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Ear-tudes: an ear training training method for the collegiat colle giatee tubist Katharine Jane Wohlman Wohlman University of Iowa
Copyright 2013 Katharine Jane Wohlman Tis dissertation is i s available at Iowa Research Online: hp://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2662 hp://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2662 Recommended Citation Wohlman, Wohlman, Katharine Jane. "Ear-tudes: "Ear-tudes: an ear ear training method method for the collegiate collegiate tubist." tubist." DMA (Doctor (Doctor of Musical Musical Arts) thesis, University of Iowa, 2013. hp://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2662.
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EAR-TUDES: AN EAR TRAINING METHOD FOR THE COLLEGIATE TUBIST
by Katharine Jane Wohlman
An abstract Of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa
May 2013
Thesis Supervisor: Professor John Manning
EAR-TUDES: AN EAR TRAINING METHOD FOR THE COLLEGIATE TUBIST
by Katharine Jane Wohlman
An abstract Of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa
May 2013
Thesis Supervisor: Professor John Manning
ABSTRACT
Traditionally, collegiate ear training classes in the United States are comprised largely of notation-based exercises and assignments, administered to small groups by a single teacher. teacher. Aside from the piano, instruments instruments generally generally are not used during ear training training classes, de-emphasizing the perceived correlation between students’ aural skills development and their progress as instrumentalists. By studying the history of music education, and examining current aural skills pedagogy, the author has found that common practice often relies on notation-based notation-based tasks as a measurement of success, despite the fact that research supports the effectiveness of aural based learning. In order to encourage encourage a better understandin understanding g of pitches pitches and rhythms, rhythms, the author composed composed fifteen original etudes (“Ear-tudes”) (“Ear-tudes”) for tuba with accompanying drills. drills. Before revealing each Ear-tude, Ear-tude, the instructor instructor leads the student student through related drills. drills. Each of the Eartudes focuses on a particular interval, scale-type, rhythmic, or tonal challenge, within a variety variety of meters, meters, tempi, and styles, styles, all of which are suitable suitable for the typical typical first year tuba student. student. This method method provides an innovative innovative way for tuba teachers to integrate integrate ear training into their instruction, alongside a new collection of etudes designed specifically for freshman students.
Abstract Abstract Approved: Approved:
_______________ _______________________ _______________ _______________ ____________ ____ Thesis Supervisor ___________________________ _______________ __________________________________________ Title and Department ___________________________ _________ ____________________________________ Date
EAR-TUDES: AN EAR TRAINING METHOD FOR THE COLLEGIATE TUBIST
by Katharine Jane Wohlman
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa
May 2013
Thesis Supervisor: Professor John Manning
Copyright by KATHARINE JANE WOHLMAN 2013 All Rights Reserved
Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa
CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL _________________________
D.M.A. THESIS _____________
This is to certify that the D.M.A. thesis of
Katharine Jane Wohlman
has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the May 2013 graduation.
Thesis Committee:
__________________________________________ John Manning, Thesis Supervisor
__________________________________________ David Gier
__________________________________________ Jeffrey Agrell
__________________________________________ Jennifer Iverson
__________________________________________ David Gompper
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES
iii
LIST OF FIGURES
iv
PREFACE
v
CHAPTER 1
EAR TRAINING: DEFINITIONS AND PURPOSES Ear Training Defined Aural perception The language of music The Importance of Ear Training The oral tradition The synergy of ear training and sight reading Types of aural skills Long-term benefits Theoretical vs. Practical Ear Training Research
CHAPTER 2
A BRIEF HISTORY, AND EVALUATION OF CURRENT PRACTICES Pre-college Preparation A Concise History of Music Education in the United States Notation Dictation Voice and Instrument Suitability of Faculty Grading and Motivation Stress Group Learning
CHAPTER 3
A NEW APPROACH ABRSM Influence Real World Application Modeling Explanation of Method The Ear-tudes Delivery of the Method - The Drills Supplemental Activities
CHAPTER 4
ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1 1 4 7 9 11 14 17 22 22 25 27 29 36 42 43 45 48 52 54 56 60 61 62 63 66 72 74 107 112 115
ii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.
The Ear-tudes: musical concepts and features
iii
76
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.
Unit 1 Ear-tude: Chromatics
77
Figure 2.
Unit 2 Ear-tude: The Whole Tone
79
Figure 3.
Unit 3 Ear-tude: Theme and Variation
81
Figure 4.
Unit 4 Ear-tude: Thirds and Sixths
83
Figure 5.
Unit 5 Ear-tude: Perfect Fourths and Perfect Fifths
85
Figure 6.
Unit 6 Ear-tude: The Tritone
87
Figure 7.
Unit 7 Ear-tude: Octave Intonation
89
Figure 8.
Unit 8 Ear-tude: The Natural Minor Scale
91
Figure 9.
Unit 9 Ear-tude: Pentatonicism
93
Figure 10.
Unit 10 Ear-tude: Dominant Sevenths
95
Figure 11.
Unit 11 Ear-tude: Syncopation
97
Figure 12.
Unit 12 Ear-tude: All Intervals
99
Figure 13.
Unit 13 Ear-tude: Diminished Patterns
101
Figure 14.
Unit 14 Ear-tude: [untitled]
103
Figure 15.
Unit 15 Ear-tude: Lip Slurs
105
iv
PREFACE
As a graduate teaching assistant at two major universities, I have been fortunate to witness a good portion of the education, both theoretical and in the instrumental studio, of first-year music majors. What struck me a teaching assistant in both theory and the brass area, was the apparent lack of cohesiveness between the two disciplines. The studio instructor (and to a degree, the ensemble directors) assume responsibility of the development of instrumental technique and musicality, while the theory and musicology professors advance students’ understanding of music theory and music history. Occasionally repertoire provides an overlap; perhaps when the student is encouraged to learn more about a genre or form of a certain work they study in their instrumental lesson, or conversely, a certain topic in music theory/history leads the student to discover more about their instrument and its historical and musical background. But one area where there is commonality between fields is the matter of aural skills. Since listening and analysis are crucial to the understanding and performance of music, greater emphasis should be placed on the development of the student’s musical ear both with, and without, the instrument in hand. I have proposed a new method that seeks to solve the problems found in training a student’s musical ear. This method seeks to build on the concepts of the aural skills classroom, in a practical and relevant manner to the aspiring performer. It extends the educational relationship between the pupil and their primary pedagogue, allowing room for experimentation and exploration as the student develops their musicianship skills.
v
1
CHAPTER ONE EAR TRAINING: DEFINITIONS AND PURPOSE
The musician must learn to ‘hear with the eye, and see with the ear’ Melville Smith, Solfège: An Essential In Musicianship
To a musician, the term “ear training” may conjure multifarious observations, practical implications and possible definitions. “Aural skills”, “ear training”, “aural training”, and “musicianship” are all names given to essentially the same set of musical priorities. All of these terms suggest the welding of aural experience to intangible 1
musical concepts. There are numerous related tasks and skills which determine the processes and goals involved in musically training one’s ear. In order to demonstrate what skills this author’s method seeks to address and develop, it is necessary to identify terms and labels. Ear Training Defined
Definitions of “ear training” range from the concise, “the establishment of 2
mental relationships between sounds and symbols,” to the more conceptual, “the activity 3
of thinking in or with sound.” The idea of “thinking in music” was expanded by Harold Best in 1992, who stated that musicians either “think up music, think in music or think about music.” He said, “If I can truly think in music, I may well depend less on verbal
1
Paula Telesco, “Contextual Ear Training,” Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, 5/2 (1991), 179.
2
Leo Horacek and Gerald Lefkoff, Programmed Ear Training (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1992), 1. 3
Mary Louise Serafine, “Music as Cognition: The Development of Thought in Sound” (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), 69.
2
and visual languages as proxies for this primary primary responsibili responsibility. ty. Thinking Thinking in music should should 4
thus precede and direct whatever else I do musically.” A similar distinction is made by Charles Charles Elliott in 1996 who reasons reasons that it is possible possible to “think about music, discuss 5
music, and express ideas about music without ‘understanding’ music.” Understanding music is not the same as simply using one’s own musical musical memory. Understandin Understanding g music accounts for the comprehension of relationships of material – rhythmic material, expression, expression, melodic melodic lines, and tonal function. function. It is the awareness awareness of similarities similarities and 6
differences differences.. A most important part of ear training is the inculcation of patterns, patterns, and training training in this area enables a listener listener to recognize recognize with increased ease the presence presence of sequences sequences and imitation, imitation, which can be useful in analyzing analyzing both function and structure. structure. In order to recognize the more expansive features of musical form and key relationships, a musician musician must be able to recall important musical musical components within within a piece and 7
recognize them when they return. Repetition and imitation are basic compositional 8
features, features, and as such, one that performers performers should be able to aurally aurally identify.
Gary Karpinski affirms that “aural skills” are usually divided into two broad categories, categories, ear training training and sight-sin sight-singing. ging. But in writing his seminal text, Aural text, Aural Skills Acquisition, Acquisition, Karpinski chose to focus on a slightly slightly different different approach, dividing the tasks 4
Harold Best, “Music Curricula in the Future,” Arts Education Policy Review, 94/2 (1992), 4. Thinking up music would refer to composing or improvising original music, while thinking about music music describes the analytical, historical or aesthetical study of a work.
5
Charles Elliott, “Music as intelligence: Some implications for the public schools,” In Ithaca conference ’96: Music as intelligence, (Ithaca, NY: Ithaca College, 1996), 71.
6
Gary Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition: The Development of Listening, Reading and Performing Skills in College-Level Musicians (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 78-79.
7
Ibid., 135-140.
8
Ibid., 139.
3
into “listening skills”, and “reading and performing skills”. Karpinski states that music “exists fundamentally in the aural domain” and therefore listening skills are absolutely essential essential to the performing performing musician. musician. This taxonomy taxonomy reflects his stance that reading and performing are a re two intertwined “sets of skills that involve code interpretation”, decoding 9
signs and symbols towards a musical result. William Marvin agrees, defining musical literacy as “the ability to translate symbol into sound.”
10
True musical literacy suggests
that the performer is able to function independently of notation in the three major artistic 11
processes: creating, crea ting, performing p erforming and responding to music.
If ear training / aural skills
classes aim to encompass this then the act of aural training might be defined as such: ... a general term given to that part of formal musical training which aims to increase the listening skills of trained musicians. These skills are multidimensional, encompassing various musical elements such as pitch, rhythm, and 12 timbre. Whatever the wording of a definition, the overriding principal is that the aural recognition of distinct elements will not detract from aesthetic enjoyment, but rather enhance it 13
considerably.
9
Ibid., 6.
10
William Marvin, “A Comparison of Four Sight-Singing and Aural-Skills Textbooks: Two New Approaches and Two Classic Texts in New Editions,” Journal for Music Theory Pedagogy 22 22 (2008) , 131.
11
Scott Schuler, “Music Education for Life: Five Guiding Principles for Music Education,” Music Educators Journal 97/3 97/3 (2011), 7-8. 12
Gerard Fogarty, Louise Buttsworth, and Phillip Gearing, “Assessing intonation skills in a tertiary music training programme,” programme,” Psychology of Music 24 (1996) 157. 13
Bruce Benward, Advanced Ear Training, (Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown, 1985), xi.
4
Aural perception A key concept associated associated with ear training is the idea of aural perception. perception. Aural 14
perception is, George Pratt suggests, “self-evidently indispensable in musical activity.” 15
Simply, to take any active part in music, “we have to perceive it.”
This statement
simply simply means hearing. The human ear is constantly constantly receiving receiving information; information; it is what the 16
brain is able to do with that aural a ural data d ata that determines musical aptitude.
According to
Joyce Eastland Gromko: Perception Perception of musical musical sound should be a primary primary purpose of music teaching... teaching... without the ability to perceive music’s melodies, rhythms and harmonies and to note their development through time, the listener is necessarily left with highs and lows, louds louds and softs, and the general character character of the sound. With training, training, listeners can evaluate the music’s artistic shape based on the structure of its 17 musical sounds. The suggestion is that ear training may enable a student to move from a basic understanding of sound to a higher level of musical comprehension of “artistic shape” (character) and an understanding of structure. structure. Basic skills involve fundamental elements of music – scales, intervals and chords.
18
But there are many more essential parts of
music performance that deserve acknowledgement in the development of aural skills – aural recognition of texture, timbre, tempo, dynamics, and articulation are all musical elements elements that should be included in the pedagogy of ear training. training. They are all aspects of 14
George Pratt, Aural Awareness: Principles and Practice , (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990) 1.
15
Ibid., 9.
16
Inger Elise Reitan, “Students’ Attitudes to Aural Training in an Academy of Music,” Nordic Research in Music Education 11 (2009), 215. 17
Joyce Eastlund Gromko, “Perceptual Differences Between Expert and Novice Music Listeners: a Multidimensional Scaling Analysis,” Psychology of Music 18 (1993), 46.
18
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 19.
5
performance and composition that an educated musician should be able to identify and 19
discriminate amongst aurally.
Modern definitions of ear training frequently emphasize the training of specific, concrete skills. The Harvard Dictionary of Music defines ear training as “an important field of elementary instruction to teach the student to recognize and write down musical 20
intervals and rhythms.”
Other definitions feature more abstract descriptions, referring
to overall musicianship, musical perception and musical awareness. It is important to note that there are differences between musicality and musicianship. Although no sharp line can be drawn since no definitive definition exists, musicality is usually evidenced when a performance can draw an aesthetic response, frequently but not exclusively, one 21
of pleasure.
A musical musician is one who, through their musicality, is able to convey
the intentions of the composer to the audience. Many definitions of ear training are found in the prefaces of the very manuals from which ear training classes are delivered. For example, in their 1986 text Musicianship, Henry and Mobberly refer to the “development of aural perception through the study of intervals, triads, and scales, and their combination into motives, chord 22
progressions, and complete melodies.”
A later description, similar but somewhat
expanded, by Norwegian music educationalist Frede Nielsen describes ear training as such: 19
Ibid., 18.
20
Willy Apel (ed.), Ear Training, Harvard Dictionary of Music, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970), 250. 21
Melville Smith, “Solfège: An Essential in Musicianship,” Music Supervisors Journal 20/5 (1934), 16.
22
Earl Henry and James Mobberly, Musicianship (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1987), 1.
6
... an old discipline in music training. Its aim is the training of aural awareness, especially concerning musical structures – first and foremost those connected to melody, rhythm, harmony – perhaps also to musical form. According to the development of aural awareness the aim is to establish verbal categories, a fundamental music language of musical terminology. This means that the aural 23 training discipline becomes an integrated part of the musical craftsmanship. Prominent in this definition are the keywords “awareness”, “structures”, “musical language” – all of which help emphasize the connectedness of specific skills and their practical application. Some definitions go further, and refer to the long-range goals of aural skills training. One description that seems to verbalize these aims most suitably comes from the curriculum of an aural skills course in Norway, which suggests that the student’s goal in taking the class is to “develop and strengthen the aptitude for inner conceptualization of sound and further to be able to use one’s inner imagination actively in all kinds of 24
musical work.”
What is most pertinent about that statement is the obvious desire to
instill internal skills that may enable a student’s overall musical ability to expand, thus freeing them to more actively engage their imagination and external musical voice, vocally or with an instrument. One author writes that the purpose of aural training is “to contribute to a variety of aspects of the musician’s craftsmanship: to instrumental practice, to general skills as a musician, and to theoretical and analytical skills, in order to 25
achieve better understanding of the musical elements of structures.”
23
The inclusion of
From Reitan , “Students’ Attitudes to Aural Skills Training”, 210
24
Norges musikkhøgskole Studieplan: Kandidatstudiet I utøving klassick , 2009. From Reitan, “Students Attitudes to Aural Skills Training”. 25
Inger Elise Reitan, “Stress and Well-Being in the Aural Training Cass – the Psychological Aspect of th Training for Enhanced Musician’s Skills”, Proceedings of the 17 International Seminar of the Commission for the Education of the Professional Musician, 85.
7
the word “craftsmanship” demonstrates the artistic possibilities enhanced by the application of ear training. The language of music Many allusions are made linking the acquisition of aural skills to the acquisition of a language. The music-as-a-language analogy follows the same natural learning 26
processes as language development.
First we listen, then we begin to associate patterns
(establishing whether or not has been heard before, and if so, in what context) and then we imitate. Slowly but surely, fluency is acquired. In the case of one’s native language, all of this is achieved prior to the introduction of symbols (letters or words). If we transfer this developmental sequence to music learning, it becomes apparent that students should have as much aural exposure as possible to musical models that they can imitate on their instruments. Consequentially students may associate symbols of notation to those sounds. Gromko makes an effective analogy demonstrating similarities between perception in music and perception in language: “Just as the message of poetry relies on vocabulary and the images its metaphors seek to construct, so the message of music relies 27
upon knowledge of the vocabulary of music.”
Pratt says similarly, “No one could be a
student of literature without being able to read and interpret language from its written 28
symbols.”
The reading of music involves the comprehension of the fine details
26
Robert Woody, “Playing by Ear: Foundation or Frill?” Music Educators Journal , 99/2 (2012), 84.
27
Gromko, “Perceptual differences between expert and novice music listeners”, 46.
28
Pratt, Aural Awareness, 108.
8
(individual notes) within larger structures; “we do not read single letters, but conceive 29
meaning through the words as an entity.”
As Louis Chosky implies, to be a “literate
musician” one must have the ability to look at a musical score, and think the sounds on 30
the page.
For after all, in language, a literate person is one that can not only read and
write, but is able to understand.
31
Another useful analogy between music and language
focuses on musical understanding, and applies a comparison of singers performing in foreign languages. As a necessity, the singer must be able to correctly pronounce the phonemes of the text, in order to convey the text precisely to the listener. But also critical is their ability to understand the meaning of the texts. They must know the literal translation of each word, along with its grammatical and syntactical functions. As Karpinski eloquently puts it, the singer must comprehend the text “for the information it carries, not just for its sounds.”
32
Instrumental performance is similar. Once at a high
level, it is not enough to play the notes without being able to carry or convey their meaning. Musical aptitude is recognizable from one’s facility for reading music, but musicality is perceived as the player’s ability to inflect understanding upon their performance: Musical aptitude is a complex set of independent variables, including, for example, response to pulse, perception and recall of rhythmic figures and of melody, perception of pitch differences, a musical imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, interpretative capacity, pleasure in musical experience, general 33 intelligence, and so on.”
29
Reitan, “Students’ Attitude to Aural Training”, 215.
30
Louis Chosky and others. Teaching Music in the Twentieth Century (New York, NY: Pearson, 2000), 89.
31
Reitan, “Students’ Attitude to Aural Training”, 216.
32
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 95.
9
The Importance of Ear Training
Gary Karpinski states that the ultimate goal of aural-skills training is to enable hearing, memory, understanding, and notational ability to become an integrated single 34
process, one that can occur instantaneously – even as music is sounding.
Improving
aural skills through ear training can aid a student’s musical attention, extractive listening 35
skills, short-term musical memory, musical understanding, and sight-reading abilities.
This improves aural acuity in the classroom, rehearsal room, and the concert hall, with better focus and attention ability to process information while listening, performing, 36
studying, conducting, composing, and teaching.
Covington recognized the specific
aural skills needed by different types of musicians, dividing them into three broad categories, which she admitted are neither exclusive nor conclusive: 1) musicians who recreate music (performers and conductors) 2) musicians who create music (composers and studio musicians) 3) musicians who respond in active listening (scholars, critics, or those simply 37 reacting to aesthetic experience) There is clearly overlap between the designations; teachers, for example, would probably represent all three actions. In fact, most musicians (performers and educators) rely on the
33
James Mainwaring, Teaching Music in Schools (London: W. Paxton, 1951), 50.
34
Gary Karpinski, “A Model for Music Perception and its Implications in Melodic Dictation,” Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 6 (1990) 207. 35
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 69.
36
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 73.
37
Kate Covington, “An Alternate Approach to Aural Training,” Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 6 (1992)
8.
10 38
ability to recognize and interpret music on a daily basis.
All three of these types have
obvious needs for employing aural skills in their activities. Ear training should enable a musician to process sound at a higher level, towards expert perception and away from novice perception. Novice perceptions focus on loudersofter, slower-faster, higher-lower distinctions. Expert perception moves towards George 39
Pratt’s definitions of aural awareness.
Bruce Benward, author Advanced Ear Training
states: Intelligent listening is the most important thing that a musician does. No matter what high level of dexterity and accuracy is achieved with an instrument or voice, success is inevitably limited and regulated by the ability of the ear to discriminate 40 and guide the musical performance. As Robert Woody suggests, “In music, it is the ear that defines great musicianship. Sound is the material of music and what the ear is designed for. For understanding, creating, and expressively organizing sound as music, the ear is the musician’s ultimate 41
asset.”
To have a “good ear” is one of the most indispensable musical skills a
performer can possess. And a good ear, according to Richard Byrd, can be defined as 42
“the ability to internalize and produce the sounds that are desired.”
While this assertion
that the trained ear is crucial for a musician’s progress is strongly held, there is surprising ambiguity in defining the educational objectives of aural training courses.
38
43
The broadly
Richard Byrd, “Applications of Aural skills to Practicing, Auditioning, and Performance,” International Trumpet Guild Journal (2009) 71. 39
Pratt, Aural Awareness.
40
Benward, Advanced Ear Training, xiii.
41
Woody, “Playing by Ear”, 82.
42
Byrd, “Applications of Aural Theory Skills”, 71.
11
stated primary goal is to “develop the inner ear”, obtaining good relative pitch and a solid sense of tonality – usually attempted through sight-singing and dictation exercises. The secondary goal is typically an “amalgam” of aural mastery and performance skill.
44
It is
the secondary goal that this author seeks to elevate to greater importance, by utilizing the skills and expertise of the applied lesson instructor, and the regular opportunity for oneto-one interaction with their student. The oral tradition Around the world, the majority of musical traditions are passed from generation to generation through oral/aural transmission; they are performed (played or sung), and heard and stored in individuals’ memories until the cycle repeats.
45
Universally the most
common approach to learning music is by ear, rather than through notation. But the mostly-Western music tradition of classical music is an anomaly to that commonality. With the development of printed music in the mid-fifteenth century (followed by widespread publishing improvements in the eighteenth century) opportunities arose for 46
the spread of repertoire without the need for both a performer and a listener. New pieces were disseminated relatively quickly across Europe and later, across the world. Amateur musicians gained access to the works of great masters, without necessarily possessing the immediate technical and musical facility required for their understanding
43
David Butler, “Why the Gulf Between Music Perception Research and Aural Training,” Bulletin of the Council of Research in Music Education, 132 (1997), 40. 44 Butler, “Why the Gulf?”, 40. 45
46
Woody, “Playing by Ear”, 83.
Boorman, et al. "Printing and publishing of music." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online . Oxford University Press. Web. 10 Mar. 2013. .
12
and performance. Within a relatively short time printed music, perhaps with the exception of the nineteenth-century Suzuki method, became the primary way in which classical music was both taught and presented. 48
taught or learned aurally.
47
Today, classical works are almost never
In this author’s opinion, this has resulted in an over-reliance
on the visual comprehension of music as opposed to the aural comprehension of music. In 2010 Robert Woody and Andreas Lehmann published the results of a study that explored musicians’ abilities to perform ‘ear-playing’ (playing-by-ear) tasks, and compared their results against participants’ previous experiences of learning music in 49
vernacular settings - garage bands, worship bands, jazz groups etc.
Vernacular
musicians typically rely heavily on listening and imitation to reproduce songs and/or styles. For their research study Woody and Lehmann asked participants to listen to melodies and sing or play them back, and then tracked the number of repetitions required for each participant to complete an accurate performance. What they discovered was that musicians with more vernacular musical experiences were able to produce accurate 50
responses in fewer attempts than their counterparts.
Both groups took significantly less
attempts to correctly sing back the melody (versus play), but again the vernacular musicians outperformed the formally-trained musicians in this task. Woody and 47
Spencer, Piers. "Suzuki method." The Oxford Companion to Music . Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 10 Mar. 2013. . 48
The author acknowledges that there exceptions to this statement, by-in-large in less formal performance settings – the learning of songs and nursery rhymes by young children, the singing of hymns at church by largely notation-illiterate congregations, the singing of chants by sports fans. 49
Robert Woody and Andreas Lehmann. “Student musicians’ ear-playing ability as a function of vernacular music experiences.” Journal of Research in Music Education 58, 101-115. 50
On average, vernacular-experienced musicians took 3.83 attempts for an accurate performance, as opposed to 10.58 attempts by the formally-trained musicians.
13
Lehmann suggest that this increased competency (for both groups) when responding by voice is due to the fact singing seems more closely related to our “goal image” ideal, while transferring the “goal image” to an instrument increases the opportunity for error. When Woody and Lehmann delved further into exactly what processes the musicians thought they were applying to the task, the vernacular performer’s descriptions leaned heavily towards “thinking about chords/harmonic structure” and the “predictability/typical nature” of the melody. In contrast, formally-trained musicians reported “thinking about fingers/instrument action” and “hearing 51
problematic/unpredictable” elements of the melody.
To recognize the presence of
patterns one must be able to separate the stimulus material into smaller parts, succinctly evaluating similarities and differences. The remembering process (sometimes referred to as encoding) and its reproduction internally or externally, are equal aptitudes required to complete a playback task. The ability to accurately playback melodies by ear is important to the classical musician, despite the fact that much music will be studied and performed from sheet music. When performing with any other instrumentalist, be it in a small chamber group, large ensemble, or simply with piano accompaniment, a musician must be able to respond to the aural stimulus provided by the other player. This refers not only to the pitches and rhythms (which are no doubt provided on the page) but to the subtle inflections and nuances demonstrated by the fellow performer. By becoming less reliant on written notation, a player is able to absorb all the attributes of phrasing concurrently: tone, intonation, slight dynamic contrast, emphasis, etc. The more consistently players are able to interact by aural collaboration, rather than strict visual accuracy to the part, the more musical cohesiveness their performance will portray. 51
Woody and Lehmann. “Student Musicians’ Ear-Playing Ability”, 108.
14
Music is, after all, a communicative art form. Communication relies on the interchange of thoughts and ideas, the comprehension of another voice’s statement. This is a primary example of the employment of aural skills in a performance setting. It should be a goal of the aural skills class to foster a student’s ability to transfer aural skills techniques into all areas of their musical activity. One of the most sought-after skills of students in the undergraduate music curriculum is the ability to sort, relate and evaluate musical structures and processes, both aurally and visually.
52
When a player is able to
demonstrate their understanding of form and structure by making musically authentic performance decisions, the audience will enjoy a more comprehensible representation of the music. The synergy of ear training and sight reading 53
The ability to imagine sound is the most crucial principle of “the musical ear.” According to Edwin Gordon, “Well trained musicians can hear music mentally in the 54
total absence of audible sound” and aural training can and should help develop this ability. The concept of auralization is primary to the pedagogy of ear training. Reitan says that “what we should be aiming at” in teaching ear training “is contributing to the development of the literary musician through the strengthening of the ability to audiate, to think in music in a way that is relevant to the musical practice.”
55
Nielsen also has a
52
John Buccheri, “Musicianship at Northwestern,” Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 4/2 (1990) 136-138.
53
Reitan, “Students’ Attitude to Aural Training”, 215.
54
Auralization is referred to as audiation by Edwin Gordon in Learning Sequences in Music: Skill, Content, and Patterns, 7-18. 55
Reitan, “Students’ Attitude to Aural Training”, 217.
15
strongly worded opinion on the matter, saying “If the written music is not ‘sounding in your ear’, you will not be able to sing it. If there is no inner conceptualization of what you hear, you will not be able to write it down or verbalize it in any terminology.” Internalization is an “essential kind of musical thinking,” agrees Karpinski.
57
56
Levin and
Martin in Sight Singing and Ear Training Through Literature also state: Your ability to play, sing, and enjoy music will be improved immeasurably as you learn to hear music internally, before it is played. Just as you can read a newspaper without having to pronounce the words, you will learn to read a 58 musical score and hear the sounds come alive inside your head. Sight-reading is best defined as “the ability to read and perform music at first sight, i.e., without preparatory study of the piece.” 60
“how one begins to hear music analytically.”
59
But it is also, according to Telesco,
The goal of sightsinging within an ear
training class is not, or should not, be just accuracy. As well as improving one’s ability to audiate, sight-singing teaches us about “context sensitivity”, and the “enculturation of 61
tonal bearings.”
In their text Musicianship, Henry and Mobberly argue that:
Sight singing is one of the most important skills any professional musician can possess. No matter what instrument they play, performers can improve their reading ability by studying sight singing. For composers, performers, teachers, and researchers, sight-singing proficiency is crucial; the ability to read a musical
56
Nielsen, Almen musikdidatik, trans. in Reitan, “Students’ Attitude to Aural Training” , 217.
57
Karpinski, “A Model for Music Perception”, 209.
58
Robert Levin and Louis Martin, Sight Singing and Ear Training Through Literature , (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1998) xvii. 59
Apel, Harvard Dictionary of Music, 679.
60
Telesco, “Contextual ear training”, 181.
61
Michael Rogers, “The Jersild Approach: a Sightsinging Method from Denmark,” College Music Symposium, 36 (1996), 149.
16
pattern and mentally ‘hear’ it as it would sound if played is an indispensable 62 tool. Lehmann and Ericsson discovered that “the ability to sight-read does not increase with higher general instrumental skill;” it will not simply improve as technique does.
63
Therefore it is important that sight-reading applicable skills are worked on systematically and progressively. Notably, sight-reading remains one of the most important criteria used 64
for the purpose of auditioning musicians.
For many decades it was widely assumed that
the only way to improve one’s sight reading ability was by “extensive reading; i.e., by reading large amounts of music.”
65
While this may be somewhat accurate, it has been
suggested by several studies that a student’s sight-reading skills will most rapidly improve not through repetition, but as their ear-training experience (and most notably, 66
their facility to play-by-ear proficiently) increases.
By improving one’s ability to
auralize and sing basic tonal structures, a noted improvement in sight-reading may be 67
observed.
One of the most important proficiencies for sight-reading is the ability to
recognize and interpret intervals successfully. Proficient sight-readers scan ahead, observing musically meaningful groups of notes and hearing them internally (by
62
Henry and Mobberley, Musicianship, p. 245.
63
Lehmann and Ericsson, “Sight-reading ability of expert pianists in the context of piano accompanying.” Psychomusicology , 192. 64
Byrd, “Applications of aural theory skills to practicing, auditioning and performance”, 71.
65
James Mursell, Music Education Principles and Problems, (New York, NY: Silver Burdett, 1956) 183.
66
see Luce “Sight-Reading and Ear Playing Abilities as Related to Instrumental Music Students”, McPherson “Five Aspects of Musical Performance and Their Correlates”, and Bernhard “The Effects of Tonal Training on the Melodic Ear Playing”. 67
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 148.
17 68
auralization) before producing their sound. 69
sight-reading and in all performance.
This ability is a tremendous asset both in
In a study of students in 2006, Reitan learned that
only 55% felt they had used elements of aural training in the learning of new repertoire, 70
while 42% said they seldom did.
These figures are alarming considering how relevant
aural skills are to the sight-reading process.
71
Types of aural skills Most of what we learn about the justification for aural-skills training comes from the prefaces of textbooks designed specifically for the purpose of teaching the classes.
72
Much of this, Karpinski says, is based on “comparatively vague aphorisms about mental relationships and intelligent listening.
73
Historically, many of the most commonly used
texts for sightsinging classes (for example by Sol Berkowitz or Robert Ottman) were anthologies of music with little or no instructional commentary.
74
Without a definitive
pedagogy emerging, aural training curricula in the United States has effectively been 75
formed by a patchwork of ideals.
68
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 156.
69
Byrd, “Applications of Aural Theory Skills”, 71.
70
Reitan, “Students’ Attitude to Aural Training”, 213.
71
Some students did comment verbally that they used the skill unconsciously in every thing that they do.
72
Karpinski, “A Model for Music Perception”, 191.
73
Ibid., 192.
74
Rogers, “The Jersild approach”, 149.
75
Butler, “Why the Gulf?”, 43.
18
An “ear training” course is typically split into two main elements – ear training and sight-singing. There are many ways in which the skills implicated under the heading of “ear training” are categorized. An instinctive response is to name “elements” that are perceived to make up the fabric of music. Bruce Benward states that the “most basic elements of music” are “intervals, simple melodies, simple triads, scales, and simple 76
rhythms.”
But perhaps an even more straightforward classification comes from Gary
Karpinski in his text, Aural Skills Acquisition. He advises that classes should be “geared towards a kind of fine, detailed listening with attention to the smallest items of pitch and 77
rhythm.”
He summarily provides six subdivisions of the key components of ear
training, which are as follows: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)
Pulse / Meter Rhythm Inference of Tonic Tonal Function Interval Identification Harmonic Implication This categorization is important because it demonstrates the six key aptitudes
Karpinski suggests are to be developed in the aural skills class. These become the primary proficiencies explored in the author’s method, laid out in Chapter Three. A brief summary of Karpinski’s taxonomy, alongside input from other sources, is provided below. Pulse and Meter: One of the most basic perceptual skills in music is the ability to infer 78
pulse.
Karpinski is adamant that providing the student with both pulse and meter prior
76
Benward, Advanced Ear Training, xi.
77
Karpinski, “A Model for Music Perception”, 191.
19
to a rhythmic dictation exercise is to give up too much information. He argues that students should be able to infer both of those elements, as well as the rhythmic material 79
performed.
Rhythm: Henry and Mobberley suggest that “whether practicing exercises, performing rehearsed works, analyzing, or composing, musicians benefit from increased proficiency 80
in the recognition of [rhythmic] patterns.”
There is a difference between what a student
is able to rhythmically hear, and what a student is able to aptly notate. We need to be able to separate the student’s ability to imitate rhythmic material from their ability to write it down. Inference of Tonic: Karpinski suggests that an “important and basic skill (more basic than identifying intervals or triad quality) is the ability to infer tonic (and scale structure or 81
mode) from the context of a heard musical passage.”
Many dictation exercises in
musicianship texts will instruct the teacher to provide a sense of tonic (through a simple chord progression, or a single pitch) prior to performing the exercise. This, Karpinski argues, provides noncontextual clues of the tonic, and leaves some students without the ability to develop this crucial basic skill for themselves.
78
Karpinski, “Reviews of Recent Textbooks”, 245.
79
Karpinski, “A Model for Music Perception”, 203.
80
Henry and Mobberley, Musicianship, 167.
81
82
Gary Karpinski, “Ear training and integrated aural skills: three recent texts”, Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 3 (1989), 130. 82
Karpinski, “Reviews of Recent Textbooks”, 246.
20
Tonal function: Tonal function refers to the musical meaning inferred by a pitch’s 83
position within the tonal system.
Most typically, listeners will remember and
understand tonal music in terms of scale degree function,
84
mapping heard pitches onto
85
an “internalized musical scale.” It is highly preferable for a student to understand the 86
tonal function of pitches in a tonal melody prior to notating them.
Interval Identification: Various studies have been critical of noncontextual interval 87
training.
Intervals change their function and consequently their effect, affect, and 88
meaning in different contexts.
Yet noncontextual drills often form a significant portion
of the start of ear training texts and is largely how intervals are approached in ear training 89
classes.
Michael Rogers observes that many schools and ear training manuals spend 90
“enormous” amounts of time on interval identification, even though a “preponderance of experimental evidence” shows little connection between noncontextual interval identification and the ability to perform the same task in musical context.
91
One reason
83
Jay Dowling, “Context effects on melody recognition: scale-step versus interval representations”, Music Perception 3 (1986), 294. 84 Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 53. 85
Roger Shepard and Daniel Jordan, “Auditory Illusions Demonstrating That Tones are Assimilated to an Internalized Music Scale,” Science 226 (1984), 1333. 86
Karpinski, “A Model for Music Perception”, 205.
87
See Telesco, “Contextual Ear Training”, 179-190.
88
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 55.
89
Gary Karpinski, “Reviews of Recent Textbooks in Theory and Musicianship. 3. Aural skills”, Music Theory Spectrum 15 (1993),243. 90
Michael Rogers, Teaching Approaches in Music Theory: An Overview of Pedagogical Philosophies, (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University press, 1984), 104-5. 91
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 52.
21
this form of interval identification appears so regularly in curriculum is because this practice is straightforward both to administer and to grade. Harmonic implication: The ability to recognize and comprehend harmonic implications of music is important to performers in two main ways: one, the player can use that recognition to aid accuracy (to play the correct pitches) and two, taking harmonic implications into account can induce a more musically meaningful performance. Karpinski goes as far to say that “musically convincing and satisfying performances of tonal music depend heavily on performers’ abilities to think and act harmonically.” Even single-line music contains inherent implications for more than one voice. To demonstrate this skill, performers must employ both their theoretical knowledge, and their ability to read and interpret harmonic implications in real time. The performer must be able to hear and read structural pitches as points of reference, using these to discern how to play the 92
pitches on either side. In this way, more musical readings are formed.
The last four subdivisions (inference of tonic, tonal function, interval identification, and harmonic implication) could be labeled under a subheading of “sense of pitch”. This would refer to the performer’s ability to: discern differences in pitches that sound consecutively; recall short melodic passages; convert aurally perceived sounds 93
into musical notation; and convert musical notation into musical sounds.
92
93
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 180-186
Charles Elliott, “Effect of vocalization on the sense of pitch of beginning band class students,” Journal of Research in Music Education 22/2 (1974), 122.
22
Long-term benefits The irrelevancy with which some students view aural training in relation to their overall musical needs, rather than seeing the connectivity to everything musically that they do, is frustrating to the experienced musicians that teach them.
94
But a problem with
over-emphasizing relevance is the fear that it will alienate those students experiencing a lack of confidence. There are very few students that feel an abundance of confidence in aural skills. In fact, most of us are far less capable of “thinking in music” than we care to 95
admit.
But students should be dissuaded from viewing their ear training progress in a
class-by-class agenda. Kate Covington argues that no two-year program, or even a four96
year degree, can accurately accomplish a complete ear training agenda.
The higher
education instructor should seek to inspire students to view the development of skills as part of a lifelong endeavor, alongside the development of instrumental technique. Theoretical vs. Practical
There is general agreement that aural training needs to be “more active, musically satisfying and supportive of related skills” (such as performance and rehearsal 97
technique).
Aural training has been considered a theoretical discipline, in spite of its 98
obvious practical characteristics. There are several problems caused by this
94
Covington, “An alternate approach to aural training”, 5.
95
Best, “Music curricula in the Future”, 4.
96
Covington, “An alternate approach to aural training”, 9.
97
Bannan, “New Pedagogy for Creative and Aural Development”, 199.
98
Reitan, “Students’ Attitudes to Aural Training”, 207-212. Reitan actually polled students in her study and asked them if they view the class as theoretical or practical. 57% said it was mostly practical, and 31% it was equal.
23
classification. Theoretical study typically refers to the seeing of intervals, inversions, forms; being told about scale formations and harmonic progressions, and reporting on 99
musical process.
Performance activities, such as instrumental practice, require a high
degree of skill in both theoretical technique and applied technique. Students typically associate the analytical study of rudiments, harmony, counterpoint, form and other subdisciplines of music theory as the base of their theoretical training. Without previous or at least suitable concurrent training in appropriate aural skills, this theoretical knowledge 100
results in a student thinking about music, rather than thinking in music.
It is
performance that facilitates the transfer of theoretical knowledge and skills into real-life 101
situations through an active environment.
By quickly immersing freshman students in
a music theory curriculum that deals simultaneously with both written music theory and aural skills (ear training) there is risk of overwhelming those for whom this is their first 102
academic-music environment.
Bruce Campbell notes that, “unlike an English major,
who enters college with many years of technical study of language behind him, the freshman who enrolls in a theory class quite possibly has had no exposure to even the 103
descriptive vocabulary of music.”
In one class students are taught rudiments:
rhythmic and pitch notation, clefs, keys, intervals, modes, scales etc., while simultaneously they are expected, in a separate class, to sing and notate by ear the very 99
Best, “Music Curricula in the Future”, 3.
100
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 4.
101
Covington, “Improvisation in the aural curriculum”, 49.
102
Jones and Bergee suggest that it may be advantageous to begin the ear-training sequence one semester after the first-semester written course, giving students time to familiarize themselves with the written concepts of notation. (“Elements associated with success in the first-year music theory and auralskills curriculum”, 93.) 103
Bruce Campbell, review of Guidelines for College Teaching, by John D White, 356.
24
same concepts to which they are just being introduced. To expand an analogy that Gary Karpinski presents, this approach pushes students to decipher and disseminate information prior to giving them the tools with which they can build the necessary 104
decoding device.
For the disproportionate number of students who seem to struggle
with early tasks in either discipline, there is a true risk of them abandoning music studies 105
for fear they will never find their own Enigma machine.
To put it another way,
traditional approaches to ear training tend to treat knowledge as an end, rather than as a 106
means to an end.
Concepts learned in a out-of-context manner are less likely to be a 107
“serviceable” in a more complex, real-world environment.
There are also cognitive reasons why an individual’s deficiencies occur. Prior to beginning a music degree program, students typically have been enjoying “right-brain” experiences– performing, listening and responding to music. In the theory classroom we ask them to use more “left-brain” approaches – analysis, logic, and the determining of sequences. For students who struggle to make this switch, there is a distinct risk they will become disenchanted and disengaged from the art form they have previously cherished. Without a strong emphasis on the importance of aural comprehension of rudiments, these students fail to see the connection with all their ensuing performance skills, and thus view
104
Karpinski states that “music-reading skills are those involved in code interpretation. Performing skills are those necessary to produce the sounds indicated by that code.” Aural Skills Acquisition, 6. 105
Rusty Jones and M. Burgee, “Elements Associated with Success in the First-Year Music Theory and Aural-Skills Curriculum”, Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 22 (2008), 94. 106
Covington, “Improvisation in the aural curriculum”, 50.
107
Ibid..
25
their musicianship training as a fearsome and irrelevant task they must simply endure for four full semesters.
108
It could also be argued that those fundamental skills (scales, intervals, and chords) are not the most suitable musical proficiencies to begin with, particularly in the aural realm. Karpinski lays out different priorities in his separation of aural skills into “Listening,” and “Reading and Performing.” In this division perception of the pulse becomes the focus of temporal aspects, and inference of tonic is the priority in relation to pitch. From these starting points pulse and meter can be easily explored, as can pitch 109
collections and tonal function.
Most importantly, nothing that is learned in either 110
written theory or ear training should exist in a vacuum, independent of anything else.
To train students as musical experts during performances demands that we should train them as aural skills experts in the aural skill classroom; the cognitive demands of both 111
environments need to be consistent.
Ear Training Research
Although a growing amount of research exists regarding aural training, there is little to demonstrate success or failure of new techniques. The majority of research can be categorized quite succinctly into one of five categories: a) studies of teaching methods or specific skills b) the use of technology in the classroom 108
Covington, “An Alternate Approach to Aural Training”, 12.
109
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 20-38.
110
Telesco, “Contextual aural training”, 180.
111
Covington, “Improvisation in the aural curriculum”, 50.
26
c) studies of aural perception and discrimination d) different approaches taken by the listener during listening tasks 112 e) the transfer of skills to instrumental practice. It is the last of these that is the most relevant to the creation of the methodology presented in this text, and also offers the opportunity to most closely evaluate the role of aural training in the wider development of a musician. What becomes clear, as one delves into results of experiential studies in this field, is that aural training research often falls into a gap between two separate research fields – that of music education, and the psychology 113
of music.
Couple this academic ambiguity with the traditional practice of music
theorists and largely inexperienced teaching assistants delivering much of the content of these courses and it becomes evident that there is a disparity between the intentions and the consequences of much aural training pedagogy and delivery. It is this author’s belief that, through efficient ear training, you can help a student quickly discover tangible benefits of equipping oneself with stronger aural skills, and that this promotion will itself plant a seed of self-motivation towards continual development in this area.
112
Harald Jørgensen, “Research into Higher Music Education: An Overview from a Quality Improvement Perspective,” (Oslo: Novus Press, 2009), 118-120. 113
Reitan, “Students’ attitudes to aural training”, 209.
27
CHAPTER TWO A BRIEF HISTORY, AND EVALUATION OF CURRENT PRACTICES
Happy are the individuals who have so painlessly acquired their musicianship, and skillful the teacher who has been able to present a subject which is ordinarily expected to be so formidable as the subject of solfège, without the pupils aware of the fact. Melville Smith, Solfège: Smith, Solfège: An Essential in Musicianship
A brief survey of recent journal journal articles suggests suggests that the pedagogy of ear training is fraught with frustrations, for students and teachers alike. 115
conventional aural training is quite inadequate”
114
Pratt states that “most
while Covington and Lord suggest that
“the time has come for considering a significant paradigm shift as regards aural 116
training.”
Covington also asserts that “for centuries, music teachers and conductors 117
have bemoaned the inadequate listening skills of performing musicians.”
In the
preface to Ear to Ear Training: A Technique for Listening , Bruce Benward writes Intelligent listening is the most important thing a musician does. No matter what high level of dexterity dexterity and accuracy accuracy is achieved achieved with an instrument instrument or voice, success success is inevitably inevitably limited limited and regulated regulated by the ability of the ear to 118 discriminate and guide the musical performance. 114
Although direct empirical evidence does not exist, the body of anecdotal experience finds a general dissatisfaction with the level of ear training competence competence of incoming freshman at the college level. The closest statistical survey would be that of Randall Pembrook and H. Lee Riggins in 1990, entitled “ ‘Send Help!’: Aural Skills Instruction in U.S. Colleges and Universities,” Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 4 4 (1990). 115
Pratt, Aural Awareness, vii.
116
Kate Covington and Charles Lord, “Epistemology and Procedure in Aural Training”, Music Theory Spectrum 16/2 (1994), 169. 117
Covington, “An Alternate Approach to Aural Training”, 5.
28
A significant issue, and one that is “commonly lamented,” is that “ear-training skills 119
develop more slowly than other kinds of musical knowledge.”
Despite this, they are
not usually addressed addressed in any great detail in the pre-college pre-college music curriculum. curriculum. Gary Karpinski echoes these sentiments saying “most aural skills instructors report that many of their students are ill-prepared ill-prepared and that this level of preparedness preparedness has been falling falling in 120
recent decades.”
The National Standards for Music Education, published by the
National Association of Music Education, Edu cation, ask students to sing, perform, improvise, compose, arrange, read, notate, listen to, analyze, describe, evaluate and understand 121
music.
The accompanying Achievement Standards state that “performing, creating,
and responding to music” are “fundamental music processes in which humans engage,” stating that “listening to, analyzing, and evaluating music are important building blocks of musical learning.” learning.” In the fine print, one can find evidence of important important ear training training activities activities in the standards. At the grades K-4 these include: include: “students will: will: -
echo short short rhythm rhythmss and and melod melodic ic patter patterns ns improvise improvise “answer “answers” s” in the same same style style to given rhythm rhythmic ic and melodic melodic phrases phrases identify identify simple simple music music forms forms when when presented presented aurally.” aurally.”
While at grades 5-8 they are elevated to, “students will: -
118
play by by ear simple simple melodies melodies on a melodic melodic instrum instrument ent and and simple simple accompaniments on a harmonic instrument improvise improvise simple simple harmonic harmonic accompaniment accompanimentss
Bruce Benward, Ear Training: A Technique for Listening , (Dubuque, Iowa: W. C. Brown, 1978), xiii.
119
Deborah Rifkin and Philip Stoecker, “A Revised Taxonomy for Music Learning”, Journal for Music Theory Pedagogy 25 25 (2011) 155. 120
121
Karpinski, “Reviews of Recent Textbooks in Theory and Musicianship. 3. Aural Skills.”, 241.
National Standards for Music Education website, 14 Mar 2013. http://www.rhythmandmoves.co http://www.rhythmandmoves.com/pdf/Nationa m/pdf/National%20Standards% l%20Standards%20for%20Musi 20for%20Music%20Educat c%20Education.pdf ion.pdf
29
-
improvise improvise melodic melodic embellis embellishments hments and simple simple rhythmic rhythmic and and melodic melodic variations on given pentatonic melodies and melodies in major keys improvise improvise short melodies, melodies, unaccompanied unaccompanied and over over given rhythmic rhythmic accompaniments, each in a consistent style, meter, and tonality read at at sight sight simple simple melodies melodies in both both the the treble treble and bass bass clefs clefs describe describe specific specific music events in a given given aural aural example example,, using using appropriat appropriatee terminology.”
It is this author’s opinion that many of these suggested “achievements” are not routinely 122
met.
College College freshmen simply have not been trained, or required on a regular regular basis, to
perform such tasks. In their 2010 20 10 study Woody and Lehmann found that, of twenty-four collegiate musicians asked about their learning experiences prior to college, only eight had experimented with playing familiar melodies by ear, only three had improvised a melody, melody, and only three had improvised improvised harmony harmony to a heard melody. melody. Several Several musicians musicians even commented commented that they had not been “made to use their ears” until college. college. Although Although all the musicians were now music majors and performance colleagues at college, their unique performance performance backgrounds had led them to have had extremely extremely different different 123
competencies.
Pre-college Preparation
Due to the way in which music is approached in the U.S. K-12 education system there has for many years been a heavy emphasis on producing musically literate performers, perhaps devoid of many of the skills required to make and understand music 124
without notation.
As a result, music departments in tertiary education institutions
122
based on the abilities and anecdotes of students the author encountered while teaching freshman/theory musicianship classes at a Big Ten university.
123
124
Woody and Lehmann, “Student musician’s ear-playing ability”, 110-1.
These assumptions refer primarily with regard to practices of instrumental music, as presented during the band curriculum. General education music is a separate matter, matter, where the author acknowledges that
30
frequently welcome a student whose aural and musicianship development fails to match 125
their performing abilities and musicological knowledge.
Indeed Karpinski, writing in
2001, states that “many universities, colleges, and conservatories report that entering students often suffer from deficiencies in aural skills.”
126
Since, unlike in the United
Kingdom, Australia and various other countries around the world, there are no definitive standardized tests for entrance to a music program, professors in the United States must 127
often adopt an inclusive approach to freshman ear training.
It was as early as the 1830s
that Lowell Mason strongly advocated the attainment of aural fluency prior to introducing music notation to students. Mason’s approach was based largely on the teachings of Swiss pedagogue Johann Pestalozzi, who in turn recommended the experience of active concepts such as creating and performing sounds before introducing “passive 128
knowledge”, e.g. symbols representing the said sounds.
These principles were further
developed in the mid-twentieth century by British music educator James Mainwaring who studied the cognition behind music learning. He explicitly stated that students 129
should “proceed from sound to symbol, not from symbol to sound.”
Around the same
time sound to symbol ordering was also emphasized by Frenchman Lavignac who said a larger emphasis is placed on learning by ear, using techniques such as those influenced by Carl Orff and Shinichi Suzuki. 125
Nicholas Bannan, “Embodied Music Theory: New Pedagogy for Creative and Aural Development”, Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy,24 (2010), 197. 126
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 7.
127
In the UK all music conservatories and many universities request a Grade 8 ABRSM examination standard on the instrument, and universities require an A2 level in music, prior to acceptance to music programs. ABRSM examinations will be discussed in further detail in the next chapter. A2-levels are national exams taken by students during their final year of high school. 128
Woody, “Playing by Ear”, 83.
129
Mainwaring, Teaching Music in Schools , 12.
31
“To teach music to a very young child by means of principles, no matter how simple they may be, is about as judicious as trying to teach him to talk by grammar.”
130
Melville
Smith goes as far as to say that an attempt to teach theory in a solely theoretical way 131
would be a “discouraging and almost useless procedure.”
All of these opinions were
echoed by Gary Karpinski sixty years later, who states “teach students first to hear functionally and contextually, and then the process of applying labels to what they 132
already can hear will be nearly trivial.”
It would seem that, despite the forewarnings of
Pestalozzi, Mainwaring, Karpinski et al, it is the sight-then-sound approach that still occurs in many K-12 classrooms today. Young instrumentalists are frequently given elementary band method books in hand with their new instrument and taught to play straight from the pages, beginning both fingerings and notation together.
133
The problem
is, when students are taught music reading as a symbol-action skill, emphasizing visual learning and neglecting aural learning, they fail to realize the importance of aural 134
perception on music making.
Requiring students to read musical notation when first
learning to play an instrument places a visual emphasis on performance and response, instead of the aural emphasis that is required for a truer understanding.
135
And while
130
Albert Lavignac, Musical Education, (Paris: C. Delagrave, 1902) 18.
131
Melville Smith, “Solfège: An Essential in Musicianship”, Music Supervisors Journal 20/5 (1934), 58.
132
Karpinski, “Reviews of Recent Textbooks", 244.
133
Woody, “Playing by Ear”, 84. One easy suggestion for addressing some form of aural training within this text is to have students sight-sing each melody in the book either before playing a new exercise, or between playing the exercise for the first or second time, (an idea suggested by Charles Elliott in 1974). Woody goes on to state “the most important thing is simply to do something. There are almost no ear training activities that will harm musicianship.” 134
Ann Marie Musco, “Effects of Learning Melodies by Ear on Performance Skills and Students Attitudes”, Contributions to Music Education 36/2 (2006), 92.
32
music-reading skills are continually reinforced by the fingering of valves and pressing of keys, these visual and kinesthetic associations are further strengthened in relation to notation, away from the aural implications behind the very same tasks.
136
In the best of
cases, we can hope that a pre-existing aural fluency will allow musicians to understand the symbols of music notation just like the reading of written language, but in this 137
scenario the aural acquisition takes place as a by-product rather than the goal.
Just as with language acquisition, many of the skills a child needs to begin to develop their musical ear are engrained from birth.
138
There was some discussion in the
earlier portion of this text about the connections between musical fluency and linguistic development. A failure to exercise the innate aural skills possessed by elementary and secondary school students results in the culpable atrophication of these skills.
139
Expressed in another way, Mainwaring reminds us that we are all born with innate skills that can become complicated by the introduction of terminology to those instinctive practices: A simple pulse could be reproduced by an infant, but an adult musician would have to know its nature in order to write a notation which would express it. A melody could be reproduced vocally and even, instrumentally “by ear” by a child who knew nothing whatever of its rhythmic structure or the pitch relations which 140 make up the tune; but to write it, mental analysis would be necessary. 135
Haston, “Beginning wind instrument instruction”, 9.
136
Kyle Brown, “An Alternative Approach to Developing Music Literacy Skills in a Transient Society,” Music Educators Journal 90/2, 47. 137
Woody & Lehmann, “Student musicians’ ear-playing ability” 103.
138
Woody, “Playing by Ear”, 86.
139
Ibid., 87.
140
Mainwaring, Teaching Music in Schools , 58.
33
When, at college, the students are called upon to repeat these once innate tasks many students become overwhelmed by the apparent difficulty. Woody states that while music educators generally “endorse the importance of the ear in music-making” most would “appreciate if their students had stronger aural skills.” If this is the case, the question should therefore be asked, why are the aforementioned 141
theories (of sound-before-sight) not better reflected in mainstream practices?
According to a variety of sources, sound-before-sight methodologies are largely 142
dependent upon the modeling abilities of the teacher.
It seems that putting this
approach into circulation in the classroom is no easy task. Curricular problems and temporal limitations can make it extremely difficult for the average music instructor to achieve more than limited goals, which inevitably become goal orientated, performance143
based scenarios.
For example, most elementary wind instrument instruction takes
place in classes, usually quite large, forcing the teacher to concentrate instruction on the 144
more procedural aspects of performing - fingerings, embouchures etc.
It makes sense
that these would become the focal points when we consider the mechanics of playing a brass instrument. But to facilitate the right pitch (partial/harmonic) the player must set not only the correct embouchure and valve combination, but also the appropriate speed of
141
Woody, “Playing by Ear”, 83-84.
142
See Dickey “A Comparison of Verbal Instruction and Nonverbal Teach-Student Modeling in Instrumental Ensembles”, Linklater “Effects of audio-and videotape models on performance achievement of beginning clarinettsits”, Rosenthal “The Relative Effects of Guided Model, Model Only, Guide Only and Practice Only Treatments on the Accuracy of Advanced Instrumentalists.” Sang “A Study of the Relationship Between Instrumental Music Teachers’ Modeling Skills and Pupil Performance Behaviors.” 143
Bobbitt, “The Development of Music Reading Skills”, 143.
144
Elliott, “Effect of Vocalization on the Sense of Pitch”, 121.
34
air. In order to gauge the correct air speed for each distinct pitch the player must develop a technique of associating particular muscle memory with the aural or visual cues presented. Linking the goal (an absolute pitch) to the motor production (embouchure position and air speed) is key, and the aspiration is to build these as automatic connections rather than those which have to be carefully considered prior to each pitch. Unfortunately there can actually be a varying degree of accuracy between the pitch the player audiates and buzzes, and the tone the instrument produces. The physical design of brass instruments features peak-points at which the instrument resonates, in accordance with the harmonic series. If the player is inaccurate the instrument will, by-and-large, compensate for the mistake and sound the closest partial (albeit with poor accuracy and an imprecise attack). These discrepancies in mechanics are in contrast with say, a stringed instrument, where only exact positioning on the fingerboard guarantees the right pitch will sound. Typically once initial pitch accuracy is addressed the next priority becomes the accurate movement from one pitch to the next in accordance with the notation presented. Missed or “chipped” notes are a common inaccuracy in brass playing. It is a misnomer to think that all such mistakes are caused simply by physical inaccuracies (incorrect embouchure placement, or incorrectly paced air speed). 145
Frequently the error comes from inaccurate interval recognition, or its execution.
If
the right arrival pitch cannot be audiated correctly, it is unlikely the player’s physical positioning will be exact, resulting in a missed or “chipped” note. While ensemble directors may be constantly imploring students to listen (to recordings, during rehearsals, and during individual practice) it is not apparent that many
145
Byrd, “Applications of aural theory skills”, 72.
35
of the ear training skills discussed in the first chapter have been well enough established to make that listening a truly worthwhile endeavor.
146
Used in repetition the word
“listen” can quickly become synonymous with “focus”, and “pay attention here”, but is ambiguous as to the specifics of where and how this act of listening should be employed. It could apply to pitch, rhythm, timbre, dynamic, articulation, etc. but unless the action is guided in some way, it is unlikely that the multiple opportunities for aural awareness will be exploited. Aural awareness can in fact be addressed anytime, anywhere – since aural “opportunity” exists around us at all times.
147
A particularly troubling scenario that ear training teachers face are students that exhibit all the keenness of one with ambitions of a professional playing career, but with a naivety towards the whole realm of aural skills. Once in college, there is no quick-fix remedy for such students – aural skills must be developed thoughtfully and methodically, until they match a performer’s technical abilities. Although ear training is an “essential” part of every musician’s undergraduate experience it takes a determined individual effort for weaker students (those with less prior experience or less natural affinity for aural 148
skills) to catch up with their peers.
Despite many assertions that everything taught in ear training should be related immediately to real musical experience and thus be applicable by students to their everyday musical life, over and over theorists and pedagogues have argued about best practices for course delivery. There are two key problems. One, it is probable that no 146
Woody, “Playing by ear”, 82.
147
Pratt, Aural Awareness, 11.
148
Rifkin and Stoecker, “A Revised Taxonomy for Music Learning”, 156.
36
agreement will ever be reached to establish the “best” way of developing hearing faculty so that students are quickly able to perceive, as an example, the structural organization of 149
melodic and harmonic progression.
Two, and perhaps most unfortunately, it is
possible and not unusual to be able play an instrument quite well without understanding the said structural nature of the music. And yet, almost all performers would agree that there is a direct relationship between the understanding of musical structure and degree of 150
personal involvement experienced by the performer.
This disparity in ideals and 151
practicalities has resulted in a “kind of pedagogical hodge-podge”
wherein students are
on the one hand strongly encouraged to develop their ear training skills to a certain degree but, on the other, find that they are realistically able to survive without doing so. As demonstrated in Chapter One, there are many varying definitions and concepts of the aural training / ear training / sight-singing / musicianship disciplines. It is imperative that within each institution clear decisions are made as to the particular goals they are seeking 152
to pursue, and that these are clearly communicated to the students. A Concise History of Music Education in the United States
Through research into the early music education systems it becomes apparent that current practices have developed at odds with the early intentions of educationalists. By 149
Bobbitt, “The Development of Music Reading Skills”, Journal of Research in Music Education , 18/2 (1970), 143. James Mainwaring noted a similar dilemma, stating “It is unfortunate that a very great proportion of theoretical knowledge, elementary and advanced, can be acquired without any correlated auditory experience whatever,” Teaching Music in Schools , 46. 150
Bobbitt, “The Development of Music Reading Skills,” 154-5.
151
Rogers, “The Jersild Approach”, 149.
152
Telesco, “Contextual Ear Training”, 179.
37
looking at the development of music education, and the position of ear training within various music education pedagogies, one can determine the changes in perceived relevance of ear training, and then seek to address its position in today’s educational system. As early as ancient Greece, music was included in education to enhance community participation in both cultural and spiritual events.
153
Alongside instrumental
music played on the lyre and the aulos, singing was strongly emphasized as an important component of the development of a musician. Singing was expected at most societal events, from formal ceremonies to intertribal singing competitions. As competitive attitudes towards these competitions grew so too did the standard of the singers, and by the fifth century performed music at such events had become an elitist field. Populist music education in Greece entered a decline. In ancient Rome, music was regarded as a mathematical science (of the seven liberal arts, it was one of the upper level quadrivium) and was largely taught from Boethius’s De institutione musica treatise.
154
Boethius
followed principles of musica mundana (music as an all-pervading universal force), musica humana (the harmony of the human body), and musica instrumentalis (music “found” in instruments). He used mathematical principles to define intervals as consonant or dissonant, and discussed basic elements of earlier Greek modal theory.
155
During the Middle Ages music education also largely focused on singing, particularly
153
Michael Mark, A Concise History of American Music Education , (Lantham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2008), 1-3. 154
155
Ibid.
Calvin Bower. "Boethius." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 11 Mar. 2013. . Boethius’s treatise fell out of favor for several centuries but was revived in the ninth century during a revival of interest in liberal arts.
38
until the invention of music notation. As notation developed a shift in music education began, heading towards a greater emphasis on music reading, particularly following the introduction of letter names around the turn of the ninth century. Written notation, along with the introduction of a solfège system by Guido d’Arezzo in the eleventh century, revolutionized the study of music. Music could be written as it was expected to be performed, and alongside the existing tradition of rote learning, sight-singing became both possible and practical. Notation quickly aided major enhancements in music education, enabling the study of polyphony and composition, and was a major factor in 156
the intellectual developments of the Renaissance.
The history of music education in the United States demonstrates influences of English and mainland European groups that came to America in the early Colonial 157
period.
The early settlers brought with them a wide collection of both sacred and
secular musical traditions – for example, congregational singing was found to be important to the Amish, the Mennonites, and the Moravians. It was two groups of English colonists, the Pilgrims and the Puritans, who had the biggest influence on American music education as we know it today, largely through their use of music in 158
worship.
Both groups employed no professional musicians in their churches, using
instead congregational psalmody as musical material for worship. Initially their Calvinist texts included no printed music, but by the ninth edition (1698) The Bay Psalm Book contained thirteen tunes. The untraditional diamond-shaped notes and solmization letters 156
Mark, A Concise History of American Music Education , 4-5.
157
Ibid., 9.
158
Ibid.
39 159
later became a widespread teaching device in the form of shape note singing.
The
varied note heads indicate where half steps occur in the scale. Shape note notation, although originating in New England, also became popular in church music of the 160
American South.
Nineteenth-century music educator and church musician Lowell Mason was an early advocate for establishing curricular music in American public schools. Mason was instrumental in re-envisioning practices of the popular evening singing schools, 161
incorporating cultivated European traditions of music education.
Along with his
extensive musical work in the Presbyterian Church, Mason and colleague George James Webb established a music academy (arguably the first of its kind) in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1833.
162
Centered largely on the principles of vocal instruction the
school quickly enrolled several thousand students and in 1834 the Manual of the Boston Academy of Music, for instruction in the elements of vocal music, on the system of Pestalozzi was first published. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was a Swiss educator who believed that education was the only means to elevate the lower classes, and sought to improve aspects of national morality and citizenship through an effort of education
159
Ibid., 10.
160
Pryer, Anthony. "shape note." The Oxford Companion to Music . Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. 11 Mar. 2013. . 161
His choices of repertoire later came under criticism for replacing too much of the indigenous music with less prominent European composers. Michael Mark, A Concise History of American Music Education , 25, 52. 162
Harry Eskew, et al. "Mason." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 11 Mar. 2013. .
40 163
reform.
When modified to suit music instruction, Pestalozzian principles were
reasoned by Mason to be: 1. To teach sounds before signs – to make a child sing before he learns written notes or their names. 2. To lead the child to observe, by hearing and imitating sounds, their resemblances and differences, their agreeable and disagreeable effects, rather than explaining these things to him. By this principle, the child was to be an active, rather than passive learner. 3. To teach but one thing at a time – rhythm, melody, expression are taught and practiced separately before the child is called to the difficult task of attending to all at once. 4. To make children practice each step of each of these divisions, until they master it, before passing to the next. 5. To give the principles and theory after practice, and as an induction from it. 6. To analyze and practice the elements of articulate sound in order to apply them to music. 164 7. To have the names of the notes correspond to those used in instrumental music. These seven principles demonstrate a desire for a systematic, progressive approach to education founded on the establishment of incremental competencies, encouraging and allowing time for the absorption of knowledge prior to the introduction of more complex material. It relies on the assumption that when students truly learn a skill or musical concept, they will be able to apply knowledge of that concept when it is encountered in a 165
new musical context.
An over-arching goal of the Pestalozzian approach is that the
student should learn to cultivate a thirst for information and a desire to seek out and teach
163
Pestalozzi himself did not teach music, but his pedagogical principles were quickly absorbed by colleague Hans Georg Nägeli, who adopted his practices into his pedagogy at the Zürich Singinstitut. It was American William Channing Woodbridge that observed Nägeli in Europe, and passed on his observations to one Elam Ives Jr., the first American to apply Pestalozzian principles to music teaching in the United States. Mark, A Concise History of American Music Education , 31-34. 164
Lowell Mason, Manual of the Boston Academy of Music: for instruction in the vocal music, on the system of Pestalozzi . Boston, MA: Carter, Hendee, 1834. 165
Warren Haston, “Teacher modeling as an effective teaching strategy,” Music Educators Journal 93/4 (2007) 29.
41
themselves further knowledge. Lowell Mason’s text was quickly adopted by many singing school masters across the country.
166
It was a goal of the treatise, stated in the 167
preface, to give music the same stature in education as “arithmetics and geographies.”
The preface also states that “examples of training the ear and the voice, if duly attended to, can hardly fail to bring those organs to a good state of improvement.” Mason fully believed that the formation and cultivation of a musical ear would enable a child to distinguish, appreciate, and imitate musical sounds. He also considered that, just as with the spoken voice, the musical ear could be refined by experience, enabling improved 168
discriminatory ability, and achieving musical excellence.
It was through Mason’s
work that the initial introduction of music education in schools occurred in Boston, and gained interest from across the country.
169
In terms of rapid developments in music education, James Mainwaring was the British mid-twentieth century equivalent of Lowell Mason. He offered tremendous 170
insight into the cognition behind music learning.
Like Mason, Mainwaring argued that
the musical progression of learning should run from sound to sight, rather than from sight to sound. Mainwaring stated that beginning with notation “is like beginning with definitions, and is contrary to the natural process of learning.” Mainwaring believed that 166
Mark, A Concise History of American Music Education , 42.
167
Geo. Wm Gordon in preface to Manual of the Boston Academy of Music, iii.
168
Mason, Manual of the Boston Academy of Music , 16.
169
Mason actually had to teach music for a year for no salary in order to convince the Boston Common Council that funds were indeed necessary and appropriate in order to fund a music teacher. Although previously taught, music was approved as a subject for the public school curriculum, equal to others, for the first time in 1838. Mark, A Concise History of American Music Education , 45. 170
Woody, “Playing by ear”, 84.
42
verbal descriptions and definitions are suitable only once there is a fund of recallable 171
experiences to give meaning to the content of the words.
On both sides of the Atlantic
these two men were promoting the same ideals of sound-before-sight, and yet the notion appears to have struggled to take hold. Notation
Today, formal music education is largely centered on the production of 172
“musically literate performers,” capable of transforming sight to sound.
Notation-
based ear training activities appear on the surface to be a good way to combine elements of both aural perception and symbol-based competency, be it through dictation, sightsinging or other disciplines. Although notation-guided activities do provide opportunities for aural skill development, there are limitations to their potential if only addressed as a by-product and not as the original focus. Examples of ear-based activities fall more frequently in jazz, popular and world idioms than that of the Western classical tradition, because these genres generally have less reliance on printed music. And yet it is still the classical canon in which most young performers are schooled from the moment begin instrumental music. Our reliance on notation-based ear training is in direct contrast with previous discussions about the necessity to think in musical language, the comparison between the development of musical fluency and linguistics, and the idea of aural acuity. The journey to a finished performance product could be dramatically shortened when students have the ear skills to more rapidly decode notation into precise (goal) images of
171
Mainwaring, Teaching Music in Schools , 11.
172
Woody, “Playing by Ear”, 83.
43 173
sound.
It has been proven that playing-by-ear development can be a critical ingredient
in facilitating the development of other musical skills (such as composing, arranging, group collaboration, individual artistic expression) not to mention increased fluency of reading notation. While reading music, internal aural processes must still be emphasized - the necessity to “hear the sounds come alive inside your head” and not simply respond 174
with physical representations of pitch (positions and fingerings). Dictation
The “typical” aural training course includes both linear activities (such as rhythmic dictation, melodic dictation, and sight-singing, and vertical activities (sonority identification and chord progressions), however often there is little to connect the two elements. Based on the amount of experience gained from traditional ear training courses, musicians are often ill-equipped to perceive chord quality by ear, due to the habit of focusing on the “left-to-right” understanding of Western music. It is imperative for a musician to be able to perceive vertical structures as quickly as he or she reads linear lines.
175
Harmonic dictation frequently involves the notation of outer voices with little
focus on the contrapuntal aspects of each line, but rather the analytical implications of each pitch. This methodology fosters a separatist approach to the students’ musical 176
knowledge.
An emphasis on notation-based learning can lead to an over-dependence
of attention only to pitch and rhythm, at the detriment of other aspects of performance, 173
Ibid., 85.
174
Levin and Martin, Sight Singing, p. xvii.
175
Wayne Bailey, Aural skills for conductors, (Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 1992), 32-34.
176
Kate Covington, “Improvisation in the Aural Curriculum: an imperative”, College Music Symposium 37 (1997), 43.
44
such as intonation, articulation, nuance, dynamic contrast and intensity. Indeed some ear training courses focus entirely on the fine, detailed listening of pitch and rhythm, leaving matters of form, texture, style and compositional devices to the more generalized written 177
theory courses.
Notation-based dictation allows the crucial step of scale degree
function to be disregarded from the students understanding of aural material. For example, students with a poor sense of tonic who are given a starting pitch to begin a melodic dictation exercise are able to essentially follow their noses from one pitch to the next, making educated guesses about interval size until their selected final pitch fits with their perceived melodic resolution (most commonly a return to tonic). This requires no true internalization of pitches and their relation to tonic.
178
More beneficial would be to
aurally recreate the melody, convert it to solfège or a number-based system, and move to notation only as the final step. An over-dependence on dictation within the ear training curriculum is perhaps a disservice to the students receiving the education. Karpinski suggests that “if all a student learns is to write down what he hears, there are few applications for this skill in the musical world.” He continues, “We shouldn’t train a world of dictation-takers; we should educate a world of musicians who can think with 179
their ears.”
While the practice of dictation is “well-ensconced” in higher education
music programs, there are few written examples of the justification for this focus.
177
180
Karpinski, “A Model for Music Perception”, 191.
178
Ibid., 205. Karpinski is adamant in most of his writing that there this is an overreliance in most texts on providing too much information to the student, resulting in the prevention of students learning certain skills such as inference of tonic (since the key signature is provided) and inference of meter. An internalized inference of tonic is the biggest aid to understanding the tonal function of every other pitch presented. 179
Karpinski, “Ear training and integrated aural skills: three recent texts”, 136.
45
Another concern about over-reliance on notation in ear training is that it can be impossible to tell from a written melodic/harmonic dictation response, at what point a student’s ear training has failed – their understanding of the aural stimulus, their memory, or their ability to transfer it into written notation.
181
An instructor simply grades an
incorrect pitch, with little ability to ascertain its cause, or the type of error that occurred. An ear training instructor’s task is often (just as with applied instructor) to diagnose and remedy students’ deficiencies, but it will take several examinations of incorrect dictation answers to make an accurate diagnosis. Simply prescribing more and more drills will 182
leave the deficiency buried in a very complex set of processes.
Skills don’t necessarily
develop by simply taking more dictation. Dictation can also create, for students that appear to struggle with the task, a “debilitating anxiety that impedes learning.”
183
Voice and Instrument
For students for which this is the first time they are being requested to use their 184
voice, the pedagogy is sometimes flawed. Singing is basic to all music.
Although the
singing voice is a tool that all musicians should be asked to learn to use, some individuals will need some introductory instruction on the basics of vocal production. With appropriate attention to the principles of posture, abdominal support, breathing, and range, ear training students can learn to use their voices without difficulty and any such 180
Karpinski, “A model for music perception” 191.
181
Ibid., 217.
182
Ibid., 220.
183
Deborah Rifkin and Diane Urista, “Developing Aural Skills: It’s Not Just a Game” Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, 20 (2006), 57-78. 184
White, Guidelines for College Teaching of Music Theory , 25.
46 185
obstacle.
It should be acknowledged that for some, exposing one’s voice will be a
deeply personal experience and one which, coupled with the excessive “demands of 186
achievement” (attainment goals) in the classroom can cause significant stress.
But
approached in the right way, the voice becomes a powerful force in a student’s aural skills arsenal, a vital assistant in (what Edwin Gordon terms as) aural/oral perception. Gordon’s premise was that the development of a student’s sense of tonality using improved aural/oral discrimination techniques, will transfer into enhanced pitch discrimination and pitch accuracy (both intonation and literal pitch accuracy) in the performance of instrumentalists. He believed that “audiation is to music what thought is 187
to language.”
The ability to “hear it before one can sing it”
188
continues into brass
189
pedagogy in the popular “sing, buzz, play” approach to playing. 190
place in the 1970s and 1980s that corroborate this technique.
Several studies took
A more recent
experiment by Woody and Lehmann suggested extremely similar findings. Their particular intention was to discover the differences in abilities between “formally-trained” musicians, and those well-versed in vernacular music, in relation to the accuracy of 185
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 145-6.
186
Reitan, “Stress and well-being in the aural skills classroom”, 86.
187
Gordon, Rhythm: Contrasting the Implications of Audiation and Notation, (Chicago: G.I.A. Publications, 2000), 4. 188
Gordon, Learning Sequences in Music, 7.
189
Believed to have been championed by Arnold Jacobs and Charles Herseth (former Chicago Symphony Orchestra brass players) this technique has brass players sing a melody, buzz it at pitch on their mouthpiece, and then perform it on the instrument. 190
For more, see Elliott: “Effect of Vocalization on the sense of pitch of beginning band class students”; Davis: ‘The effect of structured singing activities and self-evaluation practice on elementary band students’ instrumental music performance, melodic tonal imagery, self-evaluation and attitude’; Schlaks: ‘The effect of vocalization through an interval training program upon the pitch accuracy of high school band students.’; and MacKnight, “Music reading ability of beginning wind instrumentalists after melodic instruction.”
47
performing melodies by ear. Woody and Lehmann’s results showed that singing by ear required far fewer incorrect trials than playing on one’s instrument, regardless of the performer’s musical background. This suggests that use of the voice connects more closely to a musician’s “goal image” (the internal representation of what the music 191
should sound like) than when attempting to use motor production representation.
The
use of internal representation, the process of internal imaging, is often referred to as ‘the inner ear’ and using the voice is the easiest way to connect the inner ear to the external 192
creation of the sound.
This externalization doesn’t have to be taught; children use it
instinctively to learn nursery rhymes and simple songs, prior to developing a fear of using their singing voices in public.
193
Although some ear training texts (such as Benward and
Carr’s Sightsinging Complete) invite students to bring their instruments to ear training classes for certain activities, the infrequent inclusion of such requests does little to move the overall concepts of the course from theoretical to practical. Instead those classes are sometimes seen as novelty days, breaking up the monotony of the sight-singing/dictation exercises. Ear training that largely focuses on rhythm and pitch can appear to be separated by a “wide abyss” from the actualities of musical performance. Without the integration of tempo, dynamics, articulation, and phrasing, it can be challenging to convince students of the musical properties of these individualized tasks. The best type of ear training instructors will never let a musically flat performance go by without 191
Woody and Lehmann, “Student musicians’ ear-playing ability”, 112. The study went on to prove that the difference between singing accuracy and instrumental playback accuracy was far less in vernacular musicians than it was in those with more formal training, indicating that the goal-image to motor production was more immediate for vernacular musicians. 192
ABRSM, “Aural Tests: included in the practical exams for all students”, 20. Even silent singing, to some degree, brings this internal imaging to reality. 193
Pratt, Aural Awareness, 123.
48
suggestion for improved shaping. Equally, musically well-executed interpretations 194
should be praised for such, just as they would be in the instrumental lesson.
Performing should be at the core of any musicianship course, and every resource possible should be used to demonstrate the interrelationship of performance with every other 195
musical aspect.
Suitability of Faculty
Most commonly the task of teaching aural skills classes is bestowed exclusively 196
upon music theory faculty and their graduate teaching assistants.
While faculty may
find an advantage of having taught the same class for many years, teaching assistants are frequently encountering classroom and undergraduate teaching simultaneously for the first time.
197
Sometimes separated by only a few years from the students in front of them,
it is not uncommon for a teaching assistant to be presented with a syllabus and textbook by the supervising faculty member, and essentially let loose on their own section of the 198
course.
With little other than their own experiences as a student to draw upon, it seems
an inadequate pedagogical approach to one of the most crucial classes in the music curriculum. A result of these sorts of staffing decisions leads to several issues with the 194
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 187-9.
195
Buccheri, “Musicianship at Northwestern”, 127.
196
This has historically been the case but it is not apparent why it should remain this way. In fact, three of music education’s all-star practitioners (Dalcroze, Orff, and Kodàly) started out as composer/teacher/frustrated aural training instructors. (Butler, “Gulf between music perception research and aural training”, 42). 197
It is a contentious issue of some critics that ear training is a “musical catechism” handed down virtually intact from generation to generation (Butler, “Gulf between music perception and aural training”, 42). 198
The author refers anecdotally to her own experiences as an aural skills instructor, and to insights shared by participants of the Graduate Student Workshop at the Society of Music Theory International Conference, Montreal 2009.
49
curriculum, and that is, the propensity to choose material that is most comfortable with the instructor, easiest to “teach” and easiest to assess.
199
But as teachers we should
always aspire to bring a fully comprehensive musical world to our students, rather than 200
simply the segments that are most easy to deliver.
In the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy article relating to their 1990 study of aural skills programs in U.S. colleges and universities, Randall Pembrook and Lee Riggins start by stating the “two most critical issues in teaching aural skills are methods 201
and materials.”
They sought to determine which were the most frequent texts
referenced and specific methods in use (e.g., duration of classes and focus of subject matter). While this study provided valid statistical data (e.g. the average class time spent in freshman aural skills each week was 177 minutes) there was no attempt to correlate their findings with the actual attainment standards of the students. From her experience as a researcher of aural skills pedagogy, Inger Elise Reitan found that aural skills teachers do not normally involve themselves in the research of perceptual and cognitive-based studies related to aural training – an argument supported by David Butler, who states that “many leaders in the aural training field don’t have the training or the experience to be able to wade through an article in Psychomusicology or the Journal of Music 202
Education.”
Despite the work of Gary Karpinski and Steve Larson, college-level ear
training programs have been slow to pick up on new information as it is presented. The
199
Butler, “Why the Gulf?”, 42.
200
Woody, “Playing by ear”, 84.
201
Pembrook and Riggins, “ 'Send help!': Aural skills instruction in U.S. colleges and universities”, 231.
202
Butler is adamant that the number of music educators leading ear training instruction must increase. “Why the Gulf”, 42-43.
50
more research research that is done to explain the way in which we perceive perceive musical information, information, 203
the further this needs to be applied to ear training pedagogy and delivery.
The implications for music education based on ear training research are abundant. While theory faculty faculty are, on the surface at least, concerned in the development development and execution of ear training classes, methods, and textbooks, these teachers are not commonly commonly the same people concerned concerned in the psychology psychology behind the practice. practice. Similarly, Similarly, 204
music psychologists rarely focus on the pedagogical implications behind their studies. The discipline of aural skills training has therefore found itself trapped between two
fields of research, research, that of music theory theory and the psychology psychology of music. However, However, there is evidence that change is beginning beginning to emerge, emerge, with the emphasis on research research and development development that many faculty faculty are required required to demonstrate demonstrate as part of the tenure tenure process. process. The uniting personnel that may well bring these disciplines together, and begin its application earlier in the developmental process, are music education specialists. In her 2008 study of well-being well-being in the aural skills classroom classroom Reitan found that the qualities qualities recognized recognized in a good aural skills teacher are: the ability ability to be sympathetic, sympathetic, to be 205
a good pedagogue, and to present well-organized lessons.
These are all applicable
attributes attributes of the the studio teacher teacher also. also. In order to be viewed viewed this way way by students, students, the teacher must find a manner of communicating communicating which garners value and trust from the students. students. In a group of mixed-ability mixed-ability students students this involves great skill in evaluating evaluating the correct correct pacing of the course. Somehow the more competent competent students students must be kept
203
Butler, “Why the Gulf?”, 39.
204
Reitan, “Students’ attitudes to aural training”, 208.
205
Reitan, “Stress and Well-Being in the Aural Training Class”, 89.
51
engaged while the less competent competent are helped. Several lab studies studies have demonstrated demonstrated that the interpersonal style a person uses to administer events greatly influences the events’ 206
effects.
A major problem to have developed in ear training programs is a culture where the symptoms symptoms to ear training training problems problems become treated as causes. For example, example, if a student struggles to sing an ascending major sixth (Re – Ti) in a simple sight-singing melody we might assume the issue is an inability inability to sing ascending ascending major sixths, rather than examining the fact that the student has failed to recognize recognize the significan significance ce of ‘Ti’ in relation relation to its resolution resolution to the upcoming upcoming ‘Do’. Endless Endless drilling of intervals intervals in isolation will fail to correct correct this problem. problem. A skill that can separate a good ear training teacher teacher from their counterparts is the ability to diagnose a problem in class and instantly improvise an exercise to address it.
207
This is a talent that instrumental teachers utilize frequently in
their teaching, habitually diagnosing technical and musical issues and suggesting solutions solutions to be implemented implemented at the moment, moment, and also in the practice practice room. This is most suitable suitable for one-on-one one-on-one interaction, interaction, and can be more challenging challenging in the open classroom classroom than in the private lesson. lesson. The risk of further exacerbati exacerbating ng a problem and failing to making obvious progress, causing embarrassment for an individual student, or simply getting getting away from the lesson plan, are reasons reasons enough for the aural skills teacher to shy away from the improvisation of new material and problem-solving techniques.
206
Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier and Ryan, “Motivation and education: the self-determination perspective, educational psychologist”, The Educational Psychologist 26 26 (1991), 336.
207
Rifkin and Stoecker, “A Revised Taxonomy for Music Learning”, 155.
52
Further communication and collaboration between aural training teachers and instrumental teachers would greatly benefit both disciplines. Discussions should focus on both the aims and an d content of courses, co urses, and the opportunity for practical and contextual development. development. Although Although the outcomes outcomes of these discussions discussions might at first first seem difficult difficult to implement, implement, the author hopes this document will show that it is a worthy and necessary necessary undertaking. Grading and Motivation
Pratt recognizes the disadvantages of using an education system in which assessment assessment becomes becomes an unnecessary unnecessary focus. He says, “Much aural training is directed directed towards towards testing of what is right or wrong.” The skills to be addressed are selected selected based on their suitability for providing identifiable measures of achievement; and yet art is, by its very nature, frequently frequently a subjective matter matter that defies measurement. measurement. The testing of 208
right and wrong quickly quickly overshadows the discovery discovery of what and why.
The most
convenient convenient material for this is pitch and duration of notes, at the neglect for other salient musical musical features. As Michael Rogers describes describes it, “a sightsingi sightsinging ng teacher should be more 209
than a burglar burglar alarm for wrong notes.”
A student’s awareness that their answers will 210
be either right or wrong increases the probability of stress in the classroom.
The perception of correctness impacts what type of motivation students experience. experience. An intrinsicall intrinsically y motivated student student seeks to do well to satisfy satisfy their own sense of volition in activities that engage them. Extrinsical Extrinsically ly motivated students students perform not 208
Pratt, Aural Awareness, 1.
209
Rogers, “The Jersild Approach:”, 160.
210
Reitan, "Stress and well-being in the aural training class”, 86.
53
out of interest, but because they believe there is a separable consequence – e.g. a good 211
grade in this class results in a better overall grade point average.
Extrinsically
motivated students learn material because they know they will be tested, rather than for the benefit of self-improvement and a greater sense of understanding.
212
For a musician,
intrinsic motivation is demonstrable by the internal joy gained from performing music with peers, to an audience, or alone in the bath tub; while extrinsic motivation is seen in the desire to pass a jury, win an audition, or impress a teacher. College music students are typically intrinsically motivated; they have already spent years of their lives devoting 213
their time to the pursuit of music excellence.
But collegiate music study is different to
the performance based activities they have previously enjoyed. When evaluations and assessments are emphasized, intrinsic motivation is undermined, along with the opportunity for conceptual learning and creativity. It is a challenge to create intrinsic motivation in the theory classroom, since assignments, grades and tests are frequently utilized. Conceptual learning and creativity are key elements of ear training pedagogy that have been discussed earlier in this work for their significance. Intrinsically motivated behaviors emanate from the self and are fully endorsed, supporting the prototype for self-determination.
214
In self-determination theory support for competence
(gained from performance feedback) and relatedness (such as peer acceptance) facilitate intrinsic motivation. 211
Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behaviour . (New York: Plenum, 1985). 212
Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier and Ryan, “Motivation and Education”, 331.
213
Marvin, “Intrinsic Motivation: the Relation of Analysis to Performance in Undergraduate Music Theory Instruction,” Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 8 (1994), 48. 214
Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier and Ryan, “Motivation and Education: 328-35.
54
Primarily the goal is to promote a genuine enthusiasm in the student for learning and accomplishment, and to help instill a sense of volitional involvement in the process 215
of education.
Stress
Since ear training classes are almost exclusively presented as a compulsory course of study within the music curriculum it may well, from some quarters, immediately 216
receive the negative categorization as a “necessary, but unpleasant” subject.
Occupying a similar place in the curriculum as underclassmen music theory and music history classes, these classes are frequently mistakenly approached by students as a necessary but separate entity to their development as a performing musician. There are aspects of these courses that can challenge a student’s self-esteem.
217
As with other
strands of theoretical music theory, inconsistencies and inexperience with certain concepts can cause anxiety in a student in what Buccheri calls the “All of a sudden, it 218
seems like I know nothing about music” condition.
When this occurs there is a
significant risk that stress and a poorer sense of well-being will impede a student’s ability to learn and succeed. In a 2008 study completed at the Norwegian Academy of Music Reitan discovered that 27% of students evaluated their stress to be high in the ear training 219
classroom.
This stress manifested itself as nervousness, anxiety, feelings of
215
Ibid., 325.
216
Reitan, “Stress and well-being in the aural training class”, 85.
217
218
Ibid., 86. Buccheri, “Musicianship at Northwestern”, 131.
55 220
shortcoming and continuous frustration.
Gary Karpinski suggests that nervousness in
the aural-skills classroom frequently correlates with nervousness in other musical activities, particularly performance (since there is an element of performance in being 221
called upon in class).
Throughout education, stress in the classroom is closely
associated with other important self-evaluative concepts, self-esteem and self-efficacy. Students instinctively connect the performance aspect of completing ear training tasks with their performing ego, and similarly demonstrate that making a mistake causes 222
damage to their self-esteem.
Self-esteem and self-efficacy are crucial in any learning
context, but particularly in relation to performance based tasks. Almost in recognition of this significance, students sometimes approach ear training with the fear that certain musical weaknesses or ineptitudes will be exposed, crucially, in front of their peers.
223
In
order to be in the optimum state of learning, a person must be able to feel confident about 224
oneself within the social environment.
Any fear of failure can have a profound effect
on the student’s ability to perform as a critical and analytical listener.
225
To create an
219
For the purpose of the study, stress is defined as “a state of tension in a person, and causes unwieldy pressure or conflicts which might lead to reactions like anxiety, anger, depression, continuous frustration and or/psychosomatic sufferance.” (Reitan, “Stress and well-being in the aural training class: The psychological aspect of training for enhanced musician’s skills”, 86-87). 220
Reitan, “Stress and well-being in the aural training class: The psychological aspect of training for enhanced musician’s skills”, 87. Rifkin and Urista refer to the “debilitating anxiety that impedes learning” (“Developing aural skills: it’s not just a game”, 57) while Karpinski states that he has witnessed the correlation between nervousness in the aural-skills classroom and other musical activities, such as performance ( Aural Skills Acquisition, 209). 221
Karpinski, “A Model for Music Perception”, 209.
222
Reitan, “Stress and well-being in the aural training class”, 88.
223
Covington, “An alternate approach to aural training”, 5.
224
Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier and Ryan, “Motivation and education”, 326.
225
Covington, “An alternate approach to aural training”, 10.
56
environment that promotes success, the ear training classroom must be seen to 226
demonstrate a low degree of threat.
A classroom of new friends and colleagues of
mixed ability is not necessarily conducive to this said low threat level. In order to be motivated to learn, a student must sense the nature of the challenge and feel the expectation that mastery is attainable. Previous attainment and academic experience has consequences on the expectation of future learning and mastery. In this way having previous experience of mastering a task, having an expectation of mastering a future task, and actually mastering a current task form a cyclical process, one that can prove to be either positive or negative to a student.
227
In order for a positive pattern to develop, long-
term relevance of the activities should be emphasized, so that any progress can be evaluated in the context of overall musicianship, rather than simply attainment in a selfcontained class. Students must be actively dissuaded from compartmentalizing ear 228
training.
Group Learning
The ear training classes offered in higher education tend to exist in a one-size-fitsall format regardless of the diversity of previous experience, or the future career aspirations, of individual students. Classes usually range in size from a dozen to twenty students, with limited opportunity for individual teaching. And yet, it has been recognized that aural skills acquisition develops at different rates in different
226
Discussion of levels of threat takes place in Carl Rogers’ Freedom to Learn.
227
A concept developed by Einar and Sidsel Skaalvik’s in Selvoppfatning, motivasjon og læringsmiljø (Self perception, motivation and learning) - referenced by Reitan, in “Stress and well-being in the aural training class: The psychological aspect of training for enhanced musician’s skills”, 88. 228
Covington, “An alternate approach to aural training”, 9.
57 229
individuals.
In addition to their individual ear training history, each student presents a
unique combination of personality traits, intellectual aptitude, and cognitive 230
tendencies.
With a small class it is even more important to attempt to understand
students’ cognitive abilities. The unique cognitive makeup of each student and their level of formal training actually lends the delivery of ear training towards one-on-one instruction, or at least smaller groups (six to ten), in preference over the small classroom setting (around twenty students). It has been well documented in educational research that students learn in different ways, and have individual learning styles.
231
In his article for the Journal of
Music Theory Pedagogy, Michael Lively breaks down educational theorist David Kolb’s experiential learning classification system of the four types of learning styles, as the basis of a discussion about developing new instructional theory materials.
232
The four learning
style groups can be summarily defined as follows: 1) Accommodators: learners that learn best from specific examples and experimentation, using experience to grasp and process information; 2) Divergers: who also learn best from specific examples but need to cogitate new information, transforming it through reflective observation. 3) Convergers: learners that prefer an environment of systematic analysis (abstract conceptualization) 229
Marvin, “A comparison of four sight-singing and aural-skills textbooks”, 139.
230
Michael Lively, “D. A. Kolb’s Theory of Experiential Learning: Implications for the Development of Music Theory Instructional Material”, Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 19 (2005), 77. 231
Learning styles refer to a variety of theoretical constructs and cognitive models, essentially a predisposition to a particular learning strategy regardless of the specific demands of the task. For more see Fox’s “Learning Styles and Instructional Preferences in Continuing Education for Health Professionals”, 72-85. 232
Lively, “D. A. Kolb’s Theory of Experiential Learning”, 82-83. Lively goes on to demonstrate how to teach a specific topic, secondary dominant function, in accordance with the various learning styles.
58
and experimentation; and 4) Assimilators: who also use systematic analysis, but transform it through reflective observation. From this summary of Kolb’s learning styles it is apparent that these four types of students would need information presented in various ways, and would have different methods for managing this information for future recall. Learners who prefer abstract conceptualization may be able to audiate a melody quite successfully, while other students require the process of performance for the information to sink in.
233
With a more homogenized approach to ear training, students
have to determine what is most relevant and most important for them.
234
Another type of learning theory that has been explored in the quest for improvements in the delivery of ear training are the principles of objectivist and 235
constructivist models for teaching, championed primarily by Kate Covington.
The
most prevalent learning method, along with teaching strategies, follows the objectivist model – where a distinct set of facts are combined with declarative and procedural knowledge, best assessed through the process of retrieval. Facts are learned, stored cognitively in well-organized schematic networks, and recounted in an easily quantifiable 236
manner.
The most common way to teach in this model is to isolate elements from their
natural context, such as in the repetitive drilling of intervals. But research has shown that 233
Lively, “D. A. Kolb’s Theory of Experiential Learning”, 88.
234
Reitan, “Students’ attitude to aural training”, 214.
235
Covington and Lord, “Epistemology and procedure in aural training”, 162-170.
236
The term schemata refers to the structures that represent concepts, and are the building blocks of cognition that typically reflect the context in which they were learned. A specific example of schematic isolation might be the predilection of some methods to regard all major sixths in the context of the NBC show tune. In this instance there is a strong sense of tonality connected to the sixth, confirmed with its resolution to ‘do’. However, when the major sixth occurs in other tonal settings, such as ‘Re-Ti’ or ‘Fa-Re’ those parameters are shifted and the changed tonal implications can cause uncertainty.
59
such training can actually cause the development of barriers between schema types, instead of highlighting interconnectedness. An alternative to this is the constructivist approach, where schematic networks are more loosely defined, allowing elements to be disconnected from their original locations and reassembled in new contexts. When teaching with constructivist methods, extended exercises on a single task are still 237
beneficial, but should be combined with similar activities in a variety of contexts.
In
practice, this could be learning an interval: by singing, by playing the interval melodically, as a basis of improvisation, by sounding the interval harmonically etc.. Covington and Lord argue that the further that a skill can be demonstrated through a variety of contexts, the better the students will be able to understand the essential role of the specific concept. When constructionist learning is successfully executed, the focus becomes learning process rather than production; explanation of rationale rather than the result of conclusion; schema assembly rather than schema selection. In short, this idea of cognitive flexibility enables students to learn the theoretical tools that facilitate their ability to teach themselves towards practical solutions. This is precisely the type of learning that is most suitable for the study of music, and becomes utilized in the following proposed method.
237
This technique is referred to by educational psychologist Rand Spiro as “criss-crossing the contextual landscape.” It builds the ability to cope with every scenarios of ever increasing complexity, and thus is so well suited to a discipline which encourages ever-increasing progression towards expert status.
60
CHAPTER THREE A NEW APPROACH
In his much-quoted text, Aural Skills Acquisition, Karpinski states that a way to promote the use of skills developed during aural skills classes is to “encourage [their] 238
incorporation into studio instruction and instrumental practice”
By generating a
method that focuses on some of the specific skills championed by Karpinski, and taught in aural skill classes across the nation, the author hopes to establish a practical method of integrating ear training into the private lesson. Building on opportunities presented by enjoying one-on-one contact between tutor and pupil, the method seeks to demonstrate performance-applicable techniques for training one’s musical ear. This methodology removes some of the limitations brought about by teaching ear training to large classes of students, and allows for a personalized, instrument-specific pedagogical approach to some of the most necessary and useful skills of musical performance. As Lowell Mason stated in 1834 “All elements of instruction... will produce no favorable result, if the teacher is wanting in the necessary ability and disposition.”
239
The
success of this method depends on the degree to which the instructor values this approach and its perceived benefits for their student’s musical development. Ear-driven activities can facilitate the development of arranging and composing skills, improvisation, musical collaboration in groups, more fluent notation-reading, accuracy in sight-reading, not to
238
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 192.
239
Mason, Manual of the Boston Academy of Music”, 35.
61 240
mention individual artistic expression.
With that broad a range of potential benefits, it
would seem well worth attempting to find a solution in the private lesson for some of the gaps left in standard ear training classes. ABRSM Influence
The main influence behind the author’s perceived need for a new approach is centered on her experiences of the examinations administered by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM). The ABRSM is the examination board of the 241
Royal Schools of Music.
It was founded in 1889 to create an examining body
“inspired by disinterested motives for the benefit of music education... which would 242
genuinely provide a stimulus and an objective for a high standard of achievement.”
To
date, over 650,000 examinations have been delivered, in over ninety countries across the 243
globe.
An important facet of these practical assessments, focusing on three contrasting
pieces of repertoire, scales and arpeggios, and sight-reading, is an additional element during each examination – the aural test. These were introduced to the examinations in 244
1920.
The ABRSM aural tests aim to establish the link between “listening to music 245
and playing music,”
240
the same aptitude hoped to be reinforced by the Ear-tudes. The
Woody, “Playing by ear”, 87.
241
The Royal Schools of Music comprise of four British music conservatories: The Royal Academy of Music, The Royal College of Music, The Royal Northern College of Music, and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. 242
‘The beginning’, website of the ABRSM. 14 Mar 2013. http://us.abrsm.org/en/about-us/abrsm-history/
243
‘About Us’, website of the ABRSM. 14 Mar 2013. http://us.abrsm.org/en/about-us/
244
‘The beginning’, website of the ABRSM. 14 Mar 2013. http://us.abrsm.org/en/about-us/abrsm-history/
245
Clara Taylor, These music exams: a guide to ABRSM exams for candidates, teachers and parents . (London: Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, 2001) 16.
62
ARBSM aural test syllabus is progressive, developed in conjunction with the student’s development of practical instrumental skills, and as such expands from the abilities of a 246
low level beginner to the competency of a student of pre-conservatory standard.
Since
the method contained within this document specifically targets the collegiate freshman tuba player, certain assumptions are made about the technical proficiencies of the 247
player.
ABRSM aural tests are administered by the examiner from the piano; however this method requires the instructor to take that role, instructing the drills from their own instrument. This connects with the student’s ability to identify pitch and rhythm on the very medium on which they themselves perform. The proposed application requires the drills to take place one lesson prior to the Ear-tude being assigned to the student. The student should then prepare the full Ear-tude for the following lesson, bearing in mind the ear training concepts that have been addressed. In addition to skills assessed in ABRSM aural tests, there are other activities included in these drills, including intonation work, mouthpiece buzzing call-and-response exercises, and opportunities for guided improvisations. Real-world Application
In their ear training manual Sight Singing and Ear Training Through Literature, Levin and Martin seek to demonstrate their belief “that the best way to stimulate the ear
246
Full information, including syllabuses is available from the ‘Aural Test’ portion of the ABRSM website. http://us.abrsm.org/en/our-exams/aural-tests/ 247
The assumptions are made based on the author’s experience as a college student, and studio teaching assistant at a Big Ten university.
63
is with real music and the actual difficulties encountered in performance and 248
listening.”
It is most beneficial to involve a student’s primary instrument in the
process of ear training. Listeners’ familiarity with the timbre of a sound source has a direct effect on their ability to determine registral placement.
249
Female instrumentalists
that play in the bass/contrabass range have reported difficulty with distinctly hearing 250
pitches several octaves from their vocal range.
By increasing the frequency with
which a player alternates between singing in a comfortable range and playing their instrument in its regular range, one can reduce the level of discomfort and uncertainty towards this practice. Modeling
Lehmann and Woody state that “a musician’s goal image guides performance” regardless of whether this image is based on visual cues (e.g. notation in sight-reading) or musical memory (e.g. playing by ear). The clearest way for a student to have a high quality goal image is for them to physically hear a tone or a melody prior to their attempting its replication. (Another highly effective method is for the student to be able to internally auralize their projected goal image, but this will not become instinctive until they are trained to first physically hear the sound). Teacher modeling is a very effective manner to introduce new musical concepts and performance skills, without the need for students to see printed music. With modeling, students “learn the application before they
248
Levin and Martin, Sight Singing and Ear Training Through Literature , xvii.
249
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 14.
250
Statement based on the author’s teaching experience at a Big Ten university.
64 251
learn the theory”
and this is precisely what Mason was seeking to achieve in 1834 with
his Manual based on Pestalozzian principles. In music, just as with speech and physical 252
motion, people learn naturally by imitating models.
For music, Bruce Torff describes
the principle as “the wordless world of music learning.” aural modeling, particularly in the private lesson.
254
253
Music learning lends itself to
Researchers have found that
ensemble directors use modeling only between 10 and 25 percent of the time in rehearsals, presumably because they usually don’t have an instrument to hand with which 255
to demonstrate.
Instrumentalists, in contrast to singers, are learning to couple 256
psychomotor tasks to an aurally perceived sound, as opposed to a visual cue.
Learning
by imitation results in learning “about the structure of a fairly complex stimulus environment, without necessarily intending to do so, and in such a way the resulting knowledge is difficult to express.”
257
It is for this reason that some of the best performers
struggle to be the become the best teachers; when complex processes and techniques have been arrived at so naturally that there is limited knowledge of exactly how a result is
251
Haston, “Teacher modeling as an effective teaching strategy”, 26.
252
Suzuki called this “the Mother Tongue” in Nurtured by Love, 7-17. Kohut referred to it as the “Natural Learning Process” in Instrumental Music Pedagogy , 4. 253
Torff, “Into the Wordless World: Implicit Learning and Instructor Modeling in Music,” 79.
254
Haston, “Teacher modeling as an effective teaching strategy”, 26.
255
Tait, “Teaching strategies and Styles” in Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning , 52534. 256
Woody and Lehmann, “Student musicians’ ear-playing ability as a function of vernacular music experiences”, 103. 257
Berry and Dienes, Implicit Learning: Theoretical and Empirical Issues. 2.
65
achieved. True competence occurs when the execution of those psychomotor programs 258
occur automatically.
Variety of articulation lends itself particularly to imitation. The teacher provides an aural example, and the student can use that as the basis to make physical adjustments to their technique. Human beings learn naturally by imitation, and relying on implicit 259
knowledge to shape the result until it matches that of the model.
This can be
completed aurally, without the need for verbose definitions. Experienced listeners are able to discriminate among various types of articulation, and should become well versed on the most frequent articulations pertaining to their instrument and most performed genres. For the same reason that conductors vocally demonstrate articulations during rehearsals, the applied teacher can succinctly demonstrate style in the private lesson, without the need for interpretation of musical symbology. Notated accents often take on different meanings in different styles of music; it can be a far quicker process to simply demonstrate an articulation than to find the appropriate way of interpreting the composer/arrangers chosen notation. Modeling differences in style can also be a quick and effective method of demonstration. Haston states that “the most efficient way to teach new concepts and skills is through call-and-response.” It is not always necessary to explain to a student
258
Baily refers to the connection between goal image and motor production representation as “automotor coordination”, allowing the immediate production of musical patterns (such as in call and response activities). See more in ‘Music structure and human movement. In P. Howell, I Cross, & R West (Eds.), Musical structure and cognition (pp. 237-258). London, England: Academic Press. 259
Haston, “Teacher modelling as an effective teaching strategy”, 29.
66
what they are playing, or what it would look like in print.
260
By hearing the same
melodic material in various different styles back-to-back a student utilizes their ear training skills in discerning both what differences occurred and, where suitable, their personal preference. By asking the student certain questions following playing such as “What did you hear?”, “How did the two versions compare?”, “Which style seemed to you more suitable to the surrounding material?” the teacher is requiring the student to verbalize their aural perceptions, as well as to express their own musical preference. As a student’s listening and evaluative skills improve, so too do the opportunities for students 261
to make independent creative decisions increase.
Challenging the student to validate
their responses using appropriate musical terminology is also an effective means of 262
learning about their unique cognitive approaches to listening.
Some students might be
instantly drawn to noticing differences in note lengths or articulations, others may focus on dynamic variety, others intonation. Learning a student’s tendencies and being able to steer them towards aural areas they would usually not focus on is one aspect of a tailored one-to-one approach of ear training, advocated by the implementation of this method. Explanation of Method
The crux of this approach is the student’s comprehension of the musical features of the Ear-tude prior to seeing the notation; sound-before-sight. In order to achieve this
260
This refers to exact imitation, where the student replicates exactly what the instructor has played – rather than jazz-orientated call-and-response, where the teacher produces an antecedent phrase and the student responds with a consequent phrase. Haston, “Teacher modelling as an effective teaching strategy”, 27. 261
262
Haston, “Teacher modeling as an effective teaching strategy”, 29.
The ABRSM aural tests were designed to encourage examinees to verbalize their aural perceptions, and in so doing, to build an ever-expanding vocabulary of musical terms in synergy with aural examples.
67
the instructor works with the student on aural exercises based on material of the following Ear-tude. Almost all the tasks involve the teacher playing for the student – enabling the student to model their sound on their instructor, for both timbre and pitch. Identifying pulse and meter: The perception of pulse is a fundamental rhythmical skill. Pulse can be defined as a regularly recurring feeling of musical stress. From it derives 263
the sensation of meter, the notion of beat, and the measurement of rhythmic durations.
Asking a student to clap or tap (since they are metrically neutral disciplines) in time with music is a highly effective method of discerning their perception of pulse. Conducting and counting tasks are meter-orientated and can be attempted once pulse has been established. Conducting can be used either concurrently while listening; or 264
retrospectively, while singing back or remembering.
Conducting brings with it the
benefits of being able to establish and communicate “a sense of pulse, tempo, and meter” 265
within a single activity.
Poor metric perception can be difficult to remedy, and the
teacher may need to over-emphasize downbeats until the meter has been identified by the 266
student.
Changing the meter can also be demonstrated by the teacher or required of by
the student. This will help to show the contrast of correct or incorrect meter, and will also provide another way to hear or perform a melody. Perception of Tonic: At its most facile, the process of perceiving tonic should be simply intuitive. If a student finds identifying tonic pitch from a short passage of music too 263
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 20-21.
264
Karpinski, “A Model of Music Perception”, 213-214.
265
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 156.
266
Karpinski, “A Model of Music Perception”, 214.
68
challenging, then the decision must be made to address this skill with some sense of urgency. A good starting point is to play the first and last pitches of an extract, and discuss whether one has the sense of tonic about it, based on the other pitches heard in the 267
melody.
An approach that Karpinski advocates is one which requires the student to
identify the diatonic collection of pitches present in a melody.
268
To do this the student
can pick any pitch they recognize from the melody and play adjacent pitches in a scalar fashion, determining whether or not they were present in the performed melody. By creating the scale in this way, most students are able to sense which of the pitches from the collection is the tonic. Pitch Matching: The most basic form of pitch memory is the recall of single pitches. Pitch matching, as it is called, involves producing a sound to match a stimulus while that stimulus is still sounding.
269
Rather than verbally telling a student the starting pitch of an
exercise, the author suggests that it is the student would find it aurally more beneficial to match the pitch as the instructor plays it. The student may need to be encouraged not to look at the instructors valves, as that will provide them with a visual aid. While initially the skill of pitch matching may be challenging to acquire, students will be surprised at how quickly they will improve as they force themselves to translate the aural image their own production of a pitch. An additional step of singing the pitch before playing it may be beneficial to really connect the ear to the instrument. Pitch matching is a fundamental
267
It should be reinforced to students that not all melodies will begin and/or end on tonic pitch, but there are certain scale degrees that will likely never be the final pitch of a single line melody, and thus by processes of elimination a student may be able to work towards perceiving the correct tonic pitch. 268
Karpinski, “A Model of Music Perception”, 215.
269
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 33.
69
musical skill, yet one that many young musicians have difficulty with, since they are so seldom asked to practice it.
270
Playing by Ear: Playing by ear involves a “complete spectrum” of skills in the aural 271
domain: listening, memory, understanding and performance.
Some students will have
never experienced playing by ear prior to college if they have learned their instrument through the standard band method books (e.g. Standards of Excellence, Accent On..., 272
Essential Elements etc.) with little expansion from the text.
Even students that have
taken private lessons may never have been asked to respond to an aural-only musical stimulus. There is a suggestion that perhaps the reason playing by ear is not frequently advocated by teachers, is because they too were not exposed to the task as they were 273
learning.
However, studies show that levels of sight-reading and ear-playing ability 274
are generally comparable,
so by working on the needs of one, students are likely to
improve the other. Woody and Lehmann believe that playing by ear “has been 275
historically undervalued in formal education.”
One can’t expect to jump straight in to playing extended melodies by ear. It is suggested that the instructor follow the ABRSM example and begin with small, noncontextual strains of three pitches, gradually increasing in number until a short phrase can 270
Karpinski, “A model of music perception and its implications”, 209. ABRSM aural tests include this exercise right from the lowest examination grade. 271
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 130.
272
There are two exceptions to this statement, Jump Right In (Grunow, Gordon, Azzara and Martin) and Do it! Play in band (Froseth) are two method book series that do address learning by ear. 273
Woody, “Playing by ear: foundation or frill?”, 84.
274
see Luce, “Sight-reading and ear-playing abilities as related to instrumental music students”.
275
Woody and Lehmann, “Student musicians’ ear-playing ability”, 113.
70
be performed. It is also advised to provide small known parameters on which tasks can be based. Pitches, if restricted in number, need not be neighbors – drills can take place using harmonic collections (triads, sevenths), tetrachords or modes, or truly any collection of the instructors choosing. Beginning with just three pitches can allow the student to build confidence in the task, as they find themselves easily able to repeat back the instructor’s examples. By always performing, with immediate playing, the same duration of examples, the student quickly learns the cognitive skills required to switch from listening to performing in rapid succession. This is a crucial skill required in any sort of collaborative performance. Length of examples, number of unique pitches, complexity of rhythm etc., can all be increased incrementally. Solfège can become a student’s advocate in this setting, even if usually regarded by the student as a tiresome or problematic activity. As pitch memory and tonal function are emphasized, solfège can be employed as a stepping stone to achieving accurate playback. A purpose for using solfège in ear training is to help students develop an automatic sense of syllable for any given pitch, Do sounds like Do, Sol like Sol, Ti like 276
Ti etc..
Understanding tonal function is just as pertinent performing on an instrument
as it is with the voice. For some instrumentalists it becomes a matter for discussion early on, given their harmonic role in large ensembles; middle range instruments are used to having to adjust their pitch regularly to fulfill their position as the third or fifth of the chord. By understanding aurally the tonal function of individual pitches harmonically, or
276
Karpinski, “A Model of Music Perception”, 216.
71
each pitch within a melodic line, the performer is more able to commit to suitable inflections and musical sensitivities, producing an overall more musical performance. Although dictation is not a part of this method, it forms a close relation to solfège. Students can be asked to sing on letter names melodies that they have already discerned with solfège. For this skill to develop, reinforcement is needed, particularly in the early stages, and students should be persuaded not to feel discouraged by early shortcomings, but to allow the learning process to develop. Eventually a gestalt process will occur; students will begin to hear patterns such as triads and their inversions, and more quickly recognize sequences etc. This gestalt process will only occur after a student has 277
assimilated enough physical experience at completing such tasks.
This particular skill
is well worth persevering, as students can begin to gain confidence in their ear once they are able to complete these sorts of tasks. This can be used as a basis for transposition exercises. Although this method places an emphasis on playing by ear, this skill, and the opportunity to practice it in the private lesson, is intended as an extension of the skills developed in aural skills classroom. Error Detection: Error detection enables a student to work at the very important skill of perceptual listening, that is, listening – remembering – comparing all within a short amount of time. The importance of error detection (and consequently, correction) skills 278
are, to musicians, indisputable.
The conductor and private lesson instructor use these
skills continuously. For monitoring one’s own playing, the practice is crucial. Every 277
Karpinski, “A Model of Music Perception”, 216-7.
278
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 130.
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time a musician plays there is, or should be, a constant process of self-correction between the eyes and the ears. The more adept the performer becomes at this task, the more such 279
errors may be avoided.
Even though this is the case, Pembrook and Riggins (when
surveying aural skills instruction in the United States) found that error detection was the “least practiced activity” in the aural skills classroom. They argued, and this author agrees, that given its propensity in musical tasks, error detection should be given a greater focus in the aural skills curriculum. The student should be asked to respond with not only where the error occurred, but the nature of the error. This provides ample opportunities to practice using the language with which musicians communicate musical ideas. Describing musical features by ear : In line with an idea found in the ABRSM aural test, the instructor should encourage the student to verbalize the notable musical features of the work they hear. These can include perception of dynamics, articulation, tempo, tonality, character, style, structure. The instructor should promote the use of appropriate terminology, including, where appropriate use of Italian terms. The Ear-tudes
The term “Ear-tude” reflects the melding of the two concepts, ear training and melodic etudes. The Ear-tudes were composed under the principle that “the aesthetic experience of music requires more than simply an objective recognition of its constituent parts.” That is, they should be enjoyable to both performer and listener, despite focusing on a distinct ear training model. Although each Ear-tude addresses a particular concept,
279
Ibid,.
73
the purpose of the Ear-tude is to reinforce that these are familiar musical features and should be mastered so that they can be performed with ease and understanding, aiding the overall musicality of performance. As Pratt puts it, “Musical character depends not on 280
individual elements alone but on the ways in which they interact.”
The Ear-tudes range from sixty seconds to two minutes in length. They are purposely short, and should be easily learned within a week of practice – particularly since the more challenging aural features will have been addressed by the instructor during the drills. The Ear-tudes have been arranged in a progressive manner, based on technical and ear training competency. The current ordering of the Ear-tudes has also been designed such that the intervals involved grew incrementally wider as the Unit’s progress. That being said, the Ear-tudes and corresponding drills are defined as “Units,” with the encouragement that instructor’s can choose their own ordering – either based on the student’s individual needs, or to correspond directly with an institution’s written theory or aural skills syllabus.
281
Interspersed in the expanding interval Ear-tudes are a
small handful of non-interval based Ear-tudes (theme and variation, natural minor, pentatonic etc.). The four diatonic intervals that occur most commonly in both melodic (horizontal) and harmonic (vertical) forms during music of “common practice” harmony, (the major third, the perfect fourth, the perfect fifth and the major sixth)
280
282
are addressed
Pratt, Aural Awareness, 31.
281
The author strongly encourages that the instrumental instructor should be aware of the progression of skills in both written and aural theory courses. Where possible, attempts should be made to relate skills across those disciplines and the applied lesson. 282
Duke, “Wind instrumentalists’ intonational performance of selected musical intervals”, 104.
74
within just two Ear-tudes. Thirds and sixths are introduced concurrently to demonstrate how together they make up the octave. The interval of the minor seventh is incorporated into an Ear-tude based on dominants, while the major seventh appears in focus for the first time in the all-interval Ear-tude. The composer uses a variety of musical styles in their approach, including calypso, guitar bass line, folk-song, swing, Classical theme and variation, twelve tone etc. This is intended to provide diversity to the collection and to demonstrate the applicability of ear training concepts in an assortment of styles. The student should be encouraged to commit to the intended style, and where necessary, researching other music of that idiom. The Ear-tudes were composed with the BBb tuba in mind, since that is the equipment that most incoming freshmen arrive playing. If the student has already switched to CC tuba, the instructor may consider giving transposed music to the student (particularly for the Unit Fifteen, where the marked fingerings will be incorrect). Table 1 shows the design of the Ear-tudes, stating which concepts are focused on and what other aspects of musicianship will be challenged. The table shows the diversity of keys, meters and tempos, present in the set. Then follows (Figures 1 through 15) each Ear-tude comprising the weekly assignment, and the corresponding aural skills drills. Delivery of the Method – The Drills
The drills are to be completed without the student having access to the printed music. The instructor hands over the Ear-tude only after working through the drills and performing the Ear-tude once for the student. The student then sightreads the Ear-tude, with the instructor also playing. The assignment to perform the Ear-tude in the next
75
lesson is then set. The student should be strongly encouraged to begin practicing the Eartude that same day, or as soon after as possible, so they have a chance to remember the work completed with the instructor. Initially it was intended that this method should be completed within a single semester (fifteen weeks) with one Ear-tude being performed, and the drills for the next being taught, within the same lesson time. It became apparent that this would take too much time away from other material needing to be covered in a single hour-long lesson. Instead, it is suggested that the completed assignment and the drills should take place on alternate weeks. For example, Week 1 would include Unit One drills and the Unit One Ear-tude would be performed in Week 2. Week 3 would include Unit Two drills etc.. With this approach, the entire fifteen Ear-tudes would take a full year to complete.
Table 1. The Ear-tudes: musical concepts and features
Unit Focus:
One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fourteen Fifteen
Chromatic Whole Tone Theme and Variation Thirds and Sixths Perfect Fourths and Fifths Tritones Octave Intonation Natural Minor Pentatonic Dominant Sevenths Syncopation All Intervals Diminished Patterns Twelve Tone Lip Slurs
Also challenges:
Rhythm, articulation Meter Articulation Melodic line Lip slurs Range Slurs, octave pitching Legato style Compound rhythms Mixed meter, style Rhythm Slurs, range Rhythm, style Melodic line Range, articulation
Key
Meter
Tempo
Dm n/a A G Ab and Bb n/a F#m Bm Gb Cm Bb F C and C# n/a Bb
3/4 5/4 2/4 6/4 3/4 3/4 and 2/2 3/4 4/4 9/8 4/4 and 7/8 2/2 3/4 4/4 3/4 2/2
120 154 66 82 100 116 66 80 72 144 82 96 136 69 42
Length (in secs) 70 70 75 120 80 90 110 115 105 60 60 80 80 80 110
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Figure 1: Unit 1Ear-tude: Chromatic
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Figure 1: Unit 1Ear-tude: Chromatic
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Unit One Drills Basic preparation: Play any one octave chromatic scale, ascending and descending, and ask the student to identify what type of scale it is. Ask the student to play a one octave chromatic scale (ascending and descending) of their choice. In unison, on the pitch, both play a two octave chromatic scale, using a different articulation than the student chose. Now play a scale one half step either side of the starting pitch you have been using. Demonstrate opening through A. Ask the student to identify the pulse, and tap/clap along. Once they have found the large impulse (downbeat), ask them whether it is 2/4, 3/4/, 4/4 meter. Demonstrate measure 33 to the downbeat of measure 39. Ask the student to describe what they heard (dynamics, articulations, contour). Can they identify the opening interval? Play it again. If having difficulty, play the two pitches separately, and ask the student to sing each pitch along with the scale between. Ask the student to find those two pitches on their tuba. Once they have identified the D and A, demonstrate the passage again, asking them to clap the down beats. Work systematically, by ear, with the student until they are able to perform the passage on their instrument. (NB: to work out the starting pitch in measure 38, suggest the student work backwards from the last pitch). Perform the whole Ear-tude for the student, asking them to signal when the above passage is played. Sit alongside the student, and play the Ear-tude together. Assign the Ear-tude for next lesson.
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Figure 2: Unit 2 Ear-tude: The Whol Tone
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Unit Two Drills Basic preparation: Discuss with the student the interval make-up of scales (whole steps and half steps). Ask them to name the whole-steps / half-steps of a major scale (e.g. whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half) and, if known to them, minor scales. Based on a starting pitch of their choice, ask them to name the pitches if every interval is a whole step. How does this affect the number of pitches in the scale? Ask the student to play, one octave (ascending and descending) the scale they just named. Now ask them to play the whole tone scale a half step lower. Discuss that there are just two whole-tone pitch collections possible. Demonstrate measures 18 through 33. Ask the student to identify the pulse and meter, and conduct downbeats while you play it again. Explain that both phrases have the same rhythmic make-up. Ask them to listen once more to the whole phrase, and then verbalize that rhythm (by speaking “da”). Play the starting pitch at m. 18 and ask the student to match the pitch - first by singing it, buzzing it, and finding it on their instrument. Once they have done so, ask them to play a descending whole tone scale from the E and then tell you what the note names are. Work methodically from measure 18 to 25, until the student is able to play it by ear. Demonstrate measure 26 through 33 and ask them what, in terms of melodic contour, is the difference between that and the phrase they have just learned. Perform the whole Ear-tude for the student and ask them to comment on the overall form. Read the Ear-tude together and assign it for the following lesson.
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Figure 3: Unit 3 Ear-tude: Theme an Variation
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Unit Three Drills Basic Preparation: Discuss with the student if they have any previous experience with theme and variation form (students may be familiar with the pieces at the back of the Arban book, or have been come across the concept in a previous environment). Explain that this ear-tude is a theme and variation, where each passage is just eight measures in length. Perform measures 1 through 8, followed by 9-16 and ask them to identify how the theme is “varied” at letter A. Do the same with the opening and letter B, the opening and letter C, and the opening and letter D. By this time the student will have heard the opening eight measures at least four times. Ask them to sing the opening two measures, giving the starting pitch if necessary. Continue to demonstrate (by playing) as many times as it takes the student to accurately sing those two measures. Do the same for the next two measures, and then ask them to sing all four. Jump to rehearsal letter C. Play for the student the first seven beats of material. Telling them we are in 2/4 time, ask them to identify the rhythm of m. 25 and m. 27. Jump to rehearsal letter D. Play the rhythm of D through the end on a single pitch, two measures at a time, asking the student to tap/clap back the same rhythm in a call-andresponse fashion. Then repeat, with them also playing on a single pitch. Play the full Ear-tude for the student, and then play it together. Assign for the next lesson.
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Figure 4: Unit 4 Ear-tude: Thirds an Sixths
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Unit Four Drills Basic Preparation: Discuss with the student if they have already learned any methods for identifying thirds and sixths aurally. (Some students may have been told to use the NBC motif to identify the major sixth, or the melody ‘My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean’). Test the student on naming major/minor sixths from random starting pitches. Do the same with the instrument, naming your starting pitch and holding it while the student finds a major/minor sixth above, and then below. Play the opening four measures, and ask the student to try and sing the tonic, then to find that note on the instrument. Ask them to hold a drone while you play the phrase again. What do they notice about the mid-point (the F#)? Play just the opening measure. Ask the student to identify each how many pitches are used (the correct answer is two, but if they initially name three ask them to compare the first and third). Ask the student to play the opening measure. Once successful, play the third measure. Ask the student to repeat it. Add the fourth measure (you may need to discuss the rhythm of the dotted-eight, sixteenth). Once the student is comfortable with the third and fourth measures, perform the phrase together, the instructor playing measures one and two, and the student responding with measures three and four. Play the whole Ear-tude for the student, asking them to focus on the form. Discuss the melodic material and ask how a change in mood is brought about in the middle section. How do the dynamic changes demonstrate this also? (Repeat passages if necessary). Play the Ear-tude together and assign for the following lesson.
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Figure 5: Unit 5 Ear-tude: Perfect Fo rths and P rfect Fifths
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Unit Five Drills Basic Preparation: Following on from the previous unit’s discussion about how various types of thirds and sixths can create an octave span, ask the student what other divisions of the octave are possible. When they mention the fourth or the fifth ask them to demonstrate this by playing on their instrument, using first an ascending fifth followed by an ascending fourth, and then vice versa. Play the opening six measures, and ask them to identify which is the ordering in the opening motif. These two intervals are commonly confused aurally. Play a variety of examples of fourths and fifths (ascending and descending) and ask the student to sing the two pitches, then from one to the other (in a scalar fashion) before telling you whether it is a fourth or a fifth. Repeat the same exercise but with them buzzing on their mouthpiece. Look at the pick-up to measure 42. Without discussing meter, play from there (as written) to the end and ask the student to repeat back the rhythm solely on a concert Bb. Repeat until accurate. Then ask the student to identify the first interval of that phrase (Bb-F). Work from that starting point, until they can play the complete phrase by ear. Make sure they are aware of the F-C, perfect fifth, interval. Play the entire Ear-tude, asking the student to signal at what point the opening theme returns, and how is it different from the opening. Play the Ear-tude with the student and assign for the following lesson.
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Figure 6: Unit 6 Ear-tude: The Trito e
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Unit Six Drills Basic Preparation: Again, introduce this interval under the auspices of ‘splitting the octave’. Although the tritone isn’t very common (discuss the uneasy aural quality of the interval) it becomes very useful to be able to aurally and visually recognize it. Ask the student to recognize where the tritone naturally occurs in the major scale (answer, Fa-Ti). Discuss the difference/sameness of augmented fourths and diminished fifths, and ask the student to name the different designations from randomized starting pitches. Move from this to the same exercise on the tuba. The instructor plays and names a starting pitch, and asks the student to play either an augmented fourth, diminished fifth, or a tritone away, playing first the starting pitch also. (Obviously these intervals are enharmonically the same, but the student should become familiar with the different terminology pertaining to the same sound). Introduce the idea of a “crabwise” tritone scale – C, F#, Db, G, D, G# etc. Ask the student to work through one octave of one (ascending) on their instrument. Pick a higher pitch, and ask for a descending version. Play the opening seven measures and ask the student what they heard. Play the first seven measures of letter C. Ask the student what the similarities and differences were. Play the full Ear-tude, asking the student afterwards to comment on form. Ask them to describe the melodic material in the middle section. Play the Ear-tude again, with the student, and it for the following lesson.
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Figure 7: Unit 7 Ear-tude: Octave Intonation
90
Unit Seven Drills Basic Preparation: Now is a good time, if not already covered, for the instructor to discuss the importance of drone work and intonation consistency throughout the partials. Set a drone, based on a fundamental pitch, and ask the student to play various partials against the drone, noting which fall naturally sharp or flat on their instrument. Move from addressing all partials to focusing on in the tonic in different octaves. Vary the drone pitch frequently. Ask the student to play ascending octaves, one pitch at a time, C-C, C#-C#, D-D etc., paying very close attention to pitch. Use a tuner if necessary, but don’t let the student become reliant upon it (ask them to close their eyes and use only it as a reference when they hear a significant problem they can’t fix, eventually weaning themselves away from it all together). Look at rehearsal letter B. Play only the downbeats of each measure (until measure 34) and, after the student has matched pitch to find the first note is a D, ask them to join you on the downbeat exercise (they will need to be able to identify the half-step/whole-step relationships between the pitches). Then play the full notation, and work gradually by ear, until the student is able to play the entire phrase. Once the student has learned he passage by ear, play it again, deliberately entering an incorrect pitch, and ask the student to identify where it was. Repeat. Perform the full Ear-tude once alone, and once with the student. Assign for the following lesson.
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Figure 8: Unit 8 Ear-tude: The Natur l Minor Sc le
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Unit Eight Drills Basic Preparation: Discuss with the student their knowledge of all types of minor scales, natural, harmonic and melodic. See if the student has any prior knowledge of modes, and if so, build on that by discussing the Aeolian mode. If not, briefly demonstrate using a piano keyboard (real or drawn), the concept of using the white keys only to determine mode, and the significance of the white note scale beginning on A. Ask the student to play a one octave natural minor scale in three different keys, the last of which you should be B natural minor. Ask them to name the pitches used in a B natural minor scale. Beginning with the last two measures of the Ear-tude, ask the student to play by ear what you perform. After learning measures 37-38, move to measures 22-24, followed by measures 7-9. Look at the opening two measures. Play the first two measures and ask the student to identify the first and last pitches, naming their tonal functions (tonic and dominant). Work slowly through the first two measures until the student is able to play them by ear. Ask the student to name the pitches they have played, in ascending order (B, E, F# A, B). Explain that the following phrase has two new pitches added. Play the opening four measures and ask the student to identify the additional pitches. Work with the student until they can perform all four measures by ear. Play the full Ear-tude asking the student what they notice about the first and third sections they hear. Play the Ear-tude again, with the student sight reading. Assign the Ear-tude for the next lesson.
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Figure 9: Unit 9 Ear-tude: Pentatonicism
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Unit Nine Drills Basic preparation: Using a keyboard instrument, ask the student to improvise a melody using only the black keys. They need no keyboard proficiency whatsoever to do this, and should be encouraged that “anything works”. Suggest they begin initially with stepwise motion until they become familiar with the distinct sound of the pentatonic scale. Introduce the terminology (if not already known to the student), and discuss which genres of music we most typically associate with pentatonicism. Ask the student to play those “black note” pitches on their instrument (Db, Eb, Gb, Ab, Bb). Ask them to try a similar improvisation exercise, based loosely on a scale of those five pitches. The teacher can demonstrate several examples, or work with the student in a call-and-response manner, to aid their confidence as necessary. Beginning at letter A, work by ear until letter B. Emphasize that almost all the motion is stepwise (within the pentatonic scale). Work slowly if the student is misremembering ascending/descending motion. Without discussing the notation of the rhythm, make sure the student is accurately performing the dotted-eight, sixteenth-eighth rhythms. Ask the student to identify pulse and possible meter (you may need to emphasize downbeats unmusically for them to reach the conclusion of 9/8). Look at rehearsal C. On one pitch play the rhythm of the pitches. Ask them to identify what rhythmic technique is being employed. Ask them to conduct a three pattern, first speaking triplets on each beat, and then eighth-note duple. Play along with the student doing each exercise. Perform the full Ear-tude alone, and with the student sight reading, and assign for the next lesson.
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Figure 10: U it 10 Ear-t de: The Do inant Seventh
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Unit Ten Drills Basic Preparation: Ask the student if they are aware of the 12-bar blues pattern. Discuss its place as one of the most frequently used chord progressions in popular music. Make sure the student is aware of the terms tonic, subdominant and dominant. After explaining the form, ask the student to name the changes as they would appear in a variety of keys, ending with C. Explain that this Ear-tude is based on a minor blues pattern, and will use i7 instead of I7. The form is laid out below: i7
i7
i7
i7
IV7
IV7
i7
i7
V7
IV7
i7
V
Play the opening until A (with heavy emphasis on the down beats) and ask the students if they can identify the rhythmic anomaly. If they can’t, have them try and count 4/4 time against you playing. Once they discover a problem see if they can identify what meter occurs every other measure. They may need to try to conduct and sing the rhythm. Let them explore the issue. Once they mention 7/8 metre, talk about the division of the beat into 2+2+3 pattern. Ask them to conduct again and count aloud, alternating 4/4 and 7/8 (as a three with an elongated third beat), as you play the whole Ear-tude. Continuing to conduct, ask them now to name the chord changes instead of counting the beats. (I-2-3-4, I-2-123, I-2-3-4, I- 2-123, IV-2-3-4, IV-2-123, etc.)
Look at the opening measure, and play the first three pitches. Ask them to match the first pitch on their instrument and to name the second and third. Do the same with measure 5 and measure 9. Play the full Ear-tude alone, and with the student sight reading. Assign for the following lesson.
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Figure 11: U it 11 Ear-t de: Syncop tion
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Unit Eleven Drills Basic Preparation: Begin by asking the student if they have any experience with calypso or if they could demonstrate a calypso beat. If possible, use recordings of the following two popular tunes, Harry Belafonte’s “The Banana Boat Song” and “Jump in the Line.” Discuss the importance of syncopation and being able to accurately ‘move off the tie’ in order to keep time. Without the instrument in hand, establish a 2/2 pulse by clapping. Ask the student to clap also. Using call and response, teach the rhythm of the melody to the student using air sounds (“tOH tOH tOH etc.”). This will emphasize the articulation and importance of air more clearly than a straight Da. The first four measures may need to be split into two, but should be ultimately performed as four measures. Measures 13 through 15 may present some difficulties and the student should be made aware of where rests occur. These measures, along with measures 29 through 33, can be taught on the instrument, since the melodic material is simple. Play for the student measures 17 through 24 and ask them to verbally describe how the melody fits with the pulse. (They should be able to describe the rhythmic effects of the opening two measure, and where downbeats are emphasized in 19 and 23). Once the student has a good grasp of the style, perform the whole Ear-tude for them, asking them to conduct in a two pattern – taking note of where strong downbeats occur. Repeat the Ear-tude, this time with the student sight reading alongside you. Assign the Ear-tude for the following lesson.
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Figure 12: U it 12 Ear-t de: All Inte vals
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Unit Twelve Drills th
Basic Preparation: To introduce the minor 7 , ask the student to play Do-low Ti-high Dohigh, in a variety of keys. In suitable ranges, ask the student to buzz the same exercise, slurring between the pitches. To begin work on this Ear-tude simply pick out consecutive intervals, play the first and ask the student to match pitch, and then play the second. (Strong examples would be the pick-up to measure 24 into the downbeat, the pick-up to measures 28 into the downbeat, the tritones in measures 31 and 32 etc.). The student should sing, verbally name the interval and play the pitch – in that order. Teach the last four pitches of the Ear-tude to the student by ear, using only pitch matching. Try initially in the written octave, but transpose an octave higher as suitable. Only respond with short instructions, such as “no” or “second pitch is incorrect”; try not to enter into discussion, but to allow the student to find the result by trial and error. (When using this style of correction, be sure to use plenty of praise when the result is achieved, so that the overall interaction is positive). Play the full Ear-tude for the student. Ask them to listen for, and comment on, melodic repetition (they should recognize the reappearance of the six eighth-notes followed be a large interval) that permeates the Ear-tude. Repeat the Ear-tude with the student also playing. Assign it for the following lesson.
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Figure 13: U it 13 Ear-t de: Diminished Pattern
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Unit Thirteen Drills Basic Preparation: Ask the student if they are aware of diminished and augmented triads. If not, explain the principles of stacked minor or major thirds. This Ear-tude focuses solely on the diminished third and its arpeggiation. Ask the student to perform diminished arpeggios in a variety of keys, ending with C diminished minor. Discuss that, just as there were two different whole tone pitch collections, there are only three diminished third collections. Ask the student to name the pitches involved in the other two. Perform the opening two measures of the Ear-tude. Ask the student to match the first pitch. Perform it once more and ask the student to play it back by ear. Then ask the student to improvise their own short melodic answer to that phrase. Continue with calland-response type exercises, increasing in difficulty, and encourage the student to follow suit. Play measures 5 through 8 significantly under tempo. Ask the student to play back the rhythm on a concert C. Repeat until correct. Remind them that the melody is based only on notes from the diminished triad, play it once more and ask them to play back the complete phrase. Do the same with the phrase beginning at measure 9 (pick-ups not required), measure 13 and measure 17. Ask the student to improvise a bass line in the same style, on the same pitches. Play the full etude and ask them to explain what happens when the material from measure five returns. With the student also playing, play it again. Assign for the following lesson.
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Figure 14: U it 14 Ear-t de [untitled]
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Unit Fourteen Drills Basic Preparation: Although this Ear-tude is strictly in the twelve tone system, don’t initially tell the student that that is the premise. Begin by playing the start through to letter B. Ask the student what they heard. If nothing, ask them to listen again, paying attention to the rhythmic pattern and contours of each phrase. After a few listenings they should notice that the rhythm is identical for each four measures and, perhaps, that the contour is inverted (although they won’t necessarily know the term). Ask them about the tonality of the melody. Ask the student whether they have any knowledge of atonal / twelve tone music. If (as can be expected) they have none, then use your best judgment to explain a little of the historical background of the technique. Explain the principles of the twelve note row, that each pitch is used only once, and talk about inversion (the mirror image of a melody, where intervals descend instead of ascend, and vice versa), and retrograde (the succession of the same pitches in reverse), and how they can be combined. Tell them you will play the first phrase (opening four measures) and the last phrase (last four measures) and ask them to comment on similarities and differences. Discuss symmetry / retrograde ideas. Pick one of the phrases, and work through it systematically using a variety of pitch-matching (holding one note until they find it) and short phrase (23 notes at a time) until they are able to play the complete phrase, by ear. Play the whole etude alone, and with the student, and assign it for the next lesson. Make sure to ask them to work out how each four measures are related to each other (retrograde or inversion).
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Figure 15: U it 15 Ear-t de: Lip Slu s
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Unit Fifteen Drills Basic preparation: By this point in their studies the student is probably familiar with the concept of lip slurs, and may well be involving lip slurs in their daily warm-up or routine. The goal of this etude is to gain fluency over the partials, and to demonstrate that fluency with a variety of different of articulations. There are also frequent dynamic shifts that should be adhered too. Begin asking the student to name and play the pitches heard on each combination of their valves over a two octave range (e.g. Bb-F-Bb-D-F-Ab-Bb, A-E-A-C#-E-G-A etc.). They should play the two octaves ascending and descending where possible. Work on the first eight measures of the Ear-tude. If also playing on a BBb tuba, ask the student to close their eyes while you play, listening to the pitch relations between each measure, rather than assisting themselves by viewing your valves. Work through each measure systematically, using call-and-response techniques. (You may have to explain the anomaly in measure two, beat three – but they should be able to recognize the half step interval that causes the change in fingers). Ask them to comment on any rhythmic similarities they notice in those opening eight measures. Play it once more and deliberately enter a wrong note at some point. Ask the student to identify it, and whether it was too high or too low. Repeat. Play the full etude, asking them to listen for how many times the initial motive returns. Perform it again, with the student sight reading it alongside you. Assign the Ear-tude for the following lesson.
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Supplementary activities
In addition to the drills provided, the instructor is welcomed to incorporate other methods of their choosing to facilitate the learning of the Ear-tudes, provided it comes from an ear training perspective. This can include the learning of other material by familiar tunes by ear, further work on intonation, improvisation, transposition, transcription and performing music from memory. Some empirical evidence and opinions about these additional techniques are provided below, demonstrating their value in the wide area of ear training. Learning by ear : Many musicians become less confident when performing any music 283
away from a notated part.
Mason discussed singing by rote in his 1834 Manual , 284
arguing that it “absolutely necessary to bring forward the ear and the voice.”
Mainwaring also summarily describes the practice, of instrumental ear-playing: The only rational method is to help the child first to reproduce on the instrument simple known tunes, that is, to learn to play the instrument “by ear.” This once derided process is comparable to that of learning to speak. Learning to read and learning to write are separate processes from learning to talk, and they come later 285 in the general process of acquiring linguistic efficiency. By encouraging the students to work out popular melodies, such as nursery rhymes, hymn tunes etc., on their instrument you allow them to explore known repertoire in a new and enlightening manner.
283
Pratt, Aural Awareness, 132.
284
Mason, Manual of the Boston Academy of Music, 30.
285
Mainwaring, Teaching Music in Schools, 13.
108
Transcription: Transcription is a useful tool to show real-world application for many of the skills practiced in ear training. Transcription of repertoire from the player’s primary instrument exposes the listener to performance aspects of timbre and style, while serving the very practical purpose of notating an aural stimulus. It connects aural skills more 286
directly to a musician’s personal musical experiences.
It can also be used to engage a
student in other genres of music, allowing them to demonstrate their personal interests and bring those into the private lesson. Transposition: Transposition is often neglected in the content of ear training manuals. By encouraging a student to transpose music at sight, particular those instrumentalists that will never be required to do so in their music, you empower them to think more about intervallic and tonal relationships between pitches. An increased fluency in this practice may bring about a renewed confidence in regular sight-reading exercises. Playing by memory: There is a strong argument for memorized performance. If a piece is studied deeply enough for committed performance, it should have ideally reached the 287
point where it can be performed by memory. 288
be helpful for improving aural skills.
There are four forms of memory that can
The first, an extension of playing-by-ear
involves remembering music just from an aural stimulus. The second, visual memory can be achieved in two ways: either to memorize the sight of the page on which the music is written, or to memorize the movement of the fingers on the instrument. The third is similar to the latter suggestion, instead using kinesthetic memory to recall the sensation
286
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 129.
287
Pratt, Aural Awareness, 145.
288
Ibid., 139-143.
109
of movement by memory. And finally, and perhaps the least used technique, is memory by analysis – thinking and learning about the music away from the instrument. Intonation: Researchers have discovered that intonation is one of the first dimensions of 289
performance to which listeners respond.
For that reason, performing in tune is an 290
“essential aspect of musical performance.”
Because of this, audiences tend to make
some immediate assumptions about a student’s overall proficiency based on any obvious 291
intonation deficiencies.
The majority of musicians have an innate sense of what 292
“sounds right”, particularly on their own instrument.
But players sometimes have a
better ability to perceive correct intonation than their skills to produce it. When poor intonation occurs it is often a sign that something is being lost in the transfer from perception to performance. In the 1992 study that Mark Ely undertook on collegiate woodwind players he found that students’ abilities to play in tune were not necessarily indicative of their ability to detect poor intonation, or vice versa.
293
For a brass player it
is likely that the natural tendencies of certain pitches (as they appear in the harmonic series) cause this inaccuracy, and the player may be unable to make sufficient embouchure or tuning slide adjustments in order to correct the failing. Good intonation
289
See Geringer and Madsen “Pitch and tempo discrimination in recorded orchestral music among musicians and nonmusicians”, and Madsen and Flowers, “The effect of tuning in an attempt to compensate for pitch/quality errors in the flute/oboe duets.” 290
Mark Ely, “Effects of timbre on college woodwind players’ intonational performance and perception”, Journal of Research in Music Education 40/2 (1992), 158-167. 291
Fogarty, Buttsworth, and Gearing, “Assessing intonation skills”, 167.
292
Ibid., 157.
293
Ely, “Effects of timbre on college woodwind players’”, 164. This supports previous studies by Geringer that suggest performance and perception of intonation have a limited association.
110
depends on the ability to auralize pitches first; without the specific pitch in mind, the performer cannot hope for proper intonation. Karpinski pithily terms this, “No target, no 294
bull’s eye.”
Ely’s study indicated that college training did not notably affect subjects’
abilities to either play in tune or detect intonation deviations. The results were not significantly changed between students in different years of study.
295
They suggest that
“much of the ‘steep’ part of the learning curve [related to intonation] has already been 296
covered by the time these students commence the study of music at a university level.” Karpinski offers a similar opinion, stating that “musicians who have reached the university, college, or conservatory level demonstrate only small improvements in 297
intonation skill.”
The assumption that intonational inaccuracies will simply improve
over time should be dispelled. A distinct plan should be employed to address the issue. A study completed by Robert Douglas Greer in 1970 found that subjects performed best at intonation tasks that involved their own instrument timbres. It indicated that familiarity with the sound source plays an important role in pitch-matching tasks.
298
Using the applied teacher as the sound source from which intonation drills can take place not only supports Greer’s findings, but it also provides the student with the opportunity to attempt to match the timbre of their instructor.
294
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 171.
295
Ely, “Effects of Timbre on College Woodwind Players’”, 166.
296
Fogarty, Buttsworth, and Gearing, “Assessing Intonation Skills”, 169.
297
Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 37.
298
Robert Douglas Greer, “ The Effect of Timbre on Brass-Wind Intonation.” In Edwin Gordon (Ed.) Experiential Research in the Psychology of Music, 65-94. Iowa City: University of Iowa, (1970).
111
Improvisation: Improvising is a “high-order learning stage” when facility is built by 299
spontaneously creating musical choices that reflect new knowledge.
While many
young children will invent musical sounds quite spontaneously, the development of reading skills frequently inhibits improvisation. 301
can only “suggested, guided and allowed.”
300
Covington offers that improvisation
A student will evaluate their successes and
eventually teach themselves, and in that sense, complete the goal of all instruction. Improvisation can also improve self-belief, that “discovering that control of [the] instrument or voice need not depend on having a printed page to rely upon, often 302
increases our self-confidence.”
299
Rifkin and Urista, “A revised taxonomy for music learning”, 175.
300
Pratt, Aural Awareness, 132.
301
Covington “Improvisation in the Aural Curriculum”, 61.
302
Pratt, Aural Awareness, 131.
112
CHAPTER FOUR ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS
Just over a decade ago Kate Covington wrote about finding an alternate approach for aural skills training in an article for the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy. In it she made three assumptions about the purposes of aural training: 1) a sharp sense of aural acuity is necessary for a musician 2) this aural acuity can be developed and refined, increasing aural awareness and therefore enabling a heightened sense of musical perception 303 3) a separate course for aural training is necessary. In regards to the third statement, Covington noted that while aural training should be addressed “in every component of the music curriculum: applied lessons; small and large ensembles; conducting; written theory; music history; etc.” the limited time often allotted towards aural training activities in these other settings dictates that an additional separate course should also be necessary. It is this author’s opinion that the “additional separate course” (the usual four semesters of classes) has become for many students the sole experience of ear training pedagogy. Butler supports this, suggesting that “many of the faculty outside the theory/composition areas ... politely avoid getting actively engaged in 304
aural training.”
The author is aware that the method proposed in this document is really a bandaid affixed to a pre-existing wound. To prevent the injury occurring in the first place, one would need to look at the way ear training is approached much earlier in a musician’s
303
Covington, “An alternate approach to aural training”, Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 6 (1992).
304
Butler, “Gulf between music perception research and aural training”, 42.
113
development, from their innate singing voice to the first time they lay their hands on an instrument. Within a D.M.A. essay one cannot seek to argue against the public school system of music education, but one can hope to show that therapies can be utilized to aid recovery at the college level. Butler suggests that there needs to be a more collective evaluation of ear training practices, saying “If music educators don’t take part ownership of college-level aural training, how is this situation ever going to change?”
305
This author
strongly advocates the involvement of the private-lesson tutor in the solution. They are the individual closely responsible for the student’s mastery of their instrument, and the presented evidence would suggest that this is improbable, if not impossible, to achieve without strong aural acuity. The instrumental teacher must continually evaluate the careers that their students are following, and the expectations of these trends. What skills must be instilled in a freshman instrumentalist so that in four or five years time they are the best candidate for a job? Butler states his expectation that the substratum of any competence will have at its core an “intrinsic and unbreakable link between music performance skill and music listening skill.”
306
One of the areas the private lesson teacher spends most time instructing their student is in providing models of effective practice techniques. Effective practice depends on the performer having sufficient metacognitive and musical knowledge to 307
process what they hear.
As such, appropriate aural schemata must have been
305
Butler, “Gulf between music perception research and aural training”, 43.
306
Butler, “Gulf between music perception research and aural training”, 44.
114 308
established in order to enable effective monitoring.
Hallam goes as far as to say that it
is a “role of teachers” to ensure that their students acquire that relevant aural schemata. One of the definite purposes of this method is to help the students establish life-long practices with which they can approach new repertoire. By modeling and working through ear training drills in the private lesson, it is hoped that the student will begin to make standard the procedures, using them initially in the private practice, and eventually one-day, to instruct other musicians. Ideally, this method and its approach will make demonstrable that the reward for extensive training in aural skills is the enhanced control 309
of technique, and musicianship, during performance.
307
Susan Hallam, “The development of expertise of in young musicians: strategy use, knowledge acquisition, and individual diversity”, Music Education Research 3/1 (2001), 15. 308
Hallam, “The development of expertise of in young musicians: strategy use, knowledge acquisition, and individual diversity”, 20. 309
Pratt, Aural Awareness, 150.
115
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