TESTS NOW SHOW IF CHILD IS TONE DEAF OR MUSICAL (Aug, 1931)
TESTS NOW SHOW IF CHILD IS TONE DEAF OR MUSICAL
Has Junior a natural ear for music? Or are his piano lessons wasted effort? It’s easy to find out at once, according to Prof. Harold M. Williams, of the University of Iowa Child Welfare Research Station. Tests he has devised show whether a child has a real sense of rhythm and whether he can keep a tune in singing.
A rhythm hammer provides the first test. With it a.child is asked to tap on a plate, in time with the clicks of a special electric clock. Electric wires lead from plate and clock to another room, where on a chart whirled by a phonograph turntable an automatic pen records how closely the child has followed the clock’s beat. In another test, a child is asked to sing a song he has learned. An experimenter sits near by with a telephone transmitter. In another room, a special photographic apparatus makes a sound picture of the child’s singing and shows whether he can carry a tune.
Wasn’t the professor named Harold Hill? And the city was “River City”, I believe . . . .
Comment by Don — March 28, 2008 @ 4:56 am
This looks like trouble with a capital T!
Comment by Blurgle — March 28, 2008 @ 7:02 am
You think the circle on the right was done by a black kid, the one on the left by a white one?
I’m just sayin’…
Comment by Stannous — March 28, 2008 @ 11:54 am
yes, you could buy this thing,like a lunatic, or you could just be a normal person and notice how your kid sings and moves around, when she sings and moves around, and she will, they do both, a lot.
At first I thought, this contraption just causes tension for the child, but anyone who would buy this, has already messed up their child, so they might as well just get it, if not this, it’ll just be something else.
When I read these ads, I wish I could know how many of the item were sold.
Addie
Comment by addiefleur — March 31, 2008 @ 4:50 pm
Interesting test. My concern is that the test doesn’t account for variables like a child’s maturity level, age, ability to concentrate at a given moment… In my opinion, the last thing a parent would want to do is label a kid’s musicality based on this one test.
Comment by Daniel E. Friedman — April 7, 2008 @ 3:59 am