A study of the aesthetic responses of undergraduate students to music

Abstract

To yield the educational value of music education in schools, most music educators align music education with aesthetic education. Accordingly, the development of the aesthetic responsiveness and sensitivities of students have been widely embraced. Yet, there is little or no information regarding the delivery of music education which, in part, can contribute to the evocation of important aesthetic experience in listeners. This research work was an attempt to study the aesthetic responses of Ghanaian undergraduate students to music with the primary purpose of providing a strong information base for the delivery of music education in Ghana. Using a mixed method design, I compared the aesthetic responses of music and non-music students to six musical types. All subjects used the Continuous Response Digital Interface (CRDI) to track aesthetic responses to six different musical selections. Also, questionnaire administered after each listening experience asked subjects to indicate whether or not each had an aesthetic response. It was found that the frequency and magnitude of subjects' perceived aesthetic experiences were different for music and non-music majors. All subjects differentiated across the various musical selections, indicating relatively higher and lower aesthetic interest at various points within the music. Analyses of emergent data indicated that music students differed significantly from non-music students in aesthetic responsiveness.