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MacPeherson Factors and Abilities Influencing Sightr
MacPeherson Factors and Abilities Influencing Sightr
MacPeherson Factors and Abilities Influencing Sightr
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JRME1994,VOLUME42, NUMBER3, PAGES217-231 217
This study was designed to replicate and extend existing literature by seeking to
determine importantfactors and abilities that influence sightreading skill in music.
The Watkins-Farnum Performance Scale (WFPS) was administered to 101 high
school clarinet and trumpetstudents who werecompletingAustralian Music Exami-
nations Board (AMEB) performance examinations. Findings show that, in the
beginning stages of training, sightreading skill is not significantly correlatedwith
the ability to perform a repertoireof rehearsed music for a comprehensiveperfor-
mance examination as assessed on the AMEB examination. As instrumentalists
mature, however, correlations between these two aspects of performance seem to
strengthen markedly. Consistent with other studies, results show that rhythmicerrors
far outweigh all other types of errors.Differing strategies used by high-scoring and
low-scoringsubjectson the WFPS and by two groups of high school subjectsin school
years 7-9 and 10-12 wereobservedand discussed.
Gary E. McPherson
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Factors and
Abilities Influencing
Sightreading Skill in Music
Gary E. McPherson is a senior lecturer and course coordinator for music educa-
tion in the School of Music and Music Education, University of New South Wales,
Sydney, 2052, Australia.Copyright ? 1994 by Music Educators National Conference.
218 McPHERSON
METHOD
Subject Description
Design
For the purpose of this study, Form A of the 1954 Watkins-
JRME 221
RESULTS
Descriptive Statistics
Table 1 shows the distribution of subjects used in the main study
for the two groups according to instrument and result for each of
the four AMEB grade levels.
Table 1
Numberof Subjectsat Each Levelof AMEBPerformance
Clarinet Trumpet
AMEBresult Male Female Male Female
Group 1
GradeIII Satisfactory-"C" 4 2 2 1
Credit-"B" 3 6 4 2
Honors-"A" 0 1 4 3
GradeIV Satisfactory-"C" 1 3 0 1
Credit-"B" 3 3 2 3
Honors-"A" 1 0 2 2
Total number of subjects 12 15 14 12
Group 2
GradeV Satisfactory"C" 3 3 2 1
Credit-"B" 1 1 1 3
Honors-"A" 3 1 2 0
GradeVI Satisfactory-"C" 0 2 5 1
Credit-"B" 5 5 0 2
Honors-"A" 0 3 1 3
Total numberof subjects 12 15 1 10
Table 2
DescriptiveStatisticsforWFPS
Table 3
CorrelationsbetweenWFPSand AMEB
WFPS N
Group 1
AMEB Grade III .01 32
AMEB Grade IV .26 21
Group 2
AMEB Grade V .46* 21
AMEB Grade VI .63** 27
Table 4
Percentageof Errorson WFPS
Percentage of Errors
R P A T E Rt F
Total sample (N= 101) 61.3 17.2 10.7 2.1 7.1 1.6 0.1
Total sample: Top 25 61.2 16.3 11.9 1.0 7.5 1.3 0.2
Total sample: Bottom 25 64.5 17.6 10.4 1.2 4.7 1.6 0.0
Group 1 (N= 53) 61.6 17.8 9.3 3.3 6.2 1.7 0.1
Group 2 (N= 48) 60.9 16.5 12.2 0.8 8.0 1.4 0.1
Female clarinet (N= 30) 59.2 18.6 12.2 1.7 6.8 1.5 0.0
Female trumpet (N= 22) 63.5 15.9 11.1 1.4 6.5 1.6 0.0
Male clarinet (N= 24) 62.5 14.8 10.7 2.6 7.6 1.5 0.3
Male trumpet (N= 25) 60.6 19.0 8.3 2.9 7.5 1.6 0.1
Results for the total sample (N= 101) are almost identical to
Elliott's (1982b) sample of 30 older undergraduates, in which the
highest percentage of errors occurred in rhythm (61.4% as com-
pared to the present study's 61.3%). All other categories were simi-
lar in both studies with the exception being that Elliott's highest-
scoring subjects (top 20%) tended to make more pitch errors, possi-
bly because his undergraduate subjects were more capable of per-
forming the more difficult sections of the WFPS or because a very
small number of subjects was used to obtain these results (8 stu-
dents).
DISCUSSION
IMPLICATIONS