LEARNING TO READ MUSIC: CHILDREN'S USE OF STRUCTURE IN PITCH NOTATION

The pitch notation system is directly and systematically related both to the spatial arrangement of a keyboard and to the notes of a melody that it represents. The purpose of two studies was to explore the function of these relations in an early phase of learning to read pitch notation. Children who did not know how to read music learned to read and play a simple melody on a set of bells. In a subsequent transfer task they learned to play a new unfamiliar melody that was composed of the same notes as their training melody. Experimental conditions varied in terms of whether the normal relations of notation, keyboard layout, and melody pitch were maintained, and also in terms of whether the notation was presented with only one note visible at a time or as it is normally, available to be scanned. It was demonstrated that children who are just beginning to learn to read music perceive and use some aspects of the structure of the notation right from the start.