Dictation strategies of first-year university music students
by Andy Paney
Published in Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education (2010), 47, p. 23-30.
Participants (N=14) took dictation of a single diatonic, major-key, melodic line played on a piano. Each... more
Participants (N=14) took dictation of a single diatonic, major-key, melodic line played on a piano. Each participant was videotaped individually as he or she listened to the recorded melody four times and wrote on a prepared response form. Participants were observed for specific target behaviors including: starting at the beginning, working in order, starting with note-heads only, starting with rhythms, erasing, singing while writing, singing the melody at a slower tempo, and completing the exercise. Scores on the dictation were compared for those that were enrolled in an aural skills class and those who were not. Scores were also compared for participants who scored at least 70% and those who did not.
No significant difference was found in any strategy between those enrolled and not enrolled in an aural skills class. Only one strategy produced a significant difference between those who scored over 70% and those who did not: completing the exercise. The strategies participants used did not appear to have a direct effect on this dictation task. Further study with a larger sample size may give further insight into this question.
Which Aural Skills Are Necessary for Composing, Performing and Understanding Electroacoustic Music, and to What Extent Are They Teachable by Traditional Aural …
Organised Sound (2009), 14 : 299-309 Cambridge University Press
This paper reports a study that sought to discover the necessary aural skills for composing, performing, and... more This paper reports a study that sought to discover the necessary aural skills for composing, performing, and understanding electroacoustic (EA) music and the extent of their teachability by traditional aural training according to an analysis of a mixed-method (qualitative/quantitative) questionnaire completed by a purposive sample of 15 experts in the field of electroacoustics. The participants evaluated a list of 50 potentially necessary aural skills, which were gathered from skills described in existing, but insufficiently applied, aural training systems and theoretical methods related to aural perception in EA, and provided additional skills they found necessary for EA. The survey revealed that the aural skills deemed the most necessary for EA by the participants were not regarded as sufficiently teachable by traditional aural training and the majority of the skills considered teachable by traditional aural training were not thought of as significantly necessary for the EA musician. Moreover, among the 50 skills listed in the questionnaire 56 per cent were deemed at least very necessary by the participants, with only 18 per cent of them viewed as sufficiently teachable by traditional aural training. The main implication of this study is a pressing need for further development, research, and experimental testing of aural training methods for EA.
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