Digitally mediated keyboard learning: Speed of mastery, level of retention and student perspectives

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-1-2016

Journal / Book Title

Journal of Music, Technology, and Education

Abstract

In this study, four different media were investigated regarding learning to play keyboard instruments on beginning level musical selections. Among these were Synthesia, eMedia, YouTube piano tutorials and standard Paper Notation. A sample of 564 beginning keyboard instrument students in grades 6–12 was measured on timed learning tasks to determine speed to mastery, level of retention and perspectives. Results indicated that Synthesia was more effective than the other three learning approaches at enabling students to quickly master beginning level songs and retain that information on a post-test seven days later. These data are potentially transformative in providing open access, efficient, relevant, personalized and effective music education experiences to greater numbers of students who might be marginalized.

DOI

10.1386/jmte.9.2.145_1

Journal ISSN / Book ISBN

ISSN 2397-6721 (Print); ISSN 2397-673X (Online)

Published Citation

Cremata, R. & Powell, B. (2016) Digitally mediated keyboard learning: Speed of mastery, level of retention and student perspectives. Journal of Music, Technology, and Education, 9(2)

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