Don D. Coffman

Effects of Mental Practice, Physical Practice, and Knowledge of Results on Piano Performance.

In this study, the author examined the effects of type of practice (physical, mental, I alternating physical/mental, and a motivational control) and aural knowledge of results on improving piano performance. Forty music education and music therapy majors participated in a pretest and posttest experiment using one of eight treatment conditions. The dependent variables were performance time, number of pitch errors, and number of rhythm errors. Results revealed that (a) all three practice conditions had significantly shorter performance times than did the control condition, (b) treatments using physical practice and alternating mental/physical practice yielded significantly shorter performance times than did the mental practice treatment alone, and (c) the physical practice treatment did not differ significantly from the alternating mental/physical practicel treatment in improving performance times. No other statistically significant differences were found among the three practice conditions.

Banding Together: New Horizons in Lifelong Music Making

New Horizons Bands are wind and percussion bands designed for both novice and former musicians over the age of 50. This article describes the Iowa City, Iowa, program from the directors observations and from excerpted comments by participants. Not only does the band program fulfill musical aspirations, but it also provides meaningful interpersonal relationships for the adult learners and their families, the college-aged instructors, and the director.

Musical Instrument Preference: Implications For Music Educators

What factors influence a studentspreference for a particular musical instrument? When does a preference become established? What consequences mightresultfromselecting one instrumentoveranother? Research in instrument preference suggestssomeanswers to questions such as these. A studentsinstrumentpreference affects not only hisor her choice of instrument, but may affect whether or not the student choosesto playan instrumentat all.Sex-stereotyping ofmusicalinstruments, in particular, can affect the choice of an instrument, possibly limiting a students potential. Timbre discrimination ability and personality traits also havesome bearingon instrument preferences. This articlesurveys the literatureon thissubjectand offerssuggestions to the music educator.

Measuring Musical Originality Using Information Theory

The purpose of this study was to examine the feasibility of applying the mathematics of information theory to the analysis of musical originality. Originality can be thought of, in information theory, as entropy, the degree of freedom a composer has in selecting musical symbols to convey a message. Theoretically, original music has high information, or low predictability. Seventh grade students (N = 34) enrolled in a nine-week general music course were asked to create a composition on a MIDI keyboard prior to receiving course instruction and once again at the end of the course. The pitch content of pre- and post-instruction compositions were analysed for levels of entropy. Results showed that post-instruction compositions exhi- bited significantly higher pitch entropy, indicating greater freedom of choice and less predictability in pitch choices, despite a sizeable reduction in the average length of compositions.

Computer-assisted comparison of melodic and rhythmic discrimination skills in hearing-impaired and normally hearing children: A pilot study

For a number of years, the sense of hearing has been granted particular attention as an important factor in the perception and conceptualization of time (Rileigh & Odom, 1972). In fact, some have labeled hearing as the “time sense,” suggesting that we learn much about the sequence of events through time as we hear a stream of auditory cues. Furthermore, the ability to perceive changes in frequency and melodic patterns has been typically assigned to the auditory system. Complicating this picture is the belief that sense of time and the ability to perceive complex rhythmic and melodic patterns develop with increasing maturation and exposure to auditory information. If these theories are indeed correct, are persons who have early and severe hearing losses at risk for achieving these very basic perceptual skills? If so, what interventions need to be undertaken? To date, a relatively small body of research exists comparing the rhythmic and melodic perception of hearing-impaired persons with normally hearing individuals. The bulk of studies have been conducted with young children of elementary school age, and the greater number of extant studies examine rhythmic perception. In a study comparing hard-of-hearing children with normally hearing children (Sterritt, Camp, & Lippman, 1966), nine children with hearing losses and nine normally hearing children reproduced temporal patterns created by an above-threshold tone or by a flashing light on a telegraph key. The authors concluded that the hard-of-hearing children’s performance on a rhythmic reproduction task was poorer than that of normally hearing children. This decrement was attributed to early auditory deprivation, which the authors believed influenced perception for not only auditory patterns but also for visual temporal patterns. Davis and Hardick (1981) noted that for children with severe and profound hearing losses, the developmental history for auditory perception is believed to begin at the age the children are aided; children of identical chronological ages may have different length auditory histories. In a later test of rhythmic perception (Rileigh & Odom, 1972), deaf and normally hearing subjects were asked to reproduce visually-produced rhythmic patterns that varied in length and complexity. The outcome suggested that a developmental continuum of skills relating to rhythmic perception existed, with hearing-impaired subjects demonstrating a later mastery of more complex patterns than the normally hearing peers. In other words, rather than being deviant in rhythmic perception, children with hearing losses may develop similar rhythmic skills at a later age. Limited exposure to auditory signals might be one explanation for this delay.