Musical Talent Assessment

Music Aptitude

The capacity to discriminate sound is detectable prior to birth and observable from infancy. Music psychologists define this capacity of aural discrimination as music aptitude. According to leading music psychologists Carl Seashore and Edwin Gordon, music aptitude is displayed in children from an early age prior to musical training, does not vary with intelligence, and is measurable reliably by the age of 10.

Gordon's battery of music aptitude tests assesses music aptitude from kindergarten to adulthood, all based on the concept of audiation. Audiation is internal realization of sound through recall or creation with the sound not physically present. Tests measure aural discrimination of pitch, rhythm, dynamics, and instrumental timbre. Gordon recommends the use of the Intermediate Measures of Music Audiation to measure high music aptitude in young children because its test ceiling is higher than the Primary Measures of Music Audiation, which measures normal music aptitude in Grades K–3.

Debate on the use of music aptitude testing as an assessment measure of musical talent encompasses the nurture–nature argument of musical talent being a product of skill development and achievement rather than inherent from birth. The use of music aptitude testing as one component of a talent assessment procedure provides an objective measurement of aural discrimination or fine-tuned listening ability.

Musical Intelligence

Musical intelligence describes the cognitive-developmental process of learning through music, with the assessment of musical talent reliant on how a student demonstrates conceptual understanding while problem solving in musical tasks. The concept of musical intelligence stems back to early Chinese and Greek theories of music and is included in the texts of Carl Seashore. More recently, Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences was instrumental in extending the term to an audience beyond specialized musical fields.

Musical intelligence studies by Jeanne Bamberger, Lyle Davidson, and Larry Scripp show that talented students are adept at shifting between different representations of a musical task (performing, reading a score, listening) and are more inventive in the way they solve musical problems. Curricular-based assessment of musical intelligence includes portfolio development and domain projects that broaden musical performance to include production, perception, and reflection. Musical intelligence assessment emphasizes the student's creative functioning while engaged in musical tasks.

Musical Performance Ability

The audition is the traditional mainstay for recognition and assessment of musical talent in the fields of music performance and music education. Musical performance is inextricably meshed with commitment and achievement, with early detection of talent reliant on rapid skill development of performance abilities. John Sloboda and K. Anders Ericcson, researchers in the field of expertise of performance, argue that the element of deliberate practice over time is the deciding factor of musical talent rather than any innately determined superiority of musical capacities from birth.

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