MUSC 10221 Aural Skills

Schedule
Each student has been put into one of the four tutorial groups. Each group meets for an hour every
week, at some point on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday. The full list of which students are in which
tutorial group, and where and when they meet is in a separate document, entitled Aural Tutorial
Groups 2015.
In addition, there will be a one-off introductory lecture on Fri 2 Oct from 9-10am in the Casken
Theatre, which all students need to attend.

Week 1:
28/9 2/10
Week 1:
Fri 2/10
Week 2:
5/10 9/10
Week 3:
12/10 16/10
Week 4:
19/10 23/10
Week 5:
26/10 30/10
Week 6
Week 7:
9/11 13/11
Week 8:
16/11 20/11
Week 9:
23/11 27/11
Week 10:
30/11 4/12
Week 11:
7/12 11/12
Week 12:
14/12 18/12

Tutorial

THRMFT melody

Introductory Lecture
9-10am in Casken with
Richard Whalley
Tutorial

Why study aural, and how to get the best out of this
course.
THRMFT rhythm

TIMBRE wind

Tutorial

THRMFT harmony

TIMBRE brass

Tutorial

THRMFT timbre / texture

Tutorial

THRMFT form

Reading week: private

study
Tutorial

TIMBRE - strings

TIMBRE piano

TIMBRE voices

Tutorial

THRMFT conclusion: putting the parameters together

TIMBRE percussion
Full THRMFT no. 1
STRUCTURAL LISTENING

Tutorial

Full THRMFT no. 2

STRUCTURAL LISTENING

Tutorial

Full THRMFT no. 3

TIMBRE mixed ensemble

Tutorial

Full THRMFT no. 4

STRUCTURAL LISTENING

Tutorial

Full THRMFT no. 5

EXAM PREP

Please note this is a 10-credit course, and for this many credits the University expects you to spend
100 hours of your time dedicated to this course (which roughly equates to an hour a day). So each
week your tutor will set you homework to do before the following weeks tutorial.
Jan 2016 (date tba)

Exam, 2 hrs (100% of final mark)

What you will be tested on

1. Dictation of cadences in a four-part Bach chorale context (Worth 10%)

You will be given the lead-up to a cadence in four-parts, and it will be up to you to notate the
cadence itself in four parts, adding appropriate roman numerals, and labelling the key and type of
cadence.
2. Timbre (Worth 10%)
You will be given a very short extract of music (less than thirty seconds duration), and asked to
make a list of all the sounds you hear: names of instruments and playing techniques. You will also be
asked to estimate the size of the ensemble.
3. Structural listening (Worth 20%)
You will hear a 16 to 18 bar extract of a piece of classical music, of which you will be given the
opening two bars of the melody. You will be asked to notate another 2-4 bars of melody, based on
what you hear. You will also be asked to indicate the structure of this extract using terminology from
William Caplins book, Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of
Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. You will be taught everything you need to know about this in Musc
10011 Tonality, Form & Function, weeks 7-9.
4. Listening by Category (Worth 60%)
You will hear an extract or short piece of music of up to 2 minutes duration. Please note that this
could be absolutely anything. You will be asked to listen carefully and analyse what you hear in
terms of the following categories: Texture, Harmony, Rhythm, Melody, Form, Timbre
(THRMFTing). You will also be asked to write a Conclusion, commenting on which of these
categories are most important to the way the music works, and from your knowledge of music
suggest what the music may be (possible composer / date of composition, etc.).

How to get the best out of this course

The emphasis of this course is to help you develop your analytical listening skills, in order to better
understand and contextualise any music that you hear. These skills can be applied to any kind of
music, and will help you in all your other musical activities: performing, composing, writing about
music, etc.
Please note there is much less emphasis on dictation exercises. That it is not to say that these dont
have their value, although to really develop these skills it takes sustained commitment over a longer
period of time than this course allows. The university owns Auralia software (see below), which is an
excellent resource for improving your skills in this manner, as you can practice specific listening skills

on it as often, and for as long as you like. The great thing about this software is you can continue to
practice on it, even when the Aural course is over!
Practice
Just like practicing your instrument (or singing), you will do much better if you set aside a little bit of
time every day for practicing your listening skills (as oppose to a last-minute blitz just before your
tutorial!).
The great thing about Aural is that every single musical experience you have can be used to help you
develop your ear. Here are some simple steps you can take to improve your aural skills.
1. Listen to as much music as you possibly can. Just imagine how much knowledge you will build up if
you listen to a new piece of music (and keep a record of this) every day, in order to build up your
knowledge of the repertoire. Thanks to the web, this is easier than ever before.
2. Every time a melody is stuck in your head, try and work out how it may be written down and what
the underlying harmony is.
3. If possible sing in a choir.
4. Attend orchestral rehearsals. Familiarise yourself with the sound of all the instruments. Listen
carefully to how they interact. Close your eyes and try to work out which instruments are playing,
then open them to see if youre correct.
5. Whenever you hear music (especially live music), mentally apply the skills this course focuses on:
what are the instruments and playing techniques involved? What is the underlying harmony and
phrase structure? How do the cadences work? Could you make some intelligent observations under
the THRMFT categories (texture, harmony, rhythm, melody, form, timbre)?
Auralia
This is a computer programme available for you to practice your aural skills. This is probably the best
on the market, and has been installed on the two Mac computers in the in the undergraduate cluster
(F31). When you first run the software you will be given the opportunity to create an account, so
that you can keep track of your results. You can specify precisely what you wish to practice and
specify and exact level of difficulty to suit your ability.
Most useful for the sake of this course are the Harmony and Form exercises, which will help you
with the dictation of cadences in four-part Bach chorales. The software also has exercises under the
categories of Intervals and Scales, Chords, Rhythm and Pitch and Melody, which are excellent for
developing your ear.

Online Resources
A number of online resources exist to help you practice aural skills. Particularly recommended are:
http://www.auralworkshop.com/
http://www.good-ear.com/
The advanced options on these sites are probably most helpful to you.
Library Resources
Aural skills are to be practiced, rather than read about, but if you really want to read about this
subject you may find the following literature useful:
Bentley, Arnold, Aural Foundations of Music Reading, Novello, 1996
Cargill, Simon; Henson, Michael and Pratt, George, Aural Awareness : Principles and Practice,
Oxford, 1998
Cleland, Kent D; Dobrea-Grindahl, Mary, Developing musicianship through aural skills [electronic
resource] : a holistic approach to sight singing and ear training, Routledge, 2010
Karpinski, Gary S., Aural skills acquisition : the development of listening, reading, and performing
skills in college-level musicians, Oxford, 2000