Practice has a marked effect on an

Practice has a marked effect on an individual's ability to identify musical notes, that is dis tinct from the inital capacity of the individual, or from the type of instrument used in producing the notes. The observers in these tests improved irregularly from trial to trial in identifying piano notes, violin notes and the fundamental notes in tonic chords. A short period of practice covering an interval of about eight weeks with two ten minute practice periods a week brings an increase in the number of correct identifications and a corresponding decrease in the size of the errors made. Longer periods show continued improvement more or less irregular in its progress. Little sign of fixed plateaus is apparent in any of the results. The amount retained after the lapse of a year without practice is in some measure proportional to the degree of ability acquired through practice. In most cases some of the ability is lost over this period, although in a few cases progress rather than forgetting seems to have taken place.