Aural Skills and Ear-Training
About Aural Skills and Ear-Training
Aural Skills and Musicianship courses, involving work with Ear-Training, Dictation and Sight-Singing, require exercise and practice to achieve a professional understanding of the material. Similar to how we musicians practice our instruments, our musicianship requires practice and review to build confidence in our musical capabilities. And it can be hard to find the time and resources to practice Aural Skills material outside the classroom.
This class is designed to be a space to review and exercise Aural Skills material throughout the timeline of an average college/university semester. The class will meet for an hour each week, and will be split in to 3 parts: Ear-Training, Dictation, and Sight-Singing. The first part of the class (Ear-Training) will review intervals, chords and scale identification through back-to-back listening examples. The 2nd part (Dictation) will be 2-3 exercises where the starting note and beat unit will be given, followed by 3-4 listenings for the student to write out at the best ability. At the conclusion, the final answer will be revealed for review. And the final part (Sight-Singing) will involve a selected melodic example, and a guided approach to identifying the solfège syllables (primarily fixed Do) and hearing the melodic shape and/or chord spelling. Questions can be asked in the chat, but to avoid noise interference during listening examples, all students should remain muted and be exercising the material silently.
Recommended materials for taking the class would be a pencil and staff paper to write out examples or express ideas on paper during the course.
Class Goals
- Goal 1 - Develop a confident understanding of hearing intervals (unison to 15th, ascending and descending), Scales (major scales, minor scales and modes) and chords (triads to seventh chords, inversions and special chords)
- Goal 2 - Achieve dictation strength to notate complicated melodies involving complex rhythms, compound meters and wide melodic shapes
- Goal 3 - Provide a step-by-step practice for approaching a sight-singing exercise and how to know how a melody sounds through reading as oppose to simply hearing that meet the advanced level
- Goal 4 - introduce a variety of exercises that can assist the development of their musicianship and build confidence in their abilities as musicians
Contact the Teacher
Send a direct message from the teacher's profile page with any questions you might have about the class.
When
The class will meet for four weekly 60-min live online sessions on Mondays at 1 pm ET | 10 am PT on the schedule below. The first session is on January 15.
Enrolled students receive lifetime access to the video recordings of the classes.
How It Works
Enroll above to save your spot in the class. Lessonface will send you a confirmation right away, and a Zoom link 24 hours before each session's start time. You can log into your Lessonface dashboard to access class materials, communicate with your instructor, join the live Zoom session, and access the class recordings and chat transcript afterward. Contact us with any questions. This class, and all lessons and classes on Lessonface, are covered by the Lessonface Guarantee.
Book 1:1 online lessons with Geoffrey Edwards on their Lessonface profile.
Geoffrey Edwards
I am a 26 year old musician who is originally from Long Island, NY,and is currently living in Boston, MA. I received my Masters in Music Theory at Boston University and I graduated from Keene State College with a Bachelors degree in Music Composition and Technology. My primary instrument is the Cello and I have years of experience practicing the keyboard.
About Lessonface, PBC
Lessonface's mission is to help students achieve their goals while treating teachers equitably. Since 2012, we've hosted more than 30,000 students and 2,500 teachers for live music, language, and arts lessons and classes online.