Hi,
I've been asked by work to do a presentation on how instrumental teachers can get aural into their lessons, i initially thought of inserting aural into the starter part of the letter but can't really get past clapping starters and the like. Has anyone got any other fun aural starters?!!

Sharpey

I quite often use aural in the early part of a lesson, not least because it's a useful focusing excercise.

Play a note and ask the pupil (without seeing) if he/she can duplicate it. Nb this is not intended to be a way of identifying perfect pitch or lack of - just improving listening skills. Depends on how much of the instrument's range the pupil is familiar with, but on the piano eg I would initially focus on low, middle or high, and somewhere close is a good start.

You can ask a pupil to compare two patterns - any kind, pitch or rhythm, depending on level, and say if they are the same or different. A beginner might start with just two single notes, progressing to a short phrase and then longer ones. Later they can identify the difference.

You can improvise similar exercises based around dynamics, speed, phrasing. It seems to work best if it's linked to something you intend to be doing later in the same lesson. You can play a bar of one of your pupil's pieces and ask if they can tell you which bar you played. You can play a line and ask them to spot the deliberate mistake. Just a few ideas.

Play a pattern using a limited range of notes and get them to copy, let them do one for you.

Try the step and skip game... play intervals of a 2nd and a 3rd and say if it is a step or a skip. You can include reapeat notes too. Later extend it by asking whether it was up or down. (This can be extended for more intervals over time).

With regard to the topic, here's what i came up with. If anyone has any more please add them.

Pitch starters

1) Sing this back – self explanatory
2) Singing the musical alphabet/the numbers 1-8 as a scale. Can they sing a note just from you giving them the tonic. E.g. Sung: this is c/1, can you sing d/2?
3) Play them a phrase twice, tell them to raise their hand when they think they hear the highest note (they can then do this for you)
4) Play them a phrase with a cadence at the end twice, but with different cadences both times. Which one sounds finished? Why?
5) Play them a simple tune twice but once in the major and once in the minor? Why are they different?
6) Play a simple melody which uses stepwise motion but introduce a ‘jump’ of a different interval, ask them to raise their hand when they hear it. Explain that this activity is easily differentiated as the jump could be as wide as a seventh (i.e. easy to hear) or a third (i.e. not quite as easy to hear)
7) The copying/listening game. One student plays a note, the next plays the note then adds another etc until it gets as complex as you like.


Rhythm starters

1) The clapping exercise, start off with echoes, then extend to full canon.
2) Play two rhythmic patterns that last the same length of time with differences and ask the children to explain what the differences are.
3) Spot the deliberate rhythmic mistake, play one of the pieces to be done in the main part of the lesson but with a significant (at first) rhythmic mistake and ask the children to spot it.
4) If there’s a keyboard in the room, set it to a 12 bar blues riff, tell them the note you’re playing and, after a keyboard intro , get them to imitate back what your playing (obviously, it needs to be 4 bars long)
5) Rhythmic bingo, give each group member a piece of paper with a rhythm on it and then play a rhythm/play a piece with only one of the rhythms handed out and see who has the right piece of paper.

Miscellaneous

1) Play the children a piece (it could be that day’s piece) and ask them to raise their hand when the piece gets louder and lower it when the piece gets quieter. They can then direct you. This exercise can also be used to introduce tempo changes in pieces, which, in turn, is a great introduction to the concept of conducting.
2) Play the children a piece and ask them to draw it on a blank piece of paper, this can useful for identifying what they might already notice e.g. phrases, dynamics, etc which can then tell you as a teacher what you may need to spend a little more time on.

How about getting some movement into the aural - like Dalcroze style exercises? E.g. getting them to step/walk in time to a pulse and then play a 4 note phrase, repeating it and getting them to 'high clap' on the highest note, and/or 'low clap' on the lowest note. Or a 'workout'(!) - stride to minims, walk to crotchets and trot to quavers. These kind of aural exercises work best with younger pupils as they are less inhibited, but we did them on our CT course as adults and enjoyed them! You could also play a version of Chinese Whispers - someone tap a rhythm on the next person's back, and pass this round the circle until it comes back to the first person again and see if it stayed the same.

Play a note, the pupil sings it back, then the pupil plays a note and you sing it back. When you take turns it seems more like a game than a test! Though it usually ends with you being challenged to sing a ridiculously high or ridiculously low note! Then play 2 notes at the same time, and sing the higher of the 2, and then the lower. This came up in the Piano Time book I use, and I found that it was quite good fun!

I also sometimes play a game called "Snap" where I play a note to the pupil, make sure they've really got it, then after a tiny pause start to play random notes - every time the pupil hears their note they call 'snap'. It's obviously challenging as it's difficult to hold a note in your head with the other notes there as a distraction!

Sharpey sorry to Hijack your topic but……

I teach singing to a group of teenagers and try to start with some physical warm ups because they tend to arrive half a sleep! I am also trying to bring aural into the lesson but they find it difficult to focus and understand (I think because they do not play an instrument or have much knowledge of music theory).

The type of exercises suggested by Chocolatedog would be good and would “ kill two birds with one stone”. Does anybody have anymore suggests (that won’t damage my pupils’ all important street cred!)

Hi Klm,
Yes, its tricky with the older ones, its probably not much help to you but if they get into the habit of doing the more physical starters at an early age then it doesnt seem to affect their street cred so much when they're older.
Sharpey

Hi,
Just to say thanks for all contributions
Sharpeyman