Aural Training for Electroacoustics at Concordia University

Week

Subject

Aural training I

Aural training II

• a1) “What do you hear?”
• a2) Sight sing a melody, a rhythmic sequence, and a Bach chorale (routinely at the beginning of every class)
• a3) Identification of recurring individual notes in a sequence
• a4) Introduction to the Concordia Dictation Series II: guidelines, approaches, and techniques

• b1) “What do you hear?”
• b2) Sight sing a melody, a rhythmic sequence, a Bach chorale (routinely at the beginning of every class)
• b3) Identification of recurring intervals in a sequence
• b4) Introduction to the Concordia Dictation Series III: guidelines, approaches, and techniques

• Routine (a2 + any previous exercise)
• a5) Exercises from Schafer's “Ear Cleaning” method (noise, silence, tone)
• a6) Using metric and psychometric terminology to describe sound
• a7) Lecture about the ear, hearing loss and ear protection

• Routine (b2+any previous exercise)
• b5) exercises from Schafer's “Ear Cleaning” method (“find an interesting sound,” “find a contrasting sound")
• b6) Sound collage / Klangfarbenmelodie
• b7) The ear, hearing, and ear protection - refreshment

• Routine
• a8) Instrument recognition
• a9) Identification of spectral bands (beginner)

• Routine
• b8) Identification of instrumental special effects
• b9) Identification of spectral bands (advanced)

• Routine
• a10) Sound typification
• a11) Harmonicity-inharmonicity exercise (beginner)

• Routine
• b10) Sound typification
• b11) Harmonicity-inharmonicity exercise (advanced)

• Routine
• a12) A sound's dynamic-level ordering and recognition of same levels
• a13) Dynamic contour dictation

• Routine
• b12) A sound's dynamic-level ordering and recognition of same levels
• b13) Dynamic contour dictation

• Routine
• a14) Melodic contour dictation
• a15) Envelope dictation
• a16) Articulation exercise

• Routine
• b14) Melodic contour dictation (advanced)
• b15) Envelope dictation (advanced)
• b16) Articulation, ornamentation, and special instrumental effects

• Routine
• a17) Rhythm training (metric and non metric)

• Routine
• b17) Rhythm training (metric and non metric)

• Routine
• a18) Melodic intervals / triads dictation
• a19) Unmetered melodic dictation

• Routine
• b18) Advanced unmetered melodic dictation
• b19) Advanced metered melodic dictation

• Same
• a20) Metered melodic dictation
• a21) Gestural contour dictation

• Same
• b20) Two instruments / two channel melodic dictation
• b21) Polyphonic Gestural contour dictation

• Routine
• a22) A phonetic dictation (vowels) using IPA
• a23) Language: contour dictation (intonation)

• Routine
• b22) A phonetic dictation (vowels, consonants)
• b23) Language: stress and contour dictation

• Routine
• a24) Harmonic intervals /triads dictation
• a25) Segregation of individual notes in a cluster

• Routine
• b24) Harmonic intervals, triads, tetrachord dictation
• b25) Segregation of individual notes in a cluster

• a26) Segregation of tones from a masking signal
• Recapitulation: exercises selected from the entire semester

• b26) Segregation of note intervals from a masking signal
• Recapitulation: exercises selected from the entire semester

• Routine
• a27) Reverberation time dictation
• a28) Reflection coloration exercise

• Routine
• b27) Reverberation time and density dictation
• b28) Reflection coloration and resonance dictation

• Routine
• a29) Reverb density dictation
• a30) (Point source) spatial melodic dictation

• Routine
• b29) Pre-delay dictation
• b30) (Point source) spatial melodic and interval dictation

• Routine
• a31) Spatial noise band dictation
• a32) Notes in space dictation (memory)

• Routine
• b31) Spatial noise band dictation
• b32) Notes in space dictation (memory)

• Routine
• a33) Onset ordering of arpegiated chords
• a34) Onset ordering of transient sounds
• a35) Tempi dictation

• Routine
• b33) Onset ordering of arpegiated chords
• b34) Onset ordering of transient sounds
• b35) Tempi dictation

• Routine
• a36) Motivic dictation
• a37) Gestural dictation

• Routine
• b36) Motivic dictation
• b37) Gestural dictation

• Routine
• a38) Exploration of different textures (tonal and EA); listening to sound examples and recognizing the texture

• Routine
• b38) Overview of different textures, and textural dictation

• Routine
• a39) Exploraion of form types (tonal and EA)
• a40) Strucutral dictation

• Routine
• b39) Exploraion of form types (tonal and EA)
• b40) Strucutral dictation - structural ambiguity

• Routine
• a41) Spectral dips and bumps
• a42) Spatial coherence
• Final Assignment: Design an aural training exercise to develop a skill of choice

• Routine
• b41) Spectral dips and bumps
• b42) Spatial coherence
• Assignment: Design an aural training exercise to develop a skill of choice

• Routine
• a43) Digital noise floor (aliasing, quantization, resampling, and pyschoacoustic model)

• Routine
• b43) Digital noise floor (aliasing, quantization, resampling, and pyschoacoustic model); productive and reproductive sound quality issues

• Routine
• a44) An overview of tonal registeral designations; a melodic intervalic dictation in 6 octaves (with correct octave designations)
• a45) Frequency ordering of pitched (microtonal) material

• Routine
• b44) An overview of tonal registeral designations; a melodic intervalic dictation in 6 octaves and different instruments (with correct octave designations)
• b45) Frequency ordering of unpithced material