Compositional Strategies and Musical Creativity When Composing With Staff Notations Versus Graphic Notations Among Korean Students

The purpose of the study was to examine compositional strategies and musical creativity when composing with staff notations (traditional group) versus graphic notations (non-traditional group). Subjects were 38 seventh-grade students (N = 38; 18 males, 20 females) enrolled in junior high schools in Seoul, Korea. They were randomly assigned to either the traditional or non-traditional groups. The traditional group students composed music using staff notations, and the non-traditional group students composed music using graphic notations. Their performances of the compositions were videotape-recorded for assessments of musical creativity by independent judges. When they finished composing, they were asked to describe their compositional strategies on the Compositional Strategies Questionnaire devised by the investigators. The results showed that: (a) the non-traditional group used more diverse compositional strategies than the traditional group, and the difference was significant (p < .02); and (b) the non-traditional group showed significantly higher musical creativity in their compositions than the traditional group (p < .02). The results suggest that composing music with graphic notations can facilitate students to use more diverse compositional strategies and to make up more creative compositions than composing music with staff notations. Future studies should seek to confirm the connection between qualitative and quantitative data for creative processes and products in music.