Cognitive modelling of early music reading skill acquisition for piano: A comparison of the Middle-C and Intervallic methods

In the classical music tradition, knowing how to read music is an essential skill and is seen as a fundamental component to develop when learning to play the piano. This research’s focus is to study the possible impact of the different teaching approach on the acquisition of initial reading skills. By using cognitive modeling, we are hoping to observe through computer simulation the problem solving and decisionmaking tasks involved in decoding a simple musical score. The paper introduces the Middle-C and Intervallic methods followed by a description of an ACT-R cognitive model and simulation results upon learning with each of the piano methods.