- Hi, I frequently have people ring me up,
possibly a few weeks before an exam
to say "Oh, I've got to do these dreaded aural tests
"and I don't really understand what I have to do
"and I don't really like singing
"and doing all these kind of things anyway.
"Can you just run through some aural tests with me
"so I can have a go at it in the exam?"
Well, that's fine and one is always happy to help
when one can but really for a musician
aural skills are absolutely fundamental to what we're about.
The ability to hear what we're doing is essential.
Now you might think, well, how could we not hear
what we're doing?
Well, when we're playing or when we're singing,
it's perfectly possible to hear the sound,
but are we really listening?
And sometimes it's interesting in our playing
that when we really start listening,
and when we maybe start to record ourselves performing
and then we listen in a sort of positively critical way
how we can discover all sorts of things.
And we suddenly think, actually I'm not sure that rhythm
is right or maybe I'm slightly rushing there
or getting behind time there
or maybe those notes are not quite in tune
or maybe I'm making an okay sound on my instrument
but actually it could be better, it could be clearer,
it could more varied, more colourful.
Maybe that I'm kind of hearing a little bit of contrast
but I'm not really getting a very good range of dynamics.
So, when you think about it, we're reading music
or we're playing by ear, that's good for aural skills
isn't it at one level, but are we really listening
to what's going on?
So, aural is not really about aural tests,
though you may well meet aural tests
if you're taking a music exam
but it's about ongoing aural training.
What can we hear, can we develop memory skills?
That's very useful for a musician to be able to do
and it also helps us to learn music.
So, doing some practise in repeating rhythms
or singing back a melody.
And even if you don't like singing that doesn't matter
but being able to vocalise music
is a very, very helpful thing.
It doesn't matter about the quality of your voice
but just being able to think music through the voice,
such a helpful thing to be able to do.
Are we able to listen to pieces of music
and really evaluate what's going on?
Are we able to hear things that have changed in the music?
And actually sometimes when we're learning a piece of music,
we need to rely on our aural skills
to know whether we're actually playing the right notes.
Sometimes you can be looking at a note in the music
and thinking well, I know that note's A
but in fact you might be playing G by mistake.
Well, do you know that you've done that
or can you hear that there's something wrong?
If you can hear that there's something wrong,
can you hear what's wrong because all of this
is going to help empower us as musicians.
And sometimes even though I'm a great advocate
of being able to read music well,
sometimes when we're looking at things,
we don't listen quite as intently as we might.
So, when you can memorise a piece and shut the book,
maybe sometimes you're in a better position
to be able to really connect with what you're listening to.
But the development of aural skills
is terribly important on this journey.
And this is one reason why at Music Matters,
we've made a whole series of films
on aural training from the very earliest steps
through to some quite advanced work.
We've also got a pretty big package
for those who are further on the journey
which is called aural dictation
which is learning how to write down melodies,
how to write down rhythms,
how to be able to combine the two,
how to work in two parts, three parts and four parts
because when we can hear something
and write it down, then we're really developing the skill
to do it the other way around.
So we can look at something and we can hear it
even before we've played it
so therefore we're going to be really good
on the sight reading, and we're going to be really good
at spotting mistakes in our own playing
or possibly if you're a director conducting a band
or an orchestra or a choir,
being able to look at a score and immediately hear
what all the players or the singers are doing
and know whether it's right or it's wrong.
But of course, it's not just about note accuracy
and rhythmic accuracy,
it's about all of those expressive things as well.
Can we hear that this part wants to be a bit louder
than that part?
Why is that the case?
So, an awful lot of angles go with aural training.
So, well worth doing because anybody
who wants to be a musician
will be really wanting to develop their aural ability.
And if the films at Music Matters help,
have a look at what's on offer
and see what might be useful to you.
But good luck with this very essential part
of musical development.