Music stimulates thought processes and enhances spatial reasoning, which are essential for academic achievement. Research indicates the spatial reasoning performance of preschoolers who receive music lessons far exceeds that of comparison students. Even listening to music proves beneficial to spatial reasoning. Music training seems also to benefit…

Presents a class activity in which student describe and classify music as an introduction to writing classification essays. (SR)

Presents results of a study that explored the effect of overt categorization on musical preference. Found no difference in choices of nonmusic majors when choices were structured as stipulated, unstipulated, or free form categories. Finds musical experience and gender affected preferences for pop and jazz, but not for rock music. (DK)

Asserts that music is an important part of child development, but music experiences in preschool are often haphazard. Provides suggestions for developing music activities, including: using singing as program basis; choosing easy to sing music; understanding the relationship between music and creativity; slowly introducing movement experiences;…

This essay explores the contingency of music's value, and the significant ways that contingency qualifies (or should qualify) our understandings of the utility of instructional method. More specifically, it raises the possibility that the altruistic pursuit of methodological purity may serve ends dramatically different than those espoused by…

In this article, the author discusses the musical interests of college students and what their musical preferences say about them. Students, through the nature of their music preferences, seem to intentionally or unintentionally convey messages. Students' listening habits can provide insight into messages that they are exposed to on a regular…

This research report examines the data collected in The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) for 1992, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. The study also provides a context for interpreting the data with a comparison to a similar survey of 1982. Jazz was defined as the respondents saw fit. Findings of the survey include:…

This study guide was designed to help high school students learn the basic skills in classical guitar playing, technique, fingerboard knowledge, and musicianship. The introduction describes how to read the music notation that is presented in traditional music form and also in tablature diagrams showing finger positioning in the guitar neck.…

This paper presents research surveying the responses of university students enrolled in music classes for nonmusic majors with regard to several aspects of required concert attendance. Groups of subjects (n=258) enrolled in courses with required concert attendance were compared to those in courses without such a requirement. Results indicated that…

Developed for use in the junior high schools of Duval County, Jacksonvile, Florida, this is a teachers' guide to music appreciation courses. Music Appreciation I examines America's musical heritage and emphasizes music's relationship to science, social studies, and language arts. The course provides study of the scientific fundamentals of sound,…

In order to identify significant environmental factors that relate to the rhythm and pitch responses of 5-year-old children, a team of elementary music teachers individually tested approximately 100 preschool children upon kindergarten entrance. The rhythm responses measured pulse (or beat), rhythm pattern identification, and rhythm pattern…

Based on a PhD dissertation submitted to the University of Wisconsin.

This essay presents background information and suggests teaching stragegies to aid community and junior college classroom teachers of history and civilization as they develop and implement educational programs on Latin American music. It is based on the premise that Latin American music can best be understood as a reflection of other historical…

This guide contains lesson plans for music teachers and music specialists in grades K-4. The role of music education is to provide a balanced exposure to all music and musical experiences, allowing students to develop tastes and skills based upon a broad knowledge of music. The guide consists of two levels. The first half of the guide contains…

This curriculum guide contains objectives, activities, and evaluation procedures for a K-12 music education program. It would be useful to anyone responsible for teaching music. The authors believe that music education has the dual obligation of developing the aesthetic sensitivity of all students regardless of their individual levels of musical…