Ear Training
Al Summers shares his experience in teaching ear training and preparing students for aural tests…
Although trained very much as a reading player and notating composer, I believe that musicians at all levels wish to be able to play faultlessly by ear, replicating songs, riffs, chord sequences, tunes and musical ideas without hesitation. Some can – having the gift we call ‘a good ear for music’. Having had my natural ear discouraged, quite early and painfully, I have no idea how good or poor it may have been. Discovering later difficulties in my ear ability, it was a long road to notating accurately from a sound source to paper or being able to play instantly a sound my head imagines. This is not the phenomenon of perfect pitch but relative pitch; the ability to relate sounds to one another, something that isn’t magic, just the result of training, hard work and familiarity.
Aural tests in exam preparation are often left to the last minute, undertaken as if apart from real musical practice. This is not a criticism of tutors or tuition, merely an observation based upon experience as a student, tutor and teacher of tutors. Yet theory and technique are nothing without sound. It is important we link aural perception to the whole musician. Taking LCM classical guitar and RGT acoustic and electric aural tests as a template, here is a whistle-stop tour round a few tips to help make ear tests a fuller part of tuition, creativity and performance.
Rhythm
There is more to this than being a human metronome: recognizing the pulse should be about the feel of a piece, the ‘groove’. Have students listen 
to the music, not just working out where to tap their feet. It’s vital for improvisers to acquire this ability. For more formal players it’s the difference between a Bourree, a March and a Hornpipe, say. Time is more than a bpm. Talk about and demonstrate different accents and encourage pupils to play the same melody with differing stresses, listening for the altered character as they do so.
Rhythm phrases and memory: many students fall down here because they don’t feel any structure. If they forget half the phrase, encourage good musicianship: improvising the rest; it’s amazing how accurate the results can be!
Pitch
Intervals are fundamental here. Try this note-at-a-time exercise: have the student play any note; they then sing (aloud or in their head) the next note they wish to hear before attempting to play it. If they play correctly they simply keep going, adding a note at a time, but it’s over if the sounded note is wrong. If they’re good, it becomes a memory exercise as well!
Recognizing intervals via famous tunes is common: the first two notes of Auld Lang Syne being a rising perfect fourth for instance. Leading and resolving qualities give character: the first two notes of TV’s Neighbours theme is a major sixth falling to the fifth. A few examples using traditional songs are shown on the following page.
Although some pupils feel shy, stress the importance of singing, feeling how notes sound. I’m no great singer but demonstrate to put them at ease so they realize that it’s not the quality of their voice that is the issue.
Phrases: to cut down the panic felt by some, ask them first to define the rough shape of a phrase, perhaps doing this by drawing a line, on paper or in the air.
Key sense: isn’t it amazing, being told the scale and given a phrase, how many then try notes not in that key?! A sense of key gives expectations, ruling out some notes. Guitarists too frequently learn patterns rather than note names: encourage playing by note name and/or interval rather than being a slave to a ‘box’. Developing a clear sense of key provides a sound foundation of musicianship.
Harmony
Key sense here is, er, key…Having students write their own diatonic sequences as quickly as possible is great training.
Chord types: rather than suggest, try to get your pupil to describe chord quality i.e. major are ‘fluffy bunny’; sus4s are ‘Pinball’ etc. (reminders of styles, songs, artists). They’re more likely to assimilate such evaluations. The types then ‘belong to them’ and become internalized as a sound they know, can use and can identify.
Cadences: establish the character of each. Perfect could be ‘corny’ or ‘strong’; imperfect a turnaround; plagal ‘Amen’ or ‘soft’; interrupted ‘goes somewhere else’. Seen as common 2-chord tricks they make more sense. An exercise I use is to create, on paper only at first, an instant 16-bar with a different cadence at the end of each 4-bar line using the descriptions to predict how it will sound; then play it. Identify such cadences in songs your student knows.
Extensions and inversions can change the feel or soften the chord, therefore confusing the ear: encourage feeling the ‘pull’ of some chords, and focus on hearing elements of chords, especially aiming at the extension (e.g. sharp 5th in augmented, sharp 9 in the 'Hendrix' chord) or listening for the bass note.
