At the end of this long post, I have links to a couple of zip files (free) that contain ear training samples I created and found helpful.
I have been using transcription for years as a training regimen to play by ear. I worked for years on notation, but finally decided ear playing made more sense for someone in their 60's. I'm doing a lot better lately, and hoped to share some ideas here. A few years ago, I posted some ideas on ear training and some of the ear training mp3 samples I was using at the time to r/musictheory. The zip file MrEar.zip and MrEarUserGuide. These helped me to improve quite a bit, and I've gotten to the point where identifying tonic is easy, pitch labeling by scale degree is pretty good, but not fast, and selectively identifying pitches in a texture is much better.
My approach any music now is to 1) listen, 2) find a tonic, 3) do a quick song breakdown (meter, barlines, intro, verse, chorus) 3) identify melody and harmony pitches. Finding melody and harmony (chord roots) seems most effective when worked on together. I identify pitches by hearing the pitches as a scale degree. That works for all pitches (melody, chord roots, other chord tones, whatever). I identify 12 different scale degrees, and either label them as 1 ♭2 2 ♭3 3 4 ♯4 5 ♭6 6 ♭7 7, or using pitch class number 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, t, e. I sing them as do, ra, re, me, mi, fa, fi, so, le, la, te, ti. Once oriented to a tonal center, they are all recognizable.
It was a real epiphany for me when I realized that, although there are many ways that composers may use to assert a tonic, I can always identify tonic by listening, and then picking out scale degrees that I hear. Registering any pitch to a scale degree, nails down tonic. I don't always have to find tonic first. Once I figure out tonic, everything gets easier. So my real insight (for me at least) is that scale degree recognition (SDR) is fundamental to all aspects of tonal music analysis by ear. Melody motifs are stored in our brains by scale degree (three blind mice, 3 2 1, me re do) as are chord progressions (axis, I-V-vi-IV, 1 5 6 4, do so la fa) .
So I started working my way again through the audio examples in Koska-Payne totally by ear, and that process supports my insight that SDR is the fundamental process to connecting theory to aural analysis.
Once I surmised the importance of SDR (to me), I created two new sets of ear training mp3 samples I can listen to on my phone. I think that the time I spend with these when I am away from my instrument is paying off. My aural analytic abilities are continuing to improve.
There are two sets of samples, the simpler set, consists of a tonic cue followed by a single pitch. The idea is to hear scale degree function in that pitch and recognize it by scale degree. The answers are provided in the sample file name, so I can check my answer on my Apple watch while walking the dog. Answers use pc class identification of scale degree (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, t, e).
The harder set is similar, but now, after the tonic cue, 2 pitches are presented, ie, a dyad. Each dyad is presented ascending, descending, and simultaneously. The answers are once again provided in the file name.
Initially, the harder set was too hard for me. But as I improved, due a lot of activities, such as transcribing music and playing by ear, my accuracy has gotten to high 90's. The thing that's interesting, is once I recognize correctly the scale degree's of any dyad (out of 12*11 = 131 possibilities), I find that I am then retaining tonic, even when presented with chromatic pitches that tend to move my tonic.
On the use of dyads in aural skill development, I reference an article written by a prestigious pedagogue in theory and aural skills:
Rogers, Michael. "The Jersild approach: A sightsinging method from Denmark." College Music Symposium. Vol. 36. College Music Society, 1996.
He says:
"I know of no other single set of practice materials for sightsinging that provides such a vigorous, multifaceted, concentrated, and extended workout for hearing melodic function and for acquiring tonal bearings as Jersild's "Diagram of Functional Progressions".
If you analyze the diagram that Rogers is referring to, you will find that it is essentially, a set of dyads, presented in random order in all keys. The dyads in Jersild's example, are a subset of the 131 dyads in my samples. His dyads always have the final pitch landing on one of the three pitches of the tonic triad (major and minor).
Anyway, if you are interested, you can find the single pitch samples here and the dyad samples here. I separate these samples into 12 different playlists for each of the 12 keys. The tonic pitch is also in the filename.
I am curious what anybody thinks of the ideas about SDR above.
Questions or problems with the mp3 files, reply here or send me a message.
Submitted June 04, 2023 at 08:48AM by rmc192975 https://www.reddit.com/r/Learnmusic/comments/140anhx/mp3_files_for_scale_degree_recognition/?utm_source=ifttt