Transcript Early acquisition of musical aural skills

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
Aims

How and why do children
spontaneously recognize
musical pitch structures?

Improve “ear training”?

Exploratory qualitative study
Acquisition of musical aural skills:
Intuitive cognitive model
1.
Exposure phase
aural (visual, tactile-motor, linguistic)  memory
2.
Experimentation phase
match memory to performance by trial and error
3.
Recognition phase
auditory pattern  memory  linguistic label
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
Background: Subskill interdependence

Musical skills
– general musicality or
– independent specific skills?

Is audiation central?
– Origins of musicality = origins of audiation?
Relation to other approaches
Other studies
real-time
Our study
retrospective
any or average
children who will later
children
have good aural skills
N = small - medium N = large
Methodological problem: Memory

Strong for
– meaningful events

Unreliable if
– long ago
BUT
 Longitudinal observation is also problematic
– implicit skill acquisition
Methodological problem: Questionnaires
Aspect
Problem
Open question
Closed question
Quantitative data
Qualitative data
Unclear
Leading
Needs many participants
Needs openness and trust
Specific issues
Instrument
 Specific early experiences
 Age at onset of recognition
 Situations
 Active or passive
 Motivation
 Belief in talent

Data collection

period
– Sep 2005 to June 2006

publicity
– email lists

participants
– 196

missing data
– many
Sex of participants
112 female
 84 male

Nationality of participants
51%
19%
7%
5%
USA
UK
Canada
Australia
Language of questionnaire
Western bias of internet
Age of participants

mean 36 years
– min 18
– max 83
Aural skills of participants
Best grade for an ear training test
 A: 109
 B: 23
 C: 3
 D: 1
 E: 1
Years of musical practice
 mean 28
– min 4
– max 70
Does practice make perfect?
“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
Instrument
Are some instruments better
for ear training than others?
Main instrument
59%
8%
7%
5%
piano
guitar
flute
violin
Keyboard represents aural structures visually?
Parents of talented children choose piano?
First year of playing: Instruments played
piano
violin
flute
guitar
recorder
others
63%
13%
6%
5%
4%
9%
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%
10%
4%
yes
no
can‘t remember
Why piano?
Upper middle
class parents
Piano in house
General support
for music
Early musical experiences
“Early” = before learning first instrument
What early musical experiences
promote development of aural skills?
Early musical experiences

Age at middle of period
4.5 years

Frequency of musical experiences
5.3
(1 = very rare … 7 = very frequent)
Family member whose musical
activities experienced most often
49 % mother
31 % father
8 % sister
4 % brother
Specific activity
No. of entries
Playing an instrument
108
Singing – at home
48
Listening to music
23
Singing – choir, church ...
17
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
Early musical activities: How enjoyable?

mean 6.3
(1 = not at all … 7 = very)
enjoyment  motivation  practice
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.
Age
At what age do children
acquire basic aural skills?
First memory of recognizing pitch structures

Age: mean 8.6 years (min 2, max 18)
Age at which specific structures recognized
Perform
Notate
Understand
Melodic intervals
9
11
12
Chord qualities
9
11
12
Chord functions
11
13
14
Close modulations
13
14
15
Distant modulations
15
15
16
Melodic inversion
15
15
16
Means
Basic structures learned between 8 and 14
Basic structures consolidated before building on them
Role of situation
In what situations do children
acquire aural skills?
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

But our participants may not be representative
19% (9)
Percentage: average of those who replied (In brackets: number who replied to question)
First memory of recognizing pitch structures
Wide variety of situations. Examples:
AP
Heard mother make mistake on piano. Played by ear
before starting lessons. Recognized tones while dad
tuned / mother played piano.
Harmony
Cried when hearing IV6 – iv6. Transcribed pop
progressions. Played "Smoke on water" at guitar group.
Theory
Theory class in high school - ear training exercises.
Correspondence course in theory and ear training.
Choir
Singing back a pattern for choir auditions.
Melody
Matching pitches, singing back melodies, singing in tune.
Piano
Apparently played a song on piano by ear.
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
Musical styles in which structures recognized
Rank order:
1.
2.
3.
4.
classical
children’s
pop/rock
religious
 Participant bias towards “classical” music
Learning styles
Active or passive?
 Motivated or “just happened”?

Most important factor in developing this skill
Category N=82 Examples
active
music
making
28





sightsinging, solfege, tuning instrument
starting to play at an early age
regularity, persistence, hard work
teaching myself
experimenting with instrument
listening
to music
16
 learning how to listen
 active or intense listening
 hearing music in many different
contexts
 Role of active learning
Why motivated to acquire this skill?
Category
N=96 Examples
learning
goal
27





joy, fun
21
 I loved it; it was fun, like a game
no
special
intention
20
 I wasn’t motivated, it just sort of happened
 a consequence of joining the school choir
 it was just what we did – it was family
usefulness
14
 reading music took too much time and effort
 hearing melody helped me hear bass and chords
 important to make low brass section sound good
to learn specific songs
to sing on the correct pitch
to do well in music courses, be a better performer
to learn music quickly, understand music, compose
to sing or play like a specific performer
 Role of relevant, useful goals
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
Inherited or learned
Inherited
Learned
Opinion then
44%
56%
Opinion now
39%
61%
Source of info for “opinion then”:
46%
18%
15%
compare memory with current knowledge
parents then
peer comparison then
Real learning + belief in talent
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
Consistent with expertise model

motivation  practice  skill

Critical periods?
phase
age
exposure
3-7
experimentation
7-10
recognition
9-14
Interdependence of musical subskills

Musicality as
– independent specific skills

Central role of audiation
– supports other subskills
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
Educational implications: Institutional

Offer parental training incl. music
 More music in school
 Musical interaction teachersparents
 Ear training at school, not university