Abstract
This study investigated the effectiveness of three prompts on rhythmic sight- reading ability. Forty-six string students of ages 8 to 16 individually sight- read rhythmic exercises under four conditions-counting out loud, foot tapping, counting and tapping simultaneously, and no prompt. Each subject was pre-tested in order to be placed at one of the five difficulty levels which matched his sight-reading ability. The scores were obtained by counting the number of beats accurately performed for each eight-measure exercise. A repeated-measures analysis of variance yielded a significant interaction effect at the 001 level between prompt conditions and ability levels. Counting out loud was the most effective prompt for the less experienced students. There were no significant differences in prompt conditions for the more advanced students. These results may suggest that prompts for rhythmic sight-reading may need to change as students' abilities increase.
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