The effect of Curwen-Kodaly hand signs on pitch and interval discrimination within a Kodaly curricular framework

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of Curwen-Kodaly hand signs on pitch and interval discrimination within a Kodaly curricular framework. The subjects were 47 grade four students at Brentwood School, Strathmore, Alberta, Canada. Strathmore is an agricultural centre of 3,500 people located 40 kilometres east of Calgary on the Trans-Canada Highway. Two intact classrooms participated in this quasi-experimental design, 24 in the hand sign group and 23 in the no hand sign group. At program entry and program completion, the Pitch Discrimination Test of the Bentley Measures of Musical Ability (MMA) and Test 1, Parts 1 and 2 of the Colwell Elementary Music Achievement Tests (MAT} dealing with pitch and interval discrimination were administered. Following the pre-test, the subjects received 37 weeks of instruction following an identical Kodaly based curriculum. One group used Curwen-Kodaly hand signs and the other group did not. Instruction was given twice a week for a total of 75 minutes. A two-tailed-test was applied to all the pre-test scores and established that the two groups were equivalent in pitch and interval discrimination prior to the study. Gain score analysis on the pre to post-test scores for the hand sign and no hand sign groups revealed statistically significant differences for the hand sign group over the no hand sign group on the MMA (.e_ = .026), the MAT, Test 1, Subtest A - Pitch Discrimination: Two Tones (.e_ = .094), and the MAT, Test 2, Subtest A - Interval Discrimination: Three Tones (..e_ = .005). Analysis of variance on the gain scores using the independent variables hand signs, sex, age, and the extra-curricular musical activity revealed a main effect of hand signs on the MMA (_E.= .022) , a main effect of hand signs {_E.= .025) and age (_E.= .04) on the MAT, Test 1, Subtest A, and a main effect of hand signs (_E.= .059) on the MAT, Test 2, Subtest A. An additional analysis of variance using age, sex, and extra-curricular musical activities as the covariates on the gain score of the MAT, Test 1, Subtest A, established the main effect of hand signs (.e_ = .072). Based on the findings of this study there appears to be a negative relationship between age and gain score results on pitch discrimination tests involving two tones. This suggests that there is a critical age for the acquisition of pitch discrimination. The principle finding of this research is Curwen-Kodaly hand signs have a strong effect on the acquisition of pitch and interval discrimination. Moreover, the Kodaly approach, with or without hand signs, demonstrated greater acquisition of pitch and interval discrimination than population norms.