The Effect of Audio and Video Modeling on Beginning Guitar Students' Ability to Accurately Sing and Accompany a Familiar Melody on Guitar by Ear

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of audio and visual modeling on music and nonmusic majors' ability to accurately sing and accompany a familiar melody on guitar by ear. Two studies were run to investigate the impact of musical training on the ability to play by ear. All participants were student volunteers enrolled in sections of a beginning class guitar course and were randomly assigned to one of three groups: control, audio modeling only, or audio and visual modeling. All participants were asked to sing the same familiar song in the same key and accompany on guitar. Study 1 compared music majors with nonmusic majors and showed no significant difference between treatment conditions, however, there was a significant difference between music majors and nonmusic majors across all conditions. There was no significant interaction between groups and treatment conditions. Study 2 investigated the operational definition of "musically trained" and compared musically trained with nonmusically trained participants across the same three conditions. Results of Study 2 showed no significant difference between musically trained and nonmusically trained participants; however, there was a significant difference between treatment conditions with the audio-visual group completing the task in the shortest amount of time. There was no significant interaction between groups and treatment conditions. Results of these analyses support the use of instructor modeling for beginning guitar students and suggest that previous musical knowledge does not play a role in guitar skills acquisition at the beginning level.

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