Ear Training II

We had a fun final session with the "you pick the dictation" exercise. Irmgard brought a traditional German tune ("Der kleine Hans"?) and Rebecca brought the "Ode to Joy." It was truly a pleasure meeting all of you this year, and I hope to see you return for Ear Training III, wednesday nights at 8:00!

I finally immortalized the eight basic cells in a handout. We did some more practice with the minor mode, and then tried a new experiment for dictation - rather than me playing a new tune on the piano over and over, I just announced a familiar folk song ("Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"), drew the setup on the board, and told everybody to start writing. Results were pretty good.

Homework for the last class will be an extension of this game. At home, select a short, familiar tune and write it down by ear. In class, each student will take a turn leading the others in dictation of their tune.

This was an intimate session with Irmgard. We practiced more singing in both major and minor, and chose melodies 38, 39, and 44 for practice. Also we'll revisit the minor circle of fifths when we get back.

I believe this was Gabe and Rebecca in class. We decided to continue practicing melodies 33, 37, and 38.

A return to singing in minor keys. Homework for this week was to prepare melodies 33, 37, and 38. We also have yet to review the minor circle of fifths.

OK, back to business! This week we delved into the world of minor keys (which require some modification of our syllable names). Homework is actually an old theory assignment, in order to brush up on those minor key signatures. Read Scales and Key Signatures and practice filling in a circle-of-fifths worksheet (bass-clef version.)

In addition, Lior has four "cells" to practice:

(Practice executing these in random order.)

Well, we only had one student at class this week.

This was great for that person, but not so hot for the class moving forward as a whole. Homework is the same as last week, the rhythms in 3/4.

We did some good singing at the outset of class, hearing homework, etc. I came up with a little exercise for Lior, in order to practice hitting the triad tones. I had him arpeggiate around the triad in 4 permutations:

There are actually only two other possible permutations of these three notes. Can you think of them?

Homework for the gentlemen in the class is still to focus on the first five melodies. I'm hoping I can pass you on these next week!

Also, we practiced conducting and "ta"-ing in 3/4. Homework is to do the 3/4 rhythms in the back of the packet, nos. 5-7, 15 and 16.

This was a good class. We began with a nice round of singing. Homework for Gabe and Lior is still to master the first five melodies in the packet. Irmgard and Rebecca have two new melodies to learn, specifically #9 and #13 for Rebecca and #20 and #21 for Irmgard.

We finished off with a lot of "call and response" and some dictation. Remember that you can practice dictation online with Web Dictation.

We began class by reviewing our rhythmic conducting and "ta"-ing. I introduced the "three pattern" (for 3/4) and the "two pattern" (for 6/8).

Then I tried to convince Irmgard and Rebecca that they should try to "push through" the melodic material by simply "using their own do" and sight-reading without piano. (More realistically, this probably means using the piano a minimal amount, when one is unsure about a note.) Their homework is to read through pages 1-2, maybe even 3 if there is time.

Homework for Lior and Gabe, however, is the same as last week - carefully practice melodies 1-5. Move them to other keys if they are uncomfortable to sing. The guys are still working on confident singing, not fast reading.

Finally, I pulled out my laptop and showed off my online practice materials - web dictation and singing cells (for PC.) Everybody is encouraged to try this stuff.

Next class is April 21.

There *is* class next week, April 7. There is no class the following week, April 14. I apologize for the confusion - unfortunately I do that all the time.

This was a fairly chaotic class. I was happy to welcome back Gabe, but it also meant that we had to review things somewhat "from scratch." It's just another slight speed bump on the road to ear training success!

We returned to our bass clef practice in the dandelot. Homework is to go slightly deeper into the packet, from exercises 6-8.

We sang some melodies and heard the assigned melodies from last week. Lior and Gabe should practice the very beginning of the melodies packet, nos. 1-5. I would still be happy to hear Rebecca's assigned melodies next week!

Finally, we went back to our conducting and "ta"-ing. Homework is just to continue practicing your 4/4 pattern (perhaps conducting along with a recording?) and to review the 4/4 rhythms in the back of the packet (nos. 1-4, 8-10.)

Good class. We did our "boot camp" activities (bass clef practice and rhythmic reading with conducting) plus a good amount of melodic singing.

Homework is to do more bass clef practice with Dandelot, specifically numbers 5 and 6. Let's also continue to practice 4/4 rhythms in the back of the big packet, namely Nos. 8-10. Finally, I assigned individuals two melodies to prepare in the big packet.

Rebecca: Nos. 7 & 8
Irmgard: Nos. 10 & 11
Lior: Nos. 11 & 12

Remember that these weekly assignments are just "goals," and it's perfectly OK if you are not able to prepare all of this.

We had a different cast of characters from last week, and we ended up doing basically the same class over again. Homework is still to practice bass clef nos. 1-5 and conduct and recite rhythms 1-4. See class 2 for more details.

This session was very "light" - we missed people for a variety of reasons. (That is OK, of course - I understand that you are all adults and have other committments etc. That is why we have this website!)

While the first session was kind of a "show and tell" for the general idea of the class, this session was more about digging in to some basics - bass clef reading and rhythmic reading (with conducting.)

Bass Clef Reading with Dandelot

I gave out pages from Georges Dandelot's Manuel pratique and we practiced naming off the note names (simply saying "F C F" etc.) Homework is to practice exercises 1-5. In case what to do is still unclear, I made a YouTube video which demonstrates.

Reciting (and Conducting) Rhythms in 4/4

Also, we started our first serious rhythmic practice. Homework is to practice Nos. 1-4 in our Easy Rhythms handout (which should be in the back of your big ear training packet.) You can try counting them out (like "one and two and three") and tapping on a table or some such thing, and I would also like you to try your hand at conducting. When we conduct, the arm motion takes the place of counting, so we can just conduct and say the rhythm as "ta ta ta." I've made a handout on how to conduct in four, and I did another YouTube video about it as well.

Our first class was a general introduction to Ear Training II. We learned our solfège syllables and did a little "sight singing." We also tried our hand at "dictation," in which I play a short melodic snippet on the piano and you write it down.

I gave out our text for the class, the Melodies for Sight Singing Packet. (Also the Easy Rhythms for In-Class Practice unit should be attached in the back of it.)

I encourage you to poke around here for more activities to do at home. You can try your hand at my web dictation units, or, if you have a PC I recommend my program singing cells.

I'm looking forward to a productive and musical semester!