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Abstract

Seventy-two seventh- and eighth-grade general music students were taught to identify primary harmonic functions by using either a scalar or root harmonic aural perception technique. Students who were taught the scalar technique attended to the seventh and eighth scale degrees, whereas students who were taught the root technique attended to the root movement of the bass line. An aural identification test battery was used to measure the effectiveness of the two techniques. Although there was no statistically significant difference between the scalar and root techniques on the root position subtest the scalar technique yielded statistically significant higher mean scores on the root/inversion subtest. Thus, the scalar technique appears to be a more effective procedure in teaching general music students to identify primary harmonic functions.

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A Comparison of Scalar and Root Harmonic Aural Perception Techniques

Abstract

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