The purpose of this study was to examine graduate and undergraduate music majors' ability to detect pitch arid rhythm errors in one-, two-, and three-part settings of texturally contrasting musical excerpts. A stimulus audiotape consisting of 12 excerpts resulted from the following arrangement by texture and number of parts: 4 one-part excerpts, 2 two-part and 2 three-part homorhythmic excerpts, and 2 two-part and 2 three-part polyrhythmic excerpts. Subjects ( N = 150) listened to purposefully marred recorded performances of these excerpts and attempted to identify pitch and rhythm errors by circling appropriate places on correctly notated scores. Results of analyses of variance with repeated measures on correct responses indicated significant main effects of degree status (graduate students were more accurate than were undergraduates); number of parts (subjects were most accurate in one-part settings, less accurate in two-part settings, and least accurate in three-part settings); texture (subjects were more accurate in homorhythmic texture than in polyrhythmic texture); and. error type (subjects were more accurate detecting rhythm errors than pitch errors). Significant interactions indicated that these variables did not function independently of each other.

The purpose of this study is to obtain survey and observation data concerning music education majors' practice room behavior. A survey provided opportunity for participants (n = 38) to articulate techniques they used in practice. An observation component (n = 9) provided a view of the use of these techniques in actual practice. All participants articulated common practice techniques but a minority of those in observation analysis consistently used these techniques in optimal ways, thus demonstrating a gap between "knowing" and "intelligent doing." Overwhelmingly, participants identified better self-discipline as the one thing that would improve practice efficiency. Suggestions for resolving this problem are provided.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of textural and timbral factors on graduate and undergraduate music majors' ability to detect performance errors. Specifically, subjects' discrimination of pitch and rhythm errors in music excerpts that were counterbalanced for error type, textural placement of errors (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass voices), and timbre (single and multiple) was examined. In the development of a stimulus audiotape for error detection, the Yamaha SY77 digital synthesizer was used to record and perform two contrasting, six-measure music excerpts selected from the wind band literature. The original excerpts were edited to include purposeful errors resulting in a stimulus of 20 total excerpts, 16 of which included performance errors. Subjects (N - 60) listened to the recorded excerpts and attempted to identify pitch and rhythm errors by circling appropriate places in the scores. Results of a four-factor analysis of variance with repeated measures on correct responses indicated significant main effects of error type (subjects were more discerning of rhythm errors) and timbre (subjects were more discerning of errors in the single-timbre condition) and no effects regarding voice placement and degree status. There was a significant three-way interaction among the variables of error type, textural placement, and timbre. Additionally, descriptive comparisons were made concerning incorrect responses.

To test the effects of octave and timbre on tuning accuracy, four stimuli-B-flat 4 sounded by flute, oboe, and clarinet and B-flat 2 sounded by tuba-functioned as reference pitches for high school wind players (N = 72). The two stimulus octaves combined with participants' assigned tuning notes created soprano, tenor, and bass tuning groups. All participants tuned to each instrument. Results indicated no effect due to tuning group. There was a significant difference due to stimulus. Participants' responses were more out of tune to the tuba stimulus than to the oboe, clarinet, and flute stimuli, which were not different from each other. There was no difference in the distribution of in-tune, sharp, and flat responses across tuning stimuli, a result that differs from the "preference for sharpness" effect in previous research. Verbal and performance responses to the tuba, oboe, and flute stimuli revealed misconceptions between participants' perceptions of tuning difficulty and actual performance difficulty and favored the use of oboe and flute as tuning references. Most of the participants (82%) reported tuning to the tuba as the prevalent approach to mass tuning in their school bands.