Effects of Viewing Music Videos of Musicians Playing on Music Appreciation :

Abstract

The purposes of the present study were to investigate effects of videos showing people playing music on students’ music perception, and to evaluate the practicality of this method for music appreciation classes.  Participants in Study 1 were 11-year-olds (5th grade) and university students.  Half of them viewed a music video (video-auditory condition), and the other half simply listened to the music (auditory condition).  Afterwards, all the participants rated the affective value of the music on a 5-point scale, and answered an open-ended questionnaire about their perceptions.  The results suggested that the video did not influence the affective value of the music, but did inhibit the participants from perceiving elements of the music.  These results led to 2 hypotheses, first, that simply listening was an effective way for the students to perceive the elements of the music and to bring up any images related to the music, and second, that viewing a music video was effective for perceiving the expression of the music and the instruments used, and for motivating students.  Study 2 investigated these hypotheses by comparing 2 teaching methods in two 4th grade music classes (38 and 39 students).  Each class was exposed to one of the conditions.  The results marginally supported the hypotheses, and suggested that simply listening to music had a good effect.  The discussion dealt with the necessity for planning music appreciation classes in view of the purpose for learning and the effect of both audio and audio-visual listening.View full abstract