The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of music sight-reading ability. The authors hypothesized that speed and accuracy of music sight-reading would be predicted by a combination of aural pattern discrimination, spatial-temporal reasoning, and technical proficiency. Participants (N = 70) were wind players in concert bands at a medium-sized university in the Midwest. In a regression analysis with music sight-reading as the criterion variable, aural-spatial patterning and technical proficiency explained 51% of the variance, F = 37.34, p < .0001. These results support previous research that suggested that auditory, visual, spatial, and kinesthetic activations occur in coordination when wind players sight-read music notation. The results of the regression analysis suggested that although aural-spatial skills and technical proficiency skills were orthogonal, or separate, they both were essential to the complex task of sight-reading.
Altenmüller, E., & Gruhn, W. (2002). Brain mechanisms. In R. Parncutt & G. McPherson (Eds.), The science & psychology of music performance: Creative strategies for teaching and learning (pp. 63-81). New York: Oxford University Press.
2.
Bilhartz, T., Bruhn, R., & Olson, J. (2000). The effect of early music training on child cognitive development. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 20, 615-636.
3.
Boyle, J. (1970). The effects of prescribed rhythmic movements on the ability to read music at sight. Journal of Research in Music Education, 18, 307-318.
4.
Boyle, J. (1992). Evaluation of music ability. In R. Colwell (Ed.), Handbook of research on music teaching and learning (pp. 247-265). New York: Schirmer Books.
5.
D'Esposito, M. (2008). Developing and implementing neuroimaging tools to determine if training in the arts impacts the brain. In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), Learning, arts, and the brain: The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition (pp. 71-80). New York: The Dana Foundation.
6.
Douglas, K., & Bilkey, D. (2007). Amusia is associated with deficits in spatial processing. Nature Neuroscience, 10, 915-921.
7.
Dunbar, K. (2008). Arts education, the brain, and language. In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), Learning, arts, and the brain: The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition (pp. 81-91). New York: The Dana Foundation.
8.
Ekstrom, R., French, J., Harman, H., & Dermen, D. (1976). Kit of Factor-Referenced Cognitive Tests. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
9.
Elliott, C. (1982). The relationships among instrumental sight-reading ability and seven selected predictor variables. Journal of Research in Music Education, 30, 5-14.
10.
Gazzaniga, M. (2008). Arts and cognition: Findings hint at relationships . In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), Learning, arts, and the brain: The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition (pp. v-viii). New York: The Dana Foundation.
11.
Gordon, E. (1989). Advanced Measures of Music Audiation. Chicago: GIA Publications.
12.
Gromko, J. (2004). Predictors of music sight-reading ability in high school wind players. Journal of Research in Music Education , 52, 6-15.
13.
Gromko, J. (2005). The effects of music instruction on the development of phonemic awareness in beginning readers. Journal of Research in Music Education, 53, 199-209.
14.
Gromko, J., & Poorman, A. (1998). The effect of music training on preschoolers' spatial-temporal task performance. Journal of Research in Music Education, 46, 173-181.
15.
Hetland, L. (2000). Learning to make music enhances spatial reasoning . Journal of Aesthetic Education, 34(3-4), 179-238.
16.
Ho, H., Cheung, M., & Chang, A. (2003). Music training improves verbal but not visual memory: Cross-sectional and longitudinal explorations in children. Neuropsychology, 17, 439-450.
17.
Jaques-Dalcroze, E. (1921). Rhythm music & education. London: The Dalcroze Society.
18.
Jonides, J. (2008). Music skill and cognition. In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), Learning, arts, and the brain: The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition (pp. 11-15). New York: The Dana Foundation.
19.
Lamb, S., & Gregory, A. (1993). The relationship between music and reading in beginning readers. Educational Psychology, 13, 19-27.
20.
Lehmann, A., & McArthur, V. (2002). Sight-reading. In R. Parncutt & G. McPherson (Eds.), The science & psychology of music performance: Creative strategies for teaching and learning (pp. 135-150). New York: Oxford University Press.
21.
McPherson, G., Bailey, M., & Sinclair, K. (1997). Path analysis of a model to describe the relationship among five types of music performance. Journal of Research in Music Education, 45, 103-129.
22.
McPherson, G., & Gabrielsson, A. (2002). From sound to sign. In R. Parncutt & G. McPherson (Eds.), The science & psychology of music performance: Creative strategies for teaching and learning (pp. 99-115). New York: Oxford University Press.
23.
Pantev, C., Oostenveld, R., Engelien, A., Ross, B., Roberts, L., & Hoke, M. (1998). Increased auditory cortical representation in musicians. Nature, 392, 811-813.
24.
Pettito, L. (2008). Arts education, the brain, and language. In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), Learning, arts, and the brain: The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition (pp. 93-104). New York: The Dana Foundation.
25.
Posner, M., Rothbart, M., Sheese, B., & Kieras, J. (2008). How arts training influences cognition. In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), Learning, arts, and the brain: The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition (pp. 1-10). New York: The Dana Foundation.
26.
Rauscher, F., Shaw, G., Levine, L., Wright, E., Dennis, W., & Newcomb, R. (1997). Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children's spatial-temporal reasoning. Neurological Research, 19, 2.
27.
Saffran, J., Johnson, E., Aslin, R., & Newport, E. (1999). Statistical learning of tone sequence by human infants and adults. Cognition, 70, 27-52.
28.
Schlaug, G., Jäncke, L., Huang, Y., Staiger, J., & Steinmetz, H. (1995). Increased corpus callosum size in musicians. Neuropsychologica, 33, 1047-1055.
29.
Sergent, J., Zuck, E., Terriah, S., & McDonald, B. (1992). Distributed neural network underlying music sight-reading and keyboard performance. Science, 257(5066), 106-109.
30.
Spelke, E. (2008). Effects of music instruction on developing cognitive systems at the foundations of mathematics and science. In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), Learning, arts, and the brain: The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition (pp. 17-49). New York: The Dana Foundation.
31.
Wandell, B., Dougherty, R., Ben-Shachar, M., Deutsch, G., & Tsang, J. (2008). Training in the arts, reading, and brain imaging . In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), Learning, arts, and the brain: The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition (pp. 51-59). New York: The Dana Foundation.
32.
Watkins, J., & Farnum, S. (1954). Watkins-Farnum Performance Scale. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard.
