The effects of popular and classical music aural discrimination training on the aural discrimination skills of middle school students

This study investigated the effects of popular and classical music listening activities on the aural discrimination skills of middle school students. Participants in this action research study included two seventh grade general music classes (n=26) from a suburban middle school. One class (n=13) engaged in a twelve-day popular music listening unit focusing on mode and form discrimination. A second class (n=13) engaged in a parallel unit of study using classical music only. Aural discrimination tests using popular and classical music were administered to both groups after the listening units to determine which music style listening unit resulted in better mode and form aural discrimination skills. Test results indicated that participants' aural discrimination skills were learned with equal success regardless of which genre was studied. This could suggest that these skills were either equally transferrable between popular and classical music or more successfully transferred from popular to classical music.