The effect of pre-listening on the sight-reading performance of undergraduate guitar students

The purpose of this study is to set forth in what level does pre-listening an aural model effect the sight-reading performances of undergraduate guitar students.A single group pre-test post-test design was used for the investigation. For utilization during the experimental process, two sight-reading pieces were written by the investigator, and were made equivalent through expert views. Same pieces were recorded, being played by the investigator. On the pre-test phase, students sight-read one of the pieces, which was randomly selected. On the post-test phase, students sight-read the second piece, but this time listened to the recorded model of the piece right before they played. Performances were video-recorded by digital camera and attention was paid for the students not to play the same piece both at pre-test and post-test.Students? performances were evaluated by three experts, using a rubric scale which was adapted to guitar and sight-reading, orginally developed for the piano. The scale includes nine criterions under the titles of skills, technique, musicality and integrity. It was also investigated wheter the level of being effected by pre-listening changed due to class-levels, sorts of high-schools which the students were graduated from and students? self-evaluations about their own performances .Evidence showed that, pre-listening had no significant effect on any of the sub-criterions or the total score, except the negative effect on ?accurate fingering? extent. Neverthless, a statistically significant effectiveness of pre-listening on the students attending I. and II. classes was established in pitch accuracy subcriterion.