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Psychology of Music Learning. Miksza MUSICAL ABILITY. R & B - Definitions. Ability - often used as a ‘slippery’ term fluctuating among: talent, musicality, capacity, aptitude, achievement Finer definitions… (see pg. 384-385)
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Psychology of Music Learning Miksza MUSICAL ABILITY
R & B - Definitions • Ability - often used as a ‘slippery’ term fluctuating among: talent, musicality, capacity, aptitude, achievement • Finer definitions… (see pg. 384-385) • Ability - being able to do something, regardless of how a person became able • Aptitude - potential success prior to specialized music learning • Capacity - ability that is a result of heredity and maturation • Achievement - specific musical accomplishments often the result of instruction • Development - growth and maturation process • Learning - observable change in behavior (?)
R & B - Influences on Ability • Hearing acuity - sufficient sensitivity is important • Genetics - hereditary capacities (although not necessarily specific skills), advantageous physical characteristics, brain characteristics, handedness • Musical Home - critical development periods, expectancies, brain plasticity, balancing early musical experiences at very early ages • Physical features - ‘cupid’s bow’ example • Creativity - an obvious element of composition and performance, does not necessarily explain musical ability • Intelligence - definitional issues…, lack of relationships with music aptitude measures, asymmetric relations, savants as evidence for separate abilities • Gender and race - stereotypes persist in some areas, cultural differences
R & B - Learning Theory • See summaries of Behaviorist and Cognitivist approaches to understanding learning…
R & B - Development • Innate musical responses • Reacting to musical stimuli in utero • Cooing and babbling varying in loudness, contour, etc. • Experiments of infant attendance to stimuli • Especially beat and tempo • Spontaneous song • Replaced by ‘learned song’ by four • Varies with cultural differences • Concept of tonality may ‘stabilize’ around five/six years old • Notation developing from abstract-iconic-symbolic
R & B - Abnormalities • Amusia - “without music” - an inability to produce or recognize music • Often studied in relation to brain trauma • For some unrelated to speech and other auditory processes • Monotonism - singing one tone regardless of situation • Related to vocal difficulties • Synesthesia - simultaneous experiencing a stimulus • Chromosthesia - blend of color and sound perception
R & B - Measurement • Aptitude • Seashore Measures of Musical Talents (1919) • Pitch, loudness, time, timbre, rhythm patterns, tone patterns • No total score • Wing Standardised Test of Musical Intelligence (1954) • Melodic, harmonic, rhythm discrimination: chord analysis, pitch, memory, rhythm, harmony, intensity, phrasing • One total score • Gordon Musical Aptitude Profile (1965) • Tonal imagery, rhythmic imagery, musical sensitivity • One total score • PMMA, IMMA, AMMA • Later versions of Gordon aptitude approach • Based on ‘audiation’ concept