Testing and Tests in Music Education

Dr. Brian D. Ebie

What do we measure in music?

Musical ability—a basic initial testing of what a person is able to “do” musically. For example, a beginning of the year test

for 6th graders about note and rhythm reading

Music aptitude—the term used to indicate the potential for learning music. A person’s natural ability or capacity.

Genetically predisposed toward musical skill acquisition.

Edwin Gordon Music Aptitude Profile

What do we measure in music? Musical intelligence—Howard Gardner

(1983). This is the capacity to think in music, to be able to hear patterns, recognize them, and perhaps manipulate them. “People appear to have schemas or

frames for hearing music…expectations about… well-structured [musical passages]…” and what a piece should sound like.

What do we measure in music? Music capacity—Seashore (1938) used this term

in much the same way as aptitude.

Music talent—a measure of musical performance skills. It’s sort of a ‘performance aptitude’ measure.

Music sensitivity—awareness and responsiveness to subtle differences in music. Discriminations and feeling responses. Found in performing and listening.

What do we measure in music? Musicality—the sense of being aware of the

nuances of music. Appropriate vs. inappropriate (see Baker, 1982)

Music achievement—music accomplishments as a result of experience with music, musical phenomena, or music-related materials. Achievement is what has been learned as a result of such experiences. Richard Colwell’s MAT

Considerations in Music TestingPurposesTest takersScope/contentEfficiencyTasks

Music Test Tasks Cognitive tasks—basic knowledge and

understanding activities, such as: Note names Composer names/dates Defining sonata-allegro form Rhythms

Music Test Tasks Aural discrimination—requires the

student to detect a difference between two (more) sequentially presented stimuli. “same” or “different” “higher” or “lower” Also possible to test pitch, meter,

intervals, and major or minor modalities.

Music Test Tasks Aural recognition—identification of some

attribute or quality of a music stimulus encountered previously. Timbre recognition/Interval recognition What instruments do you hear? “drop the needle” tests

Music Test Tasks Auditive structuring—listening to a

series of brief musical passages and detecting differences. These types of items are seen as

correlating fairly well (.60 - .76) with estimates of musical aptitude.

Usually 3, 4, or 5 tones.

Music Test Tasks Aural-Visual discrimination—interaction

of seeing and hearing and making decisions. Error detection while following a score Hearing melody, drawing shape on paper Melodic dictation (most advanced) Audiation is essentially “aural imagery.”

Music Test Tasks Preference/Sensitivity tasks—require

discrimination between the performance quality of two renditions of given musical examples, and a judgment as to which is better. The better version is based upon what

“experts” have agreed upon… Appropriate vs. inappropriate

performances?

Music Test Tasks Preference/Sensitivity Tasks

VS.

Music Test Tasks Performance accuracy tests—utilized to

assess student progress toward a specific performance goal or level. Scales, musical passages Sight reading tasks Juries, hearings, recitals

Conclusion Musical achievement, aptitude,

preference, sensitivity, recognition, error detection, and many other skills can be measured and evaluated.

Standardized tests exist to measure many of these skills. See Gordon, Colwell, etc.