Musical Style Preferences and Aural Discrimination Skills of Primary Grade School Children

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Abstract
This study sought (a) to measure first-, second-, and third-grade students' preferential reactions to aurally presented musical stimuli representing various styles, (b) to determine the effects of grouping by grade level, gender, and race on music preferences, and (c) to determine the relationship between children's music preferences and their aural discrimination skills. Preferences of 577 Mississippi, Kansas, and Texas children were measured via the Music Preference Reaction Index (MPRI), a nonverbal, nonnumeric pictographic self-report form on which students recorded like/dislike responses to 24 musical stimuli. MPRI reliability estimates (coefficient a) ranged from .75 to .85. Validity was established through factor analytic means. Aural skills were measured via the Primary Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA). A 3 × 2 × 2 multivariate analysis of variance of MPRI scores yielded significant grade level, gender, and race main effects and nonsignificant interaction effects. Subanalysis revealed the particular musical stimuli that contributed to the main effects. Canonical correlation analysis of PMMA and MPRI variables produced two significant canonical variates accounting for only 26% of the total variance, thus indicating a small, positive, bidimensional relationship.

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