Is anyone ever bothered by that the fact that the ear-training requirements don't seem to match up to the theory requirements of achievement tests? For example - a student is required to identify perfect and major intervals up to an octave for the ear-training portion of a test, but they don't yet play intervals beyond a fifth or a sixth in their repertoire and/or they are performing five-finger pattern in the technique portion of the test. Do you just teach to the test in these instances? Sorry I can't be more specific in my examples . . . hopefully you get the idea?

What system are you talking about. AMEB, TCL, ABRSM, RCM, ANZCA, ... etc?

I'm a student by the way, but I know what you are saying. I would guess that the reason why (mind you I am only familiar with Trinity and AMEB) is because aural tests are often for all instruments. A singer would often be able to pitch more than a fifth ... depending on the grade singers are required to pitch a tenth. At the same time a pianist in early stages often cant do more than a fifth. The same problem happens in theory ... a bassist would find it hard to read in treble clef...

Its just my theory. AMEB has the same aural requirements for every grade. Which is a downside, singers are advantaged ... but other instrumentalists are disadvantage ... I shrug my shoulders as to what to do ...

Sorry for not helping ... can you specify which board and what grade?

Wow! There are some here I've never heard of. Will have to visit Google later... =)

I hate ear training excercises, to hell with them, its almost like they torture us.

Leslie, I'm not sure there's a correlation between the intervals a student can play, with one hand, and the intervals a student can comprehend, aurally.

What I really wish is that school music teachers would teach intervals in singing class, so I didn't have to give up precious lesson time to cover the material.

John:

I do teach intervals to my singers. We practice intervals at least twice a week. But the kids still can't identify intervals aurally if their life depended on it. Even my best and brightest students at school can't get intervals like my piano students can. I'm beginning to wonder if it's an intelligence issue (a la Howard Gardener's theory of multiple intelligences).

Sounds like you're talking about CM. If so, you are not alone. I heard they're going to redo the listening portion of the test in 2010. The current "multiple guess" or "binary guess" testing method needs to be eliminated.

That being said, I don't know how else to make the Level Prep and Level 1 listening tests more correlated to the repertoire. If you have students still playing 5-finger position pieces in level 1, obviously M6 or M7 intervals will be outside of their "range."

But I think intervals can be taught separately from repertoire. Either that, or don't start testing the student until level 3.

Ear training is a skill whose acquisition has little to do with technical proficiency of playing a particular instrument, with the exception of voice. We took ear training classes at the university and these were essentially the lab course that went with theory classes, which had nothing directly to do with our private study or our classes for learning to play/teach all the instruments besides our 'specialty.' For anyone studying music ed, keyboard skills were, of course, imperative. For anyone who is a performance major, keyboard skills are still one of the tools of the trade (mandatory for a singer). Maybe the keyboard skills do help the ear, I don't know. I'm not sure what age group you teach but there are some physiological factors that cause many very young children to have tonal problems so hearing intervals for them could be extremely difficult. I know lots of children can't seem to find a pitch to match for singing, although they often will land on one of its harmonics without realizing it. They probably are hearing the overtone and matching it, rather than the fundamental. This problem usually goes away by age nine or ten.

I agree with what others have suggested. The main problem in ear training and keyboard study is that the sequence is different for each.

Keyboard skills develop from the hand - five finger patterns are important, so the musical landscape, at least in the elementary years, runs from Do-Sol. Seconds are as easy to play as thirds, fourths, and fifths, and melodies with repeated notes are more awkward than melodies that are always in motion.

The aural skills sequence as discovered by Kodaly and others is quite different. The first interval is descending (Sol-Me), the next pitch taught is outside of a 5 finger pattern (La), and repeated notes are everywhere.

I will admit my answer may reflect my training. People have always admired my aural skills (I can transcribe and play by ear pretty easily), but the dirty little secret I carry around with me is that I didn't learn any of it through the piano. I got it all in junior high and high school from three excellent choral directors who spent two classes each week on solfege, complete with Curwen signs and dictation drills.

To this day, when people ask me how best to improve their aural skills, I just tell them to join a good choir.

AND don't be a soprano! Those singing the inner voices are the ones who pick up the reading and listening skills; those just following the top melody line are much slower to develop this capacity, because they don't need it as much.

There is a joke that an alto is a soprano who knows how to read. If your voice is soprano, that's what you sing. But you can also join a choir with a sufficiently difficult repertoire.

I have read tons of papers on Perfect Pitch. The observation that children aren't so good at Relative Pitch is normal.

I'm too lazy to look for specific quotes but the idea is we start off relying on Perfect Pitch cues in language[/b] and move on to Relative Pitch. Relative Pitch will kick in as they get older. It is an issue of Language Development.


Concerning ear training, I learn to play whatever I'm learning whether it's an interval or a chord. If the exam demands less, oh well

Or, in the case of one of my choirs last year, the alto section was SO weak, I had to move several sopranos over to give that section a boost.