The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of aural versus notated pedagogical materials on achievement and self-efficacy in instrumental jazz improvisation performance. A secondary purpose of this study was to investigate how achievement and self-efficacy may be related to selected experience variables. The sample for the study consisted of collegiate instrumentalists (N = 62) enrolled as music majors at one of six Midwestern universities. All study participants received identical instructional materials but were assigned to one of two differing instructional modalities. Participants engaged in three 70-minute instructional treatment sessions over 4 days and completed pre- and postinstruction improvisation performances that were evaluated by four expert judges using the researcher-constructed Jazz Improvisation Performance Achievement Measure. Self-efficacy was measured using the researcher-constructed Jazz Improvisation Self-Efficacy Scale. Results indicated a significant (p < .05) interaction effect for pre- to postinstruction and instructional method, with the aural instruction group demonstrating significantly greater gains than the notation group. Posttreatment achievement scores indicated nonsignificant correlations with experience variables. Participants’ self-efficacy for jazz improvisation increased significantly (p < .001) following exposure to improvisation instruction; however, no interaction effect was found for instruction and mode of instruction.
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