Path Analysis of a Theoretical Model to Describe the Relationship among Five Types of Musical Performance

Abstract

Path analysis was used to test a model designed to encapsulate the flow of influences theorized to exist between five types of musical performance and four factors derived from a researcher-administered questionnaire. Results, using a sample of 101 high school wind instrumentalists, reveal major differences in the pattern of influences leading to the re-creative skill of performing a repertoire of rehearsed music for a formal music examination, compared to the creative ability of improvising. Performing a repertoire of rehearsed music was found to be influenced most by an ability to sight-read, together with a factor consisting of variables concerned with the length of time a subject had been studying his or her instrument and taking lessons. In sharp contrast, an ability to improvise was most markedly influenced by an ability to play by ear. Results for this sample of instrumentalists exposed to a “traditional” style of teaching also suggest that instrumentalists' ability to sight-read may be influenced by how well they are able to play by ear.