Elementary Children’s Tonal Awareness as Related to Perception of Tonal Dissonance

Abstract

Recent research studies examined musical perception differences between adults and children. Holohan, Saunders, and Goldberg (2000) revealed that collegiate musicians discerned similarities and differences between pairs of tonal patterns significantly more accurately than college nonmusicians. The differences, however, in scores between the same nonmusician group and a group of first graders were found to be statistically insignificant, although the speed with which the nonmusicians responded was significantly faster than that of the first graders.Schellenberg, Purdy, Adachi, and McKinnon (2002) examined and compared melodic expectancy in children and adults in two settings. First, subjects were asked to rate continuations of four tonal melodies on a 7-point scale ranging from "extremely poor" continuation to "extremely good" continuation. The researchers found that accuracy of ratings increased with age and exposure 473612U PDate31210.117 7/8755123312473612UpdateNorris AbstractThis study investigated children's tonal awareness by measuring their abilities to detect dissonance in major tonality using the author-created Tonal Dissonance Detection Test. A two-way analysis of variance of 312 elementary school subjects' Tonal Dissonance Detection Test scores revealed that first-and second-graders' dissonance detection abilities were significantly weaker than those of their third-to sixth-grade counterparts. Subsequent analysis revealed neither a significant gender effect nor interaction between grade level and gender. Findings are consistent with related study of the perception of tonality and tonal expectancies in children and adults. Given the homogeneity of the sample, the longevity of the music instructor, the school's sequential Kodály-based curriculum, and conclusions of prior research, discussion considered the impact of musical instruction and musical development on the ability to perceive tonality. The author suggested the two aforementioned constructs might be studied by comparing the same perceptual skills of children from both Western and non-Western cultures.