Verbal Identification of Music Concepts

The purpose of this study was to determine (1) what terminology from their own vocabulary subjects would use to label music concepts and (2) if consistent terminology would be selected by children in grades two, three, and four, and by college students majoring in elementary or music education. A group-listening test was administered to the subjects. One music concept was varied in each of the 10 presentations of a well-known melody. Subjects were asked to write a word that described the characteristic change in each playing. When correctly describing music concepts, subjects of all ages used consistent and traditional terminology. However, when incorrect terms were chosen, there was little similarity in vocabulary between children and adults.