
of both master cassettes were made for group 3 students for compensation after the
treatment period. A high quality CD player (Pioneer CD Player CLD-D504), cassette
player (Yamaha Natural Sound Cassette Deck K-903) and the TDK IECI IT YPE I

audiotapes were used in order to produce a high quality of recording.

Preparation of PMMA Testing Cassette in the Chinese Langpege

After permission for translating the PMMA testing CD into the Chinese language
was granted by GIA Publications (see Appendix C), the whole testing CD was recorded
onto an IBM personal computer with 16 bits, 44 KHz, stereo sampling format. The
identification of each test item (in PMMA, each question item was identified by the name
of an object) then was transformed into Mandarin with a PC sound editor software, Cool
Edit 96, which is a product of Syntrillium Corporation. Finally, the transformed sound file

(wav format) was recorded back to audio cassette.

Procedure

After permission for conducting the research study was granted by the University
Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects (see Appendix D), fliers (Appendix E)
explaining the contents of this research with consent forms (Appendix F ) for receiving the
Suzuki instruction were given out to children in many kindergartens in Tainan, Taiwan in
June. All children who turned in the consent forms and had no previous violin experience
constituted the Suzuki groups when they went to first grade in September.

The researcher also obtained permission fiom principals of two elementary schools
to conduct the PMMA tests and listening treatments with their students (see Appendix G).
A letter of explanation and an informed consent form was passed out to the students to
bring home to their parents (see Appendix H and Appendix 1). Three first grade home
room teachers agreed to assist in this research and the three first grade classes constituted
the three non-Suzuki groups.

One week prior to the designated date of the first PMMA test, a meeting with the
parents and children in the Suzuki groups was held. In the meeting, the researcher
explained the purpose and problems of this study, the meaning of music aptitude, the
purpose and procedure of the PMMA test, and the correct attitude towards the results of
the test; he also answered parents’ questions. In the same week, the researcher met with
students of the three non-Suzuki groups in school in the presence of their home room
teachers for the same purpose. All PMMA tests were administered by the researcher
himself in two weeks. The Tonal subtest was administered during the first week, and the
Rhythm subtest was administered during the second week. Suzuki students took the tests

in two groups during the weekend with the assistance of several fiiends of the researcher.

61

 

If a student missed one or both of the test sections, an individual test was given by the
researcher within a few days. The non-Suzuki students took the tests during the school
week in one of their free activity class periods, with the assistance of their home room
teachers. After administering the PMMA test, the researcher computed the scores
according to the directions of the PWA manual, and assigned Suzuki students to groups
of 3 according to proxinrity of their Composite scores.

One week prior to the violin instruction, all parents and Suzuki students met
together to decide what listening treatment they would receive during the experimental
period. Students in the same group, as determined by the researcher according to their
pre-instruction PMMA Composite scores, drew lots themselves to determine what
treatment group (Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3) they would belong to, i.e., what
listening treatment they would receive during the following experimental period. Each
student who was assigned to Group 1 or Group 2 obtained a treatment tape as his/her
daily listening assignment at his/her first violin lesson. Students were not allowed to
exchange tapes or give them to other children. No listening tape was distributed to
students in Group 3 during the experimental period, but both tapes were given to them at
the end of the experiment period as a compensation.

Parents were also informed of their responsibilities in this pre-instruction meeting.
At least one parent was expected to accompany the child to the violin lesson. Parents
were required to take notes in the class and help with the child’s practice at home. It was
the parents’ responsibility to guarantee the child’s listening to the treatment tape every
day, if he/she was assigned to listening groups. They also needed to log the child’s

practice and/or listening time every day.

62

The Suzuki students received weekly 50-minute violin lessons fiom the researcher
in groups of 3 or 4 students. Every teaching group had students with different listening
treatments. All students were taught the same repertoire and playing techniques. Every
other week, all Suzuki students attended a 90-minute group lesson. Students in Group 1
and Group 2 were also required to listen to their treatment tapes one time every day.
Their parents were asked to record the length of listening time in a log book, and the
students turned in their logs every week when they came to violin class. In addition, the
parents of all Suzuki students were asked to record their children’s daily practice amount
in their logs and this was monitored in the same way.

The three non-Suzuki groups, Group 4, Group 5, and Group 6, were randomly
assigned to three different listening treatments. The tape with a wide variety of music was
played every morning in the classroom of Group 4 when students were studying
independently. The tape with repeated Suzuki repertoire was played in the classroom of
Group 5 at the same period as that of Group 4. Students in these two groups obtained a
tape to listen to at home during the winter break. Before winter break, a letter was sent
by the two home room teachers to parents of every student, asking for help with their
children’s listening at home. However, their listening was not monitored during the break.
No listening tape was provided for students in Group 6.

At the end of the 21-week instructional period, PMMA was administered again to
all students in both the Suzuki and non-Suzuki groups. Students in the Suzuki groups
were also individually audiotaped performing “Twinkle Variation A” (Appendix J) and
“Yankee Doodle” (Appendix K) . The “Twinlde” piece was included in the daily listening

repertoire of both Group 1 and Group 2, while the “Yankee” piece, which is unfamiliar to

63

 

most Taiwan first grade children, was not recorded on the tapes for either Group 1 or
Group 2. Both testing songs were taught by the researcher during the instruction period.
Students were brought individually to a separate room where their performances of the
two pieces were audiotaped on two different tapes. Therefore no one except the
researcher heard their performances. Also, no name, but an identification number was
recorded with each student’s performance so that identities would be known only to the
researcher. In order to ensure a quality recording of students’ performances, the TDK
IECI /TYPE I audiotapes and Panasonic Dual Cassette Decks RX-FT 550 were used.
Their recorded performances were rated by three independent judges on the
dimensions of Intonation, Rhythm, and Tone Quality using a researcher—designed
performance achievement rating scale (Appendix L). The judges were either violin or
general music teachers in Taiwan who did not know the students participating in the
study. In order to pilot test the reliability of this performance achievement rating scale,
eleven students of the study with different performance achievement levels, based on their
ordinary performances in classes, were selected. Their performances of “Twinkle Theme”
were audio recorded and were rated by the three judges using the researcher-designed
rating scale. The interjudge reliabilities (Cronbach’s a) were found to be .85 for

Intonation, .86 for Rhythm, .90 for Tone Quality, and .92 for Composite.

The Research Instrumenfi
P_nm_ary' Measures of Mus_ic Audietion (PMMA)
PMMA is a music aptitude test for children fiom kindergarten through third grade,

developed by Edwin E. Gordon in 1971, and published by GIA publications in 1979.

 

Gordon believes that the music aptitude of children in this stage is still developing, and
that a valid measurement of their music aptitude is essential for better monitoring aptitude
development, as well as aiding the child’s musical development. PMMA would help
teachers and parents realize the musical strengths and weaknesses of each child, and adapt
instruction or environment to the musical needs of each individual accordingly, in the hope
that each child’s musical potential can be increased while it is still developing.

PMMA consists of two subtests: Tonal and Rhythm. Each subtest contains 40
questions and several practice examples. Each question has two Tonal patterns or two
Rhythm patterns and the children are asked to make decisions whether the two patterns
are the same or different. The tones in the tonal patterns are performed in beats of equal
length, and notes in the rhythm patterns are performed on the same pitch.

Each question is identified on the cassette by the name of an object instead of a
number, and shown as the picture of the object on the answer sheet. Instead of using the
words “same” and “different,” the test uses two identical faces and two difi'erent faces
representing these response options (see Appendix M). When children hear two musical
patterns that sound the same, they draw a circle around the pair of faces that are the same
on the answer sheet. As children hear two musical patterns that sound different, they
draw a circle around the pair of faces that are different. Therefore, children do not need
to have the ability to read language, music, or numbers to answer the questions.

Each subtest lasts approximately 12 minutes. Each subtest requires 20 minutes to
adnrinister including directions and practice examples. The two subtests should be

administered on different days and no more than two weeks apart. The directions are to

65

be read to young children instead of pre-recorded on the cassette in order to be better
understood.

According to the report in the PMMA manual (Gordon, 1986, p.91), the split-
halves reliabilities for both subtests and the Composite scores for children grades K—3
range from .72 to .92. Split-halves reliabilities for first grade children are .89 for Tonal,
.85 for Rhythm, and .92 for the Composite. The intercorrelation coeflz'rcients between the
Tonal and Rhythm subtests for the first-grade children is .49 (p.95). The Tonal scores
correlated to the Composite scores with a coefficient .84, and the Rhythm scores
correlated to the Composite scores with a coefficient .82 (Gordon, 1986, p.95) for the
first grade children.
Performence Achievement Test

A rating scale was designed by the researcher to measure the students’
performance achievement. The dimensions used in the rating scale were Tonal, Rhythm,
and Tone Quality. Each dimension included five criteria. The criteria were ranked from
easiest to hardest in a continuous scale. Each dimension was rated fiom 1 to 5, with 5
being the highest score, and 1 being the lowest score. Each Suzuki student received a
rating for each of the three dimensions, as well as a composite rating (the summation of
the three ratings), from each of the three judges.

Interjudge reliabilities were computed with Cronbach’s or coefficient. The
coemcients for the rating of “Twinkle Variation A” were found to be .81 for Intonation,
.86 for Rhythm, .90 for Tone Quality, and .92 for the Composite performance

achievement. For the rating of “Yankee Doodle,” the interjudge reliabilities (Cronbach’s

 

or) were found to be .81 for Intonation, .86 for Rhythm, .84 for Tone Quality, and .92 for

the Composite performance achievement.

Data Analysis

Eighty-five percent of the Suzuki students turned in their listening and/or practice
logs for 17 weeks or more in the 21-week instructional period. Their daily listening and
practice times were separately summed up each week. The totals of all weeks for each
student were averaged by the weeks he turned in his logs and represented his average
weekly listening or practice amount. The listening or practice amount of students who
turned in logs less than half of the instructional period were ignored. It was found that
Group 1 students listened to their tapes 5.36 times a week in average and Group 2
students listened to their tapes 5.17 times a week.

All statistical analyses in the present study were computed using SPSS. In order to
determine whether listening experience influences violin performance achievement of
beginning violin students, one way AN OVA analyses with covariates were conducted to
test for significant difi‘erences (a=.05) among the three Suzuki groups in their
performance achievement in “Twinkle Variation A” and “Yankee Doodle”. The pre-
instruction PMMA scores on the Tonal and Rhythm subtests, as well as weekly practice
amounts, were used as covariates

To determine whither first grade students’ developmental music aptitude was
influenced by their listening experience, a one way AN OVA test was conducted to reveal
any significant differences in the PMMA mean gains among the three Suzuki groups. An

independent-samples two-tailed t test was conducted to examine the significant difi‘erence

67

 

in average PMMA gain scores between students who were provided with Suzuki
repertoire listening experience (Group 5) and students who were not provided with
listening tapes (Group 6).

To determine the effect of Suzuki instruction on the developmental music aptitude
of first grade beginning Suzuki violin students, with no listening assignment, an
independent-samples two-tailed t test was conducted to test the significant difi‘erences in
PMMA average gain scores between students who received Suzuki instruction but no
listening tape (Group 3) and those without either listening tape or Suzuki instruction
(Group 6). Both groups’ posttest PMMA scores were also compared to their own pretest

PMMA scores by the paired-samples two-tailed t test.

68

 

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION

The Efl‘eete ef Ing'dentfl Music Listening on Instrumean Performance Achievement

R_es_ul_ts

At the end of the experimental period, subjects who received Suzuki violin
instruction were individually taped playing “Twinkle Variation A” and “Yankee Doodle,”
and performances were rated by three independent judges on Intonation, Rhythm, and
Tone Quality using a researcher-designed rating scale (see Appendix J). Each student was
rated on 3 dimensions (Intonation, Rhythm, Tone Quality) by each judge for each
performance. For each test song, the ratings of each student by the three judges were
averaged for each dimension and the Composite, and these averages were used to
represent the student’s performance achievement on Intonation, Rhythm, Tone Quality,
and the Composite on that song. Interjudge reliabilities for the rating of “Twinkle
Variation A,” which were computed with Cronbach’s or coefficient, were found to be .81
for Intonation, .86 for Rhythm, .90 for Tone Quality, and .92 for the Composite. For the
rating of “Yankee Doodle,” the interjudge reliabilities were found to be .81 for Intonation,
.86 for Rhythm, .84 for Tone Quality, and .92 for the Composite performance
achievement. In order to determine the effect of incidental listening on instrumental
performance achievement, a one way AN OVA test was done for the performance ratings
on the two test songs. Performance achievement ratings were compared among students

who received difierent listening treatments during the instructional period, in which

69

—.¢

students in Group 1 were given tapes that included a wide variety of music with difl‘erent
styles, students in Group 2 were provided with tapes of Suzuki repertoire that were
selected from the recording of Suzuki violin method Book 1 with several repetitions of
certain pieces, and no tape was given to students in Group 3.

Respits for “Twinkle Va_rir_rtion A”.

Fifty-nine students’ (20 in Group 1, 19 in Group 2, and 20 in Group 3)
performances on “Twinkle Variation A” were recorded and rated. The means and
standard deviations of the ratings of Intonation, Rhythm, Tone Quality, and the Composite
performance achievement for each group are reported in Table 1. A one way AN OVA
was conducted on each performance dimension and the Composite performance to
determine whether the three groups demonstrated significant differences in performance
achievement. The significance level was set at .05 level. The results, as shown in Table 2,
indicate that there were no significant differences among the three groups on each

performance dimension or on the Composite performance achievement.

7O

 

Table 1

Perjegpepee Achievement Scores for “Twinkle Variation A”

 

 

 

 

 

 

N Mean SD

Intonation Group 1 20 3.63 .72
2 19 3.28 .73

3 20 3.61 .78

Rhythm Group 1 20 3.96 .81
2 19 4.02 .89

3 20 3.93 .77

Tone Quality Group 1 20 3.68 .91
2 19 3.70 .95

3 20 3.40 .61

Composite Group 1 20 11.28 2.03
2 19 11.00 2.28

3 20 10.95 1.81

 

Group 1: Listening to a variety of music
Group 2: Listening to Suzuki repertoire

Group 3: No listening

Table 2

Comparison of Performgce AchievemerLfor “Twinkle Variation A” (AN OVA)

 

 

 

 

 

Sum of Mean
Squares df Square F Sig.
Intonation Between Groups 1.532 2 .766 1.386 .258
Within Groups 30.939 56 .522
Total 32.471 58
Rhythm Between Groups 7.109E-02 2 .036 .052 .949
\Vrthin Groups 37.966 56 .678
Total 38.037 58
Tone Between Groups 1.135 2 .567 .812 .449
Quality Within Groups 39.105 56 .698
Total 40.239 58
Composite Between Groups 1.277 2 .638 .153 .859
Within Groups 234.422 56 4.186
Total 235.699 58

 

7l

In order to remove the possible effects of music aptitude and practice amount upon
performance achievement, the pre-instruction PMMA scores on the Tonal and Rhythm
subtests, as well as weekly practice amounts, were used as covariates in a General
Factorial ANOVA analysis conducted to determine whether or not the variance of
performance achievement was caused by the treatment. Because one student in Group 2
and one student in Group 3 did not regularly hand in their practice logs, and their amount
of practice could not be determined, the ratings of only 57 students were used in this
analysis. Results shown in Table 3 indicate that no significant differences were found '
among the performance achievement of the three groups in any dimension, nor in the
composite scores. The variances among the three groups that were caused by listening
experience were shown as p-value at .23 on Intonation, .93 on Rhythm, .52 on Tone
Quality, and .90 on the Composite, which are all greater than the designated level of
significance, .05. The overall statistically significant (or=.05) contribution of the covariates
used for performance achievement ratings suggests that their use is necessary. Table 4
contains the performance mean scores of each group on Intonation, Rhythm, Tone
Quality, and the Composite, adjusted for pre-instruction PMMA Tonal and Rhythm

scores, as well as weekly practice amount.

72

 

Table 3

Qemperjeen pf “Twinkle” Perfemce Achievemem Wh_en Pre-instruction

PMMA Tong, Rhythm Scores and Practice Amount Were Used es Covariates
(General Fectorial ANOVA)

 

 

 

 

 

Sum of Mean
Squares df Square F Sig.
Intonation Covariates (Combined) 4.664 3 1.555 3.074 .036*
Tonal Aptitude 1.165 1 1.165 2.303 .135
Rhythm Aptitude 1.076 1 1.076 2.127 .151
Practice Amount 2.300 1 2.300 4.548 038*
Treatment Group 1.529 2 .764 1.51 1 .230
Error 25.793 51 .506
Total 3 l .924 56 .570
Rhythm Covariates (Combined) 6.901 3 2.300 4.010 012*
Tonal Aptitude 1.537 1 1.537 2.679 .108
Rhythm Aptitude 3.337 1 3.337 5.817 .020“
Practice Amount 1.668 1 1.668 2.908 .094
Treatment Group .008 2 .004 .070 .933
Error 29.256 51 .574
Total 36.205 56 .647
Tone Covariates (Combined) 8.409 3 2.803 5.590 .002“
Quality Tonal Aptitude 3.735 1 3.735 7.448 .009“
Rhythm Aptitude .346 1 .346 .689 .410
Practice Amount 4.451 1 4.451 8.875 .004“
Treatment Group .664 2 .332 .662 .520
Error 25.576 51 .501
Total 34.983 56 .625
Composite Covariates (Combined) 55.421 3 18.474 5.818 .002“
Tonal Aptitude 18.016 1 18.016 5.674 021*
Rhythm Aptitude 11.862 1 11.862 3.736 .059
Practice Amount 24.137 1 24.137 7.602 .008“
Treatment Group .660 2 .3 3 0 . 104 .901
Error 161.936 51 3.175
Total 217.674 56 3.887

 

" Significant at .05 level

73

 

Table 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

MEWSCNQ for “Twinkle Variation A”
Group Mean Standard
Error
Intonation 1 3 .6526 . 161
2 3 .2900 . 168
3 3 .6346 . 167
Rhythm 1 4.0035 .172
2 4.0476 .179
3 3.9523 .178
Tone Quality 1 3.6768 .160
2 3.7737 .168
3 3.5025 .167
Composite 1 1 1.3308 .404
2 1 1.1 1 12 .422
3 1 1.091 1 .419

 

Group 1: Listening to a variety of music
Group 2: Listening to Suzuki repertoire
Group 3: No listening

Results for “Yankee Doodle”.

Because one student in Group 3 was not willing to tape record his performance of
“Yankee Doodle,” only 58 students (20 in Group 1, 19 in Group 2, and 19 in Group 3)
were recorded and rated performing “Yankee Doodle.” The means and standard
deviations for the ratings for Intonation, Rhythm, Tone Quality, and the Composite
performance achievement for each group are reported in Table 5. A one way ANOVA
was conducted on each performance dimension and the Composite performance to
determine whether the three groups demonstrated significantly different performance
achievement. The significance level was set at .05. The results, as shown in Table 6,
indicate that there were no significant differences among the three groups on each

performance dimension and also on the Composite.

74

Table 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pfiegmapce Achievemep; Scores; for “ flee Doodle”
N Mean SD
Intonation Group 1 20 3.28 .77
2 19 3.00 .87
3 19 3.16 .86
Rhythm Group 1 20 3.27 1.03
2 19 3.16 .86
3 19 3.70 .79
Tone Quality Group 1 20 2.91 .94
2 19 2.89 .86
3 19 3.12 .82
Composite Group 1 20 9.47 2.39
2 19 9.05 2.23
3 19 9.98 2.05

 

Group 1: Listening to a variety of music
Group 2: Listening to Suzuki repertoire

Group32Nolistening

Table 6

Cempg' $11 of Performang Achieveme_nt for “Yenkee Doodle’LANOVA)

 

 

 

 

 

Sum of Mean
Squares df Square F Sig
Intonation Between Groups .785 2 .392 .562 .573
Within Groups 38.378 55 .698
Total 39.163 57
Rhythm Between Groups 3.173 2 1.586 1.954 .151
Within Groups 44.648 55 .812
Total 47.821 57
Tone Between Groups .615 2 .308 .403 .671
Quality Within Groups 42.013 55 .764
Total 42.628 57
Composite Between Groups 8.231 2 4.115 .828 .442
Within Groups 273.365 55 4.970
Total 281.596 57

 

75

In order to remove the possible effects of music aptitude and practice amount upon
performance achievement, the pre-instruction PMMA scores on the Tonal and Rhythm
subtests, as well as weekly practice amounts, were used as covariates when a General
Factorial AN OVA analysis was conducted to analyze the variance of performance
achievement among subjects. Because one student in Group 2 did not regularly hand in
her practice logs (and the student in Group 3 who was not willing to record his
performance of “Yankee Doodle” also did not hand in his practice logs regularly), only the
ratings of 57 students were used in this analysis. Results shown in Table 7 indicated that
no significant difi‘erences were found among performance achievement scores of the three
groups in any dimension, nor in the Composite scores. The variances among the three
groups that may have been caused by listening experience are shown as p-value at .56 on
Intonation, .18 on Rhythm, .31 on Tone Quality, and .28 on the Composite, which are all
greater than the designated significant level, .05. The overall significant contribution of
the used covariates to performance achievement ratings suggests that their use is
appropriate and necessary. Table 8 contains the performance mean scores of each group
on Intonation, Rhythm, Tone Quality, and the Composite, adjusted by pre-instruction

PMMA Tonal and Rhythm scores, as well as weekly practice amount.

76

 

Table 7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

om ' n f “Yank ” P ormance Achievement When Pre-instruction
PMMA Tonal and Rhythm Scores and Practice Amount Were Used as Covg'etes
(General Factorial ANOVA)
Sum of Mean
Squares df Square F Sig.
Intonation Covariates (Combined) 6.927 3 2.309 3.744 .017*
Tonal Aptitude 5.417 1 5.417 8.784 .005*
Rhythm Aptitude .179 1 .179 .291 .592
Practice Amount 1.386 1 1.386 2.248 .140
Treatment Group .734 2 .367 .595 .555
Error 31.451 51 .617
Total 39.140 56 .699
Rhythm Covariates (Combined) 13.306 3 4.435 7.275 .000“
Tonal Aptitude 4.996 1 4.996 8.194 006*
Rhythm Aptitude 4.587 1 4.587 7.523 008*
Practice Amount 3.105 1 3.105 5.093 .028"
Treatment Group 2. 171 2 1 .085 1.780 . 179
Error 31.092 51 .610
Total 47.317 56 .845
Tone Covariates (Combined) 16.245 3 5.415 10.858 000*
Quality Tonal Aptitude 7.598 1 7.598 15.235 .000“
Rhythm Aptitude .006 l .006 .012 .913
Practice Amount 9.360 1 9.360 18.768 .000"
Treatment Group 1.184 2 .592 1.187 .313
Error 25.433 51 .499
Total 42.203 56 .754
Composite Covariates (Combined) 96.384 3 32.128 9.320 .000“
Tonal Aptitude 53.458 1 53.458 15.507 000*
Rhythm Aptitude 6.992 1 6.992 2.028 .160
Practice Amount 35.972 1 35.972 10.435 002*
Treatment Group 8.893 2 4.446 1 .290 .284
Error 175.811 51 3.447
Total 279.305 56 4.988

 

"‘ Significant at .05 level

77

 

Table 8

A ' P ormance Mega Scores for “Yenkee Doodle”

 

Group Mean Standard

 

 

 

 

 

Error
Intonation 1 3.2573 . 178
2 2.9886 .186
3 3.1957 .185
Rhythm 1 3.2959 .177
2 3.1920 .185
3 3.6650 .184
Tone Quality 1 2.8838 .160
2 2.8796 .167
3 3.1991 .166
Composite 1 9.4387 .421
2 9.0630 .440
3 10.0585 .437

 

Group 1: Listening to a variety of music
Group 2: Listening to Suzuki repertoire
Group 3: No listening

Interpretetion

Listening experience during the 21-week instructional period, either listening to a
wide variety of music or listening to repeated Suzuki repertoire, did not significantly aid
performance achievement of beginning Suzuki violin students. However, the observed
mean after adjustment (see Table 4) suggests that for the performance of “Twinkle
Variation A”, students who were provided with typical Suzuki listening experience (Group
2) tended to have higher Rhythm and Tone Quality mean scores than students who were
not provided with listening opportunities (Group 3), and also tended to perform slightly
better in Rhythm and Tone Quality than the students who were provided with a wide
variety of music listening experience (Group 1), in which the Twinkle piece was included.

The Rhythm and Tone Quality performance achievement of Group 1 was also slightly

78

higher than that of Group 3. This superiority of the two listening groups was not found in
the performance achievement analysis of “Yankee Doodle,” where the test piece was not
included in the listening repertoire of both Group 1 and Group 2. Contrary to the results
shown in Table 4, the observed mean scores shown in Table 8 suggested that, for the
performance of “Yankee Doodle,” students who were not provided listening tapes (Group
3) tended to have the highest Rhythm and Tone Quality mean scores, while students who
listened to typical Suzuki repertoire (Group 2) tended to have the lowest Intonation,
Rhythm, and Tone Quality mean scores. The non-significant and contradictory results
make it dificult to draw any significant conclusions.

The fact that Group 3 demonstrated higher achievement on Rhythm and Tone
Quality performance than both Group 1 and Group 2 for the piece “Yankee Doodle,”
suggests that a short period of listening experience, either a wide variety of listening or
typical Suzuki listening, did not help with performance learning of an unlistened-to piece.
The first grade students may have needed a longer time to develop their audiation skills
enough to generalize their musical thinking to “Yankee Doodle.” Also, the fact that
Group 2 students had slightly inferior performance achievement to Group 1 students on
the piece “Yankee Doodle”, suggests that the limited repertoire Group 2 listened to may
have provided lesser information for generalization than a variety of music heard by Group
1.

It is also possible that students in Group 3, who did not receive a listening
assignment, tended to learn this piece better due to some reasons that were not controlled
in this study. First, according to the researcher’s personal observation, the parents of

students in Group 3 demonstrated greater effort and enthusiasm for their children’s

79

I -.&- .-'

 

learning. It is possible they felt that it was a disadvantage not to have the listening tapes,
especially since all parents had access to the Chinese version of the book Nurtured by
Love (Suzuki, 1983), in which the importance of listening is stressed. Parental
involvement is of ultimate importance in the Suzuki approach. The success of the Suzuki
approach, according to Slone (1982, p. 29), depends upon the triangular relationship of
parent, teacher, and student. The influence of parental involvement on performance
achievement is also evident in a study of Brokaw (1983 ), who found the amount of
parental supervision of home practice to be significantly related to beginning students’
instrumental performance achievement (p<.01). The study of Doan (1973) also indicated
that parents’ attention and assistance with children’s practice contributed to the children’s
performance ability. Furthermore, “Yankee Doodle” is more difficult than “Twinkle” in
terms of left-hand technique. Students may need more parental assistance to perform the
“Yankee” piece. Second, instrumental performance achievement is a result of an
aggregate of elements that may not be able to be explained by several isolated factors like
music aptitude, practice amount, or listening experience. Factors such as fine and gross
motor skill development, personality, richness of environment, previous instrumental
experience, as well as parental involvement, etc., may have an impact on instrumental
performance achievement. Several studies (Jenkins, 1976; Reynolds, 1960; Shelton,
1965) have shown that home environment, such as the parents’ musical backgrounds,
whether or not the mother and/or siblings sing or play instruments, and frequent singing
with members of their families, etc., are closely related to the musical response of children

from two years old to first grade.

80

Ifthe advantages of stronger parental involvement of Group 3 holds true, then the
superior performances of Group 2 and Group 1 over Group 3 on Rhythm and Tone
Quality achievement of the Twinkle piece, although slight, may not be overlooked and
may be attributed to their daily listening opportunities of “Twinkle Variation A.” Students
in Group 2 demonstrated higher Rhythm and Tone Quality achievements than those in
either Group 1 or Group 3, but not higher Intonation achievement for both test pieces.
Listening experience in Group 2 did not appear to help with their Intonation performance.
This might be largely attributable to the use of finger tapes. Each student’s violin in each
group was marked with tape on all correct finger placements at the beginning of the
instructional period, as is customary in the Suzuki approach. If a student could see the
mark when playing the violin, and had no difficulty placing fingers on the mark, he should
have been able to produce correct intonation without relying much on his mental images
of the songs or pitch discrimination ability. Thus, the effects of listening experience on
Intonation achievement may be lessened because of the use of finger tapes. Moreover, the
idea that students in Group 2 did not demonstrate higher Intonation achievement because
of the use of finger tapes, firrther supports that the superiority of Group 2 on Rhythm and
Tone Quality achievement, though not significant, may be due to the influence of listening
experience.

There may be several reasons for the non-significant superiority of Group 2 and
Group 1 in the Rhythm and Tone Quality performance of “Twinkle Variation A.” First, as
stated above, from the observation of the researcher, parents of students in Group 3 had
more involvement in their children’s instrumental learning. The stronger parental

involvement in Group 3 possibly compensated for the advantage of the listening

8]

experience of students in Group 1 and Group 2. Second, although Group 3 students did
not listen to the “Twinkle Variation A” daily at home, they had many opportunities to
listen to the piece in their weekly lessons (small groups of 3 or 4) and large group lessons
every other week. This piece was fi'equently reviewed in the weekly class or group
lessons because review is a common practice within the Suzuki approach. Third, almost
every Taiwanese child can sing the song “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” from an early age,
and the simple, single rhythm pattern of “Twinkle Variation A” is probably also easily
audiated by a first-grade student. In this situation, the influence of listening experience on
Intonation and Rhythm performance may not be expected to be salient. Although listening
experience may contribute to their sense of tone quality, the students’ immature bowing
skills might not reflect this on the violin.

The amount of listening may be another reason that could account for the non-
significant difi‘erences among the three groups. Especially for incidental listening, the type
of listening the present study investigates, saturation listening probably is necessary in
order to produce a statistically significant effect. In Suzuki’s opinion, “the young child’s
rate of progress is directly dependent upon the amount of listening he does” (Starr, 1976,
p.7). Suzuki encouraged saturation or ‘endless’ listening, meaning that the music is
always there no matter what the child is doing. In the current study, students in Group 1
and Group 2 were asked to listen to their 30-minute tapes one time a day; that is, every
day Group 2 students would listen to the Twinkle piece three times, and Group 1 would
listen to the Twinkle piece one time. It is possible that three repetitions a day or one time
a day in a short period was not enough listening to enable students in Group 1 and Group

2 to perform significantly better than Group 3 students, especially when most children in

82

the current study were familiar with the Twinkle piece before this instruction. Also, the
daily practice and listening log handed in indicated that students did not finish listening to
their tapes every day (Group 2 students every week listened to their tapes 5.17 times a
week on average, and Group 1 students, 5.36 times).

Because students in Group 1 demonstrated better performance in Rhythm and
Tone Quality achievement than those in Group 3 for the Twinkle piece, but did not
demonstrate better performance achievement for the piece “Yankee Doodle,” it may be
inferred that listening to a wide variety of music mostly not related to performance
repertoire in a period of 21 weeks, may not help with students’ performance learning, at
least in Rhythm and Tone quality. According to Suzuki (Starr, p.7), in order to aid
students’ performance learning, repeated exposures to a limited repertoire that is being
learned, has been learned, and will be learned in the near future, should be more effective
than listening to various unrelated classical music. However, this recommendation must
be viewed very cautiously. Data from this study only suggest that if an observable effect
upon the performance achievement of a beginning learner is to be expected after only a
short term or several months of listening, repeated listening to the piece studied may be
more efi‘ective than listening to a variety of unrelated recordings, at least for Rhythm and
Tone quality.

Although a wide variety of listening did not appear to help with the performance of
the unlistened-to piece, and was not more effective than typical Suzuki listening in
enhancing Rhythm and Tone Quality performance of Twinkle piece, a wide variety of
music listening seems to have stronger influence on the performance achievement of

Intonation than limited repertoire listening experience, because in performances of each of

83

the two test songs, no matter whether the piece was heard or not in their daily listening
experience, students in Group 1 who listened to a variety of music had comparable but
slightly higher Intonation achievement scores than Group 3 but students in Group 2 who
listened to linrited Suzuki repertoire had lower Intonation scores than those of both Group
1 and Group 3. Because the use of finger tapes may have lessened the effects of listening
on Intonation achievement, the relation of listening experiences and Intonation
achievement needs to further examined in a situation that finger tapes were avoided.

Also, because Group 1 students demonstrated the highest overall performance
achievement in “Twinkle Variation A,” repeated listening to the piece studied and at the
same time listening to a wide variety of music may be the most beneficial for overall
performance achievement.

In summary, from the results of the present study, it may be inferred that (a)
listening to a piece that is being learned or has been learned may reinforce the performance
of that piece, at least in Rhythm and Tone quality; (b) listening experience for a period as
short as 21 weeks, may not influence the performance learning of a piece if the learned
piece is not included in the listening repertoire; (c) a wide variety of listening enhances
Intonation performance achievement; ((1) simultaneous listening to the piece studied and a
variety of other music is most profitable for performance achievement. It should be kept
in mind, however, that these inferences are made on tendencies and not statistically
significant difi‘erences. Due to the non-significant results, the greater Rhythm and Tone
Quality achievement that was demonstrated in the present study by students who were
provided with opportunities to listen to the Twinkle piece, needs to be further examined

and validated by increasing the amount of listening and extending the instruction/listening

84

period. The benefit of a wide variety of listening to Intonation should also be further
tested for its statistical significance. The effects of the two types of music listening, either
a wide variety of listening or repeated limited listening, upon the performance achievement

on a piece that has never been heard, should be further examined.

The Effects of Incidentel MLsic Listening on Developmental Music Aptitude

Two different comparisons were done in order to determine the effect of listening
experience on developmental music aptitude. The changes of PMMA scores from pretest
to posttest were compared among Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3, who all received the
same Suzuki instruction but not the same listening experiences. Second, the changes in
scores for the groups (Group 4, Group 5, and Group 6) that were provided with difi‘erent
listening experiences but did not receive Suzuki instruction were compared. The aptitude
development of students who were provided Suzuki repertoire listening tapes but not
Suzuki instruction (Group 5) was also compared to that of students who were provided
neither listening tapes nor Suzuki instruction (Group 6).

Results

Comparison ergong Suzuki ggoups.

Before the instruction began, 66 students who volunteered to receive Suzuki
instruction were administered the PMMA Tonal and Rhythm subtests within a period of
two weeks. Students who had close PMMA Composite scores were randomly assigned to
three groups. Students in Group 1 (n=22) were provided with a wide variety of listening
experience which included major, minor, and modal tonalities, and duple, triple, and

unusual paired meters. Students in Group 2 (n=22) listened to repeated Suzuki repertoire

85

in which only major tonality and duple meter were included. Students in Group 3 (n=22)
were not provided with any listening tapes. All initial PMMA test scores are reported in
Table 9, where it can be seen that the mean PMMA Composite scores for each group are

very close.

Table 9

PMMA Preteet Results of All Suzuki Students

 

 

 

 

N Mean SD

Tonal Group 1 22 35.82 3.35
2 22 35.43 3.53

3 22 34.36 3.72

Total 66 35.21 3.54

Rhythm Group 1 22 27.86 4.07
2 22 28.27 4.26

3 22 29.32 3.92

Total 66 28.48 4.07

Composite Group 1 22 63.68 5.83
2 22 63.73 6.04

3 22 63.68 5.51

Total 66 63.70 5.71

 

Group 1: Listening to a variety of music
Group 2: Listening to Suzuki repertoire
Group 3: No listening

Because some students left the experiment or were absent from the PMMA
posttest, the number of students whose scores were included in the analysis was decreased
to 21 in Group 1, 20 in Group 2, and 22 (21 in Tonal, 21 in Rhythm, and 20 in

Composite. ) in Group 3. Their pretest and posttest PMMA scores, and differences in

 

' One person missed the Tonal subtest, while another missed the Rhythm. Thus, there were 22 actual
subjects, but only the number of scores stated for analysis.

86

these scores, are presented in Table 10. A one way ANOVA analysis was conducted to
compare the scores of the three groups. Results in Table 11 indicate that there were no
significant differences among the three groups in the pretest and posttest PMMA mean
scores, as well as in the average gain scores fiom pretest to posttest. However, it should
be noted that, although not statistically significant, students in Group 1 and Group 2 both
had almost twice the Rhythm aptitude gains of students in Group 3 (Table 10). On the
other hand, students in Group 3 tended to have much higher Tonal gain than those in
Group 1 and Group 2. Group 1 students tended to have the greatest improvement in the
PMMA Composite mean score, and Group 3 students tended to have the lowest PMMA

Composite gain scores.

87

Table 10

PMMA Pretest, Posttest, and Gain Scores of Suzuki Groups

 

 

 

 

N Mean SD
Tonal Pretest Group 1 21 35.86 3.42
2 20 35.30 3.66
3 21 34.67 3.53
Total 62 35.27 3.51
Posttest Group 1 21 36.48 2.66
2 20 35.60 3.22
3 21 36.00 3.19
Total 62 36.03 3.00
Gain Group 1 21 .62 2.65
2 20 .30 2.77
3 21 1.33 3.48
Total 62 .76 2.98
Rhythm Pretest Group 1 21 27.67 4.07
2 20 28.10 4.39
3 21 29.62 3.75
Total 62 28.47 4.09
Posttest Group 1 21 30.67 3.17
2 20 31.15 3.33
3 21 31.14 4.11
Total 62 30.98 3.51
Gain Group 1 21 3.00 3.89
2 20 3.05 4.20
3 21 1.52 3.47
Total 62 2.52 3.86
Composite Pretest Group 1 21 63.52 5.92
2 20 63.40 6.24
3 20 64.45 5.07
Total 61 63.79 5.69
Posttest Group 1 21 67.14 4.93
2 20 66.75 5.90
3 20 67.05 6.20
Total 61 66.98 5.60
Gain Group 1 21 3.62 4.36
2 20 3.35 5.40
3 20 2.60 4.07
Total 61 3.20 4.59

 

Group 1: Listening to a variety of music
Group 2: Listening to Suzuki repertoire
Group 3: No listening

88

Table 11

Comparison of PMMA Scores Among Suzuki Groups (ANOVA)

 

 

 

 

Sum of Mean
Squares df Square F Sig.
Tonal Pretest Between Groups 14.901 2 7.450 .596 .554
Within Groups 737.438 59 12.499
Total 752.339 61
Posttest Between Groups 7.897 2 3.949 .430 .653
Within Groups 542.038 59 9.187
Total 549.935 61
Gain Between Groups 11.552 2 5.776 .643 .529
Within Groups 529.819 59 8.980
Total 541.371 61
Rhythm Pretest Between Groups 44.016 2 22.008 1.328 .273
Within Groups 977.419 59 16.566
Total 1021.435 61
Posttest Between Groups 3.196 2 1.598 .126 .882
Within Groups 749.788 59 12.708
Total 752.984 61
Gain Between Groups 31.296 2 15.648 1.051 .356
Within Groups 878.188 59 14.885
Total 909.484 61
Composite Pretest Between Groups 13.241 2 6.621 .199 .820
Within Groups 1930.988 58 33.293
Total 1944.230 60
Posttest Between Groups 3.196 2 .856 .026 .974
Within Groups 749.788 58 32.401
Total 752.984 60
Gain Between Groups 11.337 2 5.668 .263 .770
Within Groups 1250.302 58 21.557
Total 1261.639 60

 

89

Comparison among non-Suzuki ggoups.

The three non-Suzuki groups received the same three listening treatments as the
Suzuki groups. Group 4 students (n=3 5) were provided with a wide variety of listening
experience which included major, minor, and model tonalities and duple, triple, and
unusual paired meter. Students in Group 5 (n=35) listened to repeated Suzuki repertoire
in which only major tonality and duple meter were included. Students in Group 6 (n=34)
were not provided with any listening tapes. Unlike the Suzuki groups, subjects in the
three non-Suzuki groups were students of three intact elementary school classes. All three
groups received two 40-minute general music lessons a week from their homeroom
teachers, but no Suzuki instruction, during the experimental period.

Singing children’s songs and doing concurrent movement activities are staple
activities in all music classes of first and second graders in public elementary schools in
Taiwan. The home room teachers of both Group 5 and Group 6 majored in music when
they studied at Teachers Colleges, so the two groups should have received almost the
same quality and content of music instruction, since Taiwanese music curricula are fairly
similar. However, the home room teacher of Group 4 was not a music major; therefore,
the quality of music instruction Group 4 received may not have been as high as that the
other two groups received. Also, the students in Group 4 once complained that the music
was not clearly heard during the experimental period. Although the cassette player was
replaced immediately after the complaint was known by the researcher, the students’
listening experience may have been affected negatively. Because the general music
instruction for Group 4 may not have been equivalent to that for Group 5 and Group 6,

and there was doubt about the listening experience of Group 4 because of the problem

with the cassette player, the difference between Group 4 and the other two groups in the
development of music aptitude could not confidently be attributed to the effect of
listening. Therefore, the data for Group 4 is reported only for the purpose of reference,
but not used in any analysis.

All initial PMMA test scores are reported in Table 12. The PMMA pretest and
posttest scores, as well as PMMA gain scores of the three groups, are reported in Table
13. Because some students were absent from school on the days that PMMA tests were
given, if a student missed a subtest in either pretest or posttest, his score in that dimension
is not reported. From the data shown in Table 13, it can be found that the students in
Group 5 and Group 6 had comparable PMMA pretest mean scores, but Group 4 had much
higher Tonal, Rhythm, and Composite scores than both Group 5 and Group 6. This is
another reason that the data for Group 4 is not involved in the analysis. It can be found
that the gain for Group 4 tended to be lower than the gain of Group 5 and Group 6 in
Tonal, Rhythm, and the overall music aptitude. This may be attributed to the following
three reasons or their combination: first, students in Group 4 had higher Tonal, Rhythm,
and overall music aptitude than students in Group 5 and Group 6 to begin with; second,
Group 4 received general music instruction from a non-music specialist, while the other
groups received instruction from music specialists; third, the efi‘ects of listening may have
been disturbed. In summary, the data of Group 4 is excluded from the analysis because of

the complicated influences of the above factors.

91

Table 12

PMMA Prgest Results of All Non-Suzuki Students

 

 

 

 

N Mean SD

Tonal Group 4 35 33.03 4.91
5 34 31.41 5.67

6 34 29.62 7.47

Total 103 31.37 6.20

Rhythm Group 4 34 26.03 4.70
5 34 24.76 6.01

6 34 24.91 5.26

Total 102 25.24 5.33

Composite Group 4 34 58.97 8.17
5 34 56.18 10.46

6 34 54.53 11.98

Total 102 56.56 10.38

 

Group 4: Listening to a variety of music
Group 5: Listening to Suzuki repertoire

Group 6: No listening

92

Table 13

PMMA Pretest, Posttest, and Gain Scores of Non-Suzuki Groups

 

 

N Mean SD

 

 

 

Tonal Pretest Group 4 34 33.03 4.98
5 33 31.48 5.75

6 32 29.84 7.58

Total 99 31.48 6.25

Posttest Group 4 34 33.12 4.53
5 33 35.06 2.15

6 32 34.19 4.54

Total 99 34.1 1 3.95

Gain Group 4 34 .12 3.51
5 33 3.58 4.75

6 32 4.34 7.33

Total 99 2.64 5.65

Rhythm Pretest Group 4 33 26.30 4.49
5 32 24.59 6.15

6 33 24.85 5.33

Total 98 25.26 5.36

Posttest Group 4 33 27.61 3.57
5 32 29.63 4.48

6 33 26.15 4.81

Total 98 27.78 4.51

Gain Group 4 33 1.12 4.87
5 32 5.03 6.56

6 33 1.30 4.98

Total 98 2.46 5.75
Composite Pretest Group 4 32 59.44 7.66
5 32 55.94 10.70

6 32 54.75 12.23

Total 96 56.71 10.45

Posttest Group 4 32 61.19 6.75
5 32 64.56 5.54

6 32 60.41 7.53

Total 96 62.05 6.83

Gain Group 4 32 1.59 6.04
5 32 8.63 9.00

6 32 5.66 10.19

Total 96 5.29 8.98

 

Group 4: Listening to a variety of music
Group 5: Listening to Suzuki repertoire
Group 6: No listening

93

In order to firrther validate the findings in the analysis of Suzuki group scores in

which both listening groups (Group 1 and Group 2) showed greater improvement in

Rhythm aptitude than the group that was not provided with a listening tape (Group 3), an

independent-samples t test was conducted to examine the difference in music aptitude

development between non-Suzuki students who were provided with the Suzuki repertoire

listening experience (Group 5) and students who were not provided with listening tapes

(Group 6). Results shown in Table 14 indicate that the listening group made significantly

(p=.012) greater gains in Rhythm aptitude than the non-listening group.

Table 14

PMMA Pretest. Posttest- a_nd Gain Scores of Listening (Group 5) and Non-listenipg
(Group 6) Students Without Suzuki Instrugion

 

 

 

 

 

Listening Non-Listening
(Group 5) (Group 6) Sig.
N Mean SD N Mean SD t value (2-tailed
Tonal Pretest 33 31.48 5.75 32 29.84 7.58 .986 .328
Posttest 33 35.06 2.15 32 34.19 4.54 .996 .323
Gain 33 3.58 4.75 32 4.34 7.33 -.503 .617
Rhythm Pretest 32 24.59 6.15 33 24.85 5.33 -.179 .859
Posttest 32 29.63 4.48 33 26.15 4.81 3 .009 .004"
Gain 32 5.03 6.56 33 1.30 4.98 2.586 .012“
Composite Pretest 32 55.94 10.70 32 54.75 12.23 .413 .681
Posttest 32 64.56 5.54 32 60.41 7.53 2.516 .014“
Gain 32 8.63 9.00 32 5.66 10.19 1.236 .221

 

" Significant at .05 level (2-tailed)

94

Int r 'on

The significant results shown in Table 14 indicate that first grade students who
were given 21 weeks of typical Suzuki repertoire incidental listening treatment made
significantly greater Rhythm aptitude gains than did students without the listening
treatment. These results demonstrate that repeated incidental listening to typical Suzuki
repertoire, even when only duple meter was included, positively affected the development
of Rhythm aptitude of the first grade students to the extent that a statistically significant
difi‘erence was reached when compared to the improvement made by students who did not
listen to music. Although the results shown in Table 11 did not demonstrate significant
differences among the three Suzuki groups that were provided with difi‘erent listening
treatments, attention must be given to the fact that students in those groups all received
Suzuki instruction in the treatment period. The effects of listening may be confounded by
the effects of Suzuki instruction. The efi‘ect of a wide variety of music listening may be
comparable to or better than the efi‘ect of typical Suzuki repertoire listening, as
demonstrated in this study by its effect on Tonal, Rhythm and overall aptitude
development (see Table 10). The efi’ects of different listening experiences upon
developmental music aptitude when only nrinimal formal music instruction is involved
need to be firrther examined. Future research is also needed to determine the factors in
listening experience that may contribute to a higher level of Rhythm aptitude.

Furthermore, the results shown in Table 10, indicating that the Suzuki students
who were provided with listening opportunities, either a variety of music or Suzuki
repertoire, made almost twice the Rhythm gains of students who were not provided with

listening opportunities, suggest that the development of Rhythm aptitude may be

95

 

strengthened by formal instruction (Suzuki instruction) together with informal instruction
(listening opportunities). This finding is in accord with Gordon’s opinion that children in
kindergarten through grade three should receive both formal and informal music
instruction for the sake of music aptitude development (Gordon, 1986, p. 70).

It also should be noted that, although Group 5 and Group 6 students received
general music instruction from two different teachers, both were music specialists, and had
similar educational backgrounds. The teaching was also similar because singing children’s
songs with concurrent movement is the typical diet in all first grade music classes in
Taiwan’s public elementary schools. It does not seem possible that the general music
instruction the students in the two groups received would account for their significantly
difi‘erent development in Rhythm aptitude.

An unusual result found in this study is that both the group listening to a wide
variety of music (Group 1) and those listening to a limited amount of the Suzuki repertoire
(Group 2 and Group 5), made less Tonal aptitude improvement, although not statistically
significant, than the non-listening groups (Group 3 and Group 6), no matter whether
Suzuki instruction was present or not. It may be that the listening groups happened to
have more students with very high Tonal aptitude. There were 8 students (3 8%) in Group
1 and 6 students (3 0%) in Group 2 who received a percentile rank of 99 or higher in terms
of PMMA norms (which were provided in the PMMA manual, p. 61) on the pre-
instruction Tonal subtest, while only 4 students (19%) in Group 3 scored at the 99"I
percentile or above. Also, compared to 2 students (6%) in Group 6 who scored at the 99tll
percentile or above, 5 students (15%) in Group 5 received a percentile rank of 99 or

higher on the pre-instruction Tonal subtest. There was little room for these students to

96

 

grow in Tonal aptitude scores; on the other hand, according to Gordon (1987, p. 8), more
efi‘ort is needed in order to maintain their exceptionally high Tonal aptitude.

It is also possible that listening experience in limited tonalities may not help with
children’s tonal growth, especially that of children with high Tonal aptitude. As evidenced
in Table 10, students in all Suzuki groups (Group 1 to Group 3 ), on average, ranked
higher than the 80‘” percentile on the pre-instruction Tonal subtest. The listening
experiences provided in the present study were mostly major and minor, with some modal
for Group 1, and major tonality only for Group 2 and Group 5. The limited tonal listening
experience perhaps could not help the tonal growth of high Tonal aptitude students, the
population that the subjects in the present study represents.

Because results of the present study also indicate that Group 1 students who were
given broader tonal listening experience (major, minor, and modal) tended to have higher
Tonal gains than Group 2 students who listened to music of only major tonality, it is
possible that listening experience including a variety of tonalities is desirable for Tonal
aptitude development. The suggestion of Levinowitz (1989) and Schleuter (1984) that
children should be provided with opportunities to listen to music in various modes or
tonalities for the sake of better tonal development is supported by this study. In general,
however, listening experience provided in the current study did not demonstrate positive
influence on the development of Tonal aptitude. Future research is needed to further
investigate the development of Tonal aptitude of children who are provided with incidental
listening experience of even broader tonalities (eg. major, minor, dorian, phrygian,

lydian).

97

 

Finally, the non-significant differences in the Composite aptitude gain scores
between the listening and non-listening groups in the present study also suggest that
listening may have had significant influence upon the development of Rhythm aptitude but

not strong enough to affect the overall development of music aptitude.

The Effects of Slflkl Instruction on Developmental Music Aptitude

$951113

In order to determine the efieas of Suzuki instruction on the developmental music
aptitude of beginning violin students, the development of music aptitude of students who
received Suzuki instruction but were not provided with listening tapes (Group 3) was
compared to that of students who received neither Suzuki instruction nor listening tapes
(Group 6). Group 3 instead of Group 2 was chosen to compare with Group 6 because
listening experience may confound the effect of Suzuki instruction on the development of
music aptitude. The pre-instruction PMMA scores of these two groups are reported in
Table 15. Because Group 6 had more students than Group 3; and in order to make the
two groups more equivalent in pre-instruction music aptitude, students in Group 6 whose
Composite aptitude scores were equal to or higher than 55 were selected to be compared
to Group 3 students. An independent-sarnples t test was conducted and the results shown
in Table 16 indicate that there were no significant differences in the PMMA Tonal,
Rhythm, and the Composite gain scores between the Suzuki (Group 3) and the non-

Suzuki group (selected Group 6).

98

 

Table 15

Pr -Instru i n PMMA Scores of Suzuki ou 3 and Non-Suzuki ou 6 S dents

 

\

 

 

 

N Mean SD
Tonal Group 3 21 34.67 3.53
6 32 29.84 7.58
Rhythm Group 3 21 29.62 3.75
6 33 24.85 5.33
Composite Group 3 20 64.45 5.07
6 32 54.75 12.23

 

 

Table 16

Compg'son of PMMA Scores Between Suzuki and Non-Suzuki Groups (Independent-
Samples t Test)

 

 

 

Suzuki Non—Suzuki
(Group 3) (Selected Group 6) Sig.
N Mean SD N Mean SD t value (2-tailed)
Tonal Pretest 21 34.67 3.53 20 34.50 2.14 .182 .857

Posttest 21 36.00 3.19 20 35.90 2.61 .109 .913

Gain 21 1.33 3.48 20 1.40 2.98 -.066 .948
Rhythm Pretest 21 29.62 3.75 20 27.90 3.18 1.580 .122

Posttest 21 31.14 4.11 20 27.80 4.60 2.457 .019*

Gain 21 1.52 3.47 20 -.10 4.75 1.225 .217
Composite Pretest 20 64.45 5.07 20 62.40 4.16 1.397 .170

Posttest 20 67.05 6.20 20 63.70 5.48 1.810 .078

Gain 20 2.60 4.07 20 1.30 5.24 .876 .387
‘ Significant at .05 level (2-tailed)

99

Although the difi‘erence in gains is not significant, the Suzuki group scored
significantly higher in the posttest PMMA Rhythm subtest (p=.019) and almost
significantly higher in the Composite (p=.078) than the non-Suzuki group. When their
difi'erences were firrther examined, it was found that for students who received a pretest
Tonal percentile rank of 80 or higher (based on PMMA percentile norms provided in
PMMA manual, pp. 61-63), the Suzuki group had statistically significant higher gain in
Rhythm (p=.013) and Composite (p=.007) scores than the non-Suzuki group (see Table
17). Their difference in Tonal development was still not significant (p=.785). The
students’ posttest PMMA scores were also compared to their own pretest PMMA scores
for both Suzuki (Group 3) and Non-Suzuki groups (selected Group 6). The results of the
paired-samples t test (see Table 18) indicate that the Suzuki group made significant
improvement in the overall music aptitude (p=.010), and a nearly significant improvement
in Tonal (p=.095) and Rhythm aptitude (p=.058). Results shown in Table 19 indicated
that students in the non- Suzuki group made significant improvement in Tonal aptitude
(p=.049) but not in the overall music aptitude (p=.281). Their Rhythm mean score
decreased after the period of general music instruction, although the decrease was not

significant (p=.926).

100

Table 17

Comparison of PMMA Scores Between Suzuki and Non-Suzuki Groups for Students
With High Pretest PMMA Tonal Score§( Independent-Samples t Test)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tonal>=80% Suzuki Non-Suzuki
(Group 3) (Selected Group 6) Sig.
N Mean SD N Mean SD t value (2-tailed
Tonal Pretest 14 36.57 1.95 12 35.83 1.70 1.021 .318
Posttest 14 36.86 2.38 12 35.92 2.50 .981 .337
Gain 14 .29 1.59 12 .08 2.15 .275 .785
Rhythm Pretest 14 28.93 4.16 12 28.08 2.57 .610 .548
Posttest 14 31.21 4.34 12 26.50 4.42 2.739 .011“
Gain 14 2.29 3.71 12 -1.58 3.58 2.694 .013“
Composite Pretest 14 65.50 5.32 12 63.92 3.48 .881 .387
Posttest 14 68.07 5.95 12 62.42 5.87 2.430 .023"I
Gain 14 2.57 3.55 12 -1.50 3.40 2.975 007*

 

" Significant at .05 level (2-tailed)

Table 18

Comparison of Pretest and Posttest PMMA Scores of Suzuki Students Withwt Listenirg
Treatment (Paired-Samples 1 Test)

 

 

 

 

 

Group 3 Pretest Posttest
Sig.
N Mean SD N Mean SD t value (2-tailed)
Tonal 21 34.67 3.53 21 36.00 3.19 1.754 .095
Rhythm 21 29.62 3.75 21 31.14 4.11 2.011 .058
Composite 20 64.45 5.07 20 67.05 6.20 2.857 .010*

 

" Significant at .05 level (2-tailed)

101

 

Table 19

Comparison of Pretest an_d Posttest PMMA Scores of Nan-Suzuki Students \Vrthout
Listenin Treatment aired-Sam les t Test

 

 

 

Selected Pretest Posttest

Group 6 Sig.
N Mean SD N Mean SD t value (2-tailed)

Tonal 20 34.50 2.14 20 35.90 2.61 2.101 049*

Rhythm 20 27 .90 3.18 20 27 .80 4.60 -.094 .926

 

Composite 20 62.40 4.16 20 63.70 5.48 1.109 .281
‘ Significant at .05 level (2-tailed)

Interpretation

Although students in the non-Suzuki group did not receive Suzuki instruction
during the experimental period, they did receive general music instruction, with emphasis
on singing and moving, from a music specialist in their regular school program. Because
general music is required for all public elementary schools of Taiwan, the Suzuki group
not only received Suzuki instruction from the researcher, but also received general music
instruction in their regular school program. However, because all music classes of first
and second grade students in Taiwan are taught by their home room teachers who may or
may not be music specialists, and the Suzuki students came fi'om various public schools
and classes, students in the Suzuki group may or may not have received general music
instruction fiom a music specialist. It cannot be determined whether or not there were
difi‘erences in the quality of general music instruction the two groups received, but at least
it may be assumed that the chance that the students in the Suzuki group received better

general music instruction than those in the non-Suzuki group students is very slight,

102

 

especially since the general music instruction for Group 6 was provided by a music
specialist. The different developmental music aptitudes of the Suzuki and non- Suzuki
group will be interpreted as the efi‘ect of Suzuki instruction where the effect of the
listening assignment was absent, compared to no Suzuki instruction on students who also
received general music instruction. Also, because Suzuki students who were involved in
the present study had higher pre-instruction Tonal, Rhythnr, and overall aptitude scores
than the first grade students in the non-Suzuki groups, and all of them received Composite
test score percentiles of 50 (based on PMMA percentile norms provided in the PMMA
manual, pp. 61-63, a first grader who receives a Composite raw score of 55 is ranked at
the 50"I percentile) or higher in the pre-instruction PMMA test, any conclusion drawn
fi'om this part of study is limited to the first grader whose Composite percentile is at 50 or
higher, as measured by PMMA.

The significant results shown in Table 17 suggest that, for students with high
Tonal aptitude (Tonal percentile equal to or higher than 80), those receiving beginning
Suzuki violin instruction made significantly higher gains in Rhythm and overall music
aptitude than students who did not receive Suzuki instruction.

It is interesting to note that the positive effects of Suzuki instruction on the
development of Rhythm and overall music aptitude were not demonstrated on students
who received medium high to low pretest PMMA Rhythm scores (lower than 80%), but
were demonstrated on students who received high pretest PMMA Tonal scores (higher
than 80%). Because it was found that 73% of the students with high Tonal aptitude
received low Rhythm aptitude, it is inferred that it is easier for Suzuki instruction to

demonstrate aptitude influence on Rhythm and overall music aptitude for students with

103

 

low Rhythm aptitude but with high Tonal aptitude; for students with both low Tonal and
Rhythm aptitude, Suzuki instruction did not demonstrate the same effect. The intense
rhythm training in the four different rhythm patterns of “Twinkle” and the fi'equent rhythm
practice in learning to play the songs may be profitable for the Rhythm aptitude
development of students with high Tonal aptitude but not as high Rhythm aptitude.

Suzuki instruction did not appear to demonstrate comparable influence on
developmental Tonal aptitude to that on developmental Rhythm aptitude. Although the
Suzuki group made greater Tonal gains than the non-Suzuki group for students with high
Tonal aptitude, as suggested by Table 17, their difi‘erence is much less than their difference
in Rhythm aptitude development. Furthermore, as suggested by Table 18 and Table 19,
students who did not receive Suzuki instruction made significant improvement (p=.049) in
Tonal aptitude but the improvement of students who received Suzuki instruction was not
significant (p=.095). The non-Suzuki group also made greater Tonal gains than the
Suzuki group (see Table 16). It is possible that the Tonal development of students who
had high Tonal aptitude did not benefit much fi'om learning repertoire as simple as
“Twinkle”. It is also possible that the use of finger marks hindered the tonal development
of Suzuki students because the visual input fiom these cues may have interfered with the
aural. Or it may be possible that the singing activities in general music instruction are
beneficial to developmental Tonal aptitude of first grade students, so the influence of
additional Suzuki instruction becomes less. The effect of Suzuki instruction on
developmental music aptitude should be firrther examined in a situation in which no other

type of music instruction is involved.

104

fi’

 

These findings seem to contradict what was concluded in the studies of Woodrufi‘
(1983) and Stamou (1998). However, it is not clear how Woodruff drew the conclusion
that the rhythm instruction provided in the Suzuki method is rigid and may decrease
developmental Rhythm aptitude of kindergarten children, when no contrast group was
provided and the data shown in his report indicated that all PMMA mean scores (Tonal,
Rhythm, and the Composite) of both groups who received Suzuki violin instruction were
improved after training (Woodruff, 1983, p.25, 26, 41). Also, Stamou reported that
Suzuki students tended to have higher post-instruction PMMA Tonal and Composite
mean scores but lower Rhythm mean scores than the general music students. Her
conclusion is based on the comparison of paired Suzuki and non-Suzuki students from age
5 to age 8; performance at individual age levels of students may be difi‘erent. It may be
that the same instruction has different aptitude development upon children of different
ages, or even, of difi‘erent music aptitude levels. It should also be kept in mind that results
did not reach significance in either study; therefore, any conclusions drawn should be
approached with caution.

Finally, the results shown in Table 18 and Table 19 provide more evidence that
Suzuki instruction has a positive efi‘ect on the developmental Rhythm aptitude and overall
music aptitude of first grade students, because students who received Suzuki instruction
made very significant improvement in overall music aptitude (p=.01) and an almost
significant improvement in Rhythm aptitude (p=.058), while students who did not receive
Suzuki instruction were found to decrease slightly (and not significantly) in their Rhythm
aptitude gains, and their improvement in overall music aptitude (p=.281) was not as high

as that of Suzuki students.

105

 

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSIONS

Summm of the Study
se and Problems

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of incidental listening on the
performance achievement and developmental music aptitude of beginning Suzuki violin
students. The specific problems of the study were as follows:

1. to investigate the effect of different incidental listening experiences (a wide variety of
listening, typical Suzuki listening, none) on the performance achievement of first-grade
beginning violin students after 21 weeks of Suzuki instruction.

2. to investigate the effect of different incidental listening experiences (a wide variety of
listening, typical Suzuki listening, none) on the developmental music aptitude of first-
grade students.

3. to investigate the effect of Suzuki violin instruction on developmental music aptitude
of first-grade beginning Suzuki violin students.

Procedure

One hundred and seventy first grade students in Tainan, Taiwan, were involved in
this study. Sixty-six students from various elementary schools who did not have previous
instrumental music experience constituted the Suzuki instruction groups while 104

students fi'om 3 intact classes of two elementary schools constituted the non-Suzuki

106

_.-

groups. The sample for this study represented various educational and socio-econonric
backgrounds.

PMMA was administered to all subjects by the researcher prior to the Suzuki
violin instruction period. The Suzuki students were divided into three groups, according
to their pre-instruction PMMA Composite scores, so groups would have equivalent
aptitude profiles. Students in each of these groups were given the same Suzuki violin
instruction but different listening treatments. All students in Suzuki groups were given a
50-minute violin lesson by the researcher once a week, in a small group of 3 or 4 students,
and one 90-minute group lesson every other week. There were students of each treatment
group in every small teaching group. Students in Group 1 were required to listen to a 30-
minute tape daily, containing a wide variety of music of different styles, tonalities, meters,
and instrumental and vocal settings. Students in Group 2 were also required to listen to a
30-minute tape daily, but it contained repeated recordings of the first 9 pieces of the
Suzuki Violin School, Volume 1 repertoire. No listening assignment was given to students
in Group 3. The parents of all Suzuki students were asked to record the amount of their
children’s practice each day. In addition to the practice amount, parents of Group 1 and
Group 2 students needed to record their listening amount every day. The log sheets were
handed in to the researcher when the students came to violin class each week.

The three non-Strzuki groups, Group 4, Group 5, and Group 6, were also assigned
to three different listening treatments. The students in Group 4 received the same listening
treatment as students in Group 1. Group 5 students received the same listening treatment

as Group 2. Similar to Group 3, no listening tape was provided for students in Group 6.

107

Both Group 4 and Group 5 students listened to the treatment tape one time everyday
during the school’s individual study period.

At the end of the 21-week instructional period, PMMA was administered again to
all students in both Suzuki and non-Suzuki groups. Students in the Suzuki groups were
also individually audiotaped performing “Twinkle Variation A” and “Yankee Doodle.”
Their performances were rated by three independent judges on Intonation, Rhythm, and
Tone Quality using a researcher-designed rating scale.

Amines

In order to determine whether incidental listening experience influenced the
performance achievement of beginning violin students, oneway ANOVA analyses with
covariates were conducted to test for significant difi‘erences (or=.05) in performance
achievement that were caused by listening treatments on “Twinkle Variation A” and
“Yankee Doodle,” among the three Suzuki groups. The pre-instruction PMMA scores on
the Tonal and Rhythm subtests, as well as weekly practice amounts, were used as
covariates.

To determine whether first grade students’ developmental music aptitude was
influenced by their listening experience, an oneway AN OVA test was conducted to
determine whether any significant differences existed in the PMMA mean gains among the
three Suzuki groups. An independent-samples two-tailed t test was conducted to examine
the significant difi‘erence in Tonal, Rhythm, and Composite gain scores between students
who were provided with Suzuki repertoire listening experience (Group 5) and students

who were not provided with listening tapes (Group 6).

108

To determine the effect of Suzuki instruction on the developmental music aptitude
of first grade beginning Suzuki violin students when the listening treatment was absent, an
independent-samples two-tailed t test was conducted to test the significance of differences
in PMMA mean gain scores between students who received Suzuki instruction but no
listening treatment (Group 3) and those who did not receive either one (Group 6). Both
groups, posttest PMMA scores were also compared to their own pretest PMMA scores
using the paired-samples two-tailed t test.

Results and Conclusions

The effects of incidental music listenr_'r_rg on performance achievement.

 

It was found that students who were provided opportunities for incidental listening
to the piece they were learning tended to perform the piece better in the Rhythm and Tone
Quality dimensions than students without this kind of aural exposure. Either a wide
variety of listening (Group 1) or typical Suzuki listening experience (Group 2) did not
effectively help with the learning of the piece that was not included in the listening
repertoire. A wide variety of music listening seemed to enhance the performance
achievement on Intonation; however, the efi‘ect of typical Suzuki listening on Intonation
performance achievement appeared to be none or slightly negative. The presence of finger
tapes in the present study may also have confounded the effect of listening on intonation.
The fact that Group 1 students received the highest Composite performance mean scores
suggests that simultaneous listening to the piece studied and a variety of other music is
most profitable for performance achievement. However, it should be noted that these

inferences are based on non-significant findings.

109

In general, for both “Twinkle Variation A” and “Yankee Doodle,” Group 1
(listening to a wide variety of music) and Group 2 (listening to typical Suzuki repertoire)
had closer performance achievements on both Rhythm and Tone Quality dimensions, while
the performance achievement of Group 3 (no listening assignment) differed more from
that of Group 1 or Group 2. In the performance of “Twinkle Variation A,” both Group 1
and Group 2 tended to perform better overall than Group 3, while in “Yankee Doodle”,
Group 3 tended to perform better than Group 1 and Group 2. It is possible that Group 1’s
and Group 2’s daily aural exposure to the piece “Twinkle Variation A” enabled them to
perform better than Group 3, but for the piece that was not in their daily listening
repertoire, the efi‘ects of listening might have been weaker. Thus, if Group 3 students
happened to have some learning advantages that were not controlled in the present study,
such as parental involvement (as the researcher observed), the achievements of Group 1
and Group 2 would not be able to compete with those of Group 3. Or, it is also possible
that twenty-one weeks of aural exposure may not have been long enough for first-grade
students to generalize the musical skills they gained by listening.

In the performance of “Twinkle Variation A,” both groups who were provided
with opportunities to listen to the Twinkle piece had higher Rhythm and Tone Quality
mean scores than the group without the listening treatment (Group 3). Although the
superiority of the two listening groups did not reach statistical significance, if the
advantages of stronger parental involvement of Group 3 hold true, it may be speculated
that the two groups’ performance superiority as suggested in the observed performance

mean scores is accounted for by their frequent aural exposure to that piece.

110

 

In summary, based on the results of the present study, it might be concluded that
incidental listening to repertoire that the student will be learning may reinforce the
student’s performance achievement in Rhythm and Tone quality. Listening to a wide
variety of repertoire may enhance Intonation performance achievement. Simultaneous
listening to the piece studied and a variety of other music is most profitable for overall
performance achievement. Again, due to non-significant results, the conclusions of the
present study need to be validated by further research.

The effects of incidental music listening on developmental music aptitude.

A statistically significant difference in the development of Rhythm aptitude was
found between the first grade students who received the typical Suzuki repertoire
incidental listening treatment and students who had no listening treatment, neither having
had Suzuki instruction. Students who were provided with the typical Suzuki listening
experience, even though only major tonality and duple meter were included, made
significantly better Rhythm aptitude gains than students who were not provided with any
listening treatment. Further research is needed to determine the factors in listening
experience that contribute to superior rhythm development.

The effect of musical listening upon developmental Rhythm aptitude of Suzuki
students was found to be positive, but not statistically significant. The efi‘ects of listening
may not be firlly demonstrated when Suzuki instruction is also present. However, the
development of Rhythm aptitude seems to be reinforced by formal instruction (Suzuki
instruction) together with informal instruction (listening opportunities).

An unusual result found in the present study is that students who were provided

with listening opportunities appeared to have less gain in Tonal aptitude, although not

111

statistically significant, than students not provided with listening opportunities. It is
suspected that limited tonal listening experience might not have helped the tonal growth of
high tonal aptitude students, as were the majority of the Suzuki subjects in the present
study. As suggested by Gordon (1987, p.8), “the higher the level of music aptitude a child
was born with, the more and varied early informal and formal experiences are required for
him to maintain that level.” Research is therefore needed to investigate the effect of
listening experience with even broader tonalities (e. g. major, minor, dorian, phrygian,
lydian) on the development of Tonal aptitude.

The non-significant difi‘erences in Composite aptitude gain scores between the
listening and non-listening groups in the present study also suggest that listening may have
a significant influence upon the development of Rhythm aptitude but not one strong
enough to influence the overall development of music aptitude.

The effects pf Suzuki instruction on developmental music aptitude.

It was found that for the first-grade students with high pre-instruction Tonal
aptitude (Tonal score percentile equal to or higher than 80), beginning Suzuki violin
instruction significantly contributed to their Rhythm and overall developmental music
aptitude when no listening was provided. The intense rhythm training in the four different
rhythm patterns of “Twinkle” and the fi'equent rhythm practice in learning to perform the
pieces may be profitable to the Rhythm aptitude development of students with high Tonal
aptitude but lower Rhythm aptitude.

It was also found that PMMA mean scores of students who received Suzuki
instruction increased fi'om pre- to post-instruction in both Tonal and Rhythm dimensions,

though none of these results was significant. PMMA mean scores of students who did not

112

receive Suzuki instruction increased significantly (p=.049) in the Tonal dimension, but
decreased non-significantly in the Rhythm dimension. The increase of Suzuki students in
overall developmental music aptitude reached the significance level of .01, while the
increase of non-Suzuki students did not reach significance (p=.281).

Suzuki instruction did not appear to aid the development of Tonal aptitude as
effectively as it aided the development of Rhythm aptitude, although the Suzuki students
still had higher Tonal gains than non-Suzuki students for those with Tonal aptitude at or
above the 80'” percentile. It was also found that the Tonal mean scores of Suzuki students
did not increase as much as those of non-Suzuki students. It is possible that the singing
activity in the general music instruction diminished the influence of Suzuki instruction on
the development of Tonal aptitude, and that a longer period of Suzuki instruction is
needed to make tonal development more evident. It is also possible that intonation
training in the beginning Suzuki method is not challenging enough for the tonal
development of students with high Tonal aptitude. The use of finger tapes may also
hinder tonal development.

Although the findings concerning the efi‘ect of Suzuki instruction upon the
development of music aptitude in the present study contradict those of Woodruff (1983)
and Stamou (1998), the instruction in the study of Woodruff might not have been typical
Suzuki instruction since features such as parental involvement and listening assignments
that are essential to Suzuki instruction appeared to be absent. The conclusion of Stamou
is based on a comparison between the results of Suzuki instruction and general music
instruction for students aged from 5 to 8, and the number of 6-year-olds was very small.

Difi’erent age groups of students may develop differently from the same instruction.

ll3

Moreover, the present study did not compare the effect of Suzuki instruction and general

music instruction.

Implications for Musie Education

Because a tendency was found, although not statistically significant, aural exposure
to music that relates to their learning as well as a wide variety of music is highly
recommended in order to facilitate beginning students’ instrumental performance. This
trend suggests that incidental listening that takes place while doing homework, having
meals, traveling, or playing, is beneficial to the learning of instrumental performance.
Parents are encouraged to provide their children with plenty of opportunities to listen to
the repertoire they are learning as well as a wide variety of other works. Instrumental
teachers should encourage students to attend various concerts in the community and listen
to music beyond their performance level as well as music not performed on instruments of
their study. If there is opportunity, music of various styles and cultures other than
Western should be introduced in the listening activity to extend students’ audiation skills.
Young children should be provided with a variety of listening experience before they are
ready to start to study an instrument. The effect of listening experience in early childhood
upon children’s future instrumental performance achievement needs to be explored
further.

The typical beginning Suzuki listening experience was found to significantly aid the
development of Rhythm aptitude of the first grade students who did not receive
concurrent instruction. The development of Rhythm aptitude of Suzuki students was also

found to be reinforced by either type of listening experience. Thus, listening activity is

114

recommended to be included in all types of music instruction and in home assignments,
including general music instruction, instrumental music instruction, and early childhood
music instruction, for children whose music aptitude is still developing.

The factors in listening experience that may contribute to the development of
music aptitude need to be identified by firture research. Listening experience with an even
broader variety of tonalities is recommended because in this study, students who were
given listening experience with broader tonalities (major, minor, and modal) tended to
have higher Tonal aptitude gains than students who listened to music with major tonality
only. How a variety of tonality in listening experiences influences the development of
Tonal aptitude should be firrther validated by firture research.

Contrary to conclusions of previous research (Stamou, 1998; Woodruff, 1983), the
present study found that rhythm instruction provided through the Suzuki method, when
the effect of listening is not present, was significantly beneficial to the developmental
Rhythm aptitude of the violin students whose Tonal aptitude percentile was at 80 or
higher. Therefore, further research is needed to clarify the conflicting results among these
studies.

Moreover, surprisingly, the expected Tonal benefit, which was suggested by
previous research, was not significantly demonstrated in the present study. The tonal
instruction in the beginning Suzuki method may not be adequate for students with high
Tonal aptitude. Tonal patterns of higher diflicult level may be adapted to beginning
Suzuki instruction, or at least, in the students’ daily listening assignment, to stimulate their

growth of Tonal aptitude. Furthermore, the typical use of finger tapes by Suzuki teachers

115

may need to be reconsidered, because of their possible negative influence on
developmental Tonal aptitude. This speculation needs to be verified by firrther research.
These contradictory findings suggest the possibility that the same instruction may
have different influence upon the development of aptitude for students with different
music aptitude levels and at different ages. This conclusion agrees with Gordon’s (1986,
p.83) theory that instruction should be adapted to children’s individual musical differences.
Thus, any conclusion concerning the effect of any specific music instruction upon the

development of music aptitude should be made with caution.

Recommendm for Future Resear_ch

Although results of the present study suggested a possible influence of incidental
listening on performance achievement, this tendency did not reach statistical significance.
Replication of the present study employing larger sample sizes and longer instructional
periods is needed to firrther determine the validity of this tendency by testing it for
statistical significance.

A beginning Suzuki piece with a less familiar melody and more variety of rhythm
patterns, which is more advanced than “Twinkle” (e. g. piece 3 - “Song of the Wind,” piece
5 - “O Come, Little Children”), could be used as a test song so that the effect of the
prescribed listening treatment could be more evident. Also, testing using slightly more
advanced piece allows students to have a longer period of aural exposure before they start
to learn the performance piece. Another way to improve the statistical significance of the

results may be to increase the daily exposure to music by listening to the treatment tapes

116

two or three times a day. Finger tapes should be avoided for research because they may
confound the effect of listening upon intonation performance achievement.

In the present study, the students who were given the listening treatment of a wide
variety of music nonetheless listened to the same treatment tape every day. In order to
exaggerate the difference of expansive listening and typical Suzuki listening, it is
recommended that the repertoire for the expansive listening tapes change every month or
less. Suzuki repertoire should not necessarily be included in these treatment tapes.

The efi‘ects of different listening experiences in early childhood upon children’s
firture performance achievement is worthy of investigation because any stimulation in the
formative stages may be critical to their later development. The efi‘ect of listening should
also be examined on performance achievement of intermediate and advanced instrumental
students, so that it may be more clearly defined.

For further examining the effect of a wide variety of listening on developmental
music aptitude and comparing the effect of expansive listening to typical Suzuki listening
or repeated limited listening, the present study needs to be replicated in a situation in
which little or no other music instruction takes place. Studies that recruit subjects from
various classes and are randomly assigned to difi‘erent treatments of listening are needed to
generalize the conclusion about the significant effect of typical Suzuki listening upon the
development of Rhythm aptitude which was drawn from the present study. Furthermore,
because the sample of the present study was limited to children of age 6 (first graders),
future research is needed to examine the efi‘ect of listening on children of other ages at

which their aptitude is still developing. Studies that employ even broader tonal listening

117

 

 

 

 

experience are recommended in order to find out how listening may enhance the tonal
development of students with high Tonal aptitude.

Finally, because the pre-instruction PMMA mean scores of Suzuki students in the
present study were higher than the mean scores of non- Suzuki students in the same study
and the standardization group reported in the PMMA manual, the effect of Suzuki
instruction on developmental music aptitude needs to be investigated with populations of
lower music aptitude. The effect of Suzuki instruction on students at other grade levels
and performance levels should also be examined in order to have a better understanding of
the effect of Suzuki instruction on developmental music aptitude. The effect of listening
experience was purposely excluded fi'om the Suzuki instruction which was employed in
the present study for one group (Group 3); however, since the listening assignment is an
essential feature of Suzuki’s basic approach, the effect of Suzuki instruction with its
typical listening assignment need to be examined together. The non-Suzuki students who
were used to contrast the Suzuki students came fi'om an intact class. In order to better
control the influence of general music instruction, studies that involve control students
from various classes are recommended. Again, it is recommended that finger marks be
avoided for their possible negative influence upon developmental Tonal aptitude of Suzuki
students.

This study validates the idea that incidental listening in many forms is a very
important element in music learning. Good music teachers have suspected this for years.
Further research may help solidify this conclusion. In summary, although results
concerning the effect of incidental listening on performance achievement did not reach

statistical significance, they revealed some trends on the effect, positive or negative, of

118

 

 

 

expansive listening and repeated limited listening on instrumental performance learning.
Incidental listening was found to be an efi’ective element for the development of Rhythm
aptitude. For good development of Tonal aptitude, listening experience with an even
broader variety of tonalities may be necessary. Further research is needed to validate this
possibility and provide more conclusive information on any possible positive or negative
efi‘ects of listening on developmental Tonal aptitude. Suzuki instruction was also found to
be beneficial for developmental Rhythm and overall aptitude of first-grade beginning violin
students. Tonal instruction in the beginning Suzuki method may need modifications in
order to challenge students’ tonal development. More research is needed to examine the

effect of Suzuki instruction on development of Tonal aptitude.

1%

‘ V," “1"" ground. n. l ,_ “.1
”it“! sang,» .- cw . A. ...:'.‘.:t..- ' ., -.
”if!“ .1 ' I: c if. 1., .. ,. , ,
o u .5 ll , 11 r

 

“iv.
in
us

u
{it

   
 

ll

  

51.3",“

ear.

‘Irvk
1'1

a

     
 

11;."

   
 

J.

mutual)!"

   
  

I 1‘.
g t
l

”131..
iluwam

 
  

r
l

 
  

. 1;?
1,1.

In
'11:

o cvovlt'odguunq... iVI.Il'!I 1' I'-t.r ..
r "‘ f, . j | my ‘2‘. ':"".*l'.’ 'y‘i‘i‘i' ' '.‘.‘.' '. -' 0'"

    

I-e full".

 

' -- r- -u-

119

APPENDIX A

REPERTOIRE FOR A WIDE VARIETY OF MUSIC LISTENING

1. Title: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Variations
Composer: W. A. Mozart, arranged by Shinichi Suzuki
Performer(s): David Nadien
CD: Suzuki Violin School 1, Warner Brothers
Performance Time: 3:00
Tirnbre: Violin
Dynamics: Moderately loud
Meter: Duple
Tonality: Maj or
Style: Folk song

2. Title: What Child Is This?
Composer: English Folk Song, arranged by Gowinston Cassler
Performer(s): Chorus of St. Olaf College
CD: The St. Olaf Christmas Festival Vol. III, St. Olaf
Performance Time: 2:00
Timbre: Chorus
Dynamics: Soft and some contrast
Meter: Triple
Tonality: Minor
Style: English folk song

3. Title: Lightly Row
Composer: German Folk Song
Performer(s): David Nadien
CD: Suzuki Violin School 1, Warner Brothers
Performance Time: 0:35
Tirnbre: Violin
Dynamics: Moderately loud
Meter: Duple
Tonality: Major
Style: German folk song

120

4. Title: Fur Elise
Composer: Ludwig Van Beethoven
Performer(s): Moura Lympany
CD: Piano Favorites, EMI Classics
Performance Time: 3:19
Tirnbre: Piano
Dynamics: Soft and some contrast
Meter: Triple ~
Tonality: Minor
Style: Romantic

5. Title: Song of the Wind
Composer: German Folk Song
Performer(s): David Nadien
CD: Suzuki Violin School I, Warner Brothers
Performance Time: 0:40
T imbre: Violin
Dynamics: Moderately loud
Meter: Duple
Tonality: Major
Style: German folk song

6. Title: La Sarabande
Composer: Michael Praetorius
Performer(s): New London Consort, conducted by Philip Pickett
CD: Praetorius: Dances fiom Terpsichore, Decca
Performance Time: 1:42
Tirnbre: Violin, Lira de braccio, Lute, Organ, Cello
Dynamics: Mostly soft
Meter: Duple
Tonality: Major
Style: Renaissance

7. Title: Go Tell Aunt Rhody
Composer: French Folk Song
Performer(s): David Nadien
CD: Suzuki Violin School 1, Warner Brothers
Performance Time: 0:35
Tirnbre: Violin
Dynamics: Moderately loud
Meter: Duple
Tonality: Major
Style: French folk song

121

8. Title: Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, BWV 1051, Allegro
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer(s): British Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Neville Marriner
CD: J. S. Bach Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 5 & 6, EM] Classics
Performance Time: 6:01
Timbre: Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass, Harpsichord
Dynamics: Contrasting
Meter: Triple
Tonality: Major
Style: Baroque

9. Title: Take Five
Composer: Dave Brubeck
Performer(s): Dave Brubeck Quartet
CD: The Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time Out, Columbia
Performance Time: 2:10 (excerpt)
Timbre: Piano, Alto Saxophone, Bass, Drums
Dynamics: Some contrast
Meter: Unusual paired
Tonality: Aeolian
Style: Jazz

10. Title: Peter and the Wolf, Andantino
Composer: Sergei Prokofiev
Performer(s): St. Petersburg Radio & TV Symphony Orchestra
CD: Prokofiev: Peter and Wolf, Saint-Saéns: Carnival of the Animals, Sony
Performance Time: 1:00
Timbre: Orchestra
Dynamics: Soft, Little contrast
Meter: Duple
Tonality: Major
Style: Classical

11. Title: Coventry Carol
Composer: French Folk Song
Performer(s): K. David VanHoesen
CD: Jump Right In, Solo and Accompaniment Compact Disc Set, Solo Book

One, GIA

Performance Time: 0:26
Timbre: Bassoon ,
Dynamics: Moderately loud
Meter: Triple
Tonality: Minor
Style: Folk song

122

12. Title: The Nutcracker Ballet; Act II Divertissement: Tea (Chinese Dance)

13.

14.

15.

Composer: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Performer(s): Orchestra of the Deutsche Opera, Berlin
CD: The Best of Tchaikovsky, RCA

Performance Time: 1:09

Timbre: Orchestra

Dynamics: Contrasting

Meter: Duple

Tonality: Major

Style: Romantic

Title: Sunset

Composer: Foday Musa Suso

Performer(s): Kronos String Quartet and Foday Musa Suso
CD: Kronos Quartet: Pieces of Afiica, Elektra Nonesuch
Performance Time: 4:20

Timbre: String quartet and Kora

Dynamics: Some contrast

Meter: Duple

Tonality: Major

Style: African

Title: When Johnny Comes Marching Home

Composer: Folk Song

Performer(s): Dina Alexander Trojan

CD: Jump Right In, Solo and Accompaniment Compact Disc Set, Solo Book
One, GIA

Performance Time: 0:21

Timbre: Trumpet

Dynamics: Loud

Meter: Triple

Tonality: Minor

Style: Folk song

Title: The Magic Flute, Duett: Pa-Pa-Gena

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Performer(s): Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Lisa Otto, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
CD: Mozart: The Magic Flute-Highlights, PolyGram

Performance Time: 2:41

Timbre: Voice, Orchestra

Dynamics: Contrasting

Meter: Duple

Tonality: Major

Style: Classical

123

APPENDIX B

REPERTOIRE FOR TYPICAL SUZUKI LISTENING

1. Title: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Variations
Composer: W. A. Mozart, arranged by Shinichi Suzuki
Performer(s): David Nadien
CD: Suzuki Violin School 1, Warner Brothers
Performance Time: 3:00
Timbre: Violin
Dynamics: Moderately loud
Meter: Duple
Tonality: Major
Style: Folk song

2. Title: Lightly Row
Composer: German Folk Song
Performer(s): David Nadien
CD: Suzuki Violin School 1, Warner Brothers
Performance Time: 0:35
Timbre: Violin
Dynamics: Soft and Moderately loud
Meter: Duple
Tonality: Major
Style: German folk song

3. Title: Song of the Wind
Composer: German Folk Song
Performer(s): David Nadien
CD: Suzuki Violin School 1, Warner Brothers
Performance Time: 0:40
Timbre: Violin
Dynamics: Moderately loud
Meter: Duple
Tonality: Major
Style: German folk song

124

4. Title: Go Tell Aunt Rhody
Composer: French Folk Song
Performer(s): David Nadien
CD: Suzuki Violin School 1, Warner Brothers
Performance Time: 0:35
Timbre: Violin
Dynamics: Moderately loud
Meter: Duple
Tonality: Major
Style: French folk song

5. Title: 0 Come, Little Children
Composer: German Folk Song
Performer(s): David Nadien
CD: Suzuki Violin School 1, Warner Brothers
Performance Time: 0:50
Timbre: Violin
Dynamics: Sofi and Moderately loud
Meter: Duple
Tonality: Major
Style: German folk song

6. Title: May Song
Composer: German Folk Song
Performer(s): David Nadien
CD: Suzuki Violin School 1, Warner Brothers
Performance Time: 0:33
Timbre: Violin
Dynamics: Loud, Moderately loud and Soft
Meter: Duple
Tonality: Major
Style: German folk song

7. Title: Long, Long Ago
Composer: T. H. Bayly
Performer(s): David Nadien
CD: Suzuki Violin School 1, Warner Brothers
Performance Time: 0:43
Timbre: Violin
Dynamics: Loud, Moderately loud, and Moderately soft
Meter: Duple
Tonality: Major
Style: Folk song

125

8. Title: Allegro
Composer: Shinchi Suzuki
Performer(s): David Nadien
CD: Suzuki Violin School 1, Warner Brothers
Performance Time: 0:45
Timbre: Violin
Dynamics: Loud and Sofi
Meter: Duple
Tonality: Major
Style: Etude

9. Title: Perpetual Motion
Composer: Shinichi Suzuki
Performer(s): David Nadien
CD: Suzuki Violin School I, Warner Brothers
Performance Time: 1:15
Timbre: Violin
Dynamics: Moderately loud
Meter: Duple
Tonality: Major
Style: Etude

126

W98 11:03 ,

740-! S. MASON AVENUE
CHICAGO. ILLINOIS
60638

(708) 496-3300

(708) 496-3828 FAX

619 PUBJCRTICI‘B '0 15173329269

APPENDIX c

PERMISSION LETTER FROM GIA PUBLICATIONS

PD. 412 I W1

TO: Da-Li Chang
-. Michigan State University
School of Music

 

FAX No: 517.332.9269
Q luau. rum nawrey

GIA Publications, Inc.
Date: September 22, 1998
No. of Pages: 1' '
Be: w Permission '
Denna-Li,

Pcrnfissionishmbygnmedfmymtomakeflnecm issoftbe‘ and
cmvmdrcappmpnmPWAtcstshecminmChlncsccgmrchm
only. Youmustbosmtolnclndethonamepfthemdmmmm of
thocopyngbrinfiormaucufoundonthediffmtmofthommincmded
onyourcopres. 'l‘hrsrnchmmetapuyouwillbcmaldng.
Goodmckwirhyourroseuchsmdy.-

Sincerely.

127

  
  
  
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
   
  
   

lifiinfihhflflnuh
lfluflflhflflnhflflu
hensinJinbn
«IMJMI
“USS-21¢

EM: $121024]?!

AUPIHEIqI)I){I)

UCRIHS PERMISSION

MICHIGAN STATE

ll Pl 1 V’ E II S l 17 Y

 

'April 27. 1993

1‘0: Judith Ann Palac
203 Music Practice Bldg.

f.

RR: IRB‘: 98-21‘ '
TITLE: THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT LISTENING EXPERIENCES
ON THE PERFORMANCE ACHIEVEMENT AND THE

DEVELOPMENTAL MUSIC APTITUDE OP WINNING VIOLIN

scanners
REVISION asoussrsn: s/a
camaoonv: 1-3
APPROVAL oars: oc/aa/ss

The University Connittee'on Research

Involving Human 8nbjects'(UCRIH3)
review of this project is complete.

. I an pleased to advxse that the
rights and welfare of the human subjects appear to be adequately

rotected and eethods to obtain informed consent are appropriate.
gherefore, the UCRIHS approved this project and any rev sions listed
wove I

enuresis UCRIHS approval is valid for one calendar year, beginning with
the approval date shown ve. Investigators plenni to
continue a project be and one year must use the green renewal
torn (enclosed with t a original agproval letter or when a
prOJect is renewed) to seek ugdate certification. There is a
naXinun of tour such expedite renewals ssible;' Investigators
wishin to continue a rojeot beyond the ties need to subeit it
again or coeplete rev ew.

REVISIONS: UCRIHS must review an changes in rocedures involving hnme

n
subjects, rior to tiation of t e change. If this is done at
the time o renewal, please use the green renewal form. To
revise an approved protocol at an 0 her time during the year,
send your wr tten request to the CRIBS Chair. requesting reVIsed
approval and reterenci the project's IRB a and title. Include
in our request a descr ption of the change and any revised

ins ruesnts, consent for-s or advertieeeente that are applicable.

snosnnus/
cannons: Should either of the followin
York, ingestigagorgfuust noti
unexpec e s e ects comp aints, e involvin
subjects or 2) changes in the research environment gr new
information dicating greater risk to the human sub ects than
existed when the protocol was previously reviewed approved.

arise during the course of the
UCRIHS promptly: (l) Broblens
c.) unan

If we can be of an future hel lease do no
at (517)355-2190 o¥ sax (Siwlcgi-iivi. c h”’*“" ‘° °°““°t “’

cerely.

   

vid 3. Wright. Ph.D.
Ins Chair

DEN :bed

cc: Da-Li Cahng

128

APPENDIX E

LETTER TO PARENTS OF THE SUZUKI SUBJECTS

Dear Parents:

I am a Suzuki violin teacher. I have a Master of Music degree in Music Education
with an emphasis in Suzuki pedagogy and have taught for ten years, including a year in the
Community Music School at Michigan State University. I am also a doctoral student in
Music Education and this year I will be working on my dissertation research. The
objectives of my study are: (a) to determine whether instrumental performance is enhanced
by using an aural model (cassette tape) at home during the instrumental instruction period,
and (b) to investigate the efiects of different listening experiences and violin instruction on
the development of music aptitude. The children who are going to participate in the study
should the first-grade students in the coming fall who did not receive any prior violin
instruction.

They will receive fiee violin instruction for 5 months (October to March) fi'om me.
They are also going to be randomly assigned to either one of two cassette tapes for
listening at home, or no specific listening material assigned. Although your child may
receive difi‘erent listening material fi'om other children, the violin instruction for all
children will be the same and Sum Violin Scho_ol, volume 1, will be the instruction
material. The children who receive the listening material will not necessarily benefit more
than those who do not have listening material. Many successful violinists were not
required to listen to music if they received traditional violin instruction other than Suzuki
instruction.

In March children will be audiotaped performing pieces. Only an identification
number will be recorded with your child’s performance, so no one except me can identify
the performers from the tapes. The tapes will be sent to three music teachers to score.
The children who are going to participate in the study will also take a music aptitude test
(a test that shows the child’s music potential) twice during the instruction period. The
first time will be in October and the second in March. The music aptitude test, Primary
Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA), has two parts, the tonal subtest and the rhythm
subtest. Each part lasts for 20 minutes including directions and test. Children will listen
to recorded pairs of rhythm or tonal patterns and decide whether the patterns of each pair
are the same or difi‘erent. The purpose of PMMA is to help teachers and parents to realize
the music strengths and weaknesses of each child so that each child’s music potential can

129

be thoroughly developed. According to research studies, music aptitude is developmental
or flexible, so please do not use the score to judge your children’s musical abilities.

The violin instruction is totally free. The cassette tapes will be assigned to your
child without any charge but must be returned when the study is finished. A violin will
cost you about NT $4,500 and the instruction book is NT $180. Therefore your total
expenses will not exceed NT $5,000. Participation is entirely voluntary and at no risk.
The aptitude and achievement scores will remain confidential and can be given to you only
upon your written request. Your child is free to withdraw from the study at any time
without penalty. Your child can also refuse to answer any questions or refiise to
participate in any procedure. I hope you will approve your son or daughter’s
participation, and you can indicate this by signing and returning the consent form attached
to this letter. If you have any questions or concerns about this study, please call my
brother at 290-0789, or reach me at changdal@pilot.msu.edu.

Yours sincerely,

Da-Li Chang
Ph.D. student in Music Education at Michigan State University

130

APPENDIX E (TRANSLATION)

LETTER TO PARENTS OF SUZUKI SUBJECTS

fiifiifi :

as—cemarm 9 fifififlflkfiéhfifiiflifilfi . ififi‘l‘fi‘:
m’l‘fifis‘fifiiflfi o fiififififlfiéfi@fi’fiifil‘llfififilfifiéfiifiifi .
$Wfi‘%%fi&$E%o eaaareem E 8’3 = (Dii‘fiflfififié
fifilgfiéflfififl 9 Ellfififiéfiiggfiéfifiilfifiéfimgéfiflfiflfl o $99153
fiififiE’ififliflfii’l‘fi-fiifi 9 fififlflfiiifififlié’l‘flgflg’l‘fifii o

arrears—csmmmamsmfi (4‘5“H‘Fl 5335153
Fl) 0 Eg’lflfifififiifiififififiifififir seesaw 0 $71:
samaeaemnfiaaa. fiffifififififi‘WEE . fifififl’i’l‘fiflfi
fififiFF’J‘figiklhfi—flfigflfl o fifi‘é‘fifi’i’l‘flfi‘a‘Z‘Eifififittmfi.
Mim’l‘figflflifiifiififiiflififi‘éfi, ififi’l‘flflfitflaifiiggififi 0

350351535 fiifi—Wfifigiflfi . fifléfifi—fi’l‘fifiiflgfiifi
fig. fififiEE’éflg, fiE‘WRfi’J‘HHEWEfi, léTfilliA. i525
Ainié’l‘fiflfifliliflt o fififiifififlfifiifiififi%fifi o @fifiififiifi
names/marrwxeaéamaa (PMMA) ! —i’KE+FJ . NAM”?
$315! 0 fifi‘é‘fiéfil‘filifllfifilflfli. fifilflfiii’fiio fi—‘Eflfilfim’flfil
+65%. dfifiifligflfifil-‘ifi (ma) fifilfifiifiifié . Wirifié'iihfflia:
E—Gfo sameness mascammeemrmmura. 1i
itinflili’éifiéifillfii'i Bgfifi . tfilfifiifi‘ififi ! ’J‘Hfififig‘é‘fiéfi Wxazé‘fa‘fi .
TE—fimififfl o mmwxsxeuuaraereaémmma o

131

’J‘fiifikfifiifififififiéfififii o fififi‘fiéfiiifi’l‘fiififiifl
tflgfifii o ’lfig—ii’flfié‘fii‘fiwit’ flii‘ilfilfioito fifiififii’flfi
50007—131323! o assenamasenrmmmas o fi$d3~13£~
EEWB‘JW , sseeeemmmemmu. H—ifififlEfififi
EB? o Rfififiwifigfikl fififilflgififi-fifio fifififlfifilfilflflfimfi.
Zififififlfifilfi'fifi o fifigfifififllfifififiiflWfizflififlfififlfifi .

ammmmwmma o mammogram
331% . Mfifi'lififlgfiflififig . fififiififi’éflfiifififigfififfifififl

‘51.. fififififimfifififlflfi, flflfififiifififififfififim . mi
smassraam (changdal@pilot-msu-edu) 0

£762. W

132

APPENDIX F

CONSENT FORM FOR SUZUKI SUBJECTS

To Da-Li Chang:

I have read the explanation attached and hereby consent to my child’s participation in your
study. I understand that participation is entirely voluntary, that my child is flee to
withdraw from the study at any time without penalty, and that my child can refuse to
answer any questions or refiise to participate in the procedures. I understand that my child
will be randomly assigned either a listening cassette or not. I understand that the
estimated cost for buying a violin and a violin instruction book will not exceed NT $5,000.
If actual costs exceed this estimate, I recognize I am still responsible for them. I
understand that participants in the study will be at no risk and that my child’s name will
not be used in any report of results. Within these restrictions, I understand that when the
study is completed the overall results of my child’s tests will be made available to me upon
my written request.

Child’s Name: Gender:

School:

 

Address:

 

Telephone:

 

Have you child ever learned violin? (Y/N)

Signed: Date:
(Parent or Legal Guardian)

 

133

APPENDIX F (TRANSLATION)

CONSENT FORM FOR SUZUKI SUBJECTS

teem =

aamrruumareeamanumu . naaaameramsm
KEN“... fififififiiflfififififikfiéfifiifigfifi. litfififlfifilifitfiil
Wit, Zifififiiififil £133 0 ammamraeamemmmr
fififlfi o aeraexeeaeeaeermemr o fififififi'fififi?
essommmeasa/Jxasmm. malemneemena . lit
fififiififiéfiélfiédfiflgfifii o meanness-rearranges .
fiE-‘r‘fiilfilsg. Zigfliififi’ififilfitifim’fimfifiq’ o Emilfifififi‘rfil ‘ZT‘ .
fififigflfimfiifififi 9 fifilmfifliifififl? . fiflfifi?filflfifi§fi
4:395:13! fififii‘éfi 0

starts = ‘Eilfill = __
5513! =
fight :
333 =

 

 

 

fiflfi’l‘fimfliaififilié/bfififi ? (E/E) _

ififié’z: Ell!!! = __

134

APPENDIX G

LETTER TO THE PRINCIPALS

Dear Principal:

I am a doctoral student in Music Education at Michigan State University, USA. I will be
working on my dissertation research this year. I am writing to ask your permission for your
students to participate in my research study. One objective of my study is to investigate
the influence of listening experience and instrumental instruction upon children’s music
aptitude development. The purpose of discovering children’s music aptitude is to help
teachers and parents to realize the music strength and weakness of each child so that each
child’s music potential can be thoroughly developed. The children who are going to
participate in the Study are the first grade students in the coming fall.

I will administer a music aptitude test twice in half a year, once probably in
October and once next March. The test that will be used to evaluate students’ music
aptitude is Dr. Edwin Gordon’s Primary Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA). The
PMMA consists of two subtests, Tonal and Rhythm subtests. Children will listen to
recorded pairs of rhythm or tonal patterns and decide whether the patterns of each pair are
the same or different by marking the circles on the answer Sheet. Each subtest of PMMA
will take about twenty minutes including directions and test. I will administer the test with
the homeroom teacher. The scores of your students will be either compared to those of
students with different listening experience or those of my violin students. These scores
also will remain confidential and only be given to the homeroom teacher or parents of
students upon their written request.

During the period between the two tests of PMMA, some classes of students will
be provided with 30-minute cassette tapes, which contain either a variety styles of music
or selected pieces from Suzuki violin repertoire. The time for playing these tapes will be
the decision of homeroom teachers.

If you approve my request to conduct this study, I will visit the homeroom
teachers and give them a written explanation. I will also make an appointment with the
homeroom teachers so that I can explain my study to the students and pass out a letter of
explanation and an informed consent form to the students to bring home to their parents.

I would be happy to visit your ofiice and explain my request in greater detail if that
would be helpfiil. I look forward to beginning the research study that will help me learn

135

more about the development of children’s music aptitude. If you have any question about
this request, please call me at 228-1384.

Your sincerely,

Da-Li Chang
Ph. D. student in Music Education at Michigan State University

136

APPENDIX G (TRANSLATION)

LETTER TO THE PRINCIPALS
‘BIIEDIAfi/fl =

fifiz§@fi’fil‘filflfizfifiifi‘fiéflifiiflffl’i—fiflé I Efiifiififi
—Efifififlifié¥fii§’m aneumesasamrram I Ifii‘r‘rgffiééfifi
EW$$%§QEEE%§+HJ I Eléfiigfiflg—i‘fiifii E Wfifififlfififiéfiflg
saneeamaamm I E‘fiflil‘fll‘ifilfifii} E B‘JEfiEJtBfliRSCEEfl
fi-‘fflilffifillfifi I fifufllflifi‘fi‘éflfil’ifiifififi I fifififififiE’é‘ffific
éfii’l‘fié—ffiifit B‘J’J‘fifi’i‘ I

fiflfififififififlflg’l‘fiflifilfifi‘fiéfim‘flfl I ‘i’ki’flfi‘l‘fi I -‘
fififlfiffiifi o fligfi Dr. Edwin Gordon fifigfing’JPfimary Measures of Music
Audiation (Pb/NA) E’l‘flflfii’fififi I Rfififiéfimifilfifilflfii I “331333
TU? I fi—ififiiwfii’flfil‘l‘fi‘fi I ’J‘W’iflfigfigfiU—Ifi (:13) ‘a‘gl-‘JEE
Wiilfiii I fiifikfiflflEfi—‘fi I filigrifl’l‘fifili’ B’iifi’tfl‘filfi—fifiifilfi I
’l‘flfiWiflfiifififlfifii-fi-WWfifiéfiififig’l‘fig‘gii’fittfi‘é I Ffifi’l‘
5325: 39% fiifififlfifififi' I RH 1M1 Wififlfififififiifififififiifigflzfi
‘I‘UETEJEEWE‘EFBSH $335? I

azneeemaemmenm I fiéhfiiififi‘ifilfliiififfi
fifififiwfififig‘a‘fié i figfifiéfiéfi%%fi$fiflfiflqfifiéfl%fi$¢fi
#fiuliEI—flll EliJ’EBilJ‘ EH? I ififiififié 893$ fi‘lEEiEtfi‘iléffii’Fikfi I

maeeeamafim I fifififififi-fiififiififififififlflflifi
seesaw I fiflfififilfififlfiffii’ififl?Fa'l’é’fil‘fi‘l’l‘fififiifiié‘rfiB‘iflfi‘fii

137

flififi‘filfi Hfii‘é‘ifi fiiii’a‘itfflfilfilfiifi I

anfifififi I aseaesenmmemc I fitfififimitt
anarrareeameemsmen I fifiifimfiififi E1711 an I I!
flflififiifififio fimfiififizzs-Isu. ’

§7k321 ma

138

APPENDIX H

LETTER TO PARENTS OF THE NON-SUZUKI SUBJECTS

Dear Parents:

I am a Suzuki violin teacher and a doctoral student in Music Education at
Michigan State University. I am writing to ask your permission for your child to
participate in my research study. One objective of my study is to investigate the effects of
listening experiences and violin instruction on the development of music aptitude. Your
child along with other children in his or her school class will take a music aptitude test (a
test that shows the child’s music potential) twice during the study period. The first time
will be in October 1998 and the second in March 1999. The music aptitude test, Primary
Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA), has two parts, the Tonal subtest and the Rhythm
subtest. Each part lasts for 20 minutes including directions and test. Children listen to
recorded pairs of rhythm or tonal patterns and decide whether the patterns of each pair are
the same or different. The purpose of PMMA is to help teachers and parents to realize the
music strengths and weaknesses of each child so that each child’s music potential can be
thoroughly developed. According to the study of many music educators, music aptitude is
developmental, or flexible, so please do not use the score to judge your children’s musical
abilities.

During the period between the two tests of PMMA, your child along with other
children in his or her school class may or may not be given 30 minutes of daily music
listening, depending on the class to which your child belongs. The music will be either
Suzuki violin repertoire or music of various styles. The time for playing these tapes will
be the decision of your child’s homeroom teacher.

This study has already been explained to the school principals and homeroom
teacher of your child and I am contacting you with his or her permission. Participation is
entirely voluntary and will be at no risk. The test score will remain confidential and can be
given to you upon your written request or that of his/her homeroom teacher only. Your
child is free to withdraw from the study at any time without penalty. Your child can also
refuse to answer any questions or refuse to participate in any procedure.

139

I hope you will approve your son or daughter’s participation, and you can indicate
this by signing and returning the consent form attached to this letter. If you have any
questions or concerns about this study, please call me at 228-1384.

Your sincerely,

Da-Li Chang
Ph. D. student in Music Education at Michigan State University

140

APPENDIX H (TRANSLATION)

LETTER TO PARENTS OF THE NON-SUZUKI SUBJECTS

same :

ae—mxlmsmm I E mfifilfi9%@%fiififllfidt§i%§éfl
new I fiffififi—Ifififififl’iflfifiifiI aaeumaraeammn
I'JI fifi2fi§2§$fimfi¥¥iflfififiifififlh iEIEfili’rEEfi—ififii 5 E19
marsemeeeaaeemeaem I fiflfifi‘IfiiB‘Jfi-l‘fiiidfii
maemneeamaa (PMMA) I —i’KZ’E+H I —i’KEBH$L-‘:Fl I
flfififié’fimflfifilflfii I Emfifiifii I fi—fififiififii’flfil‘l‘fifi I
’l‘fiflfifléifillfifill—Ifi (21E) EmfifiififiifiéI fiifiifié’i’iflflEE—EI
fifiéfil‘dfifilfifi’g B MflflfifimfififilfifiETB’flfifififi I fiflfllflg‘ifi
afiififilfiéfltfiifi I fififimr’fifiéfi d‘fifififi’ifi‘fiéfimEQE‘fi I $79:—
5273-‘5‘39 I mun’xexeuusraaraséeamaaa I

 

amermmmmaus I @E‘JETEIIMIB‘JE‘IQH
ifiififlfilflfiwfifimfifié (unease) Imgfi‘fiéfiléEE’éfiTE‘l
flfimfifiéfl%fi*’l‘figfi$¥~flfiflgfiflfiififl?I messages-rem
emcee I

namaameeaarmemaee. ififififigfifiifilffi
BEIE’IEI fififiifi¥¥fiifififiiéflm EEfiflifiEEEEiififfifitfizffii
B‘JEfiI amenaemmm I fifi’fiflfilfifiififiEIfiififi‘E—m I
Rifi (EEEY-I‘B’iififigfiffi) fitflifiiflt fififilflfii‘éfli‘afi (BEE-"f-
B’iifitfiilfiffi) I fififififilfimflfigfiifi I TWKEWEH I ESQET‘YE
fifiifiifififiififilfifiifimfififififiififlI

141

awarenemarsmuema.maesaemarsmn
3EEEIflfifigTEEEEEEEIEfiEETHmfigfiofifififl
IEEI’A‘EEWHIEI fi‘flfififiéflfiifiifio fififiESEZZ8-I3S4I

E762 are

142

APPENDIX I

CONSENT FORM FOR NON-SUZUKI SUBJECTS

To Da-Li Chang:

I have read the explanation attached and hereby consent to my child’s participation in your
study. I understand that participation is entirely voluntary, that my child is free to
withdraw from the study at any time without penalty, and that my child can refuse to
answer any questions or refuse to participate in the procedures. I understand that
participants in the study will be at no risk and that my child’s name will not be used in any
report of results. Within these restrictions, I understand that when the study is completed
the overall results of it will be made available to me upon my written request.

Child’s Name: Gender:

School:

 

Class: Teacher:

 

Signed: Date:
(Parent or Legal Guardian)

 

143

APPENDIXI (TRANSLATION)

CONSENT FORM FOR NON-SUZUKI SUBJECTS
fiéfifi =

REMBIEMBSIQEBIEEHIUBQIIHH I SIEEEIEIIB’SETQEEEB‘JE
EVE. fifififiifiififlifiiwfififikifiéfiflkfl’iéfifi fifififififidfiifi
JEWEI reassess I fifiETQEflifiifififiiEEWEB’ififiifii
fifiififih aeneeeamaaemm I aarmaaxema
fiéfifillflifiifiififlfifificl” I annawauzr I fiflfifl’é’fitflifiifiififi
II I fifilmfidflfififli I fiflfiE-ILZERQEIETB‘JEWQWEE I

 

 

 

ems = lit-ill] = __
5% =
as = $533311? =

 

ifififi: 8413 =

144

APPENDIX J

TWINKLE VARIATION A

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

145

APPENDIX K

YANKEE DOODLE

 

146

APPENDIX L

PERFORMANCE ACHIEVEMENT RATING SCALE

Performance will be rated from 1 to 5 (highest) for each dimension.

Intonation (Check only one item which best described the student's performance level)

 

_ All notes are in tune and correct. (5 points)

_ All notes are in tune and most notes are correct. (4 points)

_ Most of the notes are in tune and all notes are correct. (3 points)

_ Most of the notes are in tune but not all notes are correct. (2 points)
_ Most of the notes are out of tune. (I point)

 

Rhythm (Check only one item which best described the student's performance level)

_ Plays with accurate rhythm and consistent tempo. (5 points)

_ Plays with mostly accurate rhythm and consistent tempo. (4 points)

_ Plays with mostly accurate rhythm and somewhat inconsistent tempo. (3 points)
_ Plays with mostly accurate rhythm and inconsistent tempo. (2 points)

_ Plays with mostly inaccurate rhythm and inconsistent tempo. (1 point)

Tong Quality (Check only one item which best described the student's performance level)

_ Plays with good tone quality consistently throughout the pieces. (5 points)

_ Plays with good tone quality most of time but lacks consistency. (4 points)

_ Plays with average tone quality consistently throughout the pieces. (3 points)

_ Plays with average tone quality mostly but poor tone quality sometimes. (2 points)
_ Plays with poor tone quality. (1 points)

147

 

APPENDIX. L (TRANSLATION)

PERFORMANCE ACHIEVEMENT RATING SCALE

EiEIE E iifi‘h‘gfia‘ I EEE‘E 153*

(WEE (Wikflfiigifl’ififiEififififiZfifi)
__ flififlifi‘ififiéflfiflfifié E‘Efi (563‘)
_ fiififiE‘fi'fiéEfiEEkfifiifiE-‘EEEE (46%)
__ fiflfififiififiéfifififlfifififiififiéfiflfi (3%)
__ kfiflfii‘fiififi's‘r‘fiéflififiEZ‘EfliEEi-i E‘Efi (263‘)
_ dcfiflib‘fliJEifiTiEfifi (153‘)

(2133; (Mii—fifiifiiifififiififiififififiZfifl)
_ fii'ffiéEfiEEfiEfiE (SIT)
._ fiifififia‘lfififlfifflfiffi (46%)
_ nikfififiififififfififixfli (353‘)
__ nifitt‘rflfii‘IEfiEiEiiETEfii’ (253:)
__ nexsexmmamr (153‘)

[313E (MfifiiflifigfiiiififififiZfifi)
__ éflE‘EEfiiEfifiE—ifi (563*)
__ E‘EfiififiififiiE—iifi I EfififiE—ifi (453‘)
__ éEEE§¥ET%E-fi (363‘)
__ EfiiifiififiifiET$I {EEIEEIEE (2%)
_ éflfifiifii (Iii)

148

APPENDD( M

SAMPLE OF PMMA TEST SHEET, TONAL'SUBTEST

 

 

C) a g?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ides. @

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Level co

 

 

loo] eo so

6)
6369 (DO O. Q

 

 

 

 

Q.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

{3. {3. (>3. @Q i239

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(so «so!

 

 

 

C) ass y

O OO OO OO]

, E
E

 

 

 

 

€630 €563

 

 

 

{EL
[0 9
Les o

 

Reproduced by permission from PMMA G.I.A. Publications

149

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson, J. N. (1981). Efi‘ects of tape-recorded aural models on sight-reading
and performance skills. Journal of Research in Music Education. 29 (1), 23-30.

Arant, E. P. Jr. (1970). The development and evaluation of a method of voice
instruction utilizing tape-recorded lesson materials. (Doctoral dissertation, University of
Georgia, 1970). Dissertation Abstracts International 31 (1 1), 6090A.

Bentley, A. (1975). Music in education: A point of view. London: NFER
Publishing Company.

 

Bigler, C. L., & Lloyd-Watts. V. (1979). Studfl'ng Suzuki piano: More than music.
Athens, OH: Ability Development Associates, Inc.

Blesedell, D. S. (1991). A study of the effects of two types of movement
instruction on the rhythm achievement and developmental rhythm aptitude of preschool
children. (Doctoral dissertation, Temple University). Dissertation Abstracts International
2 (07), 2452A.

 

Brand, M. (1985). Lullabies that awaken musicality in infants. Music Educators
Joum 71 (7), 28-31.

Brokaw, J. P. (1983). The extent to which parental supervision and other selected
factors are related to achievement of musical and technical-physical characteristics by
beginning instrumental music students (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Michigan,
1983). Dissemtion Abstracts Intemjatiorgal. 43 (10), 3252A.

Cemohorsky, N. C. (1991). A study of the effects of movement instniction
adapted from the theories of Rudolf Von Laban upon the rhythm aptitude of elementary
school children (The Temple University, 1991). Dissertation Abstr4acts International 52
(09), 3212A

 

DiBlassio, R V. (1984). An experimental study of the development of tonal and
rhythmic capabilities of first grade children (Doctoral dissertation, Temple University,
1984). Disse_;_rtation Abstracts Internationfl, 46 (03), 641A

Doan, G. R (1973). An investigation of the relationships between parental
involvement and the performance ability of violin students (Doctoral dissertation, The
Ohio State University, 1973). Dissertation Abstracts International 34 (08), 5226A.

 

150

Dowdy, M. W. (1995). The use of movement in teaching music: A study of the
efi‘ect of movement instruction on the rhythm skills of elementary children (Master’s
thesis, University of Louisville, 1995). Master Abstracts International 34, 40.

 

Flohr, J. W. (1981). Short-term music instruction and young children’s
developmental music aptitude. Journal of Research in Mus_ic Education 29(3), 219-223.

F olts, M. L. (1973). The relative effect of two procedures, as followed by flute,
clarinet, and trumpet students while practicing, on the development of tone quality and on
selected performance skills. (Doctoral dissertation, New York University, 1973).
Dissertation Abstracts International 34 (03), 1312A.

 

Fortney, P. M. (1992). The effect of modeling and silent analysis on the
performance effectiveness of advanced elementary instrumentalists. Research Perspectives
in Mus_ng Education. 3. 18-21.

Gordon, E. E. (1979). Developmental music aptitude as measured by the Primary
Measures of Music Audiation. Psychology of Music, 7, 42-49.

Gordon, B. E. (1980). The assessment of music aptitudes of very young children.
($1 a Child Quarterly, 24(3), 107-111.

Gordon, B. E. (1980). Developmental music aptitude among inner-city primary
children. Bulletin of the Council for Resegph in MusiiEdtgation. 63. 25-30.

Gordon, B. E. (1986). Manual for the Primag Measures of Music Audiation and
the Intermediate eres of Music Audiation. Chicago, IL: GIA. Publications.

 

Gordon, E. E. (1987). The nature, description, measurement, and evaluation of
music aptitude. Chicago, IL: G.I.A. Publications.

Gordon, B. E. (1993). Learning sgjuences in music (3rd ed). Chicago, IL: G.1.A.
Publications.

Gordon, B. E. (1998). Intro ucti nt r search and th s ch lo f music.
Chicago, IL: G.I.A. Publications.

Hodges, D. A (1974). The effects of recorded aural models on the performance
achievement of students in beginning band class. (Doctoral dissertation, University of
Texas at Austin, 1974). DissertaLtion Abstracts Intem_ational, 35 (08), 5080A.

Jenkins, J. M. D. (1976). The relationship between maternal parents’ musical
experience and the musical development of two- and three-year old girls. (Doctoral
dissertation, North Texas State University, 1976). Dissertation Abstracts Intemation_al, 37
(11), 7015A.

151

Keele, S. W. & Summers, J. J. (1976). The structure of motor problems. In G. E.

Stelrnach (Ed), Motor cpntrol: Issues and trends (pp. 109-142). New York: Academic
Press.

Kenney, S. (1989). Music centers: Freedom to explore. Music Educators Journal,
16 (2), 32-36.

Kohut, D. L. (1985). Musical performance: Learning theory and pedagogy.
Englewood Clifi‘s, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

 

Levinowitz, L. (1989). Informal music instruction as readiness for learning

sequence activities. In D. Walters & C. Taggart (Eds), Readings in mu_sic learning theory
(pp. 74-83). Chicago, IL: GIA. Publications.

Lineburgh, N. E. (1994). The efi‘ects of exposure to musical prototypes on the
stylistic discrimination ability of kindergarten and second-grade children. (Doctoral
dissertation, Kent State University, 1994/1995). pfiissenation Abstracts International 56
(06), 2161A

 

Linklater, F. (1997). Effects of audio- and videotape models on performance

achievement of beginning clarinetists. Journal of Research in Music Educatiop, 45 (3),
402-414.

Magill, R A. (1998). Motor learning: Concepts and applications (5th ed). Boston:
MA: McGraw-Hill Companies.

Matter, D. E. (1982). Musical development in young children. Childhood
Edugtiop, 58(5), 305-307.

McDonald, J. C. (1987). The application of Edwin Gordon’s empirical model of
learning sequence to teaching the recorder (Doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona,
1987). Dissmation Abstracts International, 48 (04), 864A.

Metz, E. ( 1989). Movement as a musical response among preschool children.

Journfl pf Reflch in Music Education, 37 (1), 48-60.

Mills, E. (1974). In the Suzuki style: a manual for raising musicil consciousness in
children. Berkeley, CA: Diablo Press.

Moore, J. L. (1987). An experiment with rhythm and movement upon
developmental music aptitude. Update, 6, 7-10.

Puopolo, V. (1971). The development and experimental application of self-

instructional practice materials for beginning instrumentalists. Journal of Research in
Music Edpggtiop, 19(3), 342-349.

152

 

Quindag, S. R. (1993). The effects of guided aural versus guided aural-visual
modeling on the performance achievement of beginning string instrumentalists. (Doctoral
dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1992/1993). Dissertation Abstracts
International 54 (02), 455A.

 

Reynolds, G. E. (1960). Environmental sources of musical awakening in pre-
school children. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois, 1960). Dissertation Abstracts
International 21 (05), 1214-1215A.

 

Rosenthal, R. K. (1984). The relative effects of guided model, model only, guide
only, and practice only treatments on the accuracy of advanced instrumentalists’ musical
performance. Journal of Research in Mu45ic Educatiop, 32 (4), 265-273.

Rosenthal, R K., Wilson, M., Evans, M., & Greenwalt, L. (1988). Efl‘ects of
difl‘erent practice conditions on advanced instrumentalists’ performance accuracy. Journal
of Researah in My: Ecmation. 36 (4), 250-257.

Schleuter, S. L. (1984). A sound approach to teaching instrumentalists: An
application of content and learning seguence. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press.

Schleuter, S. L. (1986). Teaching and learning music performance: What, when,
and how. In C. Fowler (Ed), The Crane Smposium: Towgd an understanding of tlfi

teaching and learning of music performance (pp. 63-87). Newton Falls, NY: Potsdam
College of the State University of New York.

Sheldon, D. A. (1995). Between classes: The effects of non-traditional instruction
and background music on music learning and preference. Contributions to Mu§i_c_
Educatiop, 22, 24-39.

Simpson, E. (1970). Investigating the efl‘ectiveness of programmed listening in
secondary instrumental music instruction. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music

Ed catio 1916-19.
Slone, K. C. (1982). They’re rarely too young--and never too old “to Twinkle”:
Teaching insights into the world of begim'ng Suzuki violin. Lexington, KY: Life Force

Press.

Stamou, L. (1998). The effect of Suzuki instruction and early childhood music
experiences on developmental music aptitude and performance achievement of beginning
Suzuki string students (Doctoral dissertation, Michigan State University, 1998).

Starr, W. (1976). The Suzuki violinist. Knoxville, Tennessee: Kingston Ellis Press.

Starr, W., & Starr, C. (1986). To learn with love: A companion for Suzuki
parents. Knoxville, TN: Kingston Ellis Press.

153

Suzuki, S. (1973). The “Mother Tongue Method” of Education and the Law of
Ability. In W. Starr, The Suzuki Violinist (1976, pp. 1-6). Knoxville, TN: Kingston Ellis
Press.

Suzuki, S. (1981). Abilig development from age zero. Secaucus, NJ: Summy
Birchard.

Suzuki, S. (1983). Nurtured by love: The classic approach to Talent Education
(2nd ed.). Athens, OH: Ability Development.

Taggart, C. C. (1997, November). A study of developmental music aptitude. Paper
presented at the New Directions in Music Education: Early Childhood Music Conference,
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI.

Wickes, L. (1982). The genius of simplicity : A Suzuki method sympoaium.
Princeton, NJ: Birch Tree Group.

Woodrufl‘, L. C. (1983). A predictive validity study of the Primary Measure of
Music Audiation. (Doctoral dissertation, Temple University, 1983/1984). Dissertation
Abstracts InternationaL45 (01), 113A.

Zurcher, W. (1975). The effect of model-supportive practice on beginning brass
instrumentalists. In C. Madsen, R. D. Greer, & C. H. Madsen (Eds), Research in mu_sic
behavior: Modifying music behavior in the classroom. (pp. 131-138). New York: Teachers
College Press.

154