Azzara, C. D. (1993).

Audiation-Based Improvisation Techniques and Elementary Instrumental

Students Music Achievement. Journal of Research in Music Education,42(1), 88.

doi:10.2307/3345339

This paper concerned a research study done on fifth grade instrumental music students.

The study examined if improvisation in early instrumental music lead to greater

understanding of music in the future. The students performed three etudes at the

beginning and end of the experiment to determine progress. While there was no major

difference in etude scores between the two groups, there was a noticeable difference in

the composite scores.

The experiment, while informative, was lacking in terms of number of subjects (66). In

addition, the subjects mostly came from similar socioeconomic and racial classes in two

schools, both outside of Rochester, NY. The study would benefit from an increase in

diversity in the makeup of the subject pool, as well as an increase in number of

participants, leading to more informative data.

Bernhard, H. C. (2002). Singing in Instrumental Music Education: Research and

Implications. Update: Applications of Research in Music Education,22(1), 28-35.

doi:10.1177/87551233020220010501

This paper covered an experiment done on sixth graders to determine if tonal aural

training increased student ability in playing by ear and sight singing. The study concluded
 that students who did not learn with the standard beginning method books experienced

noticeable growth in their abilities to play by ear in relation to the control group.

However, the experimental group did not see as much growth in sight singing ability.

Bernhard cites many sources in his paper and uses a considerable amount of empirical

evidence collected both by his own study and by studies done by his sources. His

personal study was very well structured, but suffered from a low number of subjects. In

total, the experiment was done at two schools, utilizing only 42 students. The information

would be more credible if n was higher.

Bilhartz, T. D., Bruhn, R. A., & Olson, J. E. (1999). The Effect of Early Music Training on Child

Cognitive Development. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology,20(4), 615-636.

doi:10.1016/s0193-3973(99)00033-7

This paper on the benefits of music on child cognitive growth. The experiment involved

two groups of young children, aged four and five. The experimental group was given

several Kindermusik lessons spanning the period of study, while the control group was

not. After taking several tests, including the Music Skills Assessment and the Stanford-

Binet Intelligence Scale, the study concluded that, while vocabulary skills did not

necessarily improve as a result of Kindermusic involvement, the abstract thinking skills

of the children involved did increase.

 This source is very accountable. The sources that the paper cites are plentiful and pull

from both musically and psychologically primed sources. The number of participants is

good (at 71), and the pool is diverse racially and in economic standing.

Grutzmacher, P. A. (1987). The Effect of Tonal Pattern Training on the Aural Perception,

Reading Recognition, and Melodic Sight-Reading Achievement of First-Year

Instrumental Music Students. Journal of Research in Music Education,35(3), 171.

doi:10.2307/3344959

This paper examined the role of tonal aural training in students’ ability to sight read

music. Over the course of a 14-week period, the 48 participants were subjected to a 30-

minute lesson a week. The control group followed traditional teaching method of

immediately reading notation. The experimental groups included much more non-

notational practice. The study reported that the experimental groups received better

scores on the MAP and several other music aptitude examinations. As a result, the author

concluded that melodic aural practice leads to better sight-reading ability.

The study conducted by the author is a good study that yielded legitimate results.

However, the participant pool all came from one school district, and diversity of the

participants was never mentioned.

Hansen, D., & Milligan, S. A. (2012). Aural Skills: At the Juncture of Research in Early Reading

and Music Literacy. Music Educators Journal,99(2), 75-80.

doi:10.1177/0027432112462894

This article focused on the benefits of collaboration between music educators and reading

educators. The purpose of the article was to demonstrate that reading and music evoke

the usage of the same places in the brain, and that music can be used to foster cognitive

growth in young children so that their reading skills become more articulate. The article

also included a step-by-step process on how educators might use music to continue up the

phonological awareness continuum.

This paper demonstrated a lot of understanding of the psychological aspect of learning

music and how to read in young children. However, since there was no experiment, this

article is mainly a summary of all the ways that the two things could be connected.

Nevertheless, the authors cite a lot of useful information, so the content presented can be

shown as legitimate.

Harrison, C. S., Asmus, E. P., & Serpe, R. T. (1994). Effects of Musical Aptitude, Academic

Ability, Music Experience, and Motivation on Aural Skills. Journal of Research in Music

Education,42(2), 131. doi:10.2307/3345497

The study conducted by the authors of this research paper was done to determine the

correlation between nine aspects of music and aural skills abilities in sight singing and
 ear training. The study was done on freshman year college music majors in a music

theory course. The data from the study was gained from tests like the CMAP and SAT,

and also included some qualitative data converted to quantitative (such as music

enjoyment). The study concluded, after analyzing the correlation between the data sets,

that music aptitude, academic ability, and music experience all appear to be related to

success in aural skills. The study also concluded, however, that there was no significant

effect of motivation on aural skill ability.

The study conducted by the authors of this paper is mostly legitimate. Where it defects

slightly is assigning a quantitative number to an opinion. The students in this study were

given many tests which yielded quantitative data that should be used, but also, on equal

ground with the tests, were measured on their motivation towards aural skills, which

can’t truly be quantified. Beyond that, the number of participants in the study was good at

142. No mention is made of the pool’s diversity.

Hayward, C. M., & Gromko, J. E. (2009). Relationships Among Music Sight-Reading and

Technical Proficiency, Spatial Visualization, and Aural Discrimination. Journal of

Research in Music Education,57(1), 26-36. doi:10.1177/0022429409332677

This paper concerned finding predictors of sight-reading ability. The study involved 70

collegiate brass and woodwind students in auditioned ensembles. The participants took a

series of tests. Some of them were written, others were performance based. They also

tested the students’ spatial reasoning. The authors concluded that students who were
 more adept in aural discrimination and spatial reasoning were more likely to be good

sight-readers.

This study is a correlative study, so while the results supported their hypothesis, that does

not guarantee that every case will be this way. As a predictive measure, this study does

make sense. The number of participants is decent at 70, but perhaps more could be used if

their method of assembling the pool was different or conducted at many universities.

Johansson, K. (2004). What Chord Was That? A Study Of Strategies Among Ear Players In

Rock Music. Research Studies in Music Education,23(1), 94-101.

doi:10.1177/1321103x040230011101

This paper concerned the way informally and formally trained rock musicians play covers

of songs. The study included six men. These six were divided into two bands of three – a

formally trained band comprised of musicians that had gone to a collegiate school of

music, and an informally trained band of musicians that taught themselves. The bands

played three songs – one easy, one mid-level, and one difficult in terms of harmonic

structure. While both bands were able to figure out the chords fairly well, the formally

trained band often embellished the song while the informally trained band played what

was closer to the original song. Thus, the author concluded that the formally trained

musicians pulled from a set of memorized formulas and embellished because they were

more comfortable with the music.

 The study in this paper can not be fully accepted as legitimate as the participant pool only

included six men. While they were of different ages, the accuracy of the study is severely

hindered by the low number of participants. The conclusions reached by the author,

however, make logical sense. That being said, the study needs to be repeated at a larger

scale to include more people, and to include women as well as non-Swedes.

Jordan-Decarbo, J. (1982). Same/Different Discrimination Techniques, Readiness Training,

Pattern Treatment, and Sex on Aural Discrimination and Singing of Tonal Patterns by

Kindergartners. Journal of Research in Music Education,30(4), 237-246.

doi:10.2307/3345297

For this research paper, the author studied 89 kindergarteners between 5 and 6 years of

age for their aural and vocal abilities. The goal of the study was to find out if there was a

correlation of sex, aural discrimination techniques, and pattern treatment on aural

discrimination and vocal ability. The participants in the study came from three schools.

At each of the three schools, the study was conducted on two randomly assembled classes

that were randomly assigned the various treatments. After an analysis of the data, the

author determined that the girls consistently performed better than the boys, and that girls

benefitted more from the training than the boys did.

The study conducted had a decent number of participants from several places. The data

from the various tests over the duration of the study is presented in a clear fashion and the

conclusion accurately reflects the information from the numbers.

Sheldon, D. A. (1998). Effects of Contextual Sight-Singing and Aural Skills Training on Error-

Detection Abilities. Journal of Research in Music Education,46(3), 384-395.

doi:10.2307/3345550

This paper examines the ability of beginning conductors to detect errors in the ensemble

in relation to sight-singing and ear training. In the study, 30 students were divided into

two classes. The control group took the pretest and posttest without a change in content

from the normal semester’s curriculum. The experimental group had 50 minutes of new

curriculum over the course of each week for 11 of the 16 weeks of the semester. The 50

minutes included score study and sight-singing (both assisted and unassisted) of typical

band repertoire. At the end of the treatment period, the collected data showed that the

incorporation of sight-singing yielded better results in the students’ ability to detect

errors.

The study included a decent number of participants (but could of course include more

from more varied locations) at 30, and the data collected from them was accurately

recorded. The author also included many options for future research in the discussion so

that more work could be done to define the relationship between aural skills and error

detection.

White-Schwoch, T., Carr, K. W., Anderson, S., Strait, D. L., & Kraus, N. (2013). Older Adults

Benefit from Music Training Early in Life: Biological Evidence for Long-Term
Training-Driven Plasticity. Journal of Neuroscience,33(45), 17667-17674.

doi:10.1523/jneurosci.2560-13.2013

This paper on the effects of music training later in life was based on a study done with 44

older adults. The participants had between 0-14 years of musical training, and all had

little to no hearing loss. The data was collected by measuring the brain through

electrophysiology, determining the time in which it took the brain to respond to

consonant-vowel transitions in synthesized speech. The authors’ conclusion is that the

more musical training the subject had early in life directly related to their speed of

comprehension – those with less training took longer to respond.

The study done for this research paper can be determined to be legitimate. While more

participants could have been used for the experiment, the conclusion presented accurately

reflects the data.