An Investigation of Movement to Music and Rhythmic Pattern Reading Flash-Slide Training in Fifth- and Sixth-Grade Music Classes.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the effect of movement-to-music and rhythmic pattern reading flash-slide training programs on the development of kinesthetic response to rhythm in music (i.e., one's ability to synchronize rhythmic movement to music) and rhythmic reading skills. An ancillary purpose was to determine the relationship between kinesthetic response to rhythm in music and rhythmic performance/sight-reading achievement. The "MLR Test of Kinesthetic Response to Rhythm in Music" (TKRRM), by Froseth, was used as a pretest-posttest measure. The Musical Aptitude Profile, by Gordon, was employed to study relationships between musical aptitude and (1) rhythmic performance/sight-reading, and (2) kinesthetic response to rhythm in music. A researcher-designed criterion-reference test (CRT) was an additional posttest measure. Fifth- and sixth-grade students (N = 138) served as subjects and received two thirty-minute general music lessons per week. Additionally, each student was r and omly assigned to one of four research groups (i.e., one control, three experimental). Research groups received two fifteen-minute periods of specialized rhythmic reading instruction per week. Experimental groups one and three received rhythmic movement instruction. Experimental groups two and three received rhythmic pattern reading flash-slide instruction. The investigator served as the instructor of the classrooms and research groups during the sixteen and one-half-week experimental period. Analyses for the combined fifth- and sixth-grade population indicated that: (1) differences between groups on the TKRRM were significant (p < .05), favoring experimental groups one (movement training) and three (movement/flash-slide training) over the control group and experimental group two (flash-slide training), and (2) differences between groups on the CRT composite and CRT rhythmic performance/sight-reading section were not significant. The data indicated that kinesthetic response to rhythm in music skills of elementary students can be improved through training. It seems probable that more instructional time is required than was incorporated in this study for programs that include movement/flash-slide training in order to affect significantly the rhythmic reading skills of fifth- and sixth-grade students.