An investigation of the effect of instruction in Edwin Gordon's tonal and rhythm patterns on secondary students' advanced measures of music audiation scores

The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of Edwin Gordon's patterns in Music Learning Theory, when used twice a week in one semester, can affect the tonal and rhythm scores of the Advanced Measures of Music Audiation (AMMA). This experiment was conducted in a large public school district in the Southwest United States. There were a total of 73 students (grades 8-12) participating within the experimental group ( n = 38) and the control group (n = 35). Participants in the experimental group were instructed using tonal patterns during a treatment week and rhythm patterns the next treatment week. The control group participated in melodic singing one week using Ottman's (2004) Music for Sight-Singing . Rhythmic exercises were taught the next week, using McHose and Tibbs (1957) syllables. Both experimental and control groups performed their respective exercises vocally with a maximum of five minutes of instruction per visit. The pre-test for all three dimensions of the AMMA (tonal, rhythm, and total) was used as a covariate to control for any pre-existing differences. The independent variables were: (a) gender (b) private lessons, and (c) group (experimental or control). The dependent variables were the converted percentile post-test scores for all three dimensions (tonal, rhythm, and total) of the AMMA. A mean score analysis indicated that students who participated in private lessons, regardless of group assignment, exhibited the highest pre- to post-test mean score differences. A Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) revealed no significant main effects although a significant interaction existed between private lessons and group assignment in the post-test tonal dimension, F(1,72) = 4.61, p. < .04.