Direct Instruction of Absolute Pitch Using the Theremin as a Musical Instrument and Experimental Apparatus

Direct Instruction (DI) is a method of education that has historically been applied to improve academic behaviors. Though DI has a modest history of teaching musical literacy skills, its application in teaching music performance skills has been limited. This article presents two methods derived from DI principles to teach the advanced musical skill of absolute pitch using the theremin as a unique musical instrument and experimental apparatus. The two methods are optimized for either fast learning of the new skill or assessment of the skill in a general sample of participants, and both are shown to significantly improve posttraining performance. Instructors recruited 53 college aged participants with a variety of music education histories across two studies (16 participants in Study 1; 37 participants in Study 2) for participation in either of the novel DI protocols for teaching absolute pitch using prompt fading. All participants showed significantly improved absolute pitch accuracy above baseline following 1 hr or less of DI with either method. Implications and suggestions for educators and researchers are discussed.