Ear-tudes- An Ear Training Method for the Collegiate Tubist

University of Iowa

Iowa Research Online Teses and Dissertations

2013

Ear-tudes: an ear training method for the collegiate tubist Katharine Jane Wohlman University of Iowa

Copyright 2013 Katharine Jane Wohlman Tis dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: hp://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2662 Recommended Citation Wohlman, Katharine Jane. "Ear-tudes: an ear training method for the collegiate tubist." DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) thesis, University of Iowa, 2013. hp://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

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. Aside from the piano, instru ments generally are not used during ear traini ng 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-ba sed tasks as a measurement of success, despite the fact that research supports the effectiveness of auralbased learning. In order to encourage a better understanding of pitches and rhythms, the author composed fifteen srcinal etudes (“Ear-tudes”) for tuba with accompanying drills. Before revealing each Ear-tude, the instructor leads the studen t through related dril ls. Each of the Eartudes focuses on a particular interval, scale-type, rhythmic, or tonal challenge, within a variety of meters, tempi, and styles, all of which are suitable for the typical first year tuba student. This method provides an innovat ive way for tuba teachers to integr ate ear training into their instruction, alongside a new collection of etudes designed specifically for freshman students.

Abstract 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 CHAPTER 1

v EAR TRAINING: DEFINITIONS AND PURPOSES EarTrainingDefined Auralperception Thelanguageofmusic TheImportanceofEarTraining Theoraltradition The synergy of ear training and sight reading Typesofauralskills Long-termbenefits Theoreticalvs.Practical EarTrainingResearch

CHAPTER 2

1 1 4 7 9 11 14 17 22 22 25

A BRIEF HISTORY, AND EVALUATION OF CURRENT PRACTICES Pre-collegePreparation A Concise History of Music Education in the United States Notation Dictation VoiceandInstrument SuitabilityofFaculty GradingandMotivation Stress Group Learning

CHAPTER3

ANEWAPPROACH

29 36 42 43 45 48 52 54 56 60

ABRSMInfluence RealWorldApplication Modeling ExplanationofMethod The Ear-tudes DeliveryoftheMethod-TheDrills SupplementalActivities CHAPTER4

27

ADDITIONALTHOUGHTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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

Figure1.

Unit1Ear-tude:Chromatics

77

Figure2.

Unit2Ear-tude:TheWholeTone

79

Figure 3.

Unit 3 Ear-tude: Theme and Variation

81

Figure 4.

Unit4 Ear-tude: ThirdsandSixths

83

Figure 5.

Unit 5 Ear-tude: Perfect Fourths and Perfect Fifths

85

Figure6.

Unit6Ear-tude:TheTritone

87

Figure 7.

Unit7 Ear-tude: OctaveIntonation

89

Figure 8.

Unit 8 Ear-tude: The Natural Minor Scale

91

Figure9.

Unit9Ear-tude:Pentatonicism

93

Figure 10.

Unit 10 Ear-tude: Dominant Sevenths

95

Figure11.

U nit11Ear-tude:Syncopation

97

Figure12.

Unit12Ear-tude:AllIntervals

99

Figure 13.

Unit 13 Ear-tude: Diminished Patterns

Figure14.

Unit14Ear-tude:[untitled]

Figure15.

101 103

U nit15Ear-tude:LipSlurs

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 assist ant in both theory and the brass area, was the apparent lack of cohesi veness between the two discipli nes. 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 instr ument and its historic al and musical background. But one area where there is commonali ty 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 class room, 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 musical concepts.1 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 es tablishment of mental relationships between sounds and symbols,” 2 to the more conceptual, “the activity of thinking in or with sound.”

3

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 thi nk in music, I may well depend les s 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 prima ry responsibility. Thinking in music should thus precede and direct whatever else I do musically.”4 A similar distinction is made by Charles Elliott in 1996 who reasons that it is possible to “think about music, discuss music, and express ideas about music without ‘understanding’ music.” 5 Understanding music is not the same as simply using one’s own music al memory. Understanding music accounts for the comprehension of relationships of material – rhythmic material, expression, melodic lines, and tonal function. It is the awareness of similarities and differences. A most important part of ear training is the inculcation of pattern s, 6 and training in this area enables a listener to recognize with increased ease the presence of sequences and imitation, which can be useful in analyzing both function and structure . In order to recognize the more expansive features of musical form and key relationships, a musician must be able to recall important musi cal components withi n a piece and recognize them when they return.7 Repetition and imitation are basic compositional features, and as such, one that performer s should be able to aurally identify. 8 Gary Karpinski affirms that “aural skills” are usually divided into two broad categories, ear training and sight-singing. But in writing his seminal text, Aural Skills

Acquisition, Karpinski chose to focus on a slightly 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 srcinal music, while thinking about 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 to the performing musician. This taxonomy reflects his stance that reading and performing are 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 processes: creating, performing and responding to music.11 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 timbre.12 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 considerably.13

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 (2008), 131. 11

Scott Schuler, “Music Education for Life: Five Guiding Principles for Music Education,” Music Educators Journal 97/3 (2011), 7-8. 12

Gerard Fogarty, Louise Buttsworth, and Phillip Gearing, “Assessing intonation skills in a tertiary music training 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 associat ed with ear training is the idea of aural percepti on. Aural perception is, George Pratt suggests, “self-evidently indispensable in musical activity.”14 Simply, to take any active part in music, “we have to perceive it.”

15

This statement

simply means hearing. The human ear is constantly receiving information; it is what the brain is able to do with that aural data that determines musical aptitude.16 According to Joyce Eastland Gromko: Perception of musical sound should be a primary purpose of music 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 and softs, and the general charact er of the sound. With training, listeners can evaluate the music’s artistic shape based on the structure of its musical sounds.17 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. 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 that should be included in the pedagogy of ear trainin g. 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 discriminate amongst aurally.19 Modern definitions of ear training frequently emphasize the training of specific, concrete skills. The Harvard Dicti onary of Music defines ear training as “an important field of elementary instr uction to teach the student to recognize and write down musical intervals and rhythms.”20 Other definitions feature more abstract descriptions, referring to overall musician ship, musical perception and musical awareness . It is important to note that there are difference s between musical ity and musicians hip. 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 of pleasure.21 A musical musician is one who, through their musical ity, 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 train ing 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 progressions, and complete melodies.”22 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 training discipline becomes an integrated part of the musical craftsmanship. 23 Prominent in this definition are the keywords “awareness”, “structures”, “musical language” – all of which help emphasize the connectedness of specific skill s 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 suitab ly 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 musical work.”24 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 instru ment. One author writes that the purpose of aural traini ng 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 achieve better understanding of the musical elements of structures.” 25 The inclusion of

23

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 foll ows the same natural learning processes as language development.26 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 nativ e language, all of this is achieved prior to the introd uction 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 upon knowledge of the vocabulary of music.” 27 Pratt says similarly, “No one could be a student of literature without being able to read and interpret language from its written symbols.”28 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 meaning through the words as an entity.” 29 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 the page. 30 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 singe r 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 abilit y to understand the meaning of the texts. They must know the litera l translation of each word, along with its grammatica l 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 recogniz able from one’s facilit y 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 figure s and of melody, perception of pitch differences, a musical imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, interpretative capacity, pleasure in musical experience, general intelligence, and so on.”33

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


32


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 process, one that can occur instantaneously – even as music is sounding.34 Improving aural skills through ear training can aid a student’s musical attention, extractive listening skills, short-term musical memory, musical understanding, and sight-reading abilities.35 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 reacting to aesthetic experience)37 There is clearly overlap between the designations; teachers, for example, would probably represent all three actions. In fact, most musicia ns (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


36


37

Kate Covington, “An Alternate Approach to Aural Training,” Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 6 (1992)

8.

10

ability to recognize and interpret music on a daily basis. 38 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, toward s expert perception and away from novice perception. Novice perceptions focus on loudersofter, slower-faster, higher-lower distinctions. Expert perception moves towards George Pratt’s definitions of aural awareness.39 Bruce Benward, author Advanced Ear Training states: Intelligent listening is the most important thin g 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 and guide the musical performance.40 As Robert Woody suggests, “In music, it is the ear that defines great musicianship. Sound is the material of musi c and what the ear is designed for. For understanding, creating, and expressively organizing sound as music, the ear is the musician’s ultimate asset.”41 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 “the ability to internaliz e and produce the sounds that are desired.” 42 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. 43 The broadly

38

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 the spread of repertoire without the need for both a performer and a listener. 46 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

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. 47 Today, classical works are almost never taught or learned aurally.48 In this author’s opinion, this has resulted in an over-reliance on the visual comprehension of music as opposed to the aural comprehens ion 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 resear ch study Woody and Lehmann asked participant s to listen to melodies and sing or play them back, and then tracked the number of repetitions required for each participa nt to complete an accurate performance. What they discover ed was that musicians with more vernacular musical experiences were able to produce accurate responses in fewer attempts than their counterparts.50 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 problematic/unpredictable” elements of the melody.51 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 accura tely 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 stimulu s 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 communicati ve art form. Communication relies on the interchange of thoughts and ideas, the comprehens ion of another voice’s statem ent. This is a primary example of the employment of aural skill s 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 activi ty. 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 The ability to imagine sound is the most crucial princ iple of “the musical ear.”

53

According to Edwin Gordon, “Well trained musicians can hear music mentally in the total absence of audible sound” 54 and aural training can and should help develop this ability. The concept of aura lization is primary to the pedagogy of ear traini ng. 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


54

Auralization is referred to as audiation by Edwin Gordon in Learning Sequences in Music: Skill, Content, and Patterns, 7-18. 55


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.”

56

Internalization is an “essential kind of musical thinking,” agrees Karpinski. 57 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 musical score and hear the sounds come alive inside your head. 58 Sight-reading is best defined as “the ability to read and perform music at first sight, i.e., without preparatory study of the piece.” 59 But it is also, according to Telesco, “how one begins to hear music analytically.” 60 The goal of sightsinging within an ear training class is not, or should not, be just accuracy. As well as improvin g one’s ability to audiate, sight-singing teaches us about “context sensitivity”, and the “enculturation of tonal bearings.”61 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 tool.62 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 for the purpose of auditioning musicians. 64 For many decades it was widely assumed that the only way to improve one’s sight reading ability was by “extensive readin g; 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, their facility to play-by-ear proficiently) increases.66 By improving one’s ability to auralize and sing basic tonal structures, a noted improvement in sight-reading may be observed.67 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


17

auralization) before producing their sound. 68 This ability is a tremendous asset both in sight-reading and in all performance. 69 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, while 42% said they seldom did.

70

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 formed by a patchwork of ideals. 75

68


69

Byrd, “Applications of Aural Theory Skills”, 71.

70


71

Some students did comment verbally that they used the skill unconsciously in every thing that they do.

72


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 imp licated under the heading of “ear training” are categori zed. 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 rhythms.”76 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 rhythm.”77 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 pulse.78 Karpinski is adamant that providing the student with both pulse and meter prior

76

Benward, Advanced Ear Training, xi.

77


19

to a rhythmic dictation exercise is to give up too much informati on. He argues that students should be able to infer both of those elements, as well as the rhythmic material performed.79

Rhythm: Henry and Mobberley suggest that “whether practicing exercises, performing rehearsed works, analyzing, or composing, musicians benefit from increased proficiency in the recognition of [rhythmic] patterns.”80 There is a difference between what a student is able to rhythm ically hear, and what a student is able to aptly nota te. 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 mode) from the context of a heard musical passa ge.”

81

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 performi ng 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. 82

78

Karpinski, “Reviews of Recent Textbooks”, 245.

79


80

Henry and Mobberley, Musicianship, 167.

81

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 position within the tonal system.83 Most typically, listeners will remember and understand tonal music in terms of scale degree function, 84 mapping heard pitches onto an “internalized musical scale.”85 It is highly preferable for a student to understand the tonal function of pitches in a tonal melody prior to notating them.

86

Interval Identification: Various studies have been critical of noncontextual interval training.87 Intervals change their function and consequently their effect, affect, and meaning in different contexts.88 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 classes.89 Michael Rogers observes that many schools and ear training manuals spend “enormous” amounts of time on interval identification, 90 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


87

See Telesco, “Contextual Ear Training”, 179-190.

88


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


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 recogni ze and comprehend harm onic 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 perform ers’ abilities to think and act harmonically.” Even single-line music contai ns inherent implica tions 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 pitches on either side. In this way, more musical readings are formed.92 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 performe r’s ability to: discer n differences in pitches that sound consecutively; recall short melodic passages; convert aurally perceived sounds into musical notation; and convert musical notation into musical sounds. 93

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 student s 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 admit.95 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 fouryear degree, can accurately accomplish a complete ear training agenda. 96 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 technique).

97

Aural training has been considered a theoretical discipline, in spite of its

obvious practical characteristics.98 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


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 typicall y refers to the seeing of intervals, inversions, forms; being told about scale formations and harmonic progressions, and reporting on musical process.99 Performance activities, such as instrumental practice, require a high degree of skill in both theoretical tech nique 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 theoret ical training. Without previous or at least suitable concurrent training in appropriate aural skills, this theoretical knowledge results in a student thinking about music, rather than thinking in music.100 It is performance that facilitates the transfer of theoretical knowledge and skills into real-life situations through an active environment.

101

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 academic-music environment.102 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 descriptive vocabulary of music.”103 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


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 decoding device.104 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 for fear they will never find their own Enigma machine. 105 To put it another way, traditional approaches to ear training tend to treat knowledge as an end, rather than as a means to an end. 106 Concepts learned in a out-of-context manner are less likely to be a “serviceable” in a more complex, real-world environment. 107 There are also cognitive reaso ns 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-brai n” approaches – analysis, logic, and the determining of sequences. For students who struggle to make this switc h, 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


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 differen t priorities in his separation of aural skills into “Listening,” and “Reading and Perform ing.” In this division percep tion 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

written theory or ear training should exist in a vacuum, independent of anything else. 110 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 environments need to be consistent.111 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


26

c) studies of aural perception and discrimination d) different approaches taken by the listener duri ng listening tasks e) the transfer of skills to instrumental practice. 112 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 of music.113 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: An Essential in Musicianship

A brief survey of recent journal articles suggest s that the pedagogy of ear training is fraught with frustrations, for students and teachers alike.

114

Pratt states that “most

conventional aural training is quite inadequate”115 while Covington and Lord suggest that “the time has come for considering a significant paradigm shift as regards aural training.”116 Covington also asserts that “for centuries, music teachers and conductors have bemoaned the inadequate listening skills of performing musicians.” 117 In the preface 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 and accuracy is achieved with an instrument or voice, success is inevitably limited and 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 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 (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 develop more slowly than other kinds of musical knowledge.” 119 Despite this, they are not usually addres sed in any great detail in the pre-colle ge music curricul um. Gary Karpinski echoes these sentiments saying “most aural skills instructors report that many of their students are ill-prepa red and that this level of preparedness has been falling in recent decades.”120 The National Standards for Music Education, published by the National Association of Music Education, ask students to sing, perform, improvise, compose, arrange, read, notate, listen to, analyze, describe, evaluate and understand music.121 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.” In the fine print, one can find evidence of import ant ear training activities in the standards. At the grades K-4 these include: “students wil l: -

echo short rhythms and melodic patterns improvise “answers” in the same style to given rhythmic and melodic phrases identify simple music forms when presented aurally.”

While at grades 5-8 they are elevated to, “students will: -

118

play by ear simple melodies on a melodic instrument and simple accompaniments on a harmonic instrument improvise simple harmonic accompaniments

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 (2011) 155. 120

Karpinski, “Reviews of Recent Textbooks in Theory and Musicianship. 3. Aural Skills.”, 241.

121

National Standards for Music Education website, 14 Mar 2013.

http://www.rhythmandmoves.com/pdf/National%20Standards%20for%20Music%20Education.pdf

29

-

improvise melodic embellishments and simple rhythmic and melodic variations on given pentatonic melodies and melodies in major keys improvise short melodies, unaccompanied and over given rhythmic accompaniments, each in a consistent style, meter, and tonality read at sight simple melodies in both the treble and bass clefs describe specific music events in a given aural example, using appropriate terminology.”

It is this author’s opinion that many of these suggested “achievements” are not routinely met.122 College freshmen simply have not been trained, or required on a regular basis, to perform such tasks. In their 2010 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, and only three had improv ised harmony to a heard melody. Several musicians even commented that they had not been “made to use their ears” until colle ge. Although all the musicians were now music majors and performance colleagues at college, their unique performance backgrounds had led them to have had extremely different competencies.123 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 without notation.124 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

Woody and Lehmann, “Student musician’s ear-playing ability”, 110-1.

124

These assumptions refer primarily with regard to practices of instrumental music, as presented during

the band curriculum. General education music is a separate matter, where the author acknowledges that

30

frequently welcome a student whose aural and musicianship development fails to match their performing abilities and musicological knowledge.125 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 often adopt an inclusive approach to freshman ear training. 127 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 large ly 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 knowledge”, e.g. symbols representing the said sounds.128 These principles were further developed in the mid-twentieth century by British music educator James Mainwaring who studied the cognitio n behind music learning. He explicitly stated that students should “proceed from sound to symbol, not from symbol to sound.”

129

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


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


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 would be a “discouraging and almost useless procedure.”131 All of these opinions were echoed by Gary Karpinski sixty years later, who states “teach students first to hear functionally and contextual ly, and then the process of applying labels to what they already can hear will be nearly trivial.” 132 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 instrumen t and taught to play 133

straight from the pages, beginning both fingerings and notation together.

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 perception on music making. 134 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 scenario the aural acquisition takes place as a by-product rather than the goal. 137 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 poss essed by elementar y and secondary school students results in the culpable atrophication of these skills. 139 Expressed in another way, Mainwar ing 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 make up the tune; but to write it, mental analysis would be necessary. 140 135

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


139

Ibid., 87.

140


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 theories (of sound-before-sight) not better reflected in mainstream practices?141 According to a variety of sources, sound-before-sight methodologies are largely dependent upon the modeling abilities of the teacher. 142 It seems that putting this approach into circu lation 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, performancebased scenarios.143 For example, most elementary wind instrument instruction takes place in classes, usually quite large, forcing the teacher to concentrate instruction on the more procedural aspects of performing - fingerings, embouchures etc. 144 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 embouchu re 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 distin ct pitch the player must develo p 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 serie s. If the player is inaccurate the instrum ent will, by-and- large, compensate for the mistake and sound the closest partial (albe it with poor accuracy and an imprecise atta ck). 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). Frequently the error comes from inaccurate interval recognition, or its execution. 145 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 synonym ous 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 skil ls. Once in college, there is no quick-f ix 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 skills) to catch up with their peers. 148

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


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 melodic and harmonic progression.149 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 perf ormers would agree that there is a direct relationship between the understanding of musical structure and degree of personal involvement experienced by the performer.150 This disparity in ideals and practicalities has resulted in a “kind of pedagogical hodge-podge”151 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 realisti cally 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 to pursue, and that these are clearly communicated to the students. 152 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 education alists. 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.

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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 educati on to enhance community participation in both cultural and spiritual events.

153

Alongside instrumental

music played on the lyre and the aulos, singing was strongly emphas ized 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 competi tions 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, mus ic 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 instrum ents). He used mathematic al 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 invent ion of music notatio n. As notation developed a shift in music educatio n began, heading towards a greater emphasis on music reading, particularly following the introduction of letter names aroun d the turn of the ninth century. Written notation, along with the introducti on of a solfège system by Guido d’Arezzo in the eleventh century, revolutionized the study of music. Music could be writ ten 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 the intellectual developments of the Renaissance.156 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 period.157 The early settlers brough t 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 Mennonit es, 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 worship.158 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.

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later became a widespread teaching device in the form of shape note singing. 159 The varied note heads indi cate where half step s occur in the scale. Shape note notati on, although srcinating in New England, also became popular in church music of the American South.160 Nineteenth-century music educator and church musician Lowell Mason was an early advocate for establis hing curricular music in American public schools. Mason was instrumental in re-envisioning practices of the popular evening singing schools, incorporating cultivated European traditions of music education. 161 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 publish ed. 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

reform.163 When modified to suit music instruction, Pestalozzian principles were reasoned by Mason to be: 1. To teach sounds before signs – to make a chil d sing before he learns written notes or their names. 2. To lead the child to observe, by hearing and im itating 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 thi ng at a time – rhyth m, 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 ea ch of these divisions, until they master it, before passing to the next. 5. To give the principles and theory after practice, and as an ind uction from it. 6. To analyze and pr actice the elements of articulate sound in order to appl y them to music. 7. To have the names of the notes cor respond to those used in in strumental music. 164 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 assumptio n 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 new musical context.165 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 preface, to give music the same stature in education as “arithmetics and geographies.”167 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 improvem ent.” Mason fully believed that the formation and cultivation of a musical ear would enable a child to distinguish, appreciate, and imita te musical sounds . He also considered that , just as with the spoken voice, the musical ear could be refined by experience, enabling improv ed discriminatory ability, and achieving musical excellence. 168 It was through Mason’s work that the initial introduction of music education in schools occurred in Boston, and 169

gained interest from across the country. In terms of rapid developments in music education, James Mainwaring was the British mid-twentieth century equivalent of Lowell Mason. He offered tremendous insight into the cognition behind music learning.170 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 beginnin g 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


42

verbal descriptions and definitions are suitable only once there is a fund of recallable experiences to give meaning to the content of the words.

171

On both sides of the Atlantic

these two men were promoting the same ideals of sound-befo re-sight, and yet the notion appears to have struggled to take hold. Notation

Today, formal music educati on is largely centered on the production of “musically literate performers,” capable of transforming sight to sound.

172

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 srcinal 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 performer s are schooled from the moment begin instrumental music. Our reliance on notation-bas ed 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


172


43

sound.173 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 processe s must still be emphasized - the necessity to “hear the sounds come alive inside your head” and not simply respond with physical representations of pitch (positions and fingerings).174 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 exper ience 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 analytica l implications of each pitch. This methodology fosters a separatist approach to the students’ musical knowledge.176 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 performa nce, 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, dynami c contrast and intensit y. 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 theory courses.177 Notation-based dictation allows the crucial step of scale degree function to be disregarded from the students underst anding of aural materia l. 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 resolu tion (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 dictati on within the ear trainin g curriculum is perhaps a disservice to the students receiv ing 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 their ears.”179 While the practice of dictation is “well-ensconced” in higher education music programs, there are few written examples of the justification for this focus. 180

177


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 leave the deficiency buried in a very complex set of processes. 182 Skills don’t necessarily develop by simply taking more dictati on. Dictation can also create, for students that 183

appear to struggle with the task, a “debilitating anxiety that impedes learning.” Voice and Instrument

For students for which this is the first time they are being requested to use their voice, the pedagogy is some times flawed. Singing is basic to all music.

184

Although the

singing voice is a tool that all musicians should be asked to learn to use, some individuals will need some introduc tory instruction on the basics of vocal production. With appropriate attention to the principles of posture, abdominal support, breathing, and range, ear training student s can learn to use their voices witho ut 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

obstacle.185 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 achievement” (attainment goals) in the classroom can cause significant stress. 186 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 to language.”

187

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. place in the 1970s and 1980s that corroborate this technique.

190

Several studies took A more recent

experiment by Woody and Lehmann suggeste d extremely simi lar 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


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 should sound like) than when attempting to use motor production representation.

191

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 creation of the sound. 192 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 concept s of the course from theoret ical 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 focus es 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 properti es of these individuali zed 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


48

suggestion for improved shaping. Equally, musically well-executed interpretations should be praised for such, just as they would be in the instrumental lesson. 194 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 upon music theory faculty and their graduate teaching assistants. 196 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 course.198 With little other than their own experiences as a student to draw upon, it seems an inadequate pedagogic al 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


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 simply the segments that are most easy to deliver. 200 In the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy article relati ng 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 and materials.”201 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 provi ded valid statis tical 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 attai nment 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

Education.”202 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


200


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.

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more research that is done to explain the way in which we perceive musical informa tion, the further this needs to be applied to ear training pedagogy and delivery.

203

The implications for music education based on ear training research are abundant. While theory facult y are, on the surface at least, concerned in the development and execution of ear training classes, methods, and textbooks, these teachers are not commonly the same people concern ed in the psychology behind the practice. Similarly, music psychologists rarely focus on the pedagogical implications behind their studies. 204 The discipline of aural skills training has therefore found itself trapped between two fields of research, that of music theor y and the psychology of music. However, there is evidence that change is beginning to emerge, with the emphasis on research and development that many faculty are required to demonstrate as part of the tenure 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 in the aural skills classr oom Reitan found that the qualities recognized in a good aural skills teacher are: the ability to be sympathetic, to be a good pedagogue, and to present well-organized lessons.205 These are all applicable attributes of the studio teacher also. In order to be viewed this way by students, the teacher must find a manner of communicat ing which garners value and trust from the students. In a group of mixed-abi lity students this involves great skill in evaluati ng the correct pacing of the course. Somehow the more compe tent students must be kept

203


204

Reitan, “Students’ attitudes to aural training”, 208.

205

Reitan, “Stress and Well-Being in the Aural Training Class”, 89.

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engaged while the less competen t are helped. Several lab studi es have demonstrat ed that the interpersonal style a person uses to administer events greatly influences the events’ effects.206 A major problem to have developed in ear training programs is a culture where the symptoms to ear training problems become treated as causes. For 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 to sing ascending major sixths, rather than examining the fact that the student has failed to recognize the significance of ‘Ti’ in relation to its resolution to the upcoming ‘Do’. Endless drilling of interva ls in isolation will fail to correc t this problem. A skill that can separate a good ear training teach er 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 to be implemente d at the moment, and also in the practice room. This is most suitable for one-on-one interaction, and can be more challenging in the open classroom than in the private lesso n. The risk of further exac erbating a problem and failing to making obvious progress, causing embarrassment for an individual student, or simply getting away from the lesson plan, are 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 (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 content of courses, and the opportunity for practical and contextual development. Although the outcomes of these discussion s might at first seem difficult to implement, the author hopes this document will show that it is a worthy and necessary undertaking. Grading and Motivation

Pratt recognizes the disadvantages of using an education system in which assessment becomes an unnecessary focus. He says, “Much aural training is directe d towards testing of what is right or wrong.” The skills to be addressed are sele cted based on their suitability for providing identifiable measures of achievement; and yet art is, by its very nature, frequen tly a subjective matte r that defies measurem ent. The testing of right and wrong quickly overshadows the discover y of what and why. 208 The most convenient material for this is pitch and duration of notes, at the neglect for other salient musical features. As Michael Rogers descr ibes it, “a sightsinging teacher should be more than a burglar alarm for wrong notes.” 209 A student’s awareness that their answers will be either right or wrong increases the probability of stress in the classroom.210 The perception of correctness impacts what type of motivation students experience. An intrinsically motivated studen t seeks to do well to satisfy their own sense of volition in activities that engage them. Extrinsically motivated studen ts perform not 208


209

Rogers, “The Jersild Approach:”, 160.

210

Reitan, "Stress and well-being in the aural training class”, 86.

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out of interest, but because they believe there is a separable consequence – e.g. a good grade in this class result s in a better overall grade point average. 211 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 their time to the pursuit of music excellence.

213

But collegiate music study is different to

the performance based activiti es they have previously enjoyed. When evaluations and assessments are emphasized, intrinsic motivation is undermined, along with the opportunity for conceptu al learning and creativi ty. It is a challenge to create intrinsi c motivation in the theory classroom, since assignments, grades and tests are frequently utilized. Conceptual learning and creativ ity are key elements of ear training pedagogy that have been discussed earli er in this work for their signif icance. 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 of education.215 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 receive the negative categorization as a “necessary, but unpleasant” subject.

216

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 developm ent 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 seems like I know nothing about music” condition.218 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 comple ted at the Norwegia n Academy of Musi c Reitan discovered that 27% of students evaluate d their stress to be high in the ear training classroom.219 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.

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shortcoming and continuous frustration.220 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 called upon in class). 221 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 damage to their self-esteem.222 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 223

musical weaknesses or ineptitudes will be exposed, crucially, in front of their peers.

In

order to be in the optimum state of learning, a person must be able to feel confident about oneself within the social environment.224 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


222

Reitan, “Stress and well-being in the aural training class”, 88.

223


224

Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier and Ryan, “Motivation and education”, 326.

225


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environment that promotes success, the ear training classroom must be seen to demonstrate a low degree of threat. 226 A classroom of new friends and colleagues of mixed ability is not necessari ly conducive to this said low threa t 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 expectatio n of future learnin g 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, longterm 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 diss uaded from compartmentalizing ear training.228 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 opport unity for indivi dual 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


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individuals.229 In addition to their individual ear training history, each student presents a unique combination of personality traits, intellectual aptitude, and cognitive tendencies.230 With a small class it is even more important to attempt to understand students’ cognitive abilities. The unique cognitiv e 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 concept ualization 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

constructivist models for teaching, championed primarily by Kate Covington. 235 The most prevalent learning method, along with teaching strategies, follows the objectivist model – where a distinct set of facts are combined with declarati ve and procedural knowledge, best assessed throu gh the process of retrieval. Facts are learned , stored cognitively in well-organized schematic networks, and recounted in an easily quantifiable manner.236 The most common way to teach in this model is to isolate elements from their natural context, such as in the repetitive dril ling of interval s. 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 srci nal locations and reassemble d in new contexts. When teaching with constructivist methods, extended exercises on a single task are still beneficial, but should be combined with similar activities in a variety of contexts.237 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 successf ully executed, the focus becomes learning process rather than production; explanation of rationale rather than the result of conclusion; schema assem bly rather than schema selecti on. In short, this idea of cognitive flexibility enables students to learn the theoretical tools that facilitate their ability to teach themselves towards pract ical 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.

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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] incorporation into studio instruction and instrumental practice”238 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 instructo r 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


239

Mason, Manual of the Boston Academy of Music”, 35.

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mention individual artistic expression.240 With that broad a range of potential benefit s, 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 (AB RSM). The ABRSM is the examinati on board of the Royal Schools of Music.241 It was founded in 1889 to create an examining body “inspired by disinterested motives for the benefit of music education... which would genuinely provide a stimulus and an objective for a high standard of achievement.” 242 To date, over 650,000 examinations have been delivered, in over ninety countries across the globe.

243

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 exami nation – the aural test. These were introduced to the examinat ions in 1920.244 The ABRSM aural tests aim to establish the link between “listening to music and playing music,”245 the same aptitude hoped to be reinfor ced by the Ear-tudes. The

240


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.

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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 low level beginner to the competency of a student of pre-conservatory standard.246 Since the method contained within this document specifically targets the collegiate freshman tuba player, certain assumptions are made about the technical proficiencies of the player.247 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 applic ation requires the drills to take place one lesson prior to the Ear-tude being assi gned to the student. The student should then prepare the full Ear-tude for the following lesson, bearin g 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.

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is with real music and the actual difficulties encountered in performance and listening.”248 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 pitches several octaves from their vocal range.250 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 effect ive 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 firs t 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 musi c. With modeling, students “learn the application befor e they

248

Levin and Martin, Sight Singing and Ear Training Through Literature , xvii.

249


250

Statement based on the author’s teaching experience at a Big Ten university.

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learn the theory”251 and this is precisely what Mason was seeking to achieve in 1834 with his Manual based on Pestalozz ian principles. In music, just as with speech and physic al motion, people learn naturally by imitating models. 252 For music, Bruce Torff describes the principle as “the wordless world of music learning.” 253 Music learning lends itself to aural modeling, particularly in the private lesson.

254

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 to demonstrate.255 Instrumentalists, in contrast to singers, are learning to couple psychomotor tasks to an aurally perceived sound, as opposed to a visual cue. 256 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


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.

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achieved. True competence occurs when the execution of those psychomotor programs occur automatically.258 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 lear n naturally by imitati on, and relying on implicit knowledge to shape the result until it matches that of the model.

259

This can be

completed aurally, without the need for verbose definit ions. 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 vocal ly demonstrate articulations during rehearsals, the applied teacher can succinctly demonstrate style in the private lesson, without the need for interpre tation 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-andresponse.” 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.

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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 compar e?”, “Which style seemed to you more suitable to the surrounding material?” the teacher is requiring the student to verbalize their aural percepti ons, as well as to express their own musical pref erence. As a student’s listening and evaluative skills improve, so too do the opportunities for students to make independent creative decisions increase.261 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, other s 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

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.

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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 regula rly recurring feeling of musical stress. From it derives the sensation of meter, the notion of beat, and the measurement of rhythmic duration s. 263 Asking a student to clap or tap (since they are metrically neutral disciplines) in time with music is a highly effective metho d of discerning their percept ion of pulse. Conducting and counting tasks are meter-orientated and can be attempted once pulse has been established. Conducting can be used either concur rently while listening ; or retrospectively, while singing back or remembering. 264 Conducting brings with it the benefits of being able to establish and communicate “a sense of pulse, tempo, and meter” within a single activity.265 Poor metric percepti on can be difficult to remedy, and the teacher may need to over-emphasize downbeats until the meter has been identified by the student.266 Changing the meter can also be demonstrated by the teacher or required of by the student. This will help to show the contras t of correct or incorre ct 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 ident ifying tonic pitch from a short passage of music too 263


264

Karpinski, “A Model of Music Perception”, 213-214.

265


266

Karpinski, “A Model of Music Perception”, 214.

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challenging, then the decision must be made to address this skill with some sense of urgency. A good starting poin t is to play the first and last pitc hes of an extract, and discuss whether one has the sense of tonic about it, based on the other pitches heard in the melody.267 An approach that Karpinski advocate s 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 presen t 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 verball y 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 ins tructor plays it. The student may need to be encouraged not to look at the instruct ors valves, as that will prov ide 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 themselv es to translate the aural image their own production of a pitch. An additional step of singing the pitch before play ing 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


269


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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 domain: listening, memory, understanding and performance. 271 Some students will have never experienced playing by ear prior to college if they have learned their instrumen t through the standard band method books (e.g. Standards of Excellence, Accent On... ,

Essential Elements etc.) with little expansion from the text.272 Even students that have taken private lesson s may never have been asked to respond to an aural-only musical stimulus. There is a suggestion that per haps the reason playi ng by ear is not frequently advocated by teachers, is because they too were not exposed to the task as they were learning.273 However, studies show that levels of sight-reading and ear-playing ability are generally comparable,274 so by working on the needs of one, students are likely to improve the other. Woody and Lehmann believe that pla ying by ear “has been historically undervalued in formal education.” 275 One can’t expect to jump straight in to playing extend ed 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


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.

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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 Ti etc.. 276 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 instrume nts 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 functi on of individual pitches harm onically, or

276


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, reinfor cement 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 assimilated enough physical experience at completing such tasks.277 This particular skill is well worth persevering, as students can begin to gain confidence in their ear once they are able to complete these sort s of tasks. This can be used as a basis for transp osition 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 consequent ly, correction) skills are, to musicians, indisputable.278 The conductor and private lesson instructor use these skills continuously. For monitoring one’s own playing, the pra ctice is crucial. Every 277

Karpinski, “A Model of Music Perception”, 216-7.

278


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time a musician plays there is, or should be, a constant process of self-corr ection between the eyes and the ears. The more adept the perform er becomes at this task, the more such errors may be avoided. 279 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 clas sroom. They argued, and this author agrees, that given its propensity in musical tasks, error detecti on should be given a greater focus in the aural skill s curriculum. The student should be asked to respond with not only where the error occurr ed, 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 percept ion of dynamics, articu lation, 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 aestheti c 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,.

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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 charact er depends not on individual elements alone but on the ways in which they interact. ” 280 The Ear-tudes range from sixty seco nds 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 comp etency. The current ordering of the Ear-tud es 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 encouragemen t 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) 282 are addressed

280


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.

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within just two Ear-tudes . Thirds and sixths are introduced concurr ently to demonstrat e 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 concep ts in an assortment of styles. The student shoul d 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 freshm en 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 fingering s will be incorrect). Table 1 shows the design of the Ear-tudes, stating which concepts are focused on and what other aspects of musici anship will be challeng ed. The table shows the diversity of keys, meters and tempos, pres ent in the set. Then follows (Figures 1 through 15) each Ear-t ude 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 throug h the drills and performing the Ear-tude once for the student. The student then sightreads the Ear-tude, with the instructor also playi ng. The assignment to perform the Ear- tude in the next

75

lesson is then set. The student should be strongly encour aged to begin practici ng 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 needin g to be covered in a single hour-long lesson. Instead, it is suggested that the completed assignm ent 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-tu des would take a full year to complete.

Table 1. The Ear-tudes: musical concepts and features

U ni t F oc u s :

One Chromatic Two WholeTone Three ThemeandVariation Four ThirdsandSixths Five Perfect FourthsandFifths Six Tritones Seven OctaveIntonation Eight NaturalMinor Nine Pentatonic Ten Dominant Sevenths Eleven Syncopation Twelve AllIntervals Thirteen DiminishedPatterns Fourteen TwelveTone Fifteen LipSlurs

A l s oc hal l e nge s :

Key

Rhythm,articulation

Dm

Meter Articulation Melodicline Lipslurs Range Slurs, octavepitching Legatostyle Compound rhythms Mixedmeter, style Rhythm Slurs,range Rhythm,style Melodicline Range,articulation

n/a A G AbandBb n/a F#m Bm Gb Cm Bb F CandC# n/a Bb

Me te r

3/4 5/4 2/4 6/4 3/4 3/4and2/2 3/4 4/4 9/8 4/4 and7/8 2/2 3/4 4/4 3/4 2/2

Length (in secs)

Te m po

120

70

154

70

66 82 100 116 66 80

75 120 80 90 110 115 72

144 82 96 136 69 42

105 60 60 80 80 80 110

76

77

Figure 1: Unit 1Ear-tude: Chromatic

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Unit One Drills Basic preparation: Play any one octave chromati c 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 descendi ng) 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 identif y the pulse, and tap/clap along. Once they have found the large impuls e (downbeat), ask them whether it is 2/4, 3/4/, 4/4 meter. Demonstrate measure 33 to the downbeat of measu re 39. Ask the student to descri be what they heard (dynamics , articulations, contour). Can they identify the opening interval? Play it again. If having difficulty, play the two pitches sep arately, and ask the student to sing each pitch along wit h 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 passa ge on their instrum ent. (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-st eps / 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 identi fy the pulse and meter, and conduct downbea ts 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 fr om 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 measure s 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 openi ng and letter B, the openin g 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 meas ures, and then ask them to sing all four. Jump to rehearsal letter C. Play for the student the first seven beats of mater ial. 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-tu de 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 aural ly. (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 instrumen t, 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 instr ument. Ask them to hold a drone whil e 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 thir d). Ask the student to play the opening measure. Once successful, play the third measure. Ask the student to repeat it. Add the fourth measu re (you may need to discuss the rhythm of the dotted-e ight, sixteenth). Once the student is comfortab le with the third and fourth measures, perfo rm the phrase together, the instruct or playing measures one and two, and the student responding with measures three and four. Play the whole Ear-tu de for the student, askin g 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 possi ble. 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 four th, and then vice versa. Play the opening six measu res, and ask them to identify which is the ordering in the opening motif. These two intervals are commonly confused aurall y. 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 exerci se but with them buzzing on their mouthpi ece. Look at the pick-up to measure 42. Without discussing meter, play from the re (as written) to the end and ask the student to repeat back the rhythm solely on a concert Bb. Repeat until accu rate. Then ask the student to identif y the first interv al of that phrase (Bb-F). Work from that starting point, until they can play the complete phras e 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 openin g. Play the Ear-tude wit h 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 (discus s the uneasy aural quality of the interval) it becomes very usef ul to be able to aurally and visual ly 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 randomi zed starting pitches . Move from this to the same exercis e on the tuba. The instructor plays and names a startin g pitch, and asks the student to play either an augmented fourth, diminis hed 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 throu gh one octave of one (ascending) on their instr ument. 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-tu de, asking the studen t afterwards to comment on form. Ask them to describe the melodic materi al 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

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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 shar p or flat on their instrum ent. Move from addressing all partials to focusing on in the tonic in different octav es. 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 let ter B. Play only the downbeat s 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 studen t is able to play the entire phras e. Once the student has learn ed 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

92

Unit Eight Drills Basic Preparation: Discuss with the student their knowledg e of all types of minor scales, natural, harmonic and melodi c. See if the student has any prior knowledge of modes, and if so, build on that by discussing the Aeolian mode. If not, briefly demo nstrate 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 foll owing phrase has two new pitches added. Play the opening four measures and ask the student to identify the additi onal pitches. Work with the stude nt 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: Pentatonic ism

94

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 profic iency whatsoever to do this, and should be encouraged that “anythi ng works”. Suggest they begin initially with stepwi se 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 pentatoni cism. Ask the student to play those “black note” pitch es on their instrum ent (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 moti on 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, fir st speaking triplets on each beat, and then eighth- note duple. Play along with the studen t 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

96

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 prog ressions in popular music . Make sure the student is aware of the terms tonic, subdomina nt 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 I V7

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 identif y 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 tr y to conduct and si ng the rhythm. Let them explore the issue. Once they mention 7/8 metr e, talk about the division of the beat into 2+2+3 patter n. Ask them to conduct again and count aloud, alter nating 4/4 and 7/8 (as a three with an elongated third beat) , as you play the whole Ear-t ude. 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 thr ee 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 demonstr ate a calypso beat. If possible, use recordi ngs of the followin g two popular tunes, Harry Belafont e’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 respo nse, teach the rhythm of the melody to the student using air sounds (“tOH tOH tOH etc.”). This will emphas ize the articulat ion and importance of air more clearly than a straight Da. The first four meas ures 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 effec ts 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 alongs ide 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 Basic Preparation: To introduce the minor 7 th, 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 woul d 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 transpos e an octave higher as suitabl e. 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-tu de for the student. Ask them to listen for, and commen t on, melodic repetition (they should recognize the reappearance of the six eighth-notes followed be a large interval) that permeate s the Ear-tude. Repeat the Ear-tud e with the student also playing. Assign it for the following lesson.

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Figure 13: U it 13 Ear-t de: Diminis hed 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 principle s of stacked minor or major thirds. This Ear-tude focuses solely on the dimini shed third and its arpeggi ation. Ask the student to perfor m 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 collec tions. Ask the student to name the pitches involved in the other two. Perform the opening two measures of the Ear-tud e. 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 improv ise 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 cor rect. 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 follow ing lesson.

103

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 thro ugh to letter B. Ask the student wha t they heard. If nothing, ask them to listen again, paying attention to the rhythmic patter n and contours of each phrase. After a few listeni ngs they should noti ce that the rhythm is identica l for each four measures and, perhaps, that the contour is inverted (alth ough they won’t necessarily know the term). Ask them about the tonality of the melody. Ask the student wheth er 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 similarit ies and differences. Discuss symmetry / retrograde ideas. Pick one of the phrases, and work through it systema tically 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 articula tions. There are also frequent dynami c 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 betwe en each measure, rather than assisti ng 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 delib erately 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 retur ns. Perform it again, with the student sight readi ng 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 pers pective. This can include the learn ing of other materia l 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 conf ident when perfor ming any music away from a notated part. 283 Mason discussed singing by rote in his 1834 Manual, arguing that it “absolutel y necessary to bring forward the ear and the voice.” 284 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 process es from learning to talk, and they come later in the general process of acquiring linguistic efficiency. 285 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


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 practic ed 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 purpos e of notating an aural stimulus. It connects aural skil ls more directly to a musician’s personal musical experiences.

286

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 relati onships 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 memo rized performance. If a piece is studied deeply enough for committed performance, it should have ideally reached the point where it can be performed by memory.287 There are four forms of memory that can be helpful for improving aural skills.288 The first, an extension of playing-by-ear involves remembering music just from an aural stimulus. The second, visual memor y 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 instr ument. The third is similar to the latter suggestion, instead using kinesthetic memory to recall the sensation

286


287


288

Ibid., 139-143.

109

of movement by memory. And finally, and perhaps the least used techniq ue, 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 performance to which listeners respond. 289 For that reason, performing in tune is an “essential aspect of musical performance.”290 Because of this, audiences tend to make some immediate assumptions about a student’s overall proficiency based on any obvious intonation deficiencies.291 The majority of musicians have an innate sense of what “sounds right”, particularly on their own instrument. 292 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 somethin g 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 adjustmen ts 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 bull’s eye.”294 Ely’s study indicated that college training did not notably affect subjects’ abilities to either play in tune or detect intonatio n 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 intonatio n] has already been covered by the time these student s commence the study of music at a university level .” 296 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 dispel led. A distinct plan should be employed to address the issue . A study completed by Robert Douglas Greer in 1970 found that subjects perform ed best at intonation tasks that involved their own instrum ent 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


295

Ely, “Effects of Timbre on College Woodwind Players’”, 166.

296

Fogarty, Buttsworth, and Gearing, “Assessing Intonation Skills”, 169.

297


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).

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Improvisation: Improvising is a “high-order learning stage” when facility is built by spontaneously creating musical choices that reflect new knowledge.299 While many young children will invent musical sounds quite spontaneously, the development of reading skills frequently inhibits improvisation. 300 Covington offers that improvisation can only “suggested, guided and allowed.”

301

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 increases our self-confidence.”302

299

Rifkin and Urista, “A revised taxonomy for music learning”, 175.

300


301

Covington “Improvisation in the Aural Curriculum”, 61.

302


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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 develope d and refined, incr easing 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 traini ng 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 opinio n 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 aural training.”304 The author is aware that the method proposed in this document is really a bandaid affixed to a pre-exis ting wound. To prevent the injury occur ring 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.

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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 the re 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 involvem ent 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 thes e trends. What skills must be instill ed 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 techniqu es. Effective practice depends on the performer having sufficient metacognitive and musical knowledge to process what they hear.307 As such, appropriate aural schemat a must have been

305


306


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established in order to enable effective monitoring. 308 Hallam goes as far as to say that it is a “role of teachers” to ensure that their students acquire that relevant aural schemat a. 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 drill s 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 musici ans. Ideally, this method and its approach will make demonstrable that the reward for extensive training in aural skills is the enhanced control of technique, and musicianship, during performance.309

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


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