The Acquisition of the Pitch Element of Music Literacy Skills by 3-4-year-old Pre-school Children: A Comparison of Two Methods

Abstract

This study compared the acquisition of the pitch component of music literacy skills between three groups of pre-school children aged 3-4 years. The Control Group received no tuition at all, while the two teaching groups received 20 tenminute teaching sessions. The children in the StimEquiv Group were taught using a method based on stimulus equivalence whilst those in the Context Group were taught using a method based on spatial and contextual information processing. The children in both teaching groups learned up to five notes and were able to play simple, unlearned melodies made up of these notes 3-5 days after the end of the teaching period (post-test). Preto post-test gains in the accuracy of the playing of these melodies were significant (p < 0.001) for both groups. There was no significant difference found between the preand post-test scores of the Control Group. The children in the teaching groups were given a further test seven weeks after completion of the sessions. There was no significant difference for either group between post-test and re-test indicating that learning had occurred. As they had not been exposed to the intervention, the re-test (a measure of learming) was not given to the Control Group.