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Dear Roger,<BR>
<BR>
The AMMA is used widely in music education circles, and I believe the music education faculty have been giving the AMMA to all incoming freshmen at Eastman for about 5 years now. I know that these faculty have been investigating whether there is a correlation between AMMA and performance on instrumental juries. I am not sure whether this research has been published. I’ll try to find out from the primary investigator and I’ll post the citation if it has.<BR>
<BR>
I gave the test to myself (from the computer-implemented version of the test you buy on DVD; it spits out a score at the end). I’m trying to remember exactly how it works. My recollection is that the AMMA is designed like a same-different discrimination test — in most of these tests, you hear two melodies and have to report whether they were the same or different. The AMMA has a different wrinkle — you have to say whether the two melodies are <I>similar </I>or different. The similar melodies are embellished versions of the original (the instructions says the similar melody “will always have more notes”). It’s a little like identifying parallel and contrasting periods. The tempi are fast, and the melodies are often syncopated, and are composed in many modes (you might get a long syncopated Phrygian melody, that’s a little hard to remember, then you hear another one — is is similar or different?). It’s not so easy!<BR>
<BR>
The AMMA is also used in music cognition experimentation. I just went on Google Scholar and typed “music perception AMMA” and got over 1,000 hits, many of them in the Journal of Research in Music Education, but many also in Music Perception, Nature, and various scientific journals. It seems to be used more and more widely in that community, and you might want to check out some of these articles. (The titles alone are fascinating!) I am using it on a series of experiments investigating whether music aptitude (as measured by the AMMA) or music achievement (number of years studying an instrument) is correlated with the ability to hear music and speech through interfering noise. I have no results to report yet, but Nina Kraus and Ric Ashley have been doing similar work at Northwestern University and have published it. Nina reported on this work as the keynote address at the Society for Music Perception and Cognition, which met last August at Eastman. Hope this helps!<BR>
<BR>
Best,<BR>
Betsy Marvin<BR>
Eastman School of Music<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Times, Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'><B>From: </B>Roger Graybill <<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U><a href="Roger.Graybill@necmusic.edu">Roger.Graybill@necmusic.edu</a></U></FONT>><BR>
<B>Date: </B>Mon, 6 Aug 2012 00:05:38 +0000<BR>
<B>To: </B>"<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U><a href="smt-talk@societymusictheory.org">smt-talk@societymusictheory.org</a></U></FONT>" <<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U><a href="smt-talk@societymusictheory.org">smt-talk@societymusictheory.org</a></U></FONT>><BR>
<B>Subject: </B>[Smt-talk] Aptitude testing<BR>
<BR>
Dear smt-list:<BR>
<BR>
I'm curious to know whether anyone on the list is familiar with an aptitude<BR>
test, designed by Edwin Gordon, that goes by the name "Advanced Measures of<BR>
Music Audiation" (AMMA). Gordon is in the field of music education, and<BR>
over the last several decades he's developed a music learning theory that<BR>
(among other things) trains students in audiation skills.<BR>
<BR>
Gordon contrasts musical aptitude with achievement (the former does not<BR>
depend on notational skills) and he believes that that students who are not<BR>
high achievers can actually possess a high aptitude level. The aptitude<BR>
test that he has designed does not include any notation, and it's intended<BR>
to work for college students as well as secondary students and older adults.<BR>
<BR>
Have any of us on the list administered AMMA to college music majors, and if<BR>
yes, how did it work out?<BR>
<BR>
Please feel free to respond to me privately if you prefer.<BR>
<BR>
Thanks,<BR>
<BR>
Roger Graybill<BR>
<BR>
Faculty, Music Theory Department<BR>
New England Conservatory<BR>
<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U><a href="roger.graybill@necmusic.edu">roger.graybill@necmusic.edu</a><BR>
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