Psychology of Music

A volunteer piano student video recorded the first stage of his work on Debussy's Prelude Feux d'Artifice and then commented upon the initial 69 minutes of his practising on synchronised audio tape. The distribution of musical material, performer's behaviour, and reported goals of activity in time were subsequently analysed.

The following features were found to characterise the work in this case study: independence of the fragments into which the composition was divided during elaboration; a negative relationship between the difficulty of fragments and the span of material divisions; systematic lengthening of fragments taken for elaboration through sessions; and an internal structure of trial-and-error work similar to TOT(E). The subject's utterances indicated stability of his general objectives (to build up an internal representation of the music and to acquire the basic skill to perform it without interruptions) and flexibility of short-term goals related to the diagnosis of actual ability to perform particular fragments.

This study examined ratings of applied' music teaching feedback x; function of the personality variables of extraversion-ilntioversion (EII) ald judgment-perception (JP) as measured by the Myers-Briggs TIsvpe lndicaltat (MBTI). Subjects (N= 63) responded to an audio tape comprised oa sho-ti teaching episodes in which student performance was followed bv teachlct approval or disapproval behaviour. Approval behaviours emphasised onc ()t the following: (a) academic information; (b) student improvement. (c) noi-imi referenced feedback; (d) person praise; (e) personal approval by thu teacher; and (f) approval as control. Subjects rated these behaviours h means of 7-point semantic differential scales. Rcsults of ANOVA prta cedures indicated a significant El main effect for ratings of appro vil- improvement, person praise, approval-information, and disapprovals. with a range of 11.5 per cent to 14 5 per cent of the variance accounted tir. Introverted subjects rated these behaviours significantly higher than extra- verted subjects. While the main effect of JP was non-significatnt fto ill ratings of teacher behaviour, significant EIxJP interactions were found taot the variables of approval-control and approval-person praise, with 1406 pc cent and 13 7 per cent of the variance explained. respectively.

This study investigated the effectiveness of three prompts on rhythmic sight- reading ability. Forty-six string students of ages 8 to 16 individually sight- read rhythmic exercises under four conditions-counting out loud, foot tapping, counting and tapping simultaneously, and no prompt. Each subject was pre-tested in order to be placed at one of the five difficulty levels which matched his sight-reading ability. The scores were obtained by counting the number of beats accurately performed for each eight-measure exercise. A repeated-measures analysis of variance yielded a significant interaction effect at the 001 level between prompt conditions and ability levels. Counting out loud was the most effective prompt for the less experienced students. There were no significant differences in prompt conditions for the more advanced students. These results may suggest that prompts for rhythmic sight-reading may need to change as students' abilities increase.

In two samples of Finland-Swedish comprehensive school pupils tage 12-14), some pupils made private preference ratings of items representing traditional (i.e. classical and folk) and rock music, while others rated the items publicly in front of their classmates. Analyses of covariance showed the results to agree with the assumption that the pupils would tend towardls lower preference ratings for the traditional types of music when announcinlg their ratings publicly than when making them privately. The assumption that publicly made preference ratings of rock music would exceed private ratings was not confirmed. Considering some earlier research and some secondary explorative data of the current study, it could be hypothesised that the pupils' public preference behaviour is influenced both by their beliefs about the typical preference level in the peer group and by the extent to whicth preference for a certain music is related to social status. poptolarits, Mud similar socio-psychological variables.

It has been conjectured that the development of vocal pitch accuracs Mn siiging is partly determined by the quality of feedback available to an error labelling schema (Welch. 1985 [a] and lb]). As a practical applicationl of this theoretical construct to the classroom, a micro-computer-based nvsteni (Howard and Welch, 1987) has been developed to provide real-time visual feedback of vocal pitch production to the user. This system has recentiv undergone initial trials with a class of seven-year-old children in a Bristol school. The sample (n =32) was divided into three matched groups: (a) experimental interactive, (b) experimental non-interactive, and (c) control, based on an initial system-driven assessment of their socal pitch accuracy Groups (a) and (b) used the system and the control group (c) uindertook singing activities of a more traditional nature. After one schoiol term. socal pitch accuracy was re-assessed. The two experimental groups recorded a signiticant improvement in their vocal pitch matching ability cmpared to the control group. The results are seen as supportive of the previouLslv stated theoretical position and confirm that action can encouralrac the underlsin.it developmental process (Welch, 1986).