RCM 10 Ear Test Help

[animestan]

    Hi, I'm taking my RCM Gr. 10 exam later on this year and I've been working on my ear tests. I'm having extreme trouble with the part where you need to tell if its major, major 1st, major second, dominant, diminished, etc...
Another part I'm having trouble with is the playback melody, where in Gr. 10, you need to play the left hand, and I can barely tell it from the right hand since they are both played to the right of middle C.

Any resources and advice that can help me?
Thanks

[quantum]

Here are some resources.  

The new Four star editions are colour coded the same as the RCM books.  
Boris Berlin and Andrew Markov. Four Star: Sight Reading and Ear Tests

I also like to supplement with the following:
Elsie Bennett and Hilda Capp.  Complete Series of Sight Reading and Ear Tests

Another part I'm having trouble with is the playback melody, where in Gr. 10, you need to play the left hand, and I can barely tell it from the right hand since they are both played to the right of middle C.

It is better to think of them as two voiced textures than RH, LH.  There is a top voice and there is a bottom voice.  RH and LH is something specific to keyboard players, you should be able to do this exercise with any instrumentation.  

You might want to try this:  Get a score and recording of the Bach 2 part inventions.  See if you can follow the bottom voice in the score with the recording.  

I'm having extreme trouble with the part where you need to tell if its major, major 1st, major second, dominant, diminished, etc...

There are several elements to this question.  First is the quality of the chord: major, minor, 7th, or diminished.  Do you have difficulty with this?

Then there is the second part of the question dealing with the root/inversion of the chord.  

I suggest tackling these problems separately.  First practice recognizing the quality of the chord, you may wish to start with only root position to lessen the confusion.  

In a separate exercise, take one particular chord and recognize the sound of its inversions.  After you can do this with one chord, move on to the next.  


Another exercise that may help you is to examine the Bach Chorales.  Play through them and also try labeling them with both functional chord symbols and root/quality chord symbols.  You need to be able to do this anyways with your harmony exams.  The Chorales use many of the chords required for the ear tests in musical context.  It will help you hear them.