| With the purpose of improving understanding of the musical abilities of kindergarten and primary grade children, the problems of the study were to investigate the performance difficulty of tonal patterns and rhythm patterns, the relationship between audiation and performance, and the effects of kindergarten music instruction on developmental music aptitude and music achievement.;Subjects (N = 560) were in kindergarten, first, and second grades from two school districts; one provided kindergarten music instruction, the other did not. A standardized measure of developmental music aptitude, the Primary Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA), was administered twice (pretest and posttest) to kindergarten subjects, and once (posttest) to first- and second-grade subjects. A measure of achievement, the investigator-designed Tonal Pattern and Rhythm Pattern Performance Test (TPRPT), was administered individually to all subjects. Two independent judges rated the performances using six-point rating scales.;Hierarchies of tonal and rhythm performance patterns were established by examining difficulty levels for all TPRPT patterns. Tonal pattern difficulty is determined by range, number of notes, and intervallic relationships, not by direction, nor tonality. Rhythm pattern difficulty is determined by meter. Factor analyses revealed differences in constructs of tonal performance and audiation patterns, but similar constructs in rhythm performance and audiation patterns.;A Pearson correlation revealed a low correlation between audiation ( PMMA) and performance (TPRPT). During the developmental aptitude stage, audiation and performance are distinct, unrelated processes.;Differences in music aptitude, examined using ANOVA (District x Grade x PMMA), were significant for rhythm (p < .01), favoring the district without kindergarten music instruction, but non-significant for tonal. Differences in music achievement, examined using ANOVA (District x Grade x TPRPT), were significant for tonal (p < .001), favoring the district with kindergarten music instruction, but non-significant for rhythm. Differences in grade levels were significant (p < .001) for aptitude and achievement, indicating effects of kindergarten music instruction may extend through second grade. Asymmetrical relationships exist between tonal and rhythm aptitude development, and between tonal and rhythm achievement development in primary grade children. |
