Music for aural training how to#
Music for aural training full#

At first, have the student sing up the scale to the goal note. Gradually introduce pitches at different intervals from the tonic without the other scale steps. … Literally! Rather than asking your student to sing the note you stopped on, have them sing and name the next note (ascending or descending, depending on your direction). Remember that, once your student has mastered one scale, it’s important to change around to different scales.

Now repeat the same game, but play your scale descending from the tonic. These solfa syllables are easy to sing and foster profoundly intuitive connections with the inner structures of music. Once your student has mastered ascending scale degrees by number, repeat the same exercise with the solfa (aka solfege) syllables: do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do. That number also indicates the interval from the tonic And learning to hear scale degrees does wonders for your perception of the movement of melodic phrases and later chords. At first, the student will count up the scale, and tell you (or, even better, sing to you) what number you stopped on.īegin with one scale, but then transpose the exercise around to different scales.īut that number isn’t just a number: it’s a scale degree. Once you have taught your first major scale, simply play up the scale and stop on a note. This simple game for beginners will have a surprisingly profound effect on your own tonal perception. For this post, we’re going to stick with melody, which can be further divided into pitch and rhythm. We can divide it roughly into melody and harmony.

Let’s look at some ear-training games that will be fun – for both of you.Įar training for piano can be targeted to focus on different musical elements. You don’t even have to be good at it to teach it well! In fact, as you learn along with your students, you’ll be more engaged and interested, which in turn will stimulate the same eagerness in your student.

Music for aural training full#

In fact, we know full well that fun learning is exponentially more effective than boring learning. There’s no law saying that ear training must be tedious, boring, or painful. Why would I want to inflict that on my precious students? Many of us remember teetering on the edge of comatose through the tedium of those endless interval or solfege drills – preparing for this or that dreaded aural skills exam. We also know that – even if we go the classical route – ear training is the path to putting ourselves into the music we love to play. Many of us are still products of old-school notation-based piano teaching, and struggled (or are in the midst of the struggle) to break free. Why Do Ear Training?Īs a creative piano teacher, you know how important it is to break out of the notation box.

Ear training teaches us to connect that monstrous box of wires with the powerful urge to create and express that lives inside us. While it is perfectly possible to operate our music machines without putting much attention on what they actually sound like, we all know that we sound better when we are listening and connecting. Yet the mechanical nature of the piano removes us from the intimacy of producing the sound (as compared to wind and string instruments) and from the responsibility of intonation. Put the right finger numbers on the right keys at the right time and the right music magically appears.īut have you ever had one of those students that could stubbornly play through a whole piece with fingers in the wrong position, seemingly oblivious to the hideous dissonance produced?Īmong the most profound achievements of humanity, the piano keyboard manifests the inner secrets of music theory – both visually and tactilely – better than any instrument yet invented. What do we need ear training for? Press a key, the sound comes out.

Music for aural training how to#

Wondering how to make ear training more fun and enjoyable? Games! “Can we do something else instead? Anything else?” A vital component for any musician, but it can cause students to sigh, roll their eyes, and procrastinate.