“The unsatisfactory performance of nine-tenths of the young players we hear – pupils of careful and painstaking teachers, who wonder why they do not do better – is due to the lack of ear-training.” (page 308, 31st edition)
(If you own a copy of Mrs. Curwen’s Teacher’s Guide, flip to the back of the book. You’ll find an appendix dedicated to ear training. It’s very, very helpful.)
What is ear-training?
“Ear-training is ‘teaching the pupil to listen for something, for something definite, something to be recognized when heard and named when recognized.” (page 342, 31st edition.)
What are examples of things to be recognized?
- The notes of the tonic chord.
- The number of pulses in a measure.
- The distinctive rhythm of a dance.
- The recurrence of the subject in a fugue.
- The style that indicates the historical period of a composition.
Ear-training involves listening with an expectation and a purpose.
Why add ear-training to piano lessons?
“It is true that it is possible to play the piano with the sense of time alone, but it will not be intelligent musical playing. An untrained ear cannot appreciate and imitate degrees of light and shade, delicacies of phrasing, emotional rise and fall.”
“The unsatisfactory performance of nine-tenths of the young players we hear – pupils of careful and painstaking teachers, who wonder why they do not do better – is due to the lack of ear-training.” (page 308, 31st edition)
And, this I understand first hand when I go to a concert prepared. I think this is so true.
“This is the difference between the mere sensuous enjoyment of the concert-goer who knows nothing about the art of music-making or its history (though his enjoyment may be very keen and very real), and the appreciative enjoyment of the one who has some knowledge of both. The concert-goer’s power of appreciation depends on the amount of his knowledge; but the usefulness of his knowledge depends on the alertness of his ear, not only in recognition of the familiar and expected, but in cognition of the new and unexpected. Therefore the appreciation of music heard depends in the long run on ear-training.” (page 342, 31st edition)
“The musical feeling which we miss is often latent and might be developed; but we cannot develop it if the ear is dull, for the power of criticism is lacking.” (page 308, 31st edition)
Is ear-training dependent upon the piano teacher?
“There is an analogy here with the sister art. The amateur sketcher, whose productions are what he himself calls ‘mere daubs,’ will have more real appreciation of a fine picture than the person whose knowledge of art comes only through listening to lectures about it; always provided that his own efforts – so far as they have carried him – have been guided by principles and inspired by an ideal. But it does not follow that the art lectures are not helpful to his wider culture – necessary to it it may be. On the contrary, the boy or girl who has come into personal contact with art itself – with music itself – through his own efforts at achievement, is the person who has most appetite for the art-lecture or the appreciation class. And it is he who will gain most from it; for knowledge which is not linked on to ideas already in the mind has a way of slipping out of it again. Now, for the number and strength of his apperceptive (and appreciative) ideas the picture-lover and the concert-goer are greatly dependent on the teaching given them by their school drawing-master or pianoforte teacher.”
Did you see that last line? I have such a responsibility to uphold every precious half hour that I have with my students!
What is the best ear training for the little child?
Singing. ‘The child who sings must have listened.’ The listening and imitating required to sing begins the development of aural culture in a child. This prepares the child well for systematic ear-training later in life.
What are three classes of musicality in children?
(in the opinion of Mrs. Curwen)
- Children who have been surrounded by music from babyhood. The sense of tune and time are usually equally developed in these children.
- Children who can sing a bit, but they don’t have much control over their voice. Matching pitch may be difficult for them, but you know it’s possible for them to do it. The sense of rhythm is generally stronger than the sense of pitch in these children.
- Children who can’t seem to match pitch much at all. These are usually children of unmusical parents. Often we’ll find the sense of rhythm exists, but we must patiently use every device to awaken the sense of pitch to these children.
How do you determine the aural skills of a student?
Mrs. Curwen suggests the teachers to make an examination of the student’s musical condition in the presence of the parent.
Why?
- If the teacher does her part to understand the skill of the child, now she must carry through to improve that condition.
- This allows the parent to understand why and where the child begins with their ear training. It gives the parent the opportunity to understand why the child may not start from the same point as another child their age.
- Determining a starting point gives the student the opportunity to look back and see his improvement. “Trying to improve his own records – comparing himself with himself – is more profitable to a pupil, intellectually and morally, than competition with his fellows.” (page 309, 31st edition)
“It is true that it is possible to play the piano with the sense of time alone, but it will not be intelligent musical playing. An untrained ear cannot appreciate and imitate degrees of light and shade, delicacies of phrasing, emotional rise and fall.”
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