Effects of Different Practice Conditions on Advanced Instrumentalists' Performance Accuracy

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relative effects of five practice conditions on instrumentalists' performance of a musical composition. The authors assigned 60 college music students to one of five practice conditions and asked them to perform the composition after a brief practice session. Practice conditions were modeling, singing, silent analysis, free practice, and control. The authors evaluated each subject's performance in terms of correct notes, rhythms, phrasing or dynamics, articulation, and tempo. The authors found significant differences among the practice techniques in subjects' performance of correct rhythms, phrasing or dynamics, and tempo and nonsignificant differences among subjects' performances of correct notes and articulation. Further analysis demonstrated that modeling and practice were most effective in facilitating mastery of the selection. Singing and silent analysis were, in general, no more effective than sight-reading, with the exception of subjects in the silent analysis group, who were more accurate in their performance of the rhythms of the selection.