Music Techniques; Musical Instruments

This report describes a program for intensifying student motivation to increase their weekly instrumental practice time. The targeted population was second and third-year instrumental music students in grades 5-6. The students were drawn from two different elementary schools within the same district in an upper-middle class community adjacent to a major metropolitan area. Intervention strategies included a student survey on choice of repertoire, arrangement of the chosen selections in keys and tessitura that were appropriate to the age and experience of the target population, and the scheduling of a special concert for student to perform their selections. Post intervention data indicated an increase in practice time and a decrease in attrition rate for students in the experimental group. Further analysis yielded no significant change in lesson attendance for either the control group or the experimental group. Students from both schools expressed a desire to explore music of different styles and genres