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Development of musical abilities, measured by Bentley's test
Barbara Smolej-Fritz
Full text (pdf) | Views: 20 | Written in Slovene. | Published: March 1, 2000
Abstract: The article presents a part of the research that deals with the development of musical abilities of children aged 7 to 14 years. The area of musical abilities being very complex, we focus onley on some view points; namely on those which are included in Bentley's test of musical abilities. The research includes 436 children from primary schools in Krško and Brežice and from the music schools in both towns. The results show that the achievements on Bentley's test increase by age with the children who are visiting music school as well as with those who are not; but with the first group the improvement is faster, and the development finishes earlier and on a higher level. In all the sub-tests and in the whole test, significant differences are shown in the benefit of the children who are visiting music school. On the whole, the differences between boys and girls are not significant, but some significant differences are being found within the two groups. The results of the research show some lawfulness in the development of basic music abilities and also some factors that influence it; so the results may be help at planning and modelling musical-pedagogic process.
Keywords: psychology of music, musical abilities, development, gender differences, musicians, nonmusicians
