Can anyone give me any brill ideas on how I can train my memory to be able to cope with the aural tests. I know I can't sing but I can't even hold a tune in my head long enough to attempt to sing it back or clap it. Help!

The other problemI have at the mo is that I can transpose by sight to cocert pitch which is all very well if you are not playing music for a clarinet or Bb instrumant but when it is and I have to read it up an octave I also seen to transpose it at the same time which isn't good.

I know the feeling. What grade are you doing? In grade 7 you have to sing back the lower part of a tune the examiner gives you...i really suck at aural...I failed it in my grade 7.

Who cares! Don't do aural!

Why not take this as an opportunity to sell your tonic doo-da book? I'm sure she'd find it very helpful!

Oooh no! I cannot do that! My tonic doo-da book is very precious to myself and Helen!!

How does the scale go again? Doo, da... What comes next?

doo, da, di, dum, - repeat and fade

Does that mean scales now only have four notes? I think you're onto something here!

Well it is all very complicated you see. All is revealed at our summer schools- we like to keep things a little reserved until then!

Be sure- our Summer Schools are a ball!

When's the next one happening?

Next summer!!!

Long wait! I'll be fluent in solfa by then! Although of course I could always come along anyway to brush up on my advanced doo-da skills...

Well after our SS you will be totally fluent in tonic doo da!

In a week? Wow, well I'll be bilingual then. Fluent in solfa AND doo-da! Or do you think solfa knowledge interferes with doo-da knowledge?

I do! Tonic doo-da is the new way forward- much better and more updated thann solfa!

You should write to the Kodaly Institute in Hungary and enlighten them as to your revolutionary new approach to musical education!

That is something I will be doing when I have more time on my hands

To answer the original question it really is just practise. Listen to as much music as possible and sing back a few bars. Try CDs of piano pieces or string quartets (ie, not full orchestra things). If you can get Mozart or Haydn string quartets and the like that is really good. I used those for practising. Beethoven is good too. I think the tests in the exam are usually of that nature anyway.

Short term memory is hard, but you can work on it with sustained practise over a period of time. It doesn't just happen. Good luck.

Good plan.

[quote=clari kath,Aug 21 2005, 04:02 PM]
Can anyone give me any brill ideas on how I can train my memory to be able to cope with the aural tests. I know I can't sing but I can't even hold a tune in my head long enough to attempt to sing it back or clap it. Help!

Buy some CDs and practise. Look at the aural book and see how the tonal ladder goes up and down a semitone here and there. Just keep practising patiently. Having said that, I can tell you for consolation and not for boasting, that my daughter had tonsils on the day of her exam and could not sing but this did not prevent her from getting a good distinction. The aural marks aren't that big a deal you know as long as you work hard on your pieces such that they are very well played and practise your scales till they become perfect and do remember to work on your sight-reading, too. No one can be good in all categories short of prodigy!

Good luck! You will do fine.

Hmm. I have asked you before what you mean by your Tonic doo-da method. You did not reply.

Does this mean that attending the SS is the only way to find out?

Steve

Afraid so!

The thread called FL- Bach sonata in Viva Woodwind might give people a better insight into the orgins

Yes, I see. Right.

I can conduct through my legs whilst skipping on a rope whilst improvising baroque two-part counterpoint on my Mongolian Nose Harp.

Does that qualify me for entry to the Tonic-doo-da course?

Have you passed it with a grade 8 distinction?!

No, but I could bring along hedgehog and spider.

Careful, the spider might get over-excited getting to see Nat in real life

By then, I will have taught it to have a balanced outlook on life and that disappointments are inevitable, that the real-life Nat just conceivably might not have 8 legs and a predisposition for eating flies.

With therapy, it should cope.

Why on earth would anyone need therapy to cope with me?!

Come on girl. Get a grip. We are talking about a Nat-addicted baby spider here.

this all just gets weirder by the hour...

Hmm. What is wierd about discussing a Tonic-dooda method, with summer schools attended by conducting-through-legs_whilst-skipping-on-a-rope-whilst- improvising-baroque-two-part-counterpoint-on-my-Mongolian-Nose-Harp potential students with Nat addicted baby spiders and coughing hedgehog friends in tow?

um...

uh...

ok...

You know, I used to think that Steve was the really serious one among us all.......now I'm not so sure............ (But I've always felt you have to be mad to be a teacher!!!!! )

hehe that's cute!

Yes, I think Steve has blown any of the "serious" cover he hadn't already damaged

Steve? Serious?! NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I see loads of advice that sounds as though there are others out their like me. To be honest though I hadn't tried using my spider to help with the Aural tests though now I think of it haven't really let the Kangaroo have a go either.

So......................the answer is go for it and let the spider and kangaroo do the bits I can't manage and keep working at the top F leaps in my pieces until they are perfect. I'm not fussy a pass will do but a merit would be something I have never achieved only when I did a bit of teaching and te child I entered for Grade 2 passed with merit Was I fed up or what!