Responses of Kindergarten Children to Musical Stimuli and Terminology

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to obtain information on the aural discriminations and verbal responses of kindergarten children to selected musical stimuli and on their ability to demonstrate, through performance on a simple keyboard instrument, understanding of terms commonly employed in teacher manuals to describe various properties of musical sounds. Two individualized tests were developed and administered to 80 children (40 boys and 40 girls) from four Midwestern public schools representing contrasting socioeconomic areas. From the data obtained, it was concluded that: (1) kindergarten children can demonstrate their understanding of duration of tones and rhythm patterns better than they can describe them verbally, (2) sex and socioeconomic background were significant variables on test achievement, and (3) musical terminology must be learned by most children through meaningful experiences with it.