Effects of Instructional Models and Musical Creativity on Undergraduate Students’ Traditional Music Ability

This study examines differences and interaction effects among undergraduate students’ traditional music ability, instructional models, and musical creativity. A quantitative comparative design was employed with a sample of 36 students from the Department of Drama, Dance, and Music Arts at Universitas Negeri Padang, Indonesia. Participants were selected through purposive sampling and assigned to an experimental group and a control group. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, box plots, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and two-way (2 × 2 factorial) ANOVA using Jeffreys’s Amazing Statistics Program (JASP). The results indicate that students with high musical creativity achieved higher traditional music ability scores (M = 73.33, SD = 2.35) than those with low musical creativity (M = 62.78, SD = 4.76), F(1,16) = 35.567, p = 0.001, η² = 0.69. Students who received explicit instruction also attained higher traditional music ability scores than those taught using the conventional instructional model, with this difference most evident among students in the high-creativity group (M = 73.5 versus M = 61.0). The two-way ANOVA revealed significant main effects for musical creativity (p = 0.012) and instructional model (p = 0.001), as well as a significant interaction effect between the two factors (p = 0.001). Overall, the findings indicate that instructional approach and musical creativity jointly shape traditional music ability outcomes, with explicit instruction most effective among students with higher levels of creativity.