ABSTRACT
Measuring musical aptitude and ability requires deciding what is important in light of the test user's conception of aptitude and ability. Musical form is based on patterns of unity, achieved through repetition, and variety. Carl Seashore believed in a "theory of specifics," that is, musical ability is a set of loosely related basic sensory discrimination skills. In many instances a test user really is interested in a student's ability to succeed in the context of formal music instruction with its requisite social and disciplinary aspects. Wing-Wah, an eminent British music psychologist, believed in, and in an early factor analytic study, found a general factor of musical ability that should pervade all areas of musical learning. The person who believes in a general factor of musical ability and a certain degree of "musicality" as characterizing the musically apt student may find the Wing test useful.
