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Aural Skills Detail

  • 3 class levels: Aural Skills I, Aural Skills II, Aural Skills III

  • Student level determined by the teacher, or a brief assessment test

  • Led by Angelika Machnik-Jones

  • Classes meet once weekly for 45 minutes

  • Fee = $125 per semester

Aural Skills I and II: Mondays at 5pm (Aural Skills I) and 6:45 (Aural Skills II)

September 16, 23, 30
October 7, 14, 21, 28
November 4, 11, 18
December 2, 9

Aural Skills III: Saturdays at 12pm

September 14, 21, 28
October 5, 12, 19, 26
November 2, 9, 16
December 7, 14

Aural Skills I

            Theoretical knowledge:

o   Staff: lines, spaces, added upper and lower lines

o   Treble clef: learning notes in treble clef with letter names and solmization

o   Bass clef: learning notes in bass clef with letter names and solmization

o   Chromatic signs: sharp, flat, natural

o   Note values: whole note, half note, dotted half note, quarter note, eighth note, sixteenth note, rests

o   Time signatures: 2/4, ¾, 4/4

o   Legato, staccato

o   Forte, piano

o   Fermata, repetition, da capo al fine

o Pitch, rhythm, memory:

o   Recognizing whether notes are lower, higher or the same in relation to one another

o   Repeating pitches through singing

o   Singing a C major scale with letter names and solfege

o   Playing C major scale on piano

o   Singing a song with good pitch and rhythm

o   Singing and writing down very short and simple melodies

o   Clapping rhythms, conducting, playing percussion instruments

o   Composing simple melodies and rhythms

o   Memorizing short and simple melodies and rhythms

Aural Skills II

            Theoretical knowledge:

o   Intervals: U, m2, M2, m3, M3, P4, P5, P8. Recognizing, singing, building these intervals in C major G major, F major, a minor

o   Scales: C major, G major, F major, a minor

o   Triads: major, minor. Recognizing, singing, building.

o   Tonic Subdominant Dominant progressions on C major, G major, F major, a minor

o   Tetrachord

o   Leading tone

o   Minor scales: natural, harmonic, melodic

o   Augmented second

o   Rhythms: dotted half note, dotted quarter note, dotted eighth note, triplet, one eighth note two sixteenths, two sixteenths one eighth note

o   Dynamics, tempo markings, accelerando, ritardando, ostinato

o Melody, harmony, tonality, rhythm, memory, imagination:

o   Singing intervals and triads in major and minor scales

o   Repeating melodies on different instruments

o   Singing harmonies in groups

o   Singing scales in canon

o   Recognizing the Tonic in a melodic fragment

o   Clapping one part rhythms and two part rhythms in groups

o   Recognizing strong and weak beats

o   Recognizing the meter in melodic fragments

o   Memorizing melodic fragments, writing them down from memory

o   Singing every second note of a scale or triad progression

o   Singing songs from memory, while omitting every second word

o   Melodic and rhythmic dictations

Aural Skills III

            Theoretical knowledge:

o   All simple and compound intervals: recognizing, singing, building in all keys

o   Tritone and its resolution

o   Triads in root position: major, minor, diminished, augmented.

o   Major and minor triads in first and second inversion

o   Dominant seventh in root position and all inversions

o   Building, recognizing, singing all major and minor scales

o   Consonance, dissonance, progression, transposition, homophony, polyphony

o   All simple and compound meters

o   Chromatic scales: building, recognizing, singing.

o Melody, harmony, tonality, memory, rhythm, imagination, composition:

o   Singing all possible intervals, three note chords, four note chords melodically and harmonically in groups

o   Creating simple homophonic and polyphonic compositions

o   Melodic, harmonic, memory dictations

o   Sight-singing in all keys

o   Memorizing written out melodies, playing them on given instruments.