The first National Assessment of Music, conducted in 1971-72, measured the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of 9 year olds, 13 year olds, 17 year olds, and young adults, resulting in estimates of proportions of people in the population who have certain attitudes toward music, knowledge about music terminology, notaion and history, and musical performance skills. For the assessment of performance skills, new types of exercises and administration procedures were designed, and scoring criteria for the variety of performance tasks were developed. Standard instructions were given at all levels, and responses were recorded so they could be evaluated and scored later by trained music educators. The scorers counted errors in completeness, pitch, and rhythm, and the summary of these was the score for overall quality. In each category, the error rate determined whether a performance was "markedly deficient" or not. This development of methodologies for constructing items and scoring criteria for measuring musical performance skills across a wide range of abilities in the population was a pioneer effect. (BW) Primary type of information provided by report: Procedures (Scoring).