Detecting Young Children's Musical Aptitude: A Comparison between Standardized Measures of Music Aptitude and Ecologically Valid Musical Performances.

Abstract

This research examines the musical development of a group of 100 children in three different schools in Portugal, one of which is a specialist music school, over a period of three full school years from the beginning of schooling (6-year-olds ) until the end of third grade. This paper studies the relationship between the children 's results on a standardized test of music aptitude - Gordon 's Primary Measures of Music Audiation - and their performances on three specific musical tasks: singing a song, reproducing a short tune, and keeping meter in instrumental play. To establish the children 's musical profile before beginning formal music instruction, all children were administered two types of tests: (a) the Primary Measures of Music Audiation and (b) a set of specially devised individual musical tasks. The hypothesis was that musical aptitude tests serve only limited purposes and cannot reflect the variety of manifestations that children 's musical behavior can take. Statistical analysis indicated that there was no significant relationship between performances on the Gordon tests and those on three of the individual tasks. Implications for music education based on results of standardized testing are discussed, and the importance of broadening the musical scope of testing processes is stressed.

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