Tonal Principles as Teaching Principles in Music

Abstract

Numerous experiments have demonstrated the effects of acculturation to a tonal scale system among Western listeners. Programmed instruction methods for the teaching of music can take advantage of this acculturation. Here I report several studies demonstrating the effectiveness of such programs. Both nonmusicians and musicians benefitted from training, although the greatest improvement was among students with some initial capacity. Interestingly, training with tonal materials led to improved test performance with both tonal and atonal items.