The rhythmic and tonal musical abilities in the functional-learning music kindergarten children

Musical abilities include a number of abilities developed under the influence of innate dispositions, environment, maturity, informal music learning experience and formal music education. The paper aims to identify the potential difference between the musical abilities of preschool and early school-age children at the initial and final testing stages and whether there is any difference between the rhythmic and tonal component of their musical abilities in terms of their sex. The survey was conducted on a sample of 70 respondents. The respondents were second-year students of the Elly Bašić Functional-Learning Music Kindergarten in Zagreb. A general information questionnaire was used in the survey, as well as the Gordon Primary Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA) test, as an indispensable measuring tool used to identify the key music potential variables in a timely, reliable and objective manner.The obtained results indicate that the tonal and rhythmic aptitude of the participants in the survey were substantially higher at the final stage of testing with respect to the initial one. Moreover, the sex of the participants in the survey did not prove to be a significant musical aptitude predictor.The author calls for changes to the music school curriculum aimed at integrating preschool music education into the formal music education system.