The purpose of the study was to compare two methods for teaching guitar to fifth- and sixth-grade students: one based on the tonal learning sequence of the Kodaly method, the other on the traditional note learning sequence found in standard guitar method books. The null hypothesis was that there would be no significant differences on difference scores or attitude ratings by group, sex, grade, or years of experience. Lessons were designed to teach music reading for guitar to fifth- and sixth-grade students. Note sequences were traditional for the control group, Kodaly-based for the treatment group. The lessons were delivered to intact classes over a five-week period in the spring of 1992. A pre/posttest design was used for data collection. Reading tests, attitude scales, and a student profile were researcher-designed. Listening tests were adapted from Music Achievement Test (Colwell, 1968 & 1970). No significant differences were found on difference scores by group or grade, but significant differences were found by sex and years of experience. There was also a significant interaction between group and sex. When the data were divided by sex there were significant differences between the groups, favoring females in the control group and males in the treatment group. There were no significant differences on attitude rating differences by group, grade, or years of experience, but there were significant differences by sex. No significant interactions were found. The Kodaly sequence worked as well as the traditional sequence for teaching music reading for the guitar. The treatment group had 11% more males than the control group; males scored significantly lower than females. Additionally, the treatment group had 14% more students with no musical experience; students with less experience scored significantly lower than students with more experience. Despite this unequal composition, there were no significant differences between the groups. More research is needed to discover if there would be significant differences between the groups if they are evenly matched by sex and by years of experience. In addition, the finding that the control treatment favored females and the experimental treatment favored males needs to be examined further.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pacific.edu/oai:scholarlycommons.pacific.edu:uop_etds-3617 |
| Date | 01 January 1993 |
| Creators | Fridley, Michael D. |
| Publisher | Scholarly Commons |
| Source Sets | University of the Pacific |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations |
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