The Problem with Ear Training

Virtually any music teacher will agree that ear training, or aural musicianship, is essential to the development of any musician.  Yet as a music teacher myself, I know that many of my students are lacking in this area.  Most music educators would agree that it would be of great benefit to our students if we could spend more time on developing aural skills.

Unfortunately, it is hard to find the time with all of the other important skills we need to cover in the short lesson time we have.  Finding time during lessons is a problem, and so is asking students to find the time to practice at home.  Two common complaints from students are “what is the point?” and “it is too boring!”

Technology can help us find the time to assist our students develop their musicianship, while remedying their complaints about practicing.

Solution: Technology

Lesson time is extremely valuable and it is hard to fit everything in.  Although we can assign technique and repertoire for students to practice at home, it is often difficult for students to work on these assignments without the help of a teacher.  Additionally, since students tend not to practice between lessons, progress is slow and students are easily frustrated.

Software can give students the opportunity to practice at home – helping to find the extra time that is required.  Well-written programs can also motivate and encourage students as they start to experience success and see progress!

I can’t practice by myself!

Students will often claim that they cannot practice on their own.  This is usually true, as it is difficult to test yourself – often students can fool themselves, thinking they are right when they are not.  Even with assistance from parents or others, it can be difficult to get immediate, accurate feedback.  When they are aware of mistakes, they are often not sure what to do to correct their problems.  When students see little or no progress, they become discouraged.

Software can help by providing students will accurate feedback on their answers and redirect them to more suitable practice if they are experiencing difficulties – or if the material is too easy.

What is the point?

Students often do not understand the benefits of aural musicianship.  As teachers, it is our job to show students the applications of ear training.  Technology can be a useful tool in developing their skills, but it will not go very far in helping them appreciate the skills they are acquiring.  This is why I do not have any concerns about technology taking over my job as a music teacher – students still need teachers to demonstrate the value of true musicianship!

I often encourage my students to use their developing skills to start playing (and later transcribing) music they hear – whether it be something they hear on the radio – or something they hear in their head.

Although there may be an inherent joy in the ability to recognize an interval of a tritone, I do not know of many musicians who have developed this skill for the sheer joy of it!  We should not expect our students to do the same.

Will technology magically inspire your students to practice their aural skills and become better musicians overnight?  Probably not.  However, I believe that by using software that correlates with your teaching methodology, students can independently develop their skills, while learning to apply these skills under your guidance.

Software to help

Music Lab

Musicware has created two versions of MusicLab – Melody and Harmony.  Both programs provide sophisticated tracking and reporting.

Tracking students in MusicLab

The record keeping is implemented in MusicLab by providing two modes for each activity: practice and quiz.  Practice mode allows student to take as much time as they require.  They are given immediate feedback and can attempt exercises as many times as they wish.  In quiz mode, the musical problems are exactly the same as in practice mode, but all Help is shut down and the computer keeps a score for each activity. In order to pass a level the student must achieve a certain score within a certain amount of time. MusicLab provides default passing scores for each level, but you can change the score required and the amount of time given to achieve the score for each activity.

MusicLab not only reports the score for each activity, but will also record the amount of time the student spent on each activity.  In addition to individual student totals, you also get aggregate totals for all students.  No other program offers this much detail.

Music Lab Melody

There are 8 interrelated activities in MusicLab Melody.

Name

The Name module is designed to help “tonacize” student’s ears.  Students hear the tonic triad, and then are asked to identify the next note they hear, in relation to the tonic.  Level One, for example, has students choose between Do or Ti.  The more advanced levels introduce chromaticism in an effort to develop students relative pitch. 

Anaylze

Analyze is a visual version of the Name module.  MusicLab displays a note and key signature, and you must identify the function of the note within the key signature.  Currently students identify pitches within the key using solfege, but an imminent upgrade will also allow the use of numbers.

Sing

The Sing module in MusicLab teaches in-tune singing and pitch accuracy by asking students to sing a pitch after listening to the tonic triad.  In Level One, for example, it will play the tonic triad and ask students to sing either Do (the tonic) or Ti (the leading tone) in any octave.  The screen resembles a tuner, and students will see the exact pitch they are singing.  In the practice mode, students can keep trying, until they get it right.  They cannot, however, slide into the note, as MusicLab does require you to sing the note dead on.  The earlier levels seem to be more forgiving than the upper levels in terms of intonation.

Echo

In the Echo module, MusicLab plays a melody, and immediately afterwards, you tap the rhythm of the melody.  If the melody ends on the beat, then you are counted in three beats before you start.  As a result, Echo encourages students to develop a strong sense of pulse.  MusicLab also turns off the metronome during your playback in order to help you develop your own internal sense of pulse.  Although this may seem to be difficult at first, it is a great tool for helping beginning students develop rhythmic independence. 

Play

The Play module is really a rhythmic sight-reading activity.  Students see a melody (complete with pitches) on screen.  They then tap the rhythm they see after the count in.  MusicLab plays the pitches for the student, while evaluating their rhythm. 

Notate

Notate is a rhythmic dictation module.  Students enter the rhythm of the melody they hear, with MusicLab providing the pitches.  Unfortunately, the rhythm has to be entered from the beginning to the end.  I encourage my students to write down whatever they remember – usually the beginning and the end - so I usually have students write the rhythm first, and then enter it on the computer.

Write

Similar to Notate, the Write module adds a second step to the exercise – entering the pitches of the melody for dictation.

Read

In MusicLab Melody, the Read module is really a sight-singing exercise.  After playing a tonic triad and allowing students to “warm-up” using the on-screen chromatic tuner, students are asked to sight sing the melody they see on the screen.  MusicLab then displays a graph showing the pitches that should have been played, along with the pitches you actually sang.  A mark from 60%-80% is usually quite good, as you would have to sing a perfect sine wave to achieve 100%.

The melodies presented are based on the pitches and rhythms used in the other modules.  You must sing with the correct rhythm, along with the correct pitch in order to pass the level.  Fortunately, Level One only uses the pitches Do and Ti, and quarter note rhythms.  This is perfect for the beginner, or those of us who claim we cannot (or will not!) sing.  The advanced levels are very difficult – a challenge for anyone.

This module makes a strong case for the benefits of using software for ear training:

a)     You can practice on your own, without anyone hearing you (for the shy).

b)     You receive immediate feedback so you can correct your mistakes.

c)     The computer is not programmed to make snide remarks about your singing!

MusicLab Melody Levels

The entire list of rhythms and pitches covered at each level is available on our resource CD-ROM.  MusicLab Melody is divided into two programs – Basic and Advanced.  The rhythms in the basic level start with quarter notes in Level One.  Level Two adds quarter rests.  Each level adds or reinforces more rhythms, and by Level 20 in the Basic module, students have worked with triplets and syncopation.  3/4, 4/4 and 6/8 meters are covered.  The Advanced module adds more difficult rhythms, such as sixteenths and complex sixteenth-eighth patterns.

In the basic portion of the program, MusicLab starts level one by using Do and Re (Tonic and Sub-mediant.)  Level two continues with only the leading tone and tonic, before combining all three pitches in level three.  By level 20 of the basic module, students have covered 1 ½ octaves of the diatonic scale in both Treble and Bass clef, working in the keys of C, D, E, F, G A and Bb.  The advanced module eventually covers the entire chromatic scale in all keys.

All of the levels follow each other quite well – there aren’t any difficult steps or leaps.  Although the upper levels are quite challenging, the beginning levels are accessible by all.

The content of each level is consistent for each activity.  For example, the pitches used in the rhythms for the Notate activity are the same as the pitches they sing in Sing, recognize in Name and write in Write.  As a result, the rhythmic dictation and playback are all melodic – a real advantage over other ear training programs.  By using the same set of rhythms and pitches for each activity within a level, MusicLab does an excellent job reinforcing rhythmic skills in the melodic activities and melodic skills in the rhythmic activities.  This comprehensive approach keeps the activities directly related to music rather than a skill required to make music.