Effects of Score Study and Conducting Gesture on Collegiate Musicians’ Ability to Detect Errors in a Choral Score

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of score study and conducting gesture on collegiate musicians’ ability to detect errors in a choral score. Is there a combined effect of gesture and score study that impacts undergraduate conductors’ identification of errors in a score? Participants (N = 53) viewed a sequence of four choral score excerpts presented via Zoom video conferencing. We asked participants to identify errors under one of four conditions: score study with a correct model recording, conducting with a simple timekeeping pattern while listening, both score study and conducting, or neither. After listening to each excerpt, participants notified the researcher about the exact location, voice part, and error type of any error that they heard. There were significant differences among conditions, with post hoc tests indicating superior error detection scores for the score study conditions. Conducting during the error detection task resulted in lower error detection scores, especially when not preceded by score study with a correct aural model.