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Ear Training in Rehearsals

Thomas Seddon | July 2010


   
    While there are any number of ways to improve an ensemble’s accuracy – clapping, tuners, intonation charts, pitch tendencies, metronomes – aural training is one of the best. It broadens students’ understanding of a piece and can include concepts that transfer to other pieces. The folk songs in the Second Suite in F for Band by Gustav Holst (Boosey & Hawkes) are excellent for teaching aural skills to instrumentalists.

Begin With Listening

    When students return to school in September, I have them listen to a high-quality recording of the Second Suite instead of automatically passing out parts and sight-reading through the music. The recording has the performance characteristics I agree with, and it represents the composition at its best. As students listen, I ask them to pay attention to the tone quality on the recording in addition to intonation, rhythmic accuracy, dynamics, and the balance and blend of the performance; they also listen for expressive elements, such as tension and release or other communicative elements.
    To help focus the students listening I pass out evaluation sheets on which the players rate the performance using the following parameters: Tone Qual­ity, Intonation, Rhythmic Ac­curacy, Dynamics, Expression, and Ba­lance and Blend. The activity helps them to more clearly understand the concept of good ensemble performance; it also provides a base for understanding the music and gives everyone in the ensemble a basis on which to compare their own performance later.
    This activity and a discussion of the Second Suite takes the better part of a class period. Completing it in the beginning of the school year helps students to begin thinking musically and familiarizes them with the musical terms to use when they are listening to a work and making musical judgments.

Develop Ear-Training Skills

    Students need solid ear-training skills – a strong grasp of tonality and rhythm – to hear the interactions of complex musical parts. The pro­cess begins by working with students on aural activities for 7 to 10 minutes of re­hearsal each day. During this time the ensemble should perform a chorale or other warm-up material and tune to a standard pitch. Have the group learn to sing a song or echo-perform tonal and rhythm patterns that relate to the composition they are studying. Later in the school year, you can use this time to complete notational reading and writing activities as well as warming up.

The Parts

    For the next seven weeks, students concentrate on using their ears to sing and perform the mel­odies, bass lines, and inner parts of the folk songs in the Second Suite – “Glori­shers” (“Morris Dance”), “Swan­sea Town,” “Claudy Banks,” “I’ll Love My Love,” “Song of the Blacksmith,” “Dargason,” and “Green­sleaves.” They do not play from notated parts. Although it might seem easy, you should allow for extra time to correct errors that show up in playing, such as problems with pitch, rhythm, phrasing, and style as well as articulation, dynamics, and mood.
    Students’ technical abilities do not always correlate with their aural skills, so in the beginning you will have to tolerate errors as players become accustomed to performing without notation. I suggest you use this time to evaluate what the students understand, and more important, what they do not understand. It is always interesting to learn what some of your best musicians can hear, and in some cases what a third clarinet player hears.
    Ear-training activities can be en­lightening for both the students and teacher. Many directors ask their ensembles to sing specific passages or clap or chant various sections of the music; these activities provide a more structured way of assessing what opens the students’ ears to a greater understanding of the details in their individual parts.
    At the same time, it can show some of the weak areas of musicianship among the individuals of an ensemble. Using this information, teachers have a better opportunity to focus their instruction and use rehearsal time with greater efficiency. As a result students play with a much stronger musical performance.

Developing Aural Skills

    When teaching a folk song from the Second Suite, have the ensemble listen to the entire song several times, then sing it for them several times. Then, divide the tune into phrases and have the students echo-sing the phrases. After everyone is reasonably accurate and comfortable with the song’s phrases, combine the phrases until everyone can sing the entire song.
    Next, repeat these steps with students performing the phrases of the song using their instruments. This will take some patience, especially if your players are not used to learning by ear. You should guide them through each song several times, being sure to indicate the key and starting pitch.
    Finally, follow the same procedure to teach the bass lines and inner parts. In the case of the Second Suite the entire ensemble should learn the melodies to all seven folk songs, their bass lines, and inner parts by ear.
    If your students are unfamiliar with learning by ear, it is important to struggle through the initial steps of learning with them. While the first song may be difficult to learn, each successive song be­comes easier to learn and perform by ear. The final payoff is the development of good rhythm and intonation skills as well as musical control. It is well worth the struggle in the beginning.

Teaching the Bass Line

    When teaching the bass line, be careful because many composers combine root position chords with first- and second-inversion chords. I suggest you construct a bass line using only the roots of the chords because they are the easiest for most students to hear, and the sound of the bass moving up and down perfect fourths and fifths will become a foundation for their aural skills. Once students know the bass line, they can perform two-part songs as an entire ensemble.
    Divide the ensemble in half, re­gardless of the students’ vocal ranges or instruments, and perform the songs as duets.


    The power of learning these songs by ear is that the entire ensemble knows all the parts. The first cornets or clarinets that would ordinarily only perform the melody are now performing the bass line, while the tubas have the opportunity to perform the mel­ody. This fosters good listening skills and improved accuracy. With the four parts performed securely, you should teach the rhythms and tonal patterns in the work to students.

Rhythm, Tonal Patterns

    Tonal and rhythm pattern training includes labeling each of the aural parts. Students need to be able to hear the tonal center and identify the correct tonality to perform music with greater accuracy and understanding.
    Begin by teaching tonal patterns in the Second Suite in a call-and-response format but not in rhythm. In the beginning use a neutral syllable, then later teach the patterns using sol-fa syllables. This will help the students to know where the tonal center is for each song.
    Rhythmically, players need to identify duple and triple meters to perform with improved rhythmic accuracy. The patterns in “Song of the Black­smith” of the Second Suite include patterns in both meters.

    By teaching these patterns with specific labels that correspond to different tonal and rhythm types or functions, students will have a common language with which to discuss the aural features of this work.
    Use the call-and-response method to teach the rhythm patterns in “Song of the Blacksmith.” Have students keep time with some part of their body and then work on the call-and-response patterns in time. Use a neutral syllable first, then try either the Gordon rhythm symbols or the modified Kodaly system. (See the books included in the Suggested Reading list at the end of this article for further information).
    Once students understand the patterns, teachers can isolate any performance problems and have the players more easily polish them because they have a stronger fundamental grasp of both tonality and meter. More important,  students who have greater musical understanding of tonality and rhythm more easily transfer this information to the other works they are performing.

Making the Connection

    After working on these ear-training activities, students are better prepared to begin reading because they have a better understanding of the tonal aspects of the music. At this point notation indicates both pitch and rhythm, not just the symbols representing a way the player is to manipulate the instrument.


   
    Begin by reading and writing familiar tonal and rhythmic patterns that students sang and played in their aural activities. After learning to read these patterns, they progress to the mel­odies, bass lines, and inner parts of the folk song they have learned. At this juncture provide the notated parts for the Second Suite, and then go back to the recording you played for the students in September when the aural comprehension process began. At this point everyone will have an expanded knowledge of the composition.
    A classroom discussion about the Second Suite will now be more substantial given that the students have a greater understanding of the musical concepts in the composition because they can now independently perform the rhythms and tonal patterns in the music; they can also sing and play all of the melodies, bass lines, and inner parts of its folk songs. Students are finally ready to rehearse Holst’s work with mature aural understanding.
    Aspects of the piece that elude many students are now clearer for rehearsals. Phrasing and the interaction of various parts become the focus of each rehearsal rather than pitch and rhythm. Working with students’ aural abilities before passing out notated parts is essential to developing knowledgeable performers and creative musicians.
    Many teachers spend a great deal of rehearsal time balancing ensemble parts and asking students to listen. After teaching ear-training skills, students more easily make the connections between orchestration and its relation to balance and blend. Many may be able to transfer some of these concepts to other literature. With the students listening, it is an easier and faster process to teach the expressive elements found within the music.
    After spending some time re­hearsing the Second Suite, record the ensemble in a performance. Then have the students compare their performance to that of a professional or collegiate ensemble. A rating scale, such as the one printed with this article, will help to guide students in evaluating the performances of both groups. The discussion can then focus on as­pects of the performance that need improvement, both technically and expressively.

Benefits

    The value of developing your students’ listening skills is that these apply to other repertoire performed by the ensemble. For example, one student made a comment relating to the tonality and phrasing within the second movement of another band composition we worked on. She had been able to transfer this knowledge, correctly comparing elements of music the band was rehearsing.
    For my ensemble, our performance of the Second Suite outshone the other works on our spring program because the students had such a strong foundation for what they were performing as an expressive creation of art. The students’ greater aural understanding gave me the opportunity to teach them where the performers and composer meet to convey the musical intent.
    The most rewarding aspect of this type of teaching is that the students grow to become independent thinkers of music. They do not just use the director’s ears to correct problems but are able to critically think, and at many points, correct problems without the director’s help. This process saves countless hours of rehearsal time. Teaching instrumental students aural skills is well worth the effort.
 
Suggested Reading

Bruce Dalby, “Teaching Audiation in Instrumental Classes” (Music Ed­uca­tors Journal, Vol. 85, #6)
Edwin E. Gordon, Learning Sequences in Music: Skill, Content, and Pat­terns (GIA)
Richard F. Grunow, Edwin E. Gordon, and Christopher D. Azzara. Jump Right In: The Instrumental Series – Tea­chers Guide for Recorder. Tea­chers Guide for Winds and Percussion (GIA)
Richard F. Grunow, “Recruiting Begin­ning Instrumentalists with Musical Objectives. Instrumental Connec­tions in Kodaly Envoy” (Organiza­tion of Kodaly Educa­tors, Volume 25, #2)
Richard F. Grunow, Music Learning Theory: A Catalyst for Change in Begin­ning Instrumental Music Instruc­- tion. Unpublished.
Colin Matthews, editor, Gustav Holst, Second Suite in F: For Military Band (Boosey & Hawkes)
Mitchell Robinson, “To Sing or Not to Sing in Instrumental Class.” (Music Educators Journal, Volume 25, #1)
Scott Shuler, “Music Learning Se­quence Techniques in Instru­mental Performance Organiza­tions.” C.C. Taggert and D.L. Walters, editors, Readings in Music Learning Theory. (GIA)