Avocational guidance in music

Abstract

Justifies the significance of avocational guidance in helping youth to select and organize their avocational pursuits, especially music. Differentiates between the selection of music for pleasure as opposed to selection for professional purposes and emphasizes the need for avocational guidance as separate from vocational guidance. Discusses an attempt to develop a series of tests to be used as an integral part of the musical instruction in the fifth grade. These tests were based on three elemental capacities of hearing necessary for music: sense of pitch, of time and of intensity. Sense of consonance, auditory memory span and imaginal type were also considered. The purpose of these tests were to cultivate musical interest rather than to recognize talent for professional purposes. Work is being done towards analyzing talents, developing measurements and norms and determining the significance of the findings in education and music. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)