Aspects of music performance that are most highly related to musical sophistication.

Abstract

Over the last 2 decades, 5 skills relating to visual (performing rehearsed music, sight-reading), aural (playing by ear, playing from memory), and creative (improvising) aspects of music performance have been defined and investigated. To date, however, there has been little research investigating the relationship between these 5 aspects of performance on general musicianship, and none using psychometric measures. The aim of this study was to empirically investigate this relationship through the use of the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI). With the exception of ‘Sight-reading,’ results show that all skills were correlated with musical sophistication, with the ‘Playing by Ear’ skill having the highest correlation (explaining 47.0% of the variance). Further analysis with individual Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index subscales revealed specific interrelationships and attributions to Western art music-making practices. For example, the Performing Rehearsed Music skill was predicted by the Musical Training, Emotions, and Singing Abilities subscales; Playing by Ear was predicted by the Active Engagement and Singing Abilities subscales; and Improvising was predicted by the Active Engagement subscale. Only Sight-Reading had no significant predictors. The implications for each skill toward current musical training methods is highlighted and discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)