Date

6-19-2024

Department

School of Music

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education (PhD)

Chair

Nathan Street

Keywords

audiation, aural/oral skills, beginning band instruction, chanting, Gordon, Mason, music achievement, music aptitude, music learning theory (MLT), Pestalozzi, sequential learning, quantitative experimental study, singing, “singering, ” solfège, sound-before-sight, sound-before-symbol, vocalization

Disciplines

Music

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative experimental study was to examine the impact of two differing instructional strategies in beginning band instruction. One approach followed a traditional method, emphasizing technical proficiency and note-reading skills, while the other adopted a sound-before-sight approach where aural and oral skills were nurtured before introducing notation. The experimental study involved fourth and fifth-grade beginning band students from a rural elementary school in the Midwest. All participants were randomly divided into either the experimental or control group. The control group (n = 21) received instruction using a traditional note-reading approach, whereas the experimental group (n = 22) was taught using a sound-before-sight method. This innovative method involved chanting, solfège signing, singing, and “singering” as the students learned to play traditional melodies on their instruments. Throughout the nine-week study, all participants attended weekly homogenous group lessons lasting twenty minutes each. Three standardized assessments were employed to measure and compare the average scores related to students’ music aptitude and achievement in tonal listening and tonal reading skills. The evaluations conducted included Gordon’s Intermediate Measure of Music Audiation – Tonal Subtest (IMMA TS), Iowa Tests for Music Literacy Tonal Concepts – Level 1 for Audiation/Listening (ITML T1), and Iowa Tests for Music Literacy Tonal Concepts – Level 1 for Audiation/Reading (ITML T2). These assessments were administered both before and after the instructional period. Analysis of the post-test results, using independent samples t-test, revealed no significant differences between the experimental and control groups for the IMMA TS and ITML T1 assessments. However, post-test scores between the experimental and control groups for the ITML T2 displayed a statistically significant difference. Additionally, observations of the mean score changes from paired t-tests across all three assessments indicated significant differences between the experimental and control groups. The results, coupled with the substantial effect size calculations, affirm the efficacy of the treatment and emphasize the necessity for further research into sound-before-sight strategies and their influence on the development of music achievement skills, particularly in the context of beginning band instruction.

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