The purpose of this study was to assess young children's abilities to echo short pitch patterns in relation to maintenance of a tonal center in self-chosen and taught songs. Additional considerations were (1) age differences in ability to maintain a tonality and echo pitch patterns; (2) accuracy of vocal reproduction in echoing pitch patterns; (3) age differences in use of vocal range; and (4) size of vocal range used for different singing tasks. Ninety-three preschool children, aged 3-5, were individually tested in singing a self-chosen song, singing a taught song, and echoing 20 short pitch patterns. Children more accurately echoed melodic contours than correct pitches or intervals. A low positive correlation was found between ability to echo pitches or contours and maintenance of a tonal center in singing. Children consistently used larger vocal ranges in echoing pitch patterns than in singing songs.

Eighty pianists each listened to 21 trials of solo piano music. Trials consisted of two different performances of the same excerpt, and the same music was played on all trials for any given subject. Over the 21 trials, seven different interpretations were presented in all possible pair-wise combinations. Forty subjects listened to a slow excerpt from Liszt's Totentanz, and the other forty listened to a fast excerpt from the same piece. The subjects' task was to select which of the two performances on each trial, if either, they preferred. Subjects were assigned randomly to one of four conditions: preference only, preference plus use of the musical score, preference plus use of rating scales, and preference plus use of both the musical score and rating scales ( n = 10 per treatment per excerpt). Results indicated that the use of the musical score and of rating scales both separately and in combination with each other did not improve consistency as compared to their nonuse. Subjects who responded to rating scales, however, were more consistent when they did not also use the musical score than when they did use it. Subjects were less consistent for the slow excerpt than they were for the fast excerpt, and consistency was unaffected by their piano experience. Presentation order within trials (first versus second excerpt) did not affect ratings; however, ratings on Trials 12-21 were slightly and significantly higher than ratings on Trials 1-10. Also, preference for a performance was not affected by preference for the performance immediately preceding it.

The purposes of this study were twofold: Experiment 1 was designed to assess which elements of music were described by third graders, fourth graders and undergraduate non-music majors in a listening task. Experiment 2 examined the effect of instruction in music vocabulary on children's subsequent descriptions of music. It was found that children differed significantly from undergraduates in overall pattern of descriptions of musical elements. Most children made reference to extramusical, timbre and tempo characteristics; undergraduates commonly referred to extramusical, tempo and pitch/ melody. Instruction in vocabulary produced a significant increase in attention to specified elements of music by thirdand fourth-grade children on a post-test. It was noted that children demonstrated a tendency to limit their responses in number of musical elements described.

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