A comparison of notational systems for teaching traditional Korean music /

The purpose of the study was to compare Korean music teachers??? perspectives about\ud different notational systems for teaching minyo (traditional Korean folk song) to 5th- and\ud 6th-grade students. Research questions were: (a) what aspects of teaching minyo to\ud elementary students teachers find most challenging; (b) which specific musical\ud characteristics of minyo are most important in order to teach correct performance practice\ud of minyo to Korean elementary students; and (c) which notational system best conveys\ud specific musical characteristics of minyo. Methodology for the study included a\ud questionnaire which was circulated to forty-five employed Korean elementary music\ud teachers and collected via Survey Monkey software. The results showed that: (a) even\ud though staff notation is often used to teach minyo, teachers found that many of the\ud important musical characteristics of minyo were not well conveyed with staff notation.\ud (b) sigimsae (a term for musical ornaments) was found to be the most important musical\ud characteristic that should be communicated with the notation of minyo; (c) the best\ud notation for minyo would be able to capture the descriptive nature of minyo???s\ud performance practice, such as ornaments and musical nuances, in addition to pitch and\ud rhythm. Future research should seek to develop a new alternative to notational systems\ud currently used and explore new educational technology to find possible alternative\ud notational systems which convey both performance practice with pitch and rhythmic\ud notation for minyo study in Korean elementary schools