ABSTRACT

In order to know the correlation between the musical ability of preschoolers and their musical environment at home, this study was performed with 54 preschoolers of 5 year old from 2 different kindergartens at Gongju city. Two basic music abilities, rhythm and pitch, were tested with new test tool which made by author, and the questionary test with mothers of participants were carried out. The new test tool of musical ability was certified enough to use for test purpose regarding as distribution of acquired points and average marks, etc.. Also there is no close relation between musical ability of children and the number and kind of musical instruments at home. The 6 items were investigated in this study such as music lesson, playing instruments, music listening, singing with family, movement and exploring sound. General musical ability among tested children was no significants with sex difference, nevertheless it was revealed significant correlation with birth date of 3 month interval unit. Although there was no statistical correlation, the second child showed higher musical ability in average than the first. In rhythm test, the singing with family showed higher correlation with the group of over 80 point, also music listening, singing with family and exploring sound were the same with the group of under 40 point. So, it should be needed to enforce those items for lower acquired points group to increase for their musical ability. In Pitch test, the higher point group over 80 showed higher correlation with music lesson, also movement and exploring sound were with the lower point group under 40. The systematic music lesson to preschooler could be helpful to develop their musical ability. Conclusionally, it was certified that musical ability of preschooler was related to musical environment at home, so it should be needed to play various musical activities with children`s interest for development of musical ability of preschoolers.