01 / Constructs
Framework, questionnaire, and future study are different things.
Conceptual framework
The Musical Aptitude Triad proposes tonal, performative, and expressive aptitude as distinct, interdependent dimensions of musical behavior.
Public questionnaire
Prototype 05 operationalizes those dimensions for structured self-reflection. It is a development instrument, not proof that the proposed factor structure is correct.
Empirical research program
Expert review, item analysis, reliability, construct comparison, invariance, longitudinal evidence, and norms would be separate studies with separate consent and data governance.
02 / Composition
Equal domain standing; different evidence types.
The Triad bank contains exactly 30 items per domain. Tonal has 26 statements and four listening tasks; Performative has 26 statements and four listening tasks; Expressive has 27 statements and three listening tasks. The 12 magnitude items are outside the triangle and cover continuity, intensity, applied experience, and transfer.
- Tonal
- 26 statements + 4 listening tasks
- Performative
- 26 statements + 4 listening tasks
- Expressive
- 27 statements + 3 listening tasks
- Magnitude
- 3 items in each of 4 dimensions
03 / Scoring
The equations are part of the public instrument.
- 01
Statement average
Each domain’s 1–5 behavior responses are averaged.
- 02
Listening average
Confidence from Definitely A to Definitely B is keyed to the intended version. A confident intended answer scores 5; unsure scores 3; a confident opposite answer scores 1. Unable-to-assess responses are omitted.
- 03
Domain score
When at least one listening task is available:
0.80 × statement average + 0.20 × available listening average. If no audio task in that domain is assessable, the statement average is used alone. - 04
Relative Triad position
Each domain score is divided by the sum of all three. The resulting shares total 100% and determine the point’s position; they are not population percentiles.
- 05
Magnitude
The 0–100 exploratory index combines the normalized 12-item magnitude module at 75% and the normalized mean pre-share domain score at 25%. It changes point size, never triangle position.
Complete, partial-listening, and self-report-only results have different evidence bases and should not be compared as though they were interchangeable.
04 / Audio provenance
Original synthetic stimuli; no sampled recordings.
All 22 WAV files used by the 11 paired listening tasks were generated programmatically for this prototype. They contain no speech, performer recording, commercial music, or third-party sampled audio.
05 / Interpretation boundary
Useful as reflection; insufficient for high-stakes decisions.
- No population norms, percentile meaning, cut scores, or evidence of diagnostic accuracy.
- No confirmed three-factor, higher-order, or bifactor model.
- No established measurement invariance across cultures, repertoires, languages, ages, disability, training histories, or professional groups.
- Self-report may reflect confidence, opportunity, vocabulary, role, and current context as well as ability.
- The short synthetic listening tasks do not represent the full musical diversity of tonal, performative, or expressive behavior.
- Do not use a result to hire, exclude, diagnose, credential, or determine artistic worth.
06 / Release history
Material scoring changes receive a new prototype number.
Added an explicit unable-to-assess option for listening tasks, complete/partial/self-report-only result labels, a privacy-preserving Profile Passport, route-specific share metadata, and a public instrument record. A domain uses statements alone when none of its audio tasks can be assessed.
First publicly documented balanced release: 90 Triad items—30 per domain—with 79 behavior statements and 11 scored listening tasks, plus the separate 12-item Developmental Expansion magnitude module.
Early working iterations informed the public instrument, but item-level public release notes were not preserved. They are not presented here as stable or citable instruments.