An investigation of the relationship between performance expertise and melodic ear-to-h and coordination of music patterns within various degrees of contextual constraint.

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between expertise of one's principal instrument and the ear-to-h and performance achievement of various aural melodic patterns. Melodic patterns were constructed in such a manner as to reflect three degrees of contextual constraint from classical Western tonal music. Subjects were selected from those who are professional expert violists and those who are amateur novice violists, taking as subjects those who play viola in two professional orchestras and in two high school orchestras. One professional orchestra research group and one high school orchestra research group was assigned to one of two tests: Test of Musical Context (TMC) or Computer Generated Test of Musical Context (CGTMC). The TMC and CGTMC differed in the manner by which the melodic patterns were selected. In the TMC, the patterns were constructed by h and ; in the CGTMC, the patterns were generated by a computer. The two tests were designed by the investigator as a three-subtest battery to assess the respondent's ability to replicate music patterns in a listen-imitate format (ear-to-h and ). The patterns ranged from r and om music approximations (Subtest 1) to music patterns generated from systematically increased degrees of contextual constraint simulating classical Western tonal music (Subtests 2 and 3). Differences between groups on the TMC Subtests 1, 2, and 3 and CGTMC Subtests 2 and 3 were significant favoring the expert research groups. It appears that ear-to-h and skills are affected by expertise of one's principal instrument. However, when the melodic patterns were r and omly generated for the CGTMC (Subtest 1), there were no differences between novice and expert subjects' performances of the melodic patterns. In addition, as the contextual constraint used in generating the melodic patterns between subtests increased, a significant difference occurred in the TMC and the CGTMC scores between subtests for expert subjects, but not for novice subjects. It appears that the expert learning of music involves learning the general coding system based on the probabilities that characterize music patterns in classical Western tonal music.