Transcript Children`s spontaneous recognition of musical structures

Children’s spontaneous
recognition of musical structures
Richard Parncutt and Margit Painsi
University of Graz
Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Musikpsychologie, Würzburg, September 2005
Aims

How and why do children
spontaneously recognize musical
pitch structures?

Application: ear training courses
Background: Skill acquisition

Genetic/nativist approach:
– interaction between genes and environment

Expertise approach:
– more practice  more skill

Critical periods:
– earlier practice  more skill

(Intrinsic) motivation:
– more motivation  more practice  more skill
– nature or nurture?
Background: Skill interdependence

Musical skills
– General musicality?
– Independent specific skills?

Is audiation central?
– Origins of audiation = origins of musicality?
Background: Memory
Strong for meaningful events
 Unreliable if:

– Event too early or late in lifespan
– Long time between event and recall
BUT
 Longitudinal observation of skill
acquisition is also problematic
Background: Questionnaires
Kind of
question
Problem or
prerequisite
Open
Unclear
Closed
Leading
Quantitative
Many participants
Qualitative
Trusting participants
Approach

Personal interviews
– In-depth descriptions

Internet questionnaire
– Plenty of data

Both
– Participants motivated by desire to
understand own aural skills
Structure of questionnaire
4 modules:
 Preliminary
 Early
 Instrumental
 Advanced
Data selection and elimination
Collected 1-8 September 2005
 Not analysed:

– 17 participants gave no info on aural course
– 7 did not get “A” (analyse separately)
– Some did not complete all modules

Analysed:
– Remaining 19 (as pilot)
Personal details: General
Gender: 10 female, 9 male
Country: Australia 2, Canada 5, Finland 2, New
Zealand 2, Sweden 1, USA 7
Western & English-language bias of internet
Age: mean 40, min 22, max 64
Have older people forgotten more ?
Personal details: Musical
Years of musical practice:
mean 33, min 18, max 61
Mutual reinforcement performance-audiation?
Main instrument:
piano or other keyboard 12, flute 3, classical guitar
2, electric bass 1, trombone 1
Does keyboard provide a better visual
representation of aural structures?
Before first instrument
Family member whose musical activities
were experienced most often:
mother 6, father 6, brother 2, sister 2, grandfather
2, no answer 1
The specific activities:
keyboard (piano/organ) 5, choir 4, more than one
instrument 3, listening 2, solo singing 2, violin 1,
composition 1, unstated instrument 1
 keyboard and choir especially important?
Instruments in the home
yes 18; no 1; can’t remember 0
 Clearly important
List instruments

piano 15, violin 5, clarinet 4, recorder 4, guitar 3,
banjo 2, trumpet 2, mandolin 2, bells 1,
concertina 1, flute 1, glockenspiel 1, harmonica
1, saxophone 1, ukulele 1, viola 1, accordion 1
 46 instruments / 19 people = 2.5 / person
 More than one instrument is good
 Piano is important
Musical toys in the home

9 of 19 participants responded
 xylophone 4, recorder 2, toy piano 2, drums
2, wind-up toys 2, glockenspiel 1, tambourine
1
 Less important than real instruments - or just
forgotten?
Early musical activities
“Active” person:

mother 9, father 4, brother , other 1, no answer 4
Materials:

lullabies, hymns, traditional and folk songs, Christmas songs, Suzuki
songs, hand-clapping song, songbooks
Examples:







Mother at piano while kids play drums & sleigh bells
Mother sang, I played by ear
Mother taught me songs on the piano
Dad made up songs about our family
My brother and I made up Gregorian chants
Singing together while sister played piano
Singing at seniors’ homes
Early musical activities
Duration
 mean 6.7 years
Frequency (7-point scale):
 5.1
Age at middle of period
 6.0 years
Early musical activities
How enjoyable?

mean 6.4
 Enjoyment  motivation  practice
Specific emotions?

joy (2x), loved it, keen, importance, envy, cried, total
fulfilment, exhilaration, happy, secure, safe, sense of
accomplishment, exciting, anger, fear, rebelliousness,
emotions for which we have no words, part of life - like
breathing.
Early musical activities
How important were early musical activities for development
of your aural abilities (opinion now)?

6.3
Why?








Developed listening skills, musical memory, orch. rep.
Developed perfect pitch.
Early singing = early musical development. Simple as that.
I was surrounded by music at a very early age.
I often listened to recordings and imitated/arranged them.
Learning before age 8 is essential to ingrain skills, which is why I do
not remember the learning process.
I had little training or contact with musicians until 11-12.
Formal musical ear training was about attaching labels to pitch
relationships that I already understood.
First year of playing
Age at which began to play instrument regularly

mean 6.5 years, min 2, max 15
 Early start important?
Instruments played in first year

mainly one instrument (first instr. mean 90%)
 piano 13, violin 2, drums, flute, guitar, recorder
 Piano is best first instrument?
First year of playing
Regular musical activities at that time





Practice alone:
5.7 days / week @ 1.7 hours
Ensemble rehearsal: 0.8 days / week @ 0.7 hours
Performance:
1.2 days / week @ 0.7 hours
Lots of practice plus some ensemble and performance
Introverted behavior
Situations in which learned about music






Conventional music lessons 68%
Working out pieces by ear alone 17%
Mental practice 10%
Composing alone at instrument 8%
Playing by ear with friends or family 7%
Composing with friends or family 0%
 Conventional lessons are important
First memory of recognizing pitch structures
Age: mean 8.3 years, min 3, max 16. What happened:
AP 4
Heard mother make mistake on piano. Played by ear before starting
lessons. Recognized tones while dad tuned / mother played piano.
Harmony 3
Cried when hearing IV6 – iv6. Transcribed pop progressions. Played
"Smoke on water" at guitar group.
Other 2
Surprised that others didn't recognize pitch structures. Whatever I
heard, I needed to know what it was.
Theory 2
Theory class in high school - ear training exercises. Correspondence
course in theory and ear training.
Choir 1
Singing back a pattern for choir auditions.
Melody 1
Matching pitches, singing back melodies, singing in tune.
Piano 1
Apparently played a song on piano by ear.
Musical styles
Participant selection  bias towards classical?
Means
Heard before
starting to play
Played in first
year
…in which structures
first recognized
Classical
33%
57%
48%
Pop/rock
25%
11%
17%
Children’s
10%
22%
14%
Religious
12%
4%
13%
Folk/trad
7%
2%
4%
Own comp.
7%
4%
3%
Jazz
1%
0%
1%
Age at which structures recognized
Means
Perform
Notate
Understand
Melodic intervals
8
10
11
Chord qualities
8
10
11
Chord functions
11
13
13
Close modulations
13
12
14
Distant modulations
15
14
16
Melodic inversion
15
14
16
 Consolidate basic structures before building on them
Kinds of notation used







Conventional 80%
Chord symbols 9%
Relative solfege 6%
Absolute solfege 3%
Tablature 1%
Graphs 1%
Non-western 1%
 No need for alternative notations?
Musical activities since then
Contribution of musical activities to aural skill development














Solo practice and performance 18%
Listening to (any) music 11%
Choir 10%
Classroom ear training 9%
Improvisation 7%
Music theory 7%
Ensemble performance 6%
Music analysis 6%
Playing by ear 6%
Conducting 4%
Composition and arrangement 4%
Mental practice 4%
Informal practice 2%
Self-directed ear training 2%
Inherited or learned?
Opinion now
Inherited
39%
Learned
61%
Opinion then
34%
66%
Source of info for “opinion then”:
 Compare memory with current knowledge 8x, parents then
2x, peer comparison then 2x, other 2x, no answer 5x
 Best to believe that aural skills are mainly learned
Evaluation of questionnaire
How well does it achieve aims? (7-point scale)

4.5
How confident about answers?

5
Suggestions




Ask about ethnic affiliation, gender and identity
Avoid a “normal” model of musicality, don’t encourage certain types of
responses or experiences
Test listening ability with online responses
Ask if someone in immediate childhood environment was NOT
musical (e.g. my father)
Further comments

Difficult to answer many questions because I
was never aware of developing my aural
skills.
 Maybe I'm too old and my experiences were
too long ago.
 My parents, grandparents and greatgrandparents were all German-Americans.
(Implication: separate musical traditions)
Conclusions

Aural skills linked to other musical skills
– All gain from early, frequent, long-term,
meaningful engagement

Aural skills may be entirely learned
– Early musical motivation is largely extrinsic
– No evidence against genetic inheritance
Educational implications: Individual
Recommendations to parents:
 make and enjoy music
 own several instruments incl. keyboard
 encourage child from an early age (6?) to
– be curious (about music)
– play and hear a lot of music
– play and hear the piano
– sing in choirs
– take conventional music lessons
- but only if it‘s fun for child as well as yourself
Educational implications: Institutional
More musical fun in primary school
 More musically meaningful activities in
secondary school
 No ear training at university

– Doesn’t work
– May reinforce beliefs of lack of musical
ability
– Better to focus on theory?
Outlook

Original aim was not achieved:
– Memory does not reveal how people
spontaneously begin to notice structures.

More data needed:
– all conclusions preliminary