JRME 1987, VOLUME 35, NUMBER 3, PAGES 171-181 171

Thisstudyinvetigad therelationship of tonalpatterninstrucionto tonalconceptdevelopment

and performance achieveent of beginninginstrumentalits. Theproblemwas to comparea
courseof studyemphasizingtonalconceptdevelpmentwithanotheremphasizing technicalskill
develpment.Foryeightsubjects wererandomlyasignir to theexpcimentalgroupor thecontrol
group.Exerimentalgroupcontentinuded tonalpatternstaughtthroughharmonization and
vocaiotion. Controlgroupcontentincludeda set of symbolsand rangeof pitchestaughtfim
notation.Studentsreceivd14 eekly30minutelessons.A onefactordesignwasemployed.The
independent variablewas teachingcontent The depdent vaiables wereposttestmeanscores
from Iowa Tests of Musical Literacy and an investigator-constructed sight readingtest
Analsis of ccrvnancewas used Theexperimental group scored higher(p < .001)
significantly
on aural identification
of majorand minortonalitiesand sigrficantl higher (p < .0001) in
melodicsighreadingachievment.No significantdifference occurredbetweengroupsin reading
recognition(p > .05).

PatriciaAnn GrutOmacher,KentStateUniversity

Effect
The of Tonal Pattern
Training on the Aural Perception,
Reading Recognition, and
Melodic Sight-reading
Achievement of First-Year
Instrumental Music Students
Music educators and investigators generally agree that music students must
posseess a well-developed sense of tonality in order to be accomplished at
reading music (Heffernan, 1968; Krumhansl, 1979; Leonhard & House,
1959; MacKnight, 1973; Schleuter, 1984). Sense of tonality involves aural
perception, which has been described as the ability to aurally perceive the
relationship of tones within a harmonic framework (Gordon, 1971). For this

This paper is based on the author'sdoctoraldissertationat Kent State University,1985.

For reprintsof the paper, contact PatriciaAnn Grutzmacher,Departmnt of Music,Kent
State University,StarkCampus,6000 FrankAvenueNorthwest,Canton, OH 44645.
172 GRUTLCHER

reason the perception of tonal patterns is more efficient for music reading
comprehension than is the perception of individualpitches (Attneave& Olson,
1971; Cuddy, 1971, 1982; Deutsch, 1969, 1970, 1972; MacKnight, 1973) The
auralperception of tonal patternsis accomplished through audiation. The term
audiation, as defined by Gordon (1980), describes one's abilityto derive musical
meaning through mentally hearing music by means of recall, musical
composition, or viewing musical notation (notational audiarion). Investigators
believe that aud;ation provides a source of feedback that helps music readers
detect their own errors as well as improve sight-reading skills (Bean, 1939;
Bergan, 1967). It is also believed that audiatinncan best be developed through
singing experiences (Mursell, 1927; Mursell and Glenn, 1938). In research
studies in instrumental music there is support for the use of vocaliation as an
aid to improving the sight-readingskills of instrumentalists. That is, by singing
the same music that is to be played on an instrument, the student's skills are
improved and reinforced (Colwell, 1963; Leonhard & House, 1959; McGarry,
1967; Mursell, 1934). There is also some evidence that a conceptual approach to
teaching that uses harmonic experiences will develop the sense of tonality,
which in turn should improve sight-readingskills (Hale, 1976). In light of this
information it appears that tonal concept development involves the building of
a tonal pattern vocabulary through aural perception, emphasis on improving
the ability to aurally perceive tonal relationship within harmonic frameworks,
and the improvement ofaudiation skills.
Investigators in the field of instrumental music believe that instrumental
music students must be guided in conceiving sound through the ear. Emphasis
must be placed on the relationship of sound with musical symbol and physical
action rather than emphasizing symbol with physical action alone.
(Mainwaring, 1951). They support the need to associate aural imagery with
notation and the need to build an aural vocabularyof tonal patterns before
introducing notation (Watson, 1954). Ultimatelyit is believed that a major goal
is the development of instrumentalistswho read well at sight
In practice, instrumentalmusic does not reflect the philosophies and theories
described in the literature. Generally,instrumental music in its present state
emphasizes the development of showmanship (Thomas, 1966) and the
mechanical aspects of playing (Hoffer, 1969; Kress, 1981; Mursell, 1948).
Conceptual development is de-emphasized (Thomas, 1966). This is, most
apparent in a survey of method books (Kress, 1981; Schleuter, 1984; Texter,
1975). While there is a need to emphasize both major and minor modes in
grades four, five, and six when many students begin instrumental music
instruction, this is not reflected in method book literature. Most method books
follow an atomistic note-identification approach in which pitches are isolated
and notationally presented one at a time as opposed to the tonal pattern
approach. Little effort is made to present pitches within a tonal pattern
framework There are few studies that deal directlywith the relationship of tonal
concept development to the performance of beginning instrumental music
students within a realistic classroomsituation. The paradox that exists between
educational philosophy and pedagogical practice in instrumental music
demonstratesa need for further research.
 JRME 173

PURPOSE AND PROBLEM

The purpose of this study was the investigation of the relationship of tonal
pattern instruction using harmonization and vocali.ation to tonal concept
development and the performance achievement of beginning wind
instrumentalists. Investigation was limited to melodic music sight-reading
achievement, the aural perception of tonal patterns in major and minor modes
and the reading recognition of major and minor tonal patterns that were
simultaneouslyaurallyand visuallyperceived.
The specific problem of the study was to compare two courses of study. One
emphasized tonal concept development by using tonal patterns as content with
harmonization and vocali7ation as teaching techniques. The other course of
study did not use an organized, specific set of tonal patterns and did not include
the techniques of vocali7ationand harmonization, but instead used a single-note
identification approach consisting of a set of musical symbols and a range of
pitches taught from notation and emphasizing technical skill development
DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

A one-factor design with one independent and three dependent variableswas

employed. The independent variablewas teaching content in conjunction with
specific teaching techniques. The teaching content in the experimental group
included an organized, specific set of tonal patterns that were taught through
techniques of vocali7ation and harmonization. The teaching content in the
control group did not include an organized, specific set of identified tonal
patterns and the training did not include the techniques of vocali7ation and
harmonization. Instead, the control group content consisted of a set of musical
symbols and a range of music notes taught from notation and emphasizing
technical skill development
The three dependent variablesincuded:
1. Iowa Testsof Musical Literacy(ITML)Lev 2, TonalAural Perception(pretest-
posttest). (Gordon, 1970)
2. Iowa Tests of Musical Literacy(ITML) Levl 2, Tonal Reading Recognition
(pretest-posttest).
3. MelodicSight-readingAchieementTest(MSRA7) (posttest only). (Researcher-
constructed)

Null Hypotheses

1. There will be no significant difference between posttest melodic sight-

reading achievement mean scores of the experimental and control groups on the
MSRAT.
2. There will be no significant difference between posttest mean scores of the
experimental and control groups on the Tonal Aural Perceptionsubtest of the
ITMLLevl 2
3. There will be no significant difference between posttest mean scores of the
experimental and control groups on the TonalReadingRecognition subtest of the
ITMLLe 2
174 GRUTMACHER
A packaged FORTRANprogram tided NYMBUIA was used to perform the
analysis.NYMBULAis a multivariateanalysisof variance (MANOVA)program
with a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) procedure as a
subroutine. The three covariates were the ITML T1 pretest, the ITML T2
pretest, and the MusicalAptitud Profil (MAP) TonalImage subtest (Gordon,
1965). In the statisticalanalysis,the MAPscoresserved to control for the possible
effects of varying musical aptitude levels of students in the two groups. The
three dependent variableswere the ITMLT1 posttest, the ITMLT2 posttest and
the MSRAT.The level of significancechosen wasp< .05.

PROCEDURES

The student population from which the subject sample was drawnwas part of
a school system of 2119 students in twelve grades including kindergarten and
was representative of a middle-class socioeconomic group. This Ohio school
systemwas typicalfor its size in Ohio with regard to music offerings.
The subjectswere 48 fifth- and sixth-gradestudents currentlystudying brass
or woodwind instruments in three elementary schools in the same school
system. The students in each of the three schools were randomly assigned to
homogeneous instrumentalclasses. These classeswere then randomlyassigned
to either the experimental group or the control group in each school.
Pretesting utilized ITML TI, ITML 72 and MAP Tonal Imagery. All lessons
were taught by the researcherand incuded one 30-minuteclasslesson per week
for 14 successiveweeks.
Several steps were taken in order to control experimenter bias and thereby
avoid contamination. All knowledge of music aptitude and music achievement
of individual students was kept from the researcher until after the instruction
period. In addition, the regularinstrumentalmusic teacher randomlyobserved
and critiqued lessons taught by the researcher. This served as a control
mechanism to insure the researcher met the requirements for each group as
outlined in the proposal.
The content taught to the experimental group classes included a set of 10
major-keyand 10 minor-keytonal patterns (Table 1). Instructionalprocedures
in each class session included a 10-minutewarm-upin which tonal materialwas
presented aurallyand then notationally. Activitiesinvolved the performance of
long tones, scales and arpeggios using harmonization and vocali7ation with
syllables,and recognition of majorand minor patternsthrough vocali7ationand
playingwith harmonization. The 15-minutesession covering the assigned lesson
from the text involved the isolation and vocali7ationof tonal patterns from the
exercises, the performance of the exercises vocally, with instruments, or in
combination, and using harmonization. The final five minutes of each lesson
induded the recognition of familiartonal patternswithin new exercises and the
presentation of new fingerings through their use with familiar tonal patterns,
and proceeding from playing activities at the aural level to music reading
activities.
The same text was used with the control group, but the set of tonal patterns
was omitted. During the 10-minute warm-upall tonal material was presented
notationallyfrom the text Long tones, scales, and arpeggioswere played from
 JME 175
Table 1
TonalPatterns

Major
do-mi-sol do-sol-la-sol
do-re-do mi-sol-do
do-re-mi-fa re-do-ti-do
do-re-mi re-mi-re-do
fa-mi-re-do mi-re-do
Minor
la-do-mi la-mi-fa-mi
la-ti-la do-mi-la
la-ti-do-re ti-la-si-la
la-ti-do ti-do-ti-la
re-do-ti-la do-ti-la

notation without harmonization or vocali7ation. Recognition of major and

minor tunes was made through the use of definitions and descriptors. The
15-minute assigned lesson portion consisted of the performance of each
exercise in the order presented in the text without vocali7ation and with
harmonization activities limited to the part-writingpresented in the book.
The introduction of new material lesson segment consisted of the
presentation of new notes and other musical symbols by looking at notation,
fingering and playing concurrenty.
Since the teaching procedures presented in this investigation can be
applied using any method book, the researcher used the book required
throughout the school system in which the study was being implemented,
Afred'sBasicBandMethod(1977). This method book was found to be a widely
used text that was representative of the types of method books in current use
in instrumental music education.
Instruction in both groups was not limited to tonal concept development
since weekly lessons involved all aspects of learning to play and read music. In
other areas, such as rhythm, articulation, and dynamics, care was taken to
follow the same procedures in both groups. Tests included in posttesting
were JTMLT1, ITML2, and MSRAT.

RESULTS

A complete set of data was obtained from 40 of the original 48 subjects.

Pretest and posttest means and standard deviations are shown in Table 2. A
summary of the multivariate analysis of covariance results for the testing of
the total mean vectors of the experimental and control groups appears in
Table 3.
The total mean vector of the experimental group was significandy higher
(p < .0001) than that of the control group. The results of the univariate
analysis of each dependent variable indicated that there was a significant
difference (p < .0001) in the posttest melodic sight-reading achievement
mean scores of the groups with the experimental group scoring significantly
higher. There was a significant difference (p < .001) between mean scores of
176 GRUTMACHER

Table 2
Summaryof Pretestand Posttst Meansand StandardDivisions

Pretest Posttest
M SD M SD

ExperimentalGroup:
MAP 44.83 8.99
ITMLT1 47.22 7.60 56.50 6.49
fTMLT2 51.50 9.36 55.89 6.59
MSRAT 128.11 20.08
ControlGroup:
MAP 43.41 5.47
rTMLT1 48.55 6.29 46.82 7.58
/TMLT2 47.32 9.22 50.55 7.08
MSRAT 90.55 22.63

the groups on the ITML Ti suggesting that the experimental group was
better able than the control group after instruction to aurallyidentify major
and minor tonalities. Results of the analysisof posttest mean scores on the
ITML 72 indicated that differences between the groups were not significant
(p< .09). While both groups improved from pretest to posttest on the ability
to correctlycompare aurallyperceived tonal patternswith visuallyperceived
tonal patterns, improvement cannot be attributed to the treatment given to
any one specific group.
Some indications concerning the true differential effects between the
groups may be obtained from correlations among the variables for each
group. Correlationsof pretest to posttestmeasures for the groups considered
separatelyare summarizedfor comparisonin Table 4.
The use of ANCOVAaccounted for initial differences between and within
the groups on various test scores, particularlywith relation to the pretest
results. A comparison of the relationshipsamong the various test scores for
the two groups permits some comparison of the changes in skills that
occurred during the experiment
Within the control group there was no significant difference between the
relationship of MAP,which indicated tonal music aptitude, to pretest and
posttest measures of music achievement Within the experimental group
however, there was a sizable change when the relationshipof MAPto posttest
ITML Ti (r= .29) was compared with the significantrelationship of MAPto
posttest ITMLTI (r= .64). Since both of these tests involve aural skills,there
was an indication that the treatment received by the experimental group
promoted the application of the students tonal music aptitude to improve
aural skills as measured by the achievement test In contrast, this situation
was not apparentwithin the control group.
The relationship of posttest ITML Tl to MSRATwasnot significantat the
 JRME 177
Table 3
Summary for theTestingof TotalMeanVectors
Tabl ofMANCOVA E and C
of Croups

F ratio for Multivariate Test of Equality of Mean Vectors = 12.17

df- 3,33 p<.0001

Source df Univariate F ratio p less than

ITMLT1 1,35 12.29 .0013

ITML T2 1,35 3.08 .0879
MSRAT 1,35 29.56 .0001

.05 level in either the control group (r= -.01) or the experimental group (r=
.40). However, the correlation coefficient of .40 in the experimental group
was significant at the .10 level indicating a stronger tendency for
experimental group students to relate the aural skillsexhibited in ITML T1 to
sight-reading skills as demonstrated in MSRAT.It appeared that the training
procedure involving tonal patterns taught through a combination of
vocalization and harmonization activities tended to improve aural-visual
perception skills.
The correlation between MSRATand posttest ITML T2was not significant
for both groups. However, there was some differences between the groups in
terms of these correlations and pretest ITML T2 when correlated with
MSRAT. Whereas the relationship in the control group between pretest
1TMLT2 and posttest ITML T2 to MSRATremained essentially unchanged,
the same relationship for the experimental group dropped in the posttest to
a nonsignificant correlation. In other words, in the experimental group the
relationship between sight-reading as measured by MSRAT and reading
recognition as measured by ITML T2 appeared to become weaker as a result
of experimental procedures. This suggests that the aural training employed
in the experimental group caused some difference in this relationship. It has
been shown that the experimental group demonstrated a stronger
relationship between MSRT and ITML Ti (ITML Ti relying on aural skill
development), but demonstrated a weaker relationship between MSRATand
ITML T2 (ITML T2 drawing strongly on visual skill development in addition
to aural skills). This could mean that the experimental group was in a period
of transition where the association between aural and visual sensory modes
was undergoing a change. A stronger association between aural and tonal
relationships may have been developing and thus effecting a change in the
proportion of dependence on aural perception versusvisual perception.
CONCLUSIONS

1. Results indicated that instruction using tonal pattern content presented

to students through the use of harmonization and vocalization activities
178 GRUTMACHER

Table 4
Summaryof Correlations
of Pretestand PosttestMeasuresforGroupsE and C
SUMMARYOF
CORRELATIONS

GroupC GroupE
MAP-ITMLTI Pre .07 .29
MAP- TMLT2Pre .20 .76*
MAP-ITMLT1Post .11 .64*
MAP-TML T2 Post .12 .83*
AAP- MSRAT -.17 .20
ITMLT2Pre- TMLTI Post .09 .63*
/TMLT2Pre- ITMLT2 Post .69* .86*
JTMLT2Pre- MSRAT .37 .52*
ITMLTi Post- ]TMLT2Post .20 .67*
ITMLTl Post- MSRAT -.01 .40
ITMLTI Post- MSRAT .36 .33
TMLT1Pre- rTMLT2 Pre .44* .34
ITMLTI Pre- ITMLTI Post -.11 .24
ITMLT1Pre-TML T2Post .22 .32
ITMLT1Pre- MSRAT .33 .16

*p<.05

improved the melodic sight-reading skills of beginning band students

significantly more than a traditional method in which notes are individually
identified directly from notation and without harmoni7atin and vocli7ation
activities. While technical skill development was not a direct concern of this
study and was not measured, emphasizing a tonal conceptual approach in the
instruction of beginning instrumental music students did not delay the
development of technical skills as demonstrated by improved melodic sight-
reading skills and by observations made by the researcher. Further research
investigating the relationship of technical skill development to tonal pattern
instruction is necessary before a condusion can be drawn in this matter.
2. A program of instruction in which students experience major and minor
tonalities through singing, playing, listening, and comparing major and
minor patterns separately and within the context of a song leads to a higher
level of conceptual understanding than the use of definitions and descriptors
to teach the difference between major and minor. Considering the random
and minimal use of minor mode song material in beginning band methods,
it appears that common practice in teaching beginning band students is in
direct opposition to the research findings of this study.
3. It appeared that both the teaching procedures used with the
experimental and control groups promoted improvement in the ability to
correctly compare tonal patterns aurally perceived with tonal patterns visually
perceived. While the difference between the groups was not significant, a
study of the correlations between pretest and posttest measures
demonstrated that students in the experimental group were developing sense
 JRME 179

of tonality and imagery skills and were thereby shifting from dependence on
visual perception skills toward a more balanced combination of aural-isual
perception skills. This shift in sensory skills may have contributed to the
significantlyhigher measure of sight-readingskillsby the experimental group
as compared with the control group.
4. A study of the correlations between music aptitude and music
achievement in perception of modes demonstrated that instruction involving
tonal pattern content in combination with vorali7tion and harmonization
activities is a more efficient means of developing certain inherent tonal
abilities of students and thus translatingaptitude into achievement.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. The fact that significant results favoring the tonal pattern content
approach to teaching were obtained with a small sample within a fourteen
week lesson program warrantsfurther consideration and replication using a
larger sample size and a longer course of study.
2. There is a need for more research into the application of a sequential
learning program in which the development of aural skills is emphasized
before progressing to reading skillsin beginning band students.
3. There is a need for further research to isolate the diverse aspects of the
understanding of tonal concepts to provide more complete information
about the learning process.
4. A method book for beginning instrumental music instruction should be
developed that has as its core a tonal pattern approach to learning to read
music yet provides the necessary training in rhythm reading and technical
skill development.
5. Instrumental music teachers and college students preparing for teaching
careers need to understand that tonal concept development is essential in the
training of young instrumentalists and need to guide students in this
development through the use of structured sequential learning activities that
employ tonal pattern content, harmonization and vocalization.
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