The Bentley “Measures of Musical Abilities”: A Congruent Validity Report

Abstract

The Measures of lMusical Abilities, a musical aptitude test battery designed especially for use with children of elementary school age, was first published in 1966. It was designed and developed by Arnold Bentley at University of Reading, England, and consists of four separate tests: Pitch Discrimination, Tonal Memory, Chord Analysis, and Rhythmic Memory. The battery does not purport to measure all of attributes that may comprise musical aptitude, but rather is designed to deal only with the investigation of such abilities as are basic and essential to progress in active music-makirlg as vocalist and instrumentalist-i.e., to performance of music.''l Bentley presents following assumptions as rationale upon which tests are based: 1. The most elemental form of music is melodic phrase, or figure, which comprises tonal configurations within a rhythmic framework. 2. Apprehension (perception) of melody is impossible without ability to recall, in detail, sounds that have already been heard, and this depends upon ability to apprehend constituent factors of melody-i.e., pitch and time. 3. Finer than semitone pitch discrimination is essential in singing and in all instrumental playing, except at keyboard, in order to achieve necessary good intonation. 4. Concurrent sounds (chords) are not fundamental to melody; therefore, it is necessary for singer or monophonic instrumen-