Summary of Project Option in Lieu of Thesis
            Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida
                  in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
                            Degree of Master of Music

                    THE EFFECT OF COLOR MATERIALS ON
        STUDENT PERFORMANCE OF ORIGINAL MUSIC COMPOSITIONS

                                       By

                                   Lacey Cupp

                                 December 2009

Chair: Timothy Brophy
Major: Music Education

      The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which color materials

affected student performance of original music compositions. Twenty-five second-grade

students were instructed to compose a melody for a learned rhyme using only the

available pitches on the xylophone. The music teacher guided both groups of students

through the composition process. Students in Group One used regular pencils to notate

their compositions and non-colored mallets to perform their composition on the

xylophone. Students in Group Two used colored pencils to notate their compositions.

These students performed on the xylophone using colored mallets, which coordinated

with the notation of their composition.

      Performances were recorded and analyzed for accuracy. A point was awarded

for each note played as written with a maximum of sixteen points. Student scores

ranged from three to sixteen points. A t-test result of p=.03 indicated students using

color materials performed more accurately than students using non-color materials.