1 / 45

Early acquisition of musical aural skills

Early acquisition of musical aural skills. Richard Parncutt 1 Gary McPherson 2 Margit Painsi 1 Fränk Zimmer 1 1 Department of Musicology, University of Graz 2 School of Music, University of Illinois. ICMPC Bologna 21-26 August 2006. Aims.

ivanbritt
Download Presentation

Early acquisition of musical aural skills

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Early acquisition of musical aural skills Richard Parncutt1 Gary McPherson2 Margit Painsi1 Fränk Zimmer1 1Department of Musicology, University of Graz 2 School of Music, University of Illinois ICMPC Bologna 21-26 August 2006

  2. Aims • How and why do children spontaneously recognize musical pitch structures? • Improve “ear training”? • Exploratory qualitative study

  3. Acquisition of musical aural skills: Intuitive cognitive model • Exposure phase aural (visual, tactile-motor, linguistic)  memory • Experimentation phase match memory to performance by trial and error • Recognition phase auditory pattern  memory  linguistic label

  4. Background: Skill acquisition • Nature/nurture: • interaction between genes & environment • Expertise approach: • more practice  more skill • Critical periods: • earlier practice  more skill • (Intrinsic) motivation: • motivation  practice  skill

  5. Background: Subskill interdependence • Musical skills • general musicality or • independent specific skills? • Is audiation central? • Origins of musicality = origins of audiation?

  6. Relation to other approaches

  7. Methodological problem: Memory • Strong for • meaningful events • Unreliable if • long ago BUT • Longitudinal observation is also problematic • implicit skill acquisition

  8. Methodological problem: Questionnaires

  9. Specific issues • Instrument • Specific early experiences • Age at onset of recognition • Situations • Active or passive • Motivation • Belief in talent

  10. Data collection • period • Sep 2005 to June 2006 • publicity • email lists • participants • 196 • missing data • many

  11. Sex of participants • 112 female • 84 male

  12. Nationality of participants 51% USA 19% UK 7% Canada 5% Australia Language of questionnaire Western bias of internet

  13. Age of participants • mean 36 years • min 18 • max 83

  14. Aural skills of participants Best grade for an ear training test • A: 109 • B: 23 • C: 3 • D: 1 • E: 1

  15. Years of musical practice • mean 28 • min 4 • max 70 Does practice make perfect?

  16. “CV” of average participant • Began to play regularly… • aged 7 years (min 2, max 21) • Played continuously… • stops for only 1 year • Filled our questionnaire • aged 36 years

  17. Instrument Are some instruments better for ear training than others?

  18. Main instrument 59% piano 8% guitar 7% flute 5% violin Keyboard represents aural structures visually? Parents of talented children choose piano?

  19. First year of playing: Instruments played piano 63% violin 13% flute 6% guitar 5% recorder 4% others 9%

  20. Instruments in the home 140 people named 311 instruments: • piano (106) • guitar (40) • violin (28) • recorder (22) • … flute, keyboard, trumpet, harmonica, cello, organ, clarinet, accordion, banjo/mandolin… Important for ear training? • 86% yes • 10% no • 4% can‘t remember

  21. Why piano?

  22. Early musical experiences “Early” = before learning first instrument What early musical experiences promote development of aural skills?

  23. Early musical experiences • Age at middle of period 4.5 years • Frequency of musical experiences 5.3 (1 = very rare … 7 = very frequent)

  24. Family member whose musical activities experienced most often 49 % mother 31 % father 8 % sister 4 % brother

  25. Early musical activities: Materials • lullabies • hymns • traditional and folk songs • Christmas songs • Suzuki songs Examples: • Mother at piano, kids play drums & sleigh bells • Dad made up songs about our family • My brother and I made up Gregorian chants

  26. Early musical activities: How enjoyable? • mean 6.3 (1 = not at all … 7 = very) enjoyment  motivation  practice

  27. Early musical activities: Specific emotions Music as: • private experience • It was amazing to produce sounds. • Music always gave me an immediate feeling of exhilaration. • part of intensive personal interaction • Happy, closeness with family members, fun and joy in learning the tune and rhythm of songs • I could switch off from the unhappy family life and escape into music. • I enjoyed this time because I gave our family the 'glue' that held us together.

  28. Age At what age do children acquire basic aural skills?

  29. First memory of recognizing pitch structures • Age: mean 8.6 years (min 2, max 18)

  30. Age at which specific structures recognized • Basic structures learned between 8 and 14 • Basic structures consolidated before building on them

  31. Role of situation In what situations do children acquire aural skills?

  32. First year of playing Situations in which learned about music • Conventional music lessons 64% (130) • Working out pieces by ear alone 24% (103) • Mental practice 16% (54) • Composing alone at instrument 16% (72) • Playing by ear with friends or family 16% (46) • Composing with friends or family 19% (9) • But our participants may not be representative Percentage: average of those who replied (In brackets: number who replied to question)

  33. First memory of recognizing pitch structures Wide variety of situations. Examples:

  34. Context in which skill originally acquired • Wide variety of responses • family and outside • formal and informal • group and solo • instrumental and choral • theory and practice • Aural skills are learned • Learning is mainly active

  35. Musical styles in which structures recognized • Rank order: • classical • children’s • pop/rock • religious  Participant bias towards “classical” music

  36. Learning styles • Active or passive? • Motivated or “just happened”?

  37. Most important factor in developing this skill  Role of active learning

  38. Why motivated to acquire this skill?  Role of relevant, useful goals

  39. Inherited or learned? • Questions about origins of skills: • All answers involved musical activities • No-one objected that skills were inborn • “How important were your early musical activities for the development of your aural abilities?” • 5.8 (1 = not at all … 7 = very) Participants believe skills are learned

  40. Inherited or learned Source of info for “opinion then”: 46% compare memory with current knowledge 18% parents then 15% peer comparison then Real learning + belief in talent

  41. Interesting but unreliable data • Metacognition is weak • Even for the most talented • Memory is unreliable • Respondents may invent or exaggerate • Our participants are biased toward • upper middle class • “classical” music

  42. Consistent with expertise model • motivation  practice  skill • Critical periods?

  43. Interdependence of musical subskills • Musicality as • independent specific skills • Central role of audiation • supports other subskills

  44. Educational implications: Home Parents should • hear, make, enjoy music themselves • own and play several instruments • encourage child from an early age (6?) to • hear, make, enjoy a lot of music • experience keyboard and choral singing • take music lessons • develop own musical tastes and passions

  45. Educational implications: Institutional • Offer parental training incl. music • More music in school • Musical interaction teachersparents • Ear training at school, not university

More Related