Hi All!

I wonder if anyone can help me? I'm doing my final project for the CT ABRSM and have decided to choose aural and listening skills. This is partly because its an area Im interested in developing in my own teaching and also because I have an intersting pupil to use as a case study, with little to no aural skills.

At present Im looking for different approaches and methods for teaching aural and listening skills that I can research and put into practise, before comparing for my project.

If anyone has anything they can share with me, please let me know!

I'd be very grateful. Thanks!

Jay!

Hi

The way I do it is I have a list of all the requirements for each grade and we start to work through right from the very beginning - my beginners could do a G1 test very early on in their learning.

I also start sight singing with beginners so by the time they get to G4 the usual reaction to the test is 'Is that it?'

I also get them to write their own stuff using specific areas that I want them to look at eg when starting to look at 6/8 time we break down all the combinations of getting a dotted crotchet and then pick a couple of combinations at a time and they write small melodies or improvise using these rhythms, they then don't have any trouble when it comes to recognising it.

Even the little ones like improvising in simple time.

In my experience there is nothing better than being taught using the Kodaly and Dalcroze approaches. Both develop listening skills as well as aural awareness, co-ordination, sight-singing and much more!

Children taught through these approaches have little difficulty with AB aural tests. Although they are not taught 'to the test', their understanding and awareness of music is heightened by the work they do and so their aural facility is good.

I've said this before (sorry if I'm boring you!) but we tend, in this country, to TEST aural rather than TEACH it. I remember being petrified of 'aural' as a child because I was so scared of 'getting it wrong' - it was all a bit of a guess and a bit hit-and-miss; I was never sure if I was wrong or right - or if wrong, WHY I was wrong and how I could be helped to do it better. If you learn through Kodaly and/or Dalcroze classes you learn to read rhythm fluently and with understanding; you can write down the rhythms you hear; you can sight-sing in solfa; your co-ordination is improved and developed; you can recognise changes in metre and respond in movement; you learn to sing and recognise all types of scale, intervals and chords - to name but a few skills that you will learn.

You can contact the British Kodaly Academy on their helpline (020-8971-2062) or look at the website: www.britishkodalyacademy.org. The Dalcroze Administrator can be contacted on 020-8870-1986. Both approaches are taught on the String Training Programme at the Guildhall School of Music on Saturdays. Visitors who would like to observe classes are always welcome (send me a personal e-mail if you would like to arrange this).

Hope this is helpful!

Oops - I forgot to say, improvisation plays a big part of the training too!

There's a wonderful course at the Royal Northern for String Players - 2 year certificate in DalCroze with a PGCE thrown in. I think.

I know one or two people who did it - of course, if you don't play a stringed instrument you might want to consider going overseas for a year.

I am interested in the Kodaly Academy summer school.

Has anyone been?

How useful is it for piano teachers?

The Royal Northern course covers both Kodaly and Dalcroze, both at the students' own level and covering methodology (it includes teaching real live children!)

You can certainly study at the Kodaly Institute in Kecskemet for a year (or more, or less!), also at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva, but I would suggest getting some training in this country first. There are study tours to Hungary organised, where you can see the most stunning teaching - it'll change the way you do things for ever!

Amy - I've done over 20 Kodaly Summer Schools now! I started as a humble infant class teacher with little musical background and I now teach solfege and methodology (have taught conducting too) on it!

As you can tell, I can't recommend it highly enough! You will be immersed in this wonderful way of teaching and learning for a solid week and will (hopefully!) come out buzzing. I am not a piano teacher so I can't answer specifically on that - but there are sessions for instrumental teachers and how to apply the principles to your work. Gillian Earl has written piano tutor books ('With Music in Mind') which use the Kodaly approach - they are available on the Summer School.

I think once you get under the skin of the approach you will start to make connections and start to have ideas for yourself about how you can incorporate some of the musicianship training in your lessons. Some people I know create musicianship groups of their pupils of similar age/stage/ability so that they meet once a week as a group to do purely Kodaly work, which can then be related to the work being covered in the instrumental lesson.

Hope this helps - and hope to meet you in Leicester in August!

[COLOR=purple]Hi Folks,

Well, my first visit to the forum, so hear is a dip into what I am finding successful with my piano pupils.

I am quite enjoying the ABRSM Aural from grade four onwards, since I discovered the David Turnbull 'Aural Time' These books give plenty of practise for the pupil.

The pupil book has plenty of text information on styles and periods and also homework practice singing, I always use tonic solfa for this as it can be used in every key. Pupils soon pick it up, and with regular weekly practice become quite proficient.

The teacher's book is also worth considering selling to the pupil as the last test, 'Recognising features' can be given to the pupil to take home. Each test to be practised, and the answers to the questions to be written down as homework each week and discussed at the next lesson. Extra helpful comments on styles and periods are given on the back page. When all these have been completed, the pupil has had lots of experience in different styles and periods of pieces, as all the examples are neat fragments covering a range of composers, very satisfying. I set this work in addition to the normal pieces etc.

I can then test the pupils with the AB specimen tests.

Thanks to everyone for all the interesting comments on Kodaly etc. I will look into these.

Recently I've taken to getting my pupils to sight-sing any new piece before they attempt to play it. I sing along with them to give them confidence and even the reluctant ones have started joining in. This means that by the time they start playing it they've already internalised it musically, and this really seems to help them understand what the music is really about, sound-wise.

Otherwise the less musical pupils can so easily treat music almost robotically - just putting fingers where symbols on a page tell them to.... Somebody wrote an excellent post about this the other day; whoever it was pointed out that even a computer could put dynamics in, so it's about so much more than playing the right notes and using dynamics...

I know it's very easy to get bogged down by the mechanics of the instrument, but if we can get our pupils to sing each piece musically, and then transfer that to their instrument - after all, the instrument closest to the human heart is the voice...

But this would be harder with piano, I suppose, with so many different voicings, and the notes for violin are often right within the pupil's vocal range.

This method has really worked so far, by the way - and they're all understanding and learning repertoire much more quickly and musically.

[COLOR=purple]Hi Violinia,

You are quite right about the sight singing. If pupils are taught it from the beginning, especially from quite young, they are not at all nervous. The benifits are really great as they learn to pitch their voices.

QUOTE

But this would be harder with piano, I suppose, with so many different voicings, and the notes for violin are often right within the pupil's vocal range

Not at all, each of the different voices have their own place so singing it before hand helps to internalise it, then sing when you are putting it together, play the harmony and sing the melody, which can make it easier to put in difficult rhythms.

Singing in this way is particularly useful with contrapuntal work on the piano as you can make sure you get the thread of each voice, whilst playing another and make sure haven't lost anything.

Oh, Violinia, you sound like a Kodaly teacher!!! I love your comment that 'the instrument closest to the human heart is the voice' - might just borrow that when I'm running a course, with your permission!

You, Lesley and Digby are SO right about the singing - this is at the essence of Kodaly training, that you 'see what you hear and hear what you see' - ie that you can sing the music and so know what it is going to sound like BEFORE you play it. Singing it also helps you get inside the music and helps with phrasing in particular. It internalises the music in a way that just playing does not. As Violinia says, playing music can become a mechanical exercise - can I put my fingers in the right place for this note? - this is certainly how I was taught to perceive music. Thank heavens for teachers like your good selves!

Cyrilla. thanks so much for your encouraging remarks! This is something I've only recently started doing as a matter of course and it's working wonders already...and yes of course you can use that phrase about the voice and the heart!!

One of my pupils was a bit flummoxed by a new (quite jazzy) piece a couple of weeks ago, and I suddenly had the idea to go the singing route; luckily she was a confident girl and happy to sing, and we made up jazzy sounds for the notes, like "be-doopy doop doop be-doo", and she started to laugh and really got into it; within five minutes she'd "got" the tune, and although it was a bit out of her range technically she could play it almost perfectly within ten minutes. She could play it straight away from memory too, as well as from the notation.

This proved to me without a shadow of a doubt that internalising the music FIRST is the best way forward. I only wish I'd thought of this before!!!

The only problem I can see with this is that some of the pupils are very reluctant to sing, especially adolescent girls, and boys whose voices are in the process of breaking, but if I sing along with them it seems to give them the confidence to join in.

Am I right in noticing that a lot of children generally seem to be a lot more self-conscious about singing than they used to be, especially as they move through junior school and on to secondary school? My hunch is that children sing a lot less at school these days because of the demise of the daily assembly.

When I was at secondary school (Back in the 60's, oh yeah!), we used to have assembly every single day. The music teacher, who was a very good pianist, used to play the piano as we filed in and then we'd sit in silence and listen to her for a good 5-10 minutes daily. Then we'd sing three or four hymns and there'd be a descant part for some of them, which we'd learn in music lessons. I'm no way a religious person and it didn't turn me into one - we all make our own choices - but I stil think it's sad that these rather musical daily assemblies don't happen any more, even though I probably moaned about them at the time! They really did have their musical effect..

QUOTE

My hunch is that children sing a lot less at school these days because of the demise of the daily assembly.

Yes, I think there is a lot less singing all round in most schools these days, and the lack of daily assembly is I'm sure a part of it.

When I ask my pupils what kind of music they do at school, they are sometimes at a bit of a loss and can't work out what to say. In some cases it is sometimes hard to believe there is much going on at all.

I remember well the task of learning a descant and then finally the thrill of realising how it went together with the melody and of experiencing the end result. It is a matter of great shame I feel that many children are now not encouraged to find their voices and to enjoy using them.

Maggie

You're absolutely right, Maggie. And nice to hear that at least somebody else here remembers the fun of learning the descant part!

And it's sad to hear that your pupils are "at a bit of a loss and can't work out what to say" when you ask them about their school music lessons. This is quite worrying as it confirms what my Australian music teacher friend told me recently about the differences between Australian and English music education in schools. He told me they have a far more dynamic curriculum over there, for example using xylophones a lot (rather than keyboards), and teaching improvisation by removing certain notes to make a pentatonic scale etc - the standard the secondary school music students reach over there is a lot higher, apparently.

I know when music became a part of the core curriculum a few years ago there was much excitement, but has our new curriculum really lived up to expectations? Actually I think the curriculum looks good, but do the teachers have the time and the resources (and the right materials?) to teach it effectively?

I was re-reading a book by music education luminary Keith Swanwick recently, and was surprised to see him being critical of the American system, where a lot of time is spent in ensembles, rehearsing and preparing for concerts. He seemed to see this as a failing!!! Methinks the theory of the new English curriculum somewhat outperforms the reality...

(Strike me down O Keith Swanwick devotees!!)

QUOTE (Violinia @ May 8 2004, 12:18 PM)

He told me they have a far more dynamic curriculum over there, for example using xylophones a lot (rather than keyboards),

Hi folks,

I am interested that the xylophones are used rather a lot in Australia as opposed to keyboards. I have thought about this for a while, and I believe that they would be better to teach with in schools as they lend themselves to ensemble work etc.

I rather would like a Marimba, now there is an instrument I could personally enjoy!!

In Standard Grade music (Scotland) the aim seems to be to get the pupils to jump through the right hoops to get a good grade.

It's really sad that when you get a class of pupils who have actually chosen to do music that there is so little ensemble playing.

When I tell my pupils that we're going to do some singing, the look on their faces usually says "Singing? But this is a piano lesson!" and they don't do much singing in school.

p.s. keyboards are great for avoiding doing any real work!

Who knows what you're doing when you've got headphone's on?

Ensemble playing at GCSE.....

My only experience of this is from when my daughter did it a few years ago.
Strangely (to me) they accept something like a flute or violin solo which is normally accompanied as emsemble playing if it is played with accompaniment!

I would have imagined that the real intention of ensemble playing was to get groups of similarly able students working as a group?

It seems that in some schools at least this is not happening.
(With my daughter I went into school to play the duet piano part with her).

Dear Jayme
I have just submitted an essay on Aural awareness for my teaching diploma and I found the book Aural Awareness by George Pratt very interesting. He assumes that you have lots of other resources for the elements which are tested in standard aural tests, and concentrates on other aspects of aural awareness, which are dificult to test but vital for musicianship. It is full of incredibly interesting exercises, which range from easy stuff to degree-level stuff.
One very interesting one which you do in a group is to get someone to play a note or a phrase in a particular way, and the others to describe as fully as they could what they heard eg start forte, diminuendo, use a full tone at the start and thin it out, then end with a sudden sforzando. Then compare notes with the others and find out what the player intended - then most interestingly, see if they can play it in exactly the same way again!

I agree with all that has been written about using singing in lessons, but it if they are not used to singing then you need to warm up their voice before trying to sing notes, as otherwise they get discouraged that they cannot produce a particular note. So you may need to do a few lessons where you just do vocal exercises with them before moving onto the actual singing bit.
Vocal exercises would start with what I call "whooping" where they vocalise the lowest they can and gradually swoop up to the highest they can, then back down again. This gives you an idea of where their range lies so that you don't ask them to sing impossible notes!

Aural training should start with tonic solfa and then proceed to musical analysis i.e. binary, ternary etc and on to other more complicated forms to produce an understanding of music before listening rather than hearing can occur.

Hallo All!

I have been reading the feedback added to my original post with great interest. Can I say a huge thankyou to anyone who has taken the time to post their ideas and experience on here. It's all been really useful!

Please keep posting if you feel you have something else to add.

I'm very grateful.

Best Wishes

Jay

QUOTE (Violinia @ May 8 2004, 10:54 AM)

some of the pupils are very reluctant to sing, especially adolescent girls, and boys whose voices are in the process of breaking, but if I sing along with them it seems to give them the confidence to join in.   Am I right in noticing that a lot of children generally seem to be a lot more self-conscious about singing than they used to be, especially as they move through junior school and on to secondary school?  My hunch is that children sing a lot less at school these days because of the demise of the daily assembly.

As an exam accompanist who most often has just two rehearsals with with each candidate (I normally insist on a minimum of two unless it's an emergency - accompanist going sick or similar) I'm meeting a lot of candidates of all ages who are indeed very self-conscious about singing alone. Some are very reluctant to sing at all (I wrote recently about my first encounter with one who refused totally even to attempt to sing - I shall be meeting her again this evening).

Some of the children tell me that they don't sing at school. I assume this is still very patchy among schools and areas of the country though there are obviously excellent initiatives under the auspices of e.g. The Voices Foundation. It seems to me very sad that singing, which is free, healthy and fun, has become so undervalued as an educational experience which can give a lifetime of pleasure and stimulation. Joining a choir is a great way to get to know people when you move to a new area too.

I'm not directly involved with schools these days, but I get the impression that making music as a co-operative activity is still not always regarded as a valuable educational experience which can feed into all the basic skills.

Singing is indeed the key to musicality. Today, I got a pupil to sing "do re mi" (he was having trouble playing D E F# in tune). After he realised do re mi was the same thing, he played it beautifully and something seemed to click. He started really LISTENING to himself. I was really excited!

Mind you, it took him a while to get him to sing - he's one of the total non-singers; just refuses to do it, saying he can't. But today I persisted and thought of Cyrilla's workshop I attended (on the CTABRSM course). Cyrilla explained how every child can sing a minor third (from so to mi); it's what all children sing when they go "na nana na na" (so mi la so mi).

I got him to sing it, and oh joy! he managed it (probably remembered it from the playground). After that it wasn't too difficult to get him to sing all the notes from do to so, and then away he went, playing it on the violin in tune.

We MUST get our pupils to sing!

Violinia

Violinia - HUZZAH!!!!

ISN'T it exciting when this sort of thing happens?? I shall go to my grave utterly and totally convinced that this is the right way...

QUOTE (maggiemay @ May 8 2004, 12:02 PM)

QUOTE My hunch is that children sing a lot less at school these days because of the demise of the daily assembly. Yes, I think there is a lot less singing all round in most schools these days, and the lack of daily assembly is I'm sure a part of it. When I ask my pupils what kind of music they do at school, they are sometimes at a bit of a loss and can't work out what to say. In some cases it is sometimes hard to believe there is much going on at all.

Well, there isn't much music going on in schools today! (except from music lessons which are on the curriculum). Take my school for example, we have assembly but there is no singing involved whatsoever, unless someone is performing a solo to show the highlights of the latest concert etc. I think some people would (like me and my friends for example) would like more singing sort of stuff, instead of the usual assemblys about motivation etc which send the entire hall to sleep. More singing and music in general should be introduced into the curriculum!