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 musica l creativity when composing with staff notations (traditional group) versus graphic notations(non-traditional group). Subjects were 38 seventh-grade s tudents (N=38; 18 males, 20 females) enrolled in junior high schools in Seo ul, Korea. They were randomly assigned to either the traditional or non-tra ditional groups. The traditional group students composed music using staff notations, and the non-traditional group students composed music using grap hic notations. Their performances of the compositions were videotape-record ed for assessments of musical creativity by independent judges. When they f inished composing, they were asked to describe their compositional strategi es on the Compositional Strategies Questionnaire devised by the investigato rs. The results showed that: (a) the non-traditional group used more divers e compositional strategies than the traditional group, and the difference w as significant(p < .02); and (b) the non-traditional group showed significa ntly higher musical creativity in their compositions than the traditional g roup (p < .02). The results suggest that composing music with graphic notat ions can facilitate students to use more diverse compositional strategies a nd to make up more creative compositions than composing music with staff no tations. Future studies should seek to confirm the connection between quali tative and quantitative data for creative processes and products in music.