Musical Competence Research Articles

Musical Competence is Predicted by Music Training, Cognitive Abilities, and Personality

Individuals differ in musical competence, which we defined as the ability to perceive, remember, and discriminate sequences of tones or beats. We asked whether such differences could be explained by variables other than music training, including socioeconomic status (SES), short-term memory, general cognitive ability, and personality. In a sample of undergraduates, musical competence had positive simple associations with duration of music training, SES, short-term memory, general cognitive ability, and openness-to-experience. When these predictors were considered jointly, musical competence had positive partial associations with music training, general cognitive ability, and openness. Nevertheless, moderation analyses revealed that the partial association between musical competence and music training was evident only among participants who scored below the mean on our measure of general cognitive ability. Moreover, general cognitive ability and openness had indirect associations with musical competence by predicting music training, which in turn predicted musical competence. Musical competence appears to be the result of multiple factors, including but not limited to music training.

Education: 9. Elements of Impact on Student Training: Areas of Competence Specific to Musical Education

Abstract The complex and integrated nature of issues such as globalization, migration, interculturality, environmental protection, information explosion, calls for a complex approach to musical education. In order to cope with the changes in the contemporary world, students need generic skills such as: the ability to learn how to learn, the ability to evaluate and solve problems. Analyzing the theoretical and methodological sources, the universal character of musical competences was investigated, investigating the classifications of different historical epochs of notorious personalities of the field and from the perspective of the main fields on which the Music Pedagogy (Psychology of Music and Musicology) is founded. This article denotes some aspects of the competencies specific to the training and education of students at the Music Specialty.

The development of music competencies in preschool children: Effects of a training program and the role of environmental factors

The present study investigated the development and training of music competencies in children in transition from kindergarten to school. In an intervention study with three experimental groups (music training, language training, no training) we investigated music performances of N = 202 5-year-old children before and after a period of 6 months. Results indicate substantial improvement in several low- and high-level musical competencies independent of children’s participation in one of the training groups. In addition, the music training group improved significantly more in their tonal discrimination, rhythm repetition, and synchronization skills compared to the no-training group. Results show that children in the language training group also improved in their music skills, which indicates noticeable overlap between these two domains. By contrast, interindividual differences in potentially relevant environmental factors, such as home musical environment and their socioeconomic status, did not affect children’s musical skills. By disentangling music training effects from musical experience based on informal exposure, the present findings contribute to the understanding of the development of various music competencies and to the effects of musical trainings in preschool.

Why school music teachers teach the way they do: a search for statistical regularities

ABSTRACTThis article explores the relationships between teachers’ competence and the content of their music lessons. Previous research suggests that the content of music in primary and lower secondary schools is influenced not only by curricular issues, but also by the teachers’ competence. Survey data from 135 Norwegian teachers, ranging from generalist teachers to specialist music teachers and musicians, is used to examine the details of this relationship. First, the correlation between higher education music studies and selected music teaching competences are investigated. Second, the correlation between competence and the different types of content are examined. Lastly the correlation between competence and content that concerns music making is investigated, and compared with the variables school grade and teachers’ gender. The results first identify six competences that correlate significantly with higher education music studies (the Competence Scale). Further, the study finds that several content areas correlate with competence: performance, composing, music history, improvising, music theory and music listening prepared by the teacher. The results also indicate that competence is the single most important factor stimulating music making in schools. There is, however, reason to believe that different teachers carry out different types of music making, since statistical analysis of the scale identified two broad forms of music making. Whether these two forms are the preferred music making content of trained and untrained teachers, of different school grades, of instrumentalist and vocalist teachers, or the preferred forms of practice of men and women is however uncertain.

Kompetencje muzyczne nauczyciela nauczania początkowego wyzwaniem współczesnej edukacji

Kompetencje muzyczne nauczyciela nauczania początkowego wyzwaniem współczesnej edukacji

International Comparisons of Core Competence and Musical Competence : Korea, Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and USA

이 연구는 세계 5개국의 음악 교과 교육과정을 비교하여, 핵심역량을 기를 수 있도록 하는 음악 교과의 교육과정 구성 방안을 논의하는 것을 목적으로 한다. 비교의 관점은 ‘역량’의 의미와 음악 교과 역량과 핵심역량과의 관련성, 음악 교과 최하위 내용과 핵심역량과의 관련성, 그리고 교과 역량의 어미 진술 방식 등이다. 이 분석을 통해 얻어진 연구의 결론은 다음과 같다. 첫째, 역량 중심 교육과정의 성공적 구현은 교과 교육과정과 핵심역량의 관계를 명료히 하는 데 달려있다. 둘째, 핵심역량을 기르도록 음악 교과 교육과정을 구성할 때 전통적인 음악 교과의 교육적 가치를 살릴 수 있는 방안을 고려해야 한다. 셋째, 현재 우리나라의 음악 교과 교육과정에 제시되어 있는 음악 교과 역량의 기능을 명료하게 설정할 필요가 있다.The purpose of this study is to compare the music curriculum of five countries in the world. The point of comparison is the word competence , the relationship between music competence and core competence, the relevance of music with the lowest content and core competence, and the sentence structure of curriculum contents. The conclusions of this study are as follows. First, the successful implementation of the competency - centered curriculum depends on clarifying the relationship between curriculum and core competencies. Second, when constructing music curriculum to cultivate core competencies, consideration should be given to ways to make use of the educational value of traditional music subjects. Third, it is necessary to clarify the functions of music competence which is presented in Korean music curriculum.

Music in worship and recreation at Little Gidding in the time of the Ferrars

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the use of music in worship and recreation at Little Gidding in the first half of the Seventeenth Century. The major focus is the relatively short period from the establishment of the Ferrar family in the Manor House at Little Gidding in 1626 until the death of Nicholas Ferrar in December 1637. Worship encompasses both the formal services in the churches at Little Gidding and Steeple Gidding, and the informal devotions of the Ferrar family in the Manor House. Recreation is conceived broadly, to embrace both the proceedings of the Little Academy and the “night watches”. In each case, religion and piety are central to the activities. The study begins by investigating the Ferrars’ musical education and competence; it then moves on to music in worship, followed by music in recreation. A section on the organs at Little Gidding and their possible fate is followed by conclusions.

Growing Musicians in English secondary schools at Key Stage 3 (age 11–14)

The National Curriculum for Music in England at Key Stage 3 (KS3; age 11–14) declares its purpose that pupils should be inspired to ‘develop a love of music and their talent as musicians’ (DfE, 2013: KS3 Music). The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) have criticised secondary schools for a lack of progress in the musical development of pupils (e.g. Ofsted, 2012). This paper reports on an exploratory study into how far class music lessons at KS3 provide for the development of the musician and the relationship between the musical values of music teachers and classroom practice. The research centres on an investigation into the place of musical competencies in music learning and the contexts within which musicianship can develop. It concludes that classroom music lessons have a tendency to focus more on presenting pupils with a range of ‘taster’ musical experiences than in the development of musicians.

Face Recognition, Musical Appraisal, and Emotional Crossmodal Bias.

Recent research on the crossmodal integration of visual and auditory perception suggests that evaluations of emotional information in one sensory modality may tend toward the emotional value generated in another sensory modality. This implies that the emotions elicited by musical stimuli can influence the perception of emotional stimuli presented in other sensory modalities, through a top-down process. The aim of this work was to investigate how crossmodal perceptual processing influences emotional face recognition and how potential modulation of this processing induced by music could be influenced by the subject's musical competence. We investigated how emotional face recognition processing could be modulated by listening to music and how this modulation varies according to the subjective emotional salience of the music and the listener's musical competence. The sample consisted of 24 participants: 12 professional musicians and 12 university students (non-musicians). Participants performed an emotional go/no-go task whilst listening to music by Albeniz, Chopin, or Mozart. The target stimuli were emotionally neutral facial expressions. We examined the N170 Event-Related Potential (ERP) and behavioral responses (i.e., motor reaction time to target recognition and musical emotional judgment). A linear mixed-effects model and a decision-tree learning technique were applied to N170 amplitudes and latencies. The main findings of the study were that musicians' behavioral responses and N170 is more affected by the emotional value of music administered in the emotional go/no-go task and this bias is also apparent in responses to the non-target emotional face. This suggests that emotional information, coming from multiple sensory channels, activates a crossmodal integration process that depends upon the stimuli emotional salience and the listener's appraisal.

La Creatividad Como Herramienta Didáctica En El Desarrollo Educativo Musical En Educación Primaria

This research shows a case study based on the analysis of an educational proposal focused on musical creative practice developed with 26 students in a class group of 4th year of primary education in a school year. The work was based on the musical teaching-learning process, the study of their contribution to the achievement of the set of curricular musical competences and the improvement of the student work in different contexts of learning with varying degrees of autonomy. The qualitative nature of this educational research has pointed out the use of numerous instruments for collecting information, whose triangulation has facilitated the interpretation of the results. The understanding of musical knowledge in selfexperimentation and the active dimension of the educational proposal have stimulated the familiarization of students with the musical activity as a way of autodidaxia creative activity.

Music education in social contexts – a Study program

This article outlines the foundational considerations of the academic qualification ‘Music Pedagogy in Social Work’ conceptualized and realized in Potsdam, Germany. Based on knowledge about possible benefits of cultural and musical education for the aims of social work, namely the empowerment of individuals, social participation and inclusion, the author specifies the needs and competences for professionalization inthis field. Examples from student and graduate experiences with musical education in kindergarten, youth clubs and other social institutions make clear the objective of the qualification. The importance of aesthetic experiences and aesthetic education in social work contexts constitute the theoretical framework for an interdisciplinary combinationof music education competencies with an academic qualification in social pedagogy.The evaluation of musical pedagogy in social contexts underlines the necessity of an artistic musical qualification as fundamental for successful implementation of music education in the context of aesthetic and cultural education within social work.

Music education in social contexts – a study program

This article outlines the foundational considerations of the academic qualification‘Music Pedagogy in Social Work’ conceptualized and realized in Potsdam, Germany.Based on knowledge about possible benefits of cultural and musical education for theaims of social work, namely the empowerment of individuals, social participation andinclusion, the author specifies the needs and competences for professionalization inthis field. Examples from student and graduate experiences with musical education inkindergarten, youth clubs and other social institutions make clear the objective of thequalification. The importance of aesthetic experiences and aesthetic education in socialwork contexts constitute the theoretical framework for an interdisciplinary combinationof music education competencies with an academic qualification in social pedagogy.The evaluation of musical pedagogy in social contexts underlines the necessity of anartistic musical qualification as fundamental for successful implementation of musiceducation in the context of aesthetic and cultural education within social work.

Musical competence and phoneme perception in a foreign language

We investigated whether musical competence was associated with the perception of foreign-language phonemes. The sample comprised adult native-speakers of English who varied in music training. The measures included tests of general cognitive abilities, melody and rhythm perception, and the perception of consonantal contrasts that were phonemic in Zulu but not in English. Music training was associated positively with performance on the tests of melody and rhythm perception, but not with performance on the phoneme-perception task. In other words, we found no evidence for transfer of music training to foreign-language speech perception. Rhythm perception was not associated with the perception of Zulu clicks, but such an association was evident when the phonemes sounded more similar to English consonants. Moreover, it persisted after controlling for general cognitive abilities and music training. By contrast, there was no association between melody perception and phoneme perception. The findings are consistent with proposals that music- and speech-perception rely on similar mechanisms of auditory temporal processing, and that this overlap is independent of general cognitive functioning. They provide no support, however, for the idea that music training improves speech perception.

Opinions of University Music Teachers on the Musical Competencies Necessary for Primary Education Teachers

This paper describes the research conducted in the Republic of Croatia during the 2012/13 academic year. We have gathered opinions from experts, i.e. teaching methods teachers from seven faculties of teacher education, regarding the music teaching competencies necessary for primary education teachers teaching music in the first several grades of elementary school. We used the Delphi method in our research, i.e. in our sample survey among teaching methods teachers. The teachers also evaluated the competencies of their students and some elements of teacher education studies course syllabi and programmes. The sample survey among the teachers was implemented via email. The goal of the research was to determine if the programmes of the music courses at the teacher education studies are appropriate for the development of the competencies necessary for students of music education. Teaching methods teachers emphasized the need for more practical training, primarily regarding playing instruments and singing, and they pointed out that the course Teaching Methods in Music is the most important course for the training of future music teachers. Aside from that, they believe that more classes should be devoted to music courses, i.e. they propose to reorganise the contents of the courses by increasing the amount of practical classes and reducing the amount of theory classes. They also believe that it is necessary to introduce testing of musical ability at entrance exams for admission into the teacher education studies.

Formal music education as a factor of teacher's ability to identify and guide musical talented pupils

The attitudes in scientific literature suggest hatearly recognition and encouragement of musical talent to a large extent determinesits subsequent development. Bearing in mind that classroom teachers conduct music classes at primary school from first to fourth grade, the study started with the assumption that teacher's formal musical experience (attending music school) represents a significant factor in approach to musical talented students. The theoretical frame work shows the principles of identification of gifted and talented children, with special emphasis on identifying musical talent, as well as the role that teachers can play in this process. The survey was conducted on a sample of teachers from primary schools in the cities of Niš, Leskovac and Vranje (N=169). The results show that attending music school is significantly associated with the use of instruments in music classes, with instrument performing skills, as well as directing students towards a specialized music education. On the other hand, we didn't obtain significant differences in competencies to identify characteristics of the musical talented pupils, which just ifies the recommendation to constantly encourage musical competences of all teachers regardless of their musical experience, both in the context of studies and in the form of professional development.

Los Estados De Afecto Positivo Y Afecto Negativo Como Variables Explicativas De La Ansiedad Escénica En Estudiantes De Magisterio

In the students of Primary Education Teaching we see how music performance anxiety proves to be one of the key problems for the overcoming of subjects related to musical study and practice. Thus we see how this problem is related to personal characteristics such as general anxiety, either trait or state, self-perceived musical competence or affects, either positive or negative, both trait and state. In this study we sought to analyse the predictive value that these variables have on the levels of the performance anxiety experienced. The results show how half of the students participating in the study show higher levels of performance anxiety than the theoretical mean of the measuring instrument used and how this construct is significantly related to general anxiety, self-perceived musical ability and affect. It has also been shown how, in order to explain the greater or lesser presence of music performance anxiety, both positive and negative affect in their state measure are those with greater explanatory capacity. More research is needed in order to create specific training programs that help students to generate regulatory adaptive mechanisms that help to better focus the music performance during the evaluative processes of this type of subjects.

3. The Formation of Musical Competences: Methodological Approachesin the Process of Artistic-Aesthetic Acquisition

Abstract The article hereby includes conceptual aspects of the musical competences formation. It describes the realization of this process operating with the concepts of well-known occidental, Russian and local researchers. One of the ideas characteristic to the researchers’ pedagogical thinking is that, during the process of musical competence formation through art, the acquisition process mechanism is happening. For integrity in insuring the practical realization at of a musical education, the methodology we propose is based on research, an imposing theoretical network of successful pedagogical practices of remarkable scientists from all over the world. The analyzed theories are a source of inspiration and constitute the theoretical universe which contributes to as truthful as possible musical education.

A case of expressive-vocal amusia in a right-handed patient with left hemispheric cerebral infarction

A 53-year-old right-handed woman had an extensive lesion in the left hemisphere due to an infarction caused by vasospasm secondary to subarachnoid bleeding. She exhibited persistent expressive-vocal amusia with no symptoms of aphasia. Evaluation of the patient’s musical competence using the Montreal Battery for Evaluation of Amusia, rhythm reproduction tests, acoustic analysis of pitch upon singing familiar music, Japanese standard language tests, and other detailed clinical examinations revealed that her amusia was more dominantly related to pitch production. The intactness of her speech provided strong evidence that the right hemisphere played a major role in her linguistic processing. Data from functional magnetic resonance imaging while she was singing a familiar song, a scale, and reciting lyrics indicated that perilesional residual activation in the left hemisphere was associated with poor pitch production, while right hemispheric activation was involved in linguistic processing. The localization of infarction more anterior to the left Sylvian fissure might be related to the dominant deficits in expressive aspects of the singing of the patient. Compromised motor programming producing a single tone may have made a major contribution to her poor singing. Imperfect auditory feedback due to borderline perceptual ability or improper audio-motor associations might also have played a role.

Multicultural Musical Competence in Music Therapy

Multicultural Musical Competence in Music Therapy

TIC, estilos de aprendizaje y competencia musical en los estudios de grado de Maestro

The development of ICT has brought the global spreading of music and the emergence of new ways to music consumption. Our research aim was to analyze the musical competence of young people (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) taking as sample the university students of Degree (n = 172) at the Faculty of Education in Albacete, University of Castilla-La Mancha. We conducted a quantitative approach following a descriptive design by means of USMUS survey. The results reveal that students in Primary Education who used ICT tools show both musical knowledge and uses higher than students in Pre-elementary Education. Besides, students in Primary Education concede to ICT a more prominent role in their academic training due to their practical implications. cas.