The Effect of Harmonic Accompaniment on Primary Two Children's Developmental Music Aptitude

Abstract

Studies on children's musical development have received increased attention than previously. The present study aims to investigate the effect on the use of bamboo xylophone as harmonic accompaniment on primary two children's music development. The study was focused on the following specific problems (1) Is there a difference with an additional harmonic accompaniment in the development of tonal aptitude in primary two children? (2) Is there a difference with an additional harmonic accompaniment in the development of rhythm aptitude in primary two children? Four classes (n=80) from two public schools in the city of Kota Kinabalu were randomly assigned to two different groups: a control (n=40) and an experimental group (n=40). Both groups of children sat for a pre-test and post-test on Gordon's Intermediate Measures of Music Audiation tonal subtest (IMMAT) and rhythm subtest (IMMAR). The results indicated no significant difference in the music aptitude test between the groups (p > .05). However, the mean gain score percentage of children in the experimental group increased more than that of the control group. The results suggest that a future study should include longitudinal data, larger sample size, different types of musical instruments and children's interest in learning music.