#AURAL SKILLS EAR TRAINING SERIES#

But others are more difficult, and it is these more complex intervals and patterns that we need to work on, not initially at the cello but rather just with our inner ear: singing aloud, or singing silently in our imagination.

#AURAL SKILLS EAR TRAINING SERIES#

GETTING FAMILIAR WITH MELODIC (LINEAR, HORIZONTAL) INTERVALSĬertain intervals and series of intervals are easy to imagine with our inner ear: octaves and simple scales for example. Therefore we will start our discussion with the “melodic” ear before progressing to the “harmonic” ear. Only when we play doublestops or chords do we actually need to imagine intervals “vertically”, hearing them simultaneously with our inner ear rather than sequentially. Unlike keyboard instruments, most of our time at the cello is spent playing “melodically” (or “horizontally”) in the sense that we are usually playing only one note at a time. We can imagine these intervals both vertically (harmonically, one note on top of the other at the same time) or horizontally (one note after the other). Therefore the basic element of all ear training with regard to pitch is the musical interval: semitones, tones, thirds, fourths etc. Our hand can find notes in relation to physical, muscular (kinesthetic) and visual reference points but, unless we have perfect pitch, our inner ear will always find a note in relation to another previously-sounded note. For most shifts in (and into) Thumbposition we must find the notes almost exactly like a singer: “by ear” (with no concrete physical external reference points to help us). This requires good aural skills (ear training). In other words, we need to be able to “hear” (imagine) the arrival note (or the “Intermediate Note” in the case of Assisted Shifts) with our inner ear before we start the shift. Therefore, it is especially for shifting in the Thumb Region – and most especially for larger shifts up into this region – that we usually need to have a very clear idea of the pitch of our target note, before the shift, in order to be able to do the shift with security.

This means that in the lower regions, we often “know” where the notes are on the fingerboard without actually needing to imagine their pitch with our “inner ear” previously, whereas in the stratosphere, if we can’t imagine the pitch of the note before we play it then we will be literally “lost in space”. This skill is especially necessary in the higher fingerboard region because up there in the stratosphere, unlike in the lower ( Neck and Intermediate) regions, we have no visual or mechanical references to help us to know where each note is on the fingerboard (see Positional Sense). With no frets, keys or valves to help us to know where we are on the fingerboard, we are often almost as dependent on our aural skills as singers are.īeing able to sing our cello parts is a very useful fundamental musical skill as well as a help to both our cello-playing and our music-reading. This “ear training is a huge part of the intellectual skills that are necessary to become a competent musician, and this is especially so for string players. All musicians require a highly developed “inner ear”, capable of imagining different pitches and different intervals. Normally (but not always – see Music Reading Problems), music starts in our imagination – in our inner ear – and only then is transferred onto an instrument, voice or paper. Specific pitch-reading problems related to its notation are dealt with on the following dedicated page: For a discussion of the rhythmic aspects of aural training click on the highlighted link. On this page we will look uniquely at the pitch aspect of ear training. This article about “pitch” could also be called “ear training” or “aural training”.

Aural skills ear training