wo TOPICS-the status of applied music study in this country and the relationship between a student's type of major instrument (including voice) and his achievement in hearing-recognition-are matters of general as well as specific interest to musicians. They arise frequently in discussions of such questions as these: At college entrance, what is the distribution of music students among the various majors-string, brass, piano, voice, etc.? What proportion of music students enter college with previous private instruction? What is the average amount of private instruction and how does it compare for different groups? Among the performers of monolinear instruments, do string players hear more or less accurately than woodwind or brass players? Do pianists hear chords and harmony better than monolinear instrumental performers? Do pianists hear melodic intervals as well as performers on monolinear instruments? Are percussionists better at recognizing rhythms than other performers? How do voice students compare with other performers in eye-ear coordination?The ability to hear with the inner ear what is seen in notation and to visualize the notation of music that is heard are basic accomplishments common to all good musicians. Musicians commonly describe these abilities as being able "to hear with the eyes" and "to see with the ears." The authors have called this aspect of musicianship auditory-visual discrimination.
The Aliferis Music AchievementTest1 measures auditory-visual discrimination. The test is made up of three sections: the melodic section, which presents intervals of two tones and melodic groups of four tones; the harmonic section, which presents single four-voiced chords and idiomatic harmonic progressions of three chords; and the rhythmic section, which presents rhythmic figures of one-beat duration and two-beat combinations of rhythmic figures.When the Aliferis Music Achievement Test was administered nationally for standardization in 1950, each student completed a questionnaire giving the history of his pre-college music study. Besides providing data concerning the status of applied study, the questionnaire, together with the test scores, furnished the necessary data for an analysis of possible relationships between type of applied study and ability to visualize in notation what is heard by the ear.
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