“Can you write down this melody?” An investigation of the music writing skills of school orchestra students
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21684489 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Katarzyna Julia Leikvoll (0000-0002-8588-9202, University of Bergen, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-22 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Research Studies in Music Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1321-103X • E-ISSN: 1834-5530 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1321103x261419404 |
| OpenAlex | W7131117724 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 32 |
This article examines the music writing skills of instrumental students. The study participants, aged 8 to 19 ( n = 78), from four school orchestras in Western Norway, none of them beginners, were asked to write down a well-known children’s song on a blank staff. 8.7% of the participants performed the task correctly, using all the necessary musical symbols. 66.7% of the participants wrote all the pitches correctly, while 25.8% wrote all the note values correctly. The nonparametric correlation test (Spearman) revealed a significant correlation between age and the number of correctly written note values and pitches. These results suggest that student recognition of pitches and rhythm patterns while playing does not transfer directly to the ability to write down the same notes and patterns. Understanding the relationship between pitches and their place on the staff seems to be less cognitively demanding than notation of the time relation between the note values. The results are compared with findings from the field of language literacy and discussed from an educational perspective, arguing that writing is an important a means to enhance music literacy skills
Literacy · Music education · Musical · Musical notation · Notation · Diverse Music Education Insights · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Neuroscience and Music Perception
Learning to Read Words
Reading and Writing Relations and Their Development
Eye movements in reading words and sentences
Writing to Read
Expanding the Direct and Indirect Effects Model of Writing (Diew)
How the use of music writing can enhance the understanding of a musical notation system among instrumental pupils
Effects of Pitch and Rhythm Priming Tasks on Accuracy and Fluency During Sight-Reading
Predictors of Music Sight-Reading Ability in High School Wind Players
The Effect of Prescribed Rhythmical Movements on the Ability to Read Music at Sight
Effects of Two Listening Strategies for Melodic Dictation
The Relationships Among Instrumental Sight-Reading Ability and Seven Selected Predictor Variables
| Highly cited | No |
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