Functional Hearing: A Contextual Method for Ear Training

Though the teaching of aural skills is one of the most important tasks facing the college-level music educator, it is often one of the most problematic, sometimes the most feared. Some of this apprehension undoubtedly arises from the lack of effective pedagogical tools that can reliably and more completely address the needs of the discipline. Functional Hearing fills this void with its unique method of comprehensive ear training. This book not only presents melodies for dictation and sight-singing, but also instructs students in how to develop the skills and strategies to hear and sight-sing unfamiliar music. In addition to presenting harmonic and rhythmic dictations, students are also shown how to listen and use their theoretical knowledge to comprehend the harmonic and rhythmic contexts in which they are listening. The book is divided into seven areas which include: Hearing the Essential Elements of Music; Hearing Quality, Function, and Inversion in Triads; Hearing Quality, Function, and Inversion in Seventh Chords; Hearing Secondary Functions and Modulations; Hearing and Performing in Multiple Parts; Hearing Chromaticism; and Hearing in Nonfunctional Contexts. Together, they incorporate unique and groundbreaking ways to train the ears of developing musicians and to encourage them to acquire a high level of aural skill. Functional Hearing is intended to be used in any aural skills sequence lasting from two to seven semesters, or as a companion text in most traditional courses in music theory. The corresponding Instructor’s Manual is available free upon request (1-880157-58-6).