*Gulp* Aural Tests?

[echoyjeff222]

So, my professor this quarter decided to have us start doing aural tests. He put freaking THIRTY different pieces that are all fair game for quizzes. I'm mostly worried about those Haydn variations ... how in the world do I go about memorizing all the details about the piece? I have to give:

- Title of the work

• Movement number

• Composer

• Rough historical period (i.e., baroque, classical, romantic)

It's mostly the title/movement number I'm worried about. Any techniques out there to help?

Here's the entire list:

Thanks

[bencollisonmusic]

Hello,

First off I would identify what composer wrote the piece. You can study this based on what their music sounds like. The next thing is to find out what the meter is of the piece (6/8, 4/4, etc.). If you know if only one piece of that composer has a typical meter, then that would be an easy answer. Now lets say you end up having a handful in 4/4. You would then have to understand the melodic lines and the chord structure. Other then that it's just getting really recognized with each of the pieces.

Hope this helps and your welcome to message me if you have any further questions.

-Benjamin Collison

[echoyjeff222]

Thanks for the suggestions. I can easily identify the composers. I'm just wondering about differentiating all of those Haydn variations.

[j_menz]

Thanks for the suggestions. I can easily identify the composers. I'm just wondering about differentiating all of those Haydn variations.

Have you actually listened to them yet? They're each pretty distinctive.

[echoyjeff222]

Well yeah, but just because they're distinctive doesn't mean I'm going to be able to remember the #1 or #2 and so on, haha. Putting the numbers on the sounds is the hard part.

[j_menz]

I have trouble with this sort of rote stuff, too.  What I'd do is learn their names as separate pieces "First St Anthony" "St Anthony Theme" 'Fourth St Anthony" etc.  Strangely, it works for me, though I rarely bother with it.

[Bob]

Memorize the composer's name and period.  that's easy.  make sure you can spell it correctly.

Listen to the all the way through one.  Make a recording of any themes or anything you notice.  Record a segment, wait a few seconds, then speak the info for that.  Then mix up the audio clips.  It's like aural flashcards.

Look at the form of the pieces.  Allegro, slow mvt, triple time, faster movement?  If it's slow... it's probably a second movement, isn't it?  

Listen for instrumentation.  If the instrument hasn't been invented yet, it's not that composer.  
if it's brass, are the using chromatic notes?
Is there a clarinet?

Texture -- Poly or homophonic?

consonant or dissonant?

Symphony?  Piano concerto?


After a while you'll recognize the style of each composer.  Texture, melodies, chords they use.  Orchestration, instrumentation.



Dang... That jpg... Looks like they gave you an iTunes list.  Kind of crappy info there.  
And extra info... If you don't need to know the performer, just glance at it and don't pay much attention to it.  That performer listing column looks like BS.  Performer listed, then composer?   And the right column looks like the CD title info.

Bach -- Polyphonic, probably a piano or harpsichord
Beethoven -- Sturm und drung
Brahms
Chopin -- Guess who's only writing for the piano?
Haydn -- The only string quartet on the list?
Joplin  -- Ragtime will stand out.  Those are two very popular teaching pieces.
Mozart -- Style is easy.  A pain to remember his melodies to his pieces.  Rondo all Turca?  You'll know that.  Haha.
Purcell -- Only opera on the list?
Schubert -- Solo singing in German?
Bach -- Cello suites?  If its a polyphonic cello piece... Only two options from this list, right?


Getting a score can help too.  Really though, it's prep and memorize.  The more you do it, the easier it gets.


For numbers, just drill them into your head.  Rote memorization.  Practice writing them out over and over and over (or speaking, whatever the format of the test is).


Another nice technique -- Memorize this whole list.  The text information.  



It doesn't look too bad.  Agreed on the details about the title though.  Just drill them.  Know what the catalog numbers mean.  That helps -- BWV, Hop, K numbers.... Just google the composer's name and 'catalog number'  or find it on Wikipedia.  Who did their cataloging?




If you want something more for numbers... Find something else significant to associate them with.  I've got some posts about a Buzan number technique.  It turns the numbers into letters and then you find a concrete image from that.  It turns the numbers into physical objects.  It's an extra level of mental processing but it does let you decode patterns and spit back a lot of information for a test (although with adding extra crap what you're reminded of when you hear a piece of music, but that wears off eventually).


Yeah, the Haydn vars does look toughest.  it's always the same info up to the variation, number, and Italian.  Look up the Italian.  Hear that in the music.    Ten of those variation tracks?  Haha -- One third of the listening list is one piece?  Hm.  Guess what's going to appear on the test.  Focus on that piece a lot.



A couple things I remember from those tests...
Sometime the professor would just play the beginning of the tracks.  Then one thought he'd be trickier and play the middle of pieces.   Just listen once through the whole piece, and make some audio flashcards.  Problem solved.  But probably spend time with the beginnings for sure.
Once or twice a professor was really kind of a jerk -- thought they were being clever -- and brought in a recording of a piece played on a different instrument.  Interesting for them.  Kind of a d*** move when you're taking the test.  You recognize the piece, but not the instrument....argh!!!!  Haha.


If you're teacher is giving you this track list, these might be the exact recordings they use on the test.  They could bring in a completely different recording though.


That looks completely doable though.  It can be worse when you have week after week of that.  Or the professor says anything from past listening tests is fair game.



Start early, as soon as possible.  Drill the text info in.  Make some audio flashcards.  Then drill the review.  A little practice more often will beat trying to do it all at once toward the end.


Don't waste much time reviewing the pieces that are simple.  Ragtime is going to jump out on this list.  



Those variations though...  What's the variation on each piece?  major/minor?  tempo?  division of the beat?  Something else?  Register?  Lengthening/shortening the melody?  Something with texture?


Another idea,esp for the variations -- Take a few of those and really drill them in.  Make them your friend.  When the test comes up, those will be an easy relief point.


More difficult -- Can you hear sound clips in your head after you hear the title of the piece?  If you memorize the listening list titles, can you go through each title and mentally hear a bit of each?


Another one -- Just keep playing this music in the background.  All the time.  Absorb it that way.  You don't have to pay attention to it.  You'll just get it.  Fall asleep with it playing.  That type of thing.  I remember pretty much listening to nothing but the listening list stuff while doing these tests.  Kind of stunk not to be able to listen to what I wanted, but there wasn't much time.

[indianajo]

I find if I write stuff out, I have usually memorized it.  So write out the list in the order on the table.  
Then listen to them in the order on the table.
My memory is pretty positional, so associating the music to the squares in the table would provide some info for the numbers from the same composer.  
Pity to organize great art that way, but you have limited time to do this.
Like memorizing faces to names, if I have them in a book with pictures and names on the same page, it helps.  I can sort of page through the book if I lose some association.  I could remember other people on the same page and recall what first letter the last name starts with, for example.  I guess that is sort of a photographic memory but the only association where I purely remember the picture and then the location name is landscapes (or cityscapes). 
Of course, your memory may work completely differently.  

[echoyjeff222]

thanks for all the advice! I'm starting to get the hang of it now. I actually have a memory technique that I always use that was mentioned before -- the imagery deal. I guess I just have to convert each haydn variation into a picture... it's actually not that bad, so yay!
thanks again!

[Bob]

Until you start running across the same numbers and Italian terms....  That's as far as I got.  I was starting to put the images into a certain "land" for that piece.  Then I could reuse them. Or use variations on the images-to-words.  Different, easy-to-identify-images for the same word.