Formal or informal—which learning approach do music majors prefer?

Abstract

Although formal aural musicianship learning is prevalent in university and conservatory music curricula, an informal “ear-copying” approach can be an alternative. In this study, the formal “Written task” approach was taught weekly to a class of university music majors by the teacher–researcher, but an extra ear-copying “Listen & copy” task was added as part of the course requirements. The students formed friendly groups, chose a piece of music they liked, copied it by ear and then performed it in class. The aim was to compare the students’ perceived effectiveness in and perceptions of these two approaches, and to identify the approach they preferred. Data were collected from a questionnaire that included qualitative as well as quantitative questions, and which was processed using paired sample t-tests. The results showed that overall there was no perceived difference in the effectiveness of the two approaches in helping the students improve their aural musicianship. However, for the group who preferred the informal approach (almost double the number of students preferred the formal task), it showed statistically significant differences between the perceived effectiveness of both approaches. The active nature of informal learning was perceived as an enjoyable experience, although some students may require scaffolding in their learning.