Kimberly A. McCord, University of Northern Colorado

Instrumental music ensembles are frequently a blend of students of various skill levels, backgrounds, age levels and socio-economic backgrounds. Often in middle school bands and orchestras there is a mix of students from three grades who often come from many different elementary schools with different instrumental music teachers. As students enter the middle school, they may have been playing for three years or, in the case of schools where instrumental music programs have been cut, they may not have had the opportunity to learn an instrument. Some students may be taking private lessons, sometimes on piano, in addition to their band or orchestra instrument. Many school instruments are too big to take home and the only practice students receive is during class time. Students often have incomplete knowledge of basic fundamentals.

Teaching large groups of instrumental students in the middle school that have varied ability and knowledge levels can be difficult, especially since ensembles depend on all members being able to perform at the same level. The director is often overwhelmed in teaching large numbers of students and may not have time to give individual help to needy young musicians. The director may not even know that students in his or her group lack understanding of basic music fundamentals. What is needed is a patient tutor that can review with each individual basic music fundamentals. With the recent advances in music technology, the computer and midi synthesizer can function in this manner quite effectively.

Music fundamentals software that is currently available tends to approach the teaching of music theory through use of the keyboard.Examples of such software include Music Lessons by MIBAC Software and Practica Musica by ARS NOVA Software are popular and well designed music fundamentals software. It is traditional to learn to read music by becoming familiar with the keyboard. Music theory concepts are reinforced by referring to the keyboard. This presents a problem for music teachers with limited time and resources in their instrumental music classrooms, because students must first become acquainted with the piano keyboard in order to make sense of these programs. This is not an efficient method for the instrumental music classroom that sometimes has large groups of students and limited access to computers. What is needed is a program that teaches fundamentals without reference to the keyboard and a program that teaches fundamentals in treble, alto and bass clefs separately in order to relate to individual students in the clef they must know in order to read music for their respective instruments.

Research completed in this area demonstrates that Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) in Music Fundamentals does aid the student in learning music and is a very positive component in teaching music to classes of students. In a recent study, Chen (1992), used a HyperCard music instruction program to help Chinese students learn the Western method of notating music. Hesser (1988) examined CAI as a means of developing music reading skills at the elementary level. She found that CAI used to reinforce lessons in music reading skills facilitated the learning process more effectively than traditional group reinforcement methods. Nelson (1988) found that the computer did serve as a valuable instrument for efficient group music learning in the general music classroom. At the higher education level, Wilson (1981) used CAI to teach music fundamentals to undergraduate elementary education majors. All studies demonstrated that CAI is effective in teaching music fundamentals to students.

The purpose of this study was to (1) examine whether or not instrumental music students who received music fundamentals tutoring via computer and midi synthesizer improved in music reading ability; and (2) determine if it would be possible to bring students in a performing ensemble up to an equal skill level.

The researcher developed a HyperCard program that addressed six areas of music fundamentals, (1) names of notes, (2) key signatures, (3) time signatures, (4) counting rhythms, (5) musical symbols and (6) scales. Each unit included three ability levels: Beginner level, Musician level (intermediate) and Master Musician level (advanced). The program was based on items outlined in the school district's scope and sequence and made use of music theory competencies based on each level of playing skill. The researcher developed tests and worksheets as part of the program based on the school district's Scope and Sequence. The program was evaluated and approved by instrumental music teachers and the music supervisor in a metropolitan school district.

Teachers who were involved with the implementation of the program were trained by the researcher on setting up the computer and MIDI equipment, administering the program, appropriate worksheets and tests, and dealing with common hardware and software problems associated with Hypercard, and MIDI programs. A trial run-through of the program was conducted on selected students. Suggestions and mistakes were brought to the attention of the developer and changes were made to the program before the actual study began.

Participants in the study were instrumental music students in three schools in a large, metropolitan school district. There were a total of 21 beginner level students , 74 intermediate level students, and 83 advanced level students. There were three instrumental music teachers, one at each school. The school district was under court-ordered busing, so it was assumed that all three schools participating in the study would have students representing a wide range of socio-economic levels, races, and previous musical experience. Students were identified as beginning to advanced levels in string and band groups based on playing level specified by the district's scope and sequence.

The students used Macintosh computers with Roland JV-30 synthesizers. The synthesizers played back musical examples saved within HyperCard using the program MidiPlay. The synthesizers were used only as a playback device.

All students began with the beginner level and progressed through the higher levels. Worksheets and tests were given at the end of each level. The worksheets were preparation for the tests and had questions in similar formats. The students had to pass the tests at each level to go on to the next higher level. At the end of all of the units, each student took a playing test on his/her instrument, which was recorded onto a cassette tape. Participating teachers in the study gave various awards for students who passed the different sections. The awards included extra credit, acknowledgment of student achievement at concerts and in programs, and charts in the music room that provided visual records of how far students in each class had progressed.

The students worked individually during class time of 45-50 minutes on the computer program at their own respective speeds. Worksheets were completed using the aid of the computer. Tests were given away from the computer. Teachers checked the worksheets and tests and returned them to the student.

The teachers in the participating schools sent the researcher the scores on the pre and post tests. Students were identified by number and group only (eg., Beginning Band). Data were analyzed using the Macintosh Student SYSTAT 1.0 computer statistical program. Statistical modules used to analyze the data were "Descriptive Statistics," and "Paired Samplest Test" for comparing mean scores between pre- and post-tests.

Did students who received music fundamentals tutoring via computer and MIDI improve in their ability to read music? Students from all three schools were placed into groups to identify them by their ability level, beginning (n = 21), intermediate (n = 74) and advanced (n = 83). Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data from the pre- and post-tests (see Table 1). Data show improvement in mean scores between pre- and post-test scores in beginning, intermediate and advanced level groups.

The differences between pre and post test scores were greatest in the intermediate level groups which showed a 35.297 increase in mean score. The advanced group showed a 33.651 increase in the mean score and the beginning level groups demonstrated a 33.286 increase in the mean score. All groups showed improvement.

The beginner level group demonstrated higher scores on the post test than the advanced groups showed on the pre test. An improvement in music reading skills would indicate higher functioning for the performing ensemble.

A Paired Samples t Test compared pre- and post-test scores within the three levels. The t-test results indicate that there was a statistically significant improvement between the pre- and post-test scores for each level. (p < .05) (see Table 2).

The significant improvement in mean scores for all three levels demonstrates the effectiveness of CAI in Music Fundamentals. The skill level the beginning students demonstrated on the post test indicated that they were already functioning at a much higher skill level than the students in the intermediate and advanced groups at the pre test. This indicates that through the incorporation of the CAI program it is possible elevate the music fundamentals scores for all students enhancing the potential of the ensemble to perform at a higher level than it would without CAI instruction.

It was discovered that many of the students at all schools were Spanish-dominant speakers. It was unclear if this program, written in English, was an aid or a source of frustration to these students.

Further studies need to be done on how best to tutor students whose primary language is something other than English.

It was also discovered that students at each of the three schools were not equal despite the assumptions made on district wide busing. One school had a high percentage of students with absentee rates or who moved during the school year. Another school had a large percentage of highly gifted students of whom many took private music lessons on their instrument or piano or both instruments. Further research is needed on computer programs based on music fundamentals and the impact it has on various socio-economic groups.