The musicality of 3-year-old children within the context of research-based musical engagement

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature and development of musicality among 3-year-old children within the context of a researcher-designed program of musical engagement. Musicality was defined as the state of being musical: or possessing an understanding of, aptitude for, or ability to engage in music. A mixed methods design was employed.; Forty-six children from 3 preschools were divided into experimental and control groups. I administered a test of developmental music aptitude [ Audie (Gordon, 1989)] and the Singing Voice Development Measure (SVDM) (Rutkowski, 1990) to all children prior to and following treatment. Children in the experimental group received 30 minutes of musical engagement each week for 12 weeks.; Analysis showed a significant difference (p < .01) between the means of the control and experimental groups on the SVDM posttest. No significant differences (p < .05) were found between groups on the music aptitude posttests.; Two ancillary quantitative findings were: (1) a gender difference on the pretest SVDM indicating that females scored significantly higher than males (p < .05); and (2) a significant (p < .05) correlation between the tonal Audie and SVDM posttest scores.; I conducted case studies on three children in the experimental group. Parents and teachers shared anecdotal evidence of the children's musical behaviors. I also observed the children in school and home settings, and videotaped all music classes.; Qualitative data were analyzed and coded for emergent themes. Within-case themes included hesitancy around singing, child-constructed patterns during music classes, and music as an alternate form of communication. Across-case themes included children's fondness for repetition and initial hesitancy toward musical expression. Other themes related to adults' provision of musical experiences for children and adults' motivations for providing music opportunities.; Qualitative and quantitative findings were converged at the end of the study. The findings from each method were shown to corroborate and illuminate the findings of the other.; It was concluded that research-based musical engagement has a positive effect on the singing of 3-year-old children. Such engagement might also affect other aspects of musicality including disposition toward music, comfort with musical expression, and prevalence of music making.