The present study was designed to investigate how prior aural familiarity with a musical excerpt affected music learning and performance in school age students taking piano lessons. Specifically, the study examined how accurately piano students (n=22) played the rhythms and notes of an excerpt of a familiar piece of video game music compared to unfamiliar music of similar style and difficulty. Effects of age, piano training, and student practice time were also measured.
Students were given a sight-reading pre-test and an identical post-test following two weeks of practice. The sight-reading test consisted of two musical examples, one familiar and one unfamiliar, which were both 16 beats long and were effectively equivalent in terms of difficulty. Students were asked to perform each piece twice, and were then asked to practice the pieces at home and write down the number of minutes practiced. The process was repeated with the same piece for the post-test. Performances were scored based on rhythmic accuracy and performance (notes and rhythms) accuracy. Results were analyzed for familiarity level (familiar or unfamiliar), performance condition (pre-test or post-test), student age, piano training (measured in years), and student practice time (measured in minutes for each piece) for both rhythmic accuracy and performance accuracy.
For both rhythmic accuracy and performance accuracy, significant main effects were found for familiarity level and performance condition: students responded more accurately on the familiar piece and on the post-test condition. No significant effects were found for subject age, piano training, or student practice time. For both rhythmic accuracy and performance accuracy, a significant interaction occurred between familiarity level and performance condition: student scores rose from pre-test to post-test for both conditions of familiarity level, but the growth in student scores was stronger for the familiar piece than for the unfamiliar piece. Results seem to suggest that prior aural familiarity may assist student rhythmic accuracy and performance accuracy, particularly when accompanied by student practice.