Note on aural..!

[littl3sh33p]

I'm taking my grade 8 exam soon. And there's this horrible horrible aural which i do really badly. Any tips, webpages or listening devices for downloads which you can recommend?
I m not good at listening to chords and identifying them, singing bass melody and sight singing.

pls give me some  advices . thanksies!

[nia_kurniati]

I'm taking my grade 8 exam soon. And there's this horrible horrible aural which i do really badly. Any tips, webpages or listening devices for downloads which you can recommend?
I m not good at listening to chords and identifying them, singing bass melody and sight singing.

pls give me some  advices . thanksies!

I really want to hear about this too 

By the way some says if we took our music lesson before 4 years old it really makes our hearing good.

[Bob]

I never did anything like that, but in classes when the going got tough... If you know what topic they cover, you can creat a chord progression that makes sense and get some credit. 

I don't know how those tests work though.  I never took them.  Just college stuff.

But if you make anything written out logical, they may take that into account.  If the area of focus is Neopolitans, you write out a progression with an N6.

If that helps any. 

I wouldn't get too bogged down in master each detail on progressions.  You need to cover all the territory too and you can always go back.  Neopolitans are supposed to be more difficult, but to me they really stood out, ie were easy.  But those are usually in the advanced section and you're supposed to know everything else before that.  I don't but that.

Chord progressions will also follow a pattern.  Start - anything -- predominant -- dominant -- tonic/deceptive cadence.  I just made a thread in the music theory board about common chord progressions and found two sites with that ladder idea.  That might help if you don't already know it.

[littl3sh33p]

Bob,
Thanks for your advice!
Do you have any idea on how to listen and differentiate clearly for chords V-I, IV-I, 2nd inversions-I, 1st inversion-I...Stuff like that?

Nia,
4 years old? SIGH! Some of us ain't that lucky. But i hope it isn't too late.

[Bob]

By feel?  A V will be itching to move.  V to I will leave the I sounding final.

IV I is the church cadence.  If that helps.  It's not as strong as V I. 


First inversions don't sound as grounded (because they're not).  They remind me of Phillips Glass a lot.

Second inversions, 6/4's, remind me of I6/4's.  If I hear that alone, it sounds like it's a I6/4 that should go to V and then I.


And practice.  Find someone to practice with.  Or you can make recordings and use those.  Tapes work.  If you have a personal recorder sometimes you can set them on shuffle and they randomly pick tracks for you that way.  Like using notecards. 

You can practice listening up and down through the tones of the chords.

Singing helps.  Working from the other side of things.  Sing up and down the chords.