EFFECTS OF MUSICAL APTITUDE, ACADEMIC ABILITY, MUSIC EXPERIENCE, AND MOTIVATION ON AURAL SKILLS

A latent-trait model describing the influence of musical aptitude, academic ability, music experience, and motivation for music on the development of aural skills by 142 music theory students was evaluated. The model accounted for 73% of the total aural skills variance, with the ear-training and sight-singing components variance being accounted for by the model at 79% and 44%, respectively. Musical aptitude had the largest effect on performance in the aural skills components of the theory course, and the effects of academic ability and music experience were also statistically significant. Motivation for music did not affect aural skills performance, and it did not correlate significantly with any of the other latent variables. © 1994, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.