Relationships Between Grades in the Components of Freshman Music Theory and Selected Background Variables

Abstract

The relative contributions of measures of academic ability, music experience, and musical aptitude in predicting grades in the written-work, ear-training, sight-singing, and keyboard-harmony components of each of two freshman music theory courses were determined by multiple regression techniques. The best predictor of grades in the written-work component of both semester courses and in the ear-training component of the first semester course was the math portion of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Measures of music experience and musical aptitude were the best predictors of grades in the sight-singing and keyboard-harmony components of both semester courses and in the ear-training component of the second-semester course. The results of canonical correlation analysis of the first-semester data suggested the presence of one general dimension.