Effect of Movement Instruction on Steady Beat Perception, Synchronization, and Performance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of movement instruction on beginning instrumentalists' steady beat perception, synchronization, and performance. Seventy sixth-grade students were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. The treatment group received movement instruction generated from general music, dance, and theoretical ideas. The control group received “traditional rhythm instruction, ” operationalized through qualitative description of normal classroom activities. After 10 weeks of instruction, a researcher-designed battery of tests was administered. A t-test of the perception measure showed that the groups did not differ significantly, t (66) = .84, p = .41. The ability to synchronize taps to a musical stimulus varied significantly as a function of group membership, t (68) = 4.22, p = .0001, favoring the treatment group. Performances differed significantly as a function of group, favoring the treatment group, t (68) = 5.74, p = .0001. There were low positive correlations among the three dependent variables in this study.