Effects on Colored Musical Notes on Learning

3 Pages 631 Words

Color is an important element in many people’s lives. A reaserch article entitled “Effect of Colored Rhythmic Notation on Music-Reading Skills of Elementary Students” analyzes the use of color in music. George L. Rogers researched how the use of color affected the learning abilities of young children to read and interpret music symbols. Rogers found that the use of color did not only improve the skills of the children, but they also found the material more fun and enjoyable when the notes were in color.
Rogers stated that there is a “ considerable body of educational research outside music suggesting that the use of color in instrumental materials can improve student performance and retention” (15). Rogers presents a number of examples from subjects outside of music that exemplify the benefit of color in educational materials. One of these tests involved students watching instructional videos in class. One group of students viewed the colored version of the video, while another group viewed the black and white version of the film. It was found that “students who viewed a colored version… scored significantly higher on both immediate and delayed tests than did students who viewed a monochrome version. This study also found that students of different ability levels were affected differently by the presence or absence of color in the instructional materials” (16).
There have been other studies that have “investigated” the effect of color-coded instructional materials in printed form. A reasercher named Lamberski found that “color-coded instructional materials were more effective than were black-and-white materials” (16). The use of color-coding had a more positive effect on tests of visual memory as compared to verbal memory (16).
Rogers also discusses the use of color in math. The use of color in graphs and charts to teach numerical relationships has proven useful in teaching math to low-achieving a...