Hi All,

I understand that for the aural part of the grade 7 exam that you must decide whether a modulation is to the dominant, subdominant or relative minor. I have tried playing all 3 but I can't seem to tell them apart when listening. Has anyone been through this part of the exam and understood them better than me?

Shelton

Not done any prep for it, and don't have a clue

I was told once that if it goes sharper(to the dominant) it sounds like its been raised up a bit

Subdominant sounds like its gone flatter

relative maj/min- self explantory!

i can explain but cant hear!!!!

I did grade 8, and had no worries at all with modulations.

Perfectly explained Nat, dominant sounds sharper, sub-dominant sounds flattened. And major to minor should not be too hard.

It sometimes helps to make up your own "modulating scales" to get used to the sound.

For example, play a scale of C (if you're a keyboard player one hand will do, one octave is fine).
Go up and down a couple of times, then finish by playing CDF#G. You can vary it by approaching the F# from the other direction, eg upper CBAF#G, and invent other patterns for yourself.

To practise listening for the subdominant you just flatten the B and come down to F. The minor sharpens G and ends on A. If you can hum these patterns as well so much the better.

When you can identify the sound of these altered notes, you'll more easily spot them in the middle of a piece (granted they aren't always in the melody line).

Maggie

Since relative minor is easy, you could guess if it remains major, with a 50% chance of getting it right, or if not what I do is that I try to memorise the tonic note and compare it with the last tonic note.