A Study of the Perception of Instrumental Tone Color by Children of Nursey School Age

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine experimentally if nursey school children can discriminate between the tonal colors of various instruments, if children of three or four hear only gross differences, if there is a difference between these two as groups and between the two sexes, and if home background had any influence. Fifty-nine children were given a test consisting of four dentical pairs of instruments playing portions of familiar tunes. The children listened to the recording and were to decide whether the tune was played both times by one instrument or by a different instrument each time. The results were that: (1) Children of nursey-school age recognized instrumental tone color in varying degrees. (2) There was a marked difference in the discrimination ability of children 54-63 months old as compared to those of 35-44 months. (3) No differences were found in performance between sexes. (4) Children with rich musical backgrounds tended to score higher, although no definite conclusions could be drawn from information supplied by the parents. (5) Fifty percent of the children differentiated between the violin and trumpet, flute and violin, cello and bassoon, English horn and French horn, and oboe and muted trumpet. Fifty percent answered that the trombone and French horn were different. It was concluded that performance varied with individual differences and that children's listening skills become more discriminative at about 54 months of age on the average.

Keyword(s): nursery, preschool, children, perception, instruments, tone-quality, discrimination, musical-instruments.

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