Scales Or Aural?which Is Your Heaven,which Is Your ######?, sorry if this has been done before, but there's a sight reading/me Options

[barry-clari]

Scales on just a clarinet mouthpiece are fun (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I think I'd better stick with the conventional way for now. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

I can always show you... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Clarimoo]

Scales on just a clarinet mouthpiece are fun (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I think I'd better stick with the conventional way for now. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

I can always show you... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

...............oh yes, go on (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[barry-clari]

Scales on just a clarinet mouthpiece are fun (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I think I'd better stick with the conventional way for now. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

I can always show you... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

...............oh yes, go on (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Come to an event, and I shall (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Clarimoo]

Excellent. Can you teach a whole class of us to do it?

[barry-clari]

Excellent. Can you teach a whole class of us to do it?

Could do, I guess... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Dulciana]

I'm still incredulous about the fact that, after all the threads where so many people strongly advocated singing in aural tests, and the importance of developing aural skills generally, there are currently 43% who would like to see aural tests removed from exams. Something is not adding up here....

[kenm]

I do think the conducting test has its uses. It shows they know the time signature, gives it shape, and shows they know where the down beat is. And not just the test itself, but teaching for it helps build an awareness of how to recognise time signatures and feel that strong beat. It can also help establish 6/8 as a clear 2 in a bar, which is relevant to how it should be played.

I don't often disagree with kenm on the subject of aural tests!

Well, I don't teach beginners, so I wasn't commenting on that, only on what a conductor needs.

[Clarimoo]

I'm still incredulous about the fact that, after all the threads where so many people strongly advocated singing in aural tests, and the importance of developing aural skills generally, there are currently 43% who would like to see aural tests removed from exams. Something is not adding up here....

That's down to the question. "If you could ban one from exams which one would it be?" prompts a choice, one or the other, while you could still truthfully answer no to "Do you think either should be banned from exams?".

[Dulciana]

I'm still incredulous about the fact that, after all the threads where so many people strongly advocated singing in aural tests, and the importance of developing aural skills generally, there are currently 43% who would like to see aural tests removed from exams. Something is not adding up here....

That's down to the question. "If you could ban one from exams which one would it be?" prompts a choice, one or the other, while you could still truthfully answer no to "Do you think either should be banned from exams?".

But there was an option to ban neither. More voted to ban aural than neither.

[Clarimoo]

Yes, indeed but the way its worded with "If you could" lets you make the choice without thinking of the possible consequences. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Dulciana]

Yes, indeed but the way its worded with "If you could" lets you make the choice without thinking of the possible consequences. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I've just added a reply to the "Aural training" thread (post 13) which is relevant to this. I do think that the way aural is dealt with in AB exams is largely responsible for the unpopularity of 'aural', generally. It is a word which is synonymous for many with 'what happens in the exam'.

What I'm finding hard to believe here is not that exam aural tests are unpopular, because I can see why that is, and I can see why many people don't agree that certain aspects of them test 'aural' skills at all. What I'm surprised at is that so many seem to have this opinion now after there being so many people in the past hammering home the 'benefits' of the singing parts of the tests, and so strongly defending their inclusion. Maybe we've had different people responding to this thread than to other threads about aural tests. For so many here to feel that they are useless is definitely something to think about. If students aren't relating the aural tests to the rest of their musical learning, or seeing their benefit, then something is wrong with the nature of aural TESTING.

[kenm]

What I'm finding hard to believe here is not that exam aural tests are unpopular, because I can see why that is, and I can see why many people don't agree that certain aspects of them test 'aural' skills at all.

For the record, I am strongly in favour of the sort of aural test that I took in Part I of my degree. This had three parts, IIRC:

1) Take dictation of a four part chorale;

2) Mark on a short score the ways in which a recorded performance differed from it (pitch and rhythm);

3) Listen to a recording of an orchestral work and identify its genre, its period and its general organisation.

On my course, instrumentalists had to sing (in the Choral Society) only if they couldn't get a place in the University Symphony Orchestra.

[Dulciana]

Dictation, in simpler format, even for beginners, would actually be a great way of assessing the ability to hear pitches rather than singing. Instead of teachers wasting time teaching pupils to pitch their voices when they can hear but not pitch vocally, teachers who otherwise might not do much theory would be encouraged to spend time on writing notation in the early grades.

Your number 2 above is basically what is required in TG, except that it's played on the piano. Number 3 is the first question in the upper grades, but again, it's piano.

[kenm]

Dictation, in simpler format, even for beginners, would actually be a great way of assessing the ability to hear pitches rather than singing.

It would be possible to do that orally: "This note is C; what is this note?"

Instead of teachers wasting time teaching pupils to pitch their voices when they can hear but not pitch vocally, teachers who otherwise might not do much theory would be encouraged to spend time on writing notation in the early grades.

Some teachers whose pupils I hear seem not to spend enough time on time values, especially of rests. This becomes obvious when a typical English amateur is asked to read from barless notation, and the usual tactic of working backward from the barline fails. Of course, the AB exams reveal it clearly enough in the sight reading test; I don't know what weight accurate rhythm is given.

Your number 2 above is basically what is required in TG, except that it's played on the piano. Number 3 is the first question in the upper grades, but again, it's piano.

Yes, this is why I recommend TG to people who hate to sing. I think piano is OK up to G8. University music exams usually take place in the presence of a good audio set-up.

[jod]

Having gone through Grade 8 aural twice, grade 7 aural twice (not to mention the inter-boar A level Aural of 1987) and taken grade 8 scales on the oboe and grade 7 scales on a treble recorder that really did not want to play ball that day, and gone part way to learning grade 8 piano scales. I think it is fair to say I know scales and aural. I see the point in both and they are as valuable. Scales help you anchor yourself within a tonality, they can help you gain technical finesse and maintain intonation on a woodwind instrument and finger dexterity. Aural, as the "au" prefix demands the musician to listen and inwardly digest. These are both vital skills that I apply equal weight to when teaching. As a result I enjoy both, and would get rid of neither.

I will not say either is my zenith nor nadir, they are just part of the complete package, and this music lark is all about becoming a rounded complete package with a range of technical and musical skills that allow you to make music.