This mixed methods study aimed to explore how using Model-Eliciting Activities (MEAs) in an aural skills classroom can promote student motivation and engagement. Aural skills courses, which focus on ear training and sight singing, benefit from MEAs--activities that require students to create models to solve progressively complex problems. As…

This article, which is intended as a contribution to wider conversations around music literacy, explores current conceptions of music literacy within the UK, using the area of aural skills training as a focus. Specifically, it considers the nature of music literacy and aural training in secondary (ages 11-18) music curricula and the role of aural…

School curricula in the United States tend to focus on students' visual sense, making the teaching and learning of aural art a unique and challenging endeavor. In this philosophical inquiry with practical applications, I propose that the music curriculum be reevaluated with an ear toward the quality of sounds students hear daily as a foundation…

The solfege course, which is carried out in conservatories where western music is taught in Turkey, covers solfege, theory, dictation and ear training studies in terms of content. Solfege course, which contributes greatly to the development of basic music knowledge and skills of students, also forms the infrastructure of other practical courses.…

This research examines the effect of repetition on melodic dictation tasks in an undergraduate ear-training class. A pilot group of freshman music majors (n = 17) were asked to notate four melodies, of which two were slightly more difficult since they contained more melodic leaps. Participants heard two melodies repeated three times and two other…

In this study, we explored the ways in which listening tools within technology-mediated environments can facilitate children's self-regulation of instrumental music learning between lessons. This interpretive multiple case study utilized a software application assigned for 22 weeks to a piano teacher and four students (ages 8-10). Data sources…

In this study, we investigated the use of digital technology for aural skills instruction in Advanced Placement Music Theory (APMT) classes in the United States. Our research questions focused on which technologies teachers use for aural skills, how they incorporate them, and what influences their decisions to use them. We created, piloted, and…

Although playing by ear has important benefits for the development of musicianship, one-to-one instrumental teaching has traditionally overlooked it. The current research describes the strategies applied by three woodwind teachers with their students in a Spanish music school through a multiple-case embedded study. Data were collected through…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two listening strategies on rhythmic dictation scores. In a within-subjects design, 54 undergraduate music majors completed two-measure rhythmic dictations under each of three conditions: (a) no prescribed approach, (b) required listening before writing, and (c) required writing while…

String musicians put a high priority on ear training in order to be successful on their instruments. Research suggests that delaying music reading to teach by ear does not negatively affect sight-reading performance in the long term, may improve music literacy skills, and also may improve student perceptions of accomplishment. The pedagogy of…

Listening is regarded as the most fundamental contact with music performers, but this is challenged by a growing body of evidence which suggests that sight is as important as sound in evaluating music performers. Music students learn traditional performance skills for the music profession, but do not learn to think critically about preparation and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of computerized and traditional ear training methods on the aural skills abilities of elementary music students. The sample consisted of 20 students who were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group. The experimental group was taught for five sessions using computerized…

Although formal aural musicianship learning is prevalent in university and conservatory music curricula, an informal "ear-copying" approach can be an alternative. In this study, the formal "Written task" approach was taught weekly to a class of university music majors by the teacher-researcher, but an extra ear-copying…

Immediate and lasting effects of music or second-language training were examined in early childhood using event-related potentials. Event-related potentials were recorded for French vowels and musical notes in a passive oddball paradigm in thirty-six 4- to 6-year-old children who received either French or music training. Following training, both…

This paper reports findings from the Ear-Playing Project in relation to the teaching strategies that 15 instrumental teachers adopted during one-to-one instrumental lessons whilst helping their students to copy music by ear from a recording. Overall, the teachers used a variety of strategies including singing and humming along with or without the…