Observation
During the final teaching session I was able to observe four students, who had not previously completed the tasks, working at computers with headphones, listening to the music and completing the examination-type tasks I had given them. I observed silently, joining them in conversation only if they instigated this. They used Windows Media Player to listen to the tracks, and often appeared to listen to the first minute or so several times, before committing themselves to writing on the page. I saw only one person draw the melody in the air, using very small hand movements. I observed one student listening and winding back the music four or more times without committing himself to writing. When he spoke to me, I asked him, ‘how do you know which are the missing notes?’ He told me that he imagined playing a keyboard on the table he was working at. When I asked him, ‘can you show me?’ he activated the music and used the rubber on the end of his pencil to ‘play’ the imaginary keyboard.