Aural Skills Enhancement Through Web-Based Technology

Marva Duerksen

Department of Music

Willamette University

mduerkse@willamette.edu

My presentation here at TDML includes: first, an overview; second, selected items from my Blackboard website, with commentary on how these excerpts fit within the larger goals of the curriculum; student feedback; and my own assessment of the merits of the web-based aural skills component.[1]

I. Overview

Aural skills development constitutes a central component of any undergraduate music curriculum. At present, students in the music department at Willamette University have limited resources available to them to review, reinforce, and develop their aural skills. As the difficulty of the material increases, so does their frustration with the lack of materials available to consolidate their skills. To begin to remedy the situation, I have introduced web-based technology to supplement existing technological support.

At Willamette University the theory and aural skills curriculum, in combination with the university’s music technology lab, is well positioned to incorporate web-based supplements. All freshman music majors acquire fluency with a music-writing program in their first semester: Finale. We also introduce students to a fundamentals program that permits them to drill basic materials of music theory: Practica Musica. We thereby establish at the outset the centrality and ready availability of technology-based curricular components. One missing piece of the puzzle has been, in my view, a bank of materials that moves students beyond basic drill exercises to a component that is tailored to the content of individual courses offered in the aural skills sequence, and one that can include feedback from the instructor. This missing piece is what I have begun to supply with a collection of audio materials incorporated into a Blackboard website. I have used multimedia and Blackboard to provide a centralized source of materials for students to review, reinforce, and develop their aural skills. The primary feature of the website is a virtual library of sound files which includes:

(1) materials for practice in melodic and harmonic dictation;

(2) source materials for practice in transcription;

(3) test materials.

I introduced students to Blackboard this fall semester. The students and I have noted many advantages, important among them the accessibility of the materials. As the instructor, I am especially excited about the flexibility of web-based technology to tailor materials to an evolving curriculum. A second advantage is the diversity of materials available to students. When working with a friend or in the classroom, the primary instruments used for practice are piano and/or voice. With the web-based program, students hear recorded music with diverse instrumentation: orchestra, selected solo instruments, choirs, and synthesized sounds. This greatly increases the scope of their listening. Closely related to this diversity of sound is the valuable opportunity to introduce students to musical repertory. This serves a double purpose. First, through repeated listenings students become familiar with core items from the standard repertory. Second, having the target materials presented in the context of real music counteracts the tendency toward abstraction prevalent in a program such as Practica Musica or MacGamut.

Such exposure reinforces an important message I present in both the theory and aural skills classrooms: the essential thrust of all music theory and aural skills instruction is to increase and enhance musical comprehension and understanding. These materials thus encourage students to apply their aural skills to real musical contexts. Finally, the Blackboard program, like other Web-based pedagogical platforms, permits low-stakes testing and accommodates instructor feedback.

II. Blackboard Excerpts

I’ll proceed now to selected sound files from the website. As I do this, I’ll give you some sense of how I have put these to use in the context of the theory and aural skills sequence at Willamette University. You can access selected materials from the Blackboard Website as a guest at http://blackboard.willamette.edu by using the “Preview” option.

Excerpts #1 & 2: From a chapter dealing with common Italian tempo

indications and metronome markings.

Level: 1^st semester of aural skills.

Before directing students to web-based materials, I provide them with printed materials that outline the basic concepts for that topic. In this case, the printed materials provide a review of terminology with which many of them already have considerable experience: Italian tempo indications. The course material assumes this passive familiarity, but pushes students toward greater precision in their understanding of these terms and an ability to ascertain the musical meaning of them not simply from reading at the top of the score, but from their experience of excerpts which exemplify them.

Excerpt #1. Chapter 15, 1(A) Beethoven, Op. 109, 2^nd movement

Tempo indications for all three movements:

1^st Movement (Vivace, ma non troppo)

2^nd Movement (Prestissimo)

3^rd Movement (Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung/ Andante molto cantabile ed espressivo)

I assign a number of excerpts for students to listen to between classes. I ask them to jot down not only the tempo indication or metronome marking, but also a few sentences in which they explain their reasons for their choice. When they return to class, we listen to the excerpt again. Then we share impressions, choices, and reasons. In this excerpt, I have found it useful to expand the discussion beyond tempo. I ask students if they recognize the music, or if they have some guess at the composer. This leads nicely into a brief discussion of sonatas, of Beethoven’s late style, and the like. Finally, with this excerpt I have found it instructive to play other movement from the sonata, giving students an opportunity to discuss tempo and expressive indications for music that is new to them, but still related to the prepared work. The option exists, of course, to supply a metronome marking, as a new dimension added in class. This way, the classroom discussion continues beyond the mode of simple right or wrong responses to work prepared outside the classroom.

Excerpt #2. Chapter 15: 2(D) Scott Joplin, “Elite Syncopations”

Metronome Marking: c. 120

The instructions for this excerpt ask the students to supply a metronome marking. Depending on how much experience they have with judging tempos in this absolute way, they may or may not need to use their metronomes. In class, I ask them how they arrived at the marking. In this way we can begin to gauge their proficiency with this kind of exercise. Students who have had some conducting experience may very well have a higher level of proficiency in this area. The discussion can then proceed to tempo markings (Italian style), larger issues of style (ragtime), and other features of the music: “stock” figures of ragtime (left-hand accompaniment, right-hand octaves), rhythmic syncopation, and ragtime as a “precursor” to jazz.

Excerpts #3 & 4: From a chapter on Phrasing and Cadences

Level: 1^st or 2^nd semester of aural skills.

At Willamette University I have the good fortune to teach both theory and aural skills to the same class. This gives me frequent opportunities to move back-and-forth between concepts explored in the two areas. Central topics I explore in both courses are phrasing and cadences. In keeping with this, I spend a good deal of time teaching students to focus their listening on harmonic rhythm, and the organization of that rhythm within the context of the phrase. This is especially important in Classical-era music, where fast-moving surface rhythmic activity frequently distracts from the more slowly paced changes of the harmony.

In both theory and aural skills, students learn early on about periodic construction: antecedent and consequent. In this context, I emphasize to them the kinds of things they can expect in tonal music. Phrases typically end on tonic or dominant. If the first phrase ends on the dominant, the second may or may not return to the tonic. In Classical repertory, returning to the tonic is one of the most likely scenarios. In a Bach chorale, the possibilities are much more open-ended as modulations occur on a much smaller time-scale than in Classical-ear music, and harmonic rhythm is much quicker.

Excerpt 3. Chapter 34, 1(3) Mozart, Symphony in Eb,

No. 39, K. 543

The instructions for the exercises in this chapter ask that students prepare a pulse graph for the excerpt. For some of the exercises they are also instructed to supply a Roman numeral and figured bass analysis. To prepare the pulse graph, students must do the following: indicate the meter; count the total number of measures; indicate where phrases begin and end; and make some decisions about harmonic organization. When students come to class, they compare pulse graphs. Additionally, as I play the excerpt in class we conduct and sing the bass line. Following up from earlier discussions, we can guess who the composer is, why we think so, what the tempo indication is, what precise metronome marking may appear, and so forth.

Excerpt 4. Chapter 34, B(8) Beethoven,

Symphony No. 8, Op. 93

Similar activities are appropriate for this exercise. Instead of just comparing pulse graphs, one student puts up their pulse graph on the board. In addition, I bring the recording to class and we listen farther along in the piece. Before we listen, we can speculate what might happen next. Then, we listen. Does the harmonic rhythm change? Does the phrase structure continue in the same manner, or does it change? Does the music stay in the same key, or does it modulate?

In both of these examples, and in our regular dictation exercises, I emphasize to students the typical direction of tonal phrases, the anchor points of tonic and dominant harmony, and the kinds of motions that they can expect to find. In this way I hope to impress upon them the importance of cognition in their listening, and the centrality of recurring tonal routines.

Excerpts #5 and 6 From chapters dealing with chromatic passing tones in

melodies, and with the Neapolitan chord.

Technique: separating melodic and harmonic elements.

Level: sophomore.

Excerpt #5. Chapter 52—7 (A, B)

Brahms, Double Concerto for Violin and Cello in A minor,

Op. 102, 3^rd movement.

This excerpt is from a chapter which introduces chromatic passing tones in melodies. The exercise asks the students to notate the melody. The paired example presents the melody in context so that students can hear the harmonic underpinning of that melody. This use of the Blackboard program encourages students to hear the separate components of the excerpts, and then to reconnect them. In addition, it exposes students to sounds and repertoires other than piano.

Excerpt #6. Chapter 59—6 (A, B)

Schubert, “Der Müller und der Bach,” from Die Schöne Müllerin

This excerpt provides a wonderful example of a Neapolitan chord. In addition, it carries forward skills and repertoire that students have encountered previously in both theory and aural skills classes. Throughout my sophomore theory class I introduce students to selected songs from Schubert’s song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin. This excerpt provides another opportunity to revisit the cycle.

How do I use this excerpt? First, I coordinate this with discussion of the Neapolitan chord in theory class. Then, I assign the chord progression as a dictation exercise. I include on the Blackboard web site a mate for the first example: the excerpt with voice and accompaniment. Finally, the students are assigned the melody for preparation as a melodic exercise. We discuss the song in theory class also. As in the previous Brahms example, I emphasize the harmonic grounding of tonal melodies.

Quizzes

A significant advantage of the Blackboard program is its prefabricated quizzes. This permits feedback from the instructor, and allows students to grade themselves. I am just beginning to use this component of Blackboard. I have brought along to the conference several short quizzes to demonstrate some ways in which they might be used within the context I have already established.

Quiz #1. Basic harmonic progressions

In this quiz, I have chosen a fill-in-the-blank format. Students listen to a basic progression: I-IV-V-I. After identifying the progression with Roman numerals and figured bass, they listen to two more progressions, each of which contains a single alteration from the first progression. Their task is to identify the change that has occurred. The first change involves a substitution of ii6 for IV. The second change adds a cadential 6/4 before the dominant.

Quiz #2. Harmonic sequences

In our theory sequence we emphasize the most commonly encountered sequences. The quiz I have prepared for this unit focuses on three sequences: descending fifths, ascending fifths, and descending thirds. I have chosen a multiple-choice format, where the fourth choice is “none of the above.” Examples include plain chord progressions, as well as examples from the repertoire.

III. Student Feedback

I asked students to comment on their experience with Blackboard after one semester. These were some of the positive comments submitted:

-a good resource;

-“a tool that we could utilize in order to get more practice with dictation”;

-“provides dictation practice outside of class”;

-good to hear chords as part of a progression;

-orchestral excerpts: challenging, “but we need to get used to listening to it;”

-students enjoyed being able to come to class and discuss work already prepared.

-access to real music from which to study;

-excerpts divided by section, so students can quickly click on a chapter which contains examples of the skill or chord type they want to practice;

Some of the negative comments submitted included:

-difficulties hearing the bass line on the computer sound system. Shanan Duffus and I experimenting with the sound to get more bass in the MP3 file that goes with each excerpt. We lack the strong overtones of acoustical pianos!

-no immediate feedback unless it was a test. This is both positive and negative. In some circumstances I believe that students do gain from not having immediate feedback. The excerpt then becomes a topic for class discussion as students arrive with questions in hand. The Blackboard resource thus serves as the starting point for a discussion, rather than a closed circuit. On the other hand, students do want to know how they are doing as they proceed. So, I plan to implement some exercises with feedback, or include more quizzes.

-students wanted more practice with individual chords. This is a place where programs such as Practica Musica and MacGamut shine. Students can hear many examples, and get rapid feedback on the sounds of individual chords. What I have tried to emphasize with them is the context of the chords. Clearly, they need the opportunity to practice both.

-“It was too easy to listen to pieces over and over.” One way to deal with this is to emphasize the difference between transcription and dictation. Blackboard proves an excellent resource for transcription—a valuable tool, especially for jazz players. Furthermore, in the case of dictation, students must learn to regulate their own learning processes.

IV. My Own Assessment

My own experience shows Blackboard to be a fine beginning technological tool, and a valuable piece of a larger puzzle which is theory and ear training. Given the nascent state of my own technological interests and skills, Blackboard’s preestablished framework has made my introduction of technology into the classroom relatively smooth and unencumbered. Furthermore, given the resources already present at Willamette—a well-equipped computer lab and a resident technology expert, with much university support for technological innovation—Blackboard fits well with that larger agenda. Of the technology tools available to students, Blackboard’s most conspicuous advantage is the potential to tailor pedagogical materials to individual course demands. Such a set-up permits me, the instructor, to move beyond the abstraction of musical materials—scales, intervals, chords, and progressions—to the world of real music in which we hope to spend more of our time.

Like the students, I noticed the unevenness in sound quality. The students and I also learned that Netscape would not play or even recognize the sound files. We all switched to Internet Explorer. Some students even found it necessary to download files in order to play the excerpts. Finally, I noted some student resistance to technology.

In sum, I believe that Blackboard has served me well in my efforts to inculcate my students with particular messages, among these: dictation is a means to an end. In the case of harmonic dictation, my goal is to have them hear the harmonic underpinning of a passage—a central guide in the performance and comprehension of tonal music. I also hope to teach them to hear important details of the music with limited hearings. In the case of transcription, they have the opportunity to get to know a particular excerpt in enough detail to reproduce selected salient features. I have used Blackboard to expose students to repertoire; to provide continuity not only between aural skills classes, but also between theory and aural skills; and I hope to have opened up to my students a larger musical dialogue, of which aural skills is just one component.

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[1] At the outset, I wish to thank my former colleague from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Gary Karpinski, whose years of thinking about aural skills training and whose copious materials have supplied me with a more-than-adequate foundation for my own thinking about this topic. His forthcoming aural skills textbook, to be published by W.W. Norton & Co., has served as the basis for this project. I wish also to thank Shanan Duffus, a graduating senior in the Music Department at Willamette University, without whose technological support this project would not have been possible.