Polyrhythmic Tapping: Examining the Effectiveness of the Strategy of Organizing Rhythmic Structures through Synthesis

Abstract

In this study the strategy of organizing rhythmic structures through synthesis is named, and defined, and its procedures are described. Its effectiveness for teaching the execution of 3:2, 4:3, 8:3, 5:4, and 3:5 polyrhythmic structures is examined and described. Pre-test and Post-test Control Group Design was employed to test the effectiveness of the strategy of organizing rhythmic structures through synthesis. The participants of the study were undergraduate students (N = 18) in their second year of study at the Gaziosmanpasa University Education Faculty's Music Education Department in the fall semester of the 2012-2013 academic year. The Polyrhythmic Tapping Test was used as a measuring instrument. Two tests were employed in this study. The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test was employed to analyze the pre-test and post-test data from both the experimental and control groups. The Mann Whitney U Test was used as a one-sided test to determine the variances (for the experimental and control groups) before the experiment and to determine the variances after the experiment. The results confirm that organizing rhythmic structures through synthesis is an effective way to learn how to perform 3:2, 4:3, 8:3, 5:4, and 3:5 polyrhythmic structures.