SUNY-Fredonia School of Music

 

General Syllabus for Aural Skills I-IV

MUS 121, 122, 221, 222

 

DESCRIPTION AND GOALS OF COURSES

 

            There are two complimentary goals of Aural Skills I-IV: to develop and increase aural comprehension; and to master the skill of singing and hearing both familiar and unfamiliar musical material.  To reach these goals, you will receive guidance on how to recognize aurally a wide variety of musical constructions, and will be led through techniques for developing your ability to sing with preparation and at sight, constructions that you will frequently find in your experiences as a musician.  The entire Aural Skills sequence is closely correlated with the music theory sequence (MUS 123, 124, 223, and Form and Analysis) so that the components of your instruction in all areas will enhance each other.  Therefore, you are expected to utilize your experiences and knowledge in these classes interchangeably.  It is also essential that you apply what you learn in your Aural Skills class to your other musical activities: practicing, performing, composing, and listening to music.  In doing so, you will not only become more skilled in music aural skills, but, in addition, you will become a better musician overall.

 

REQUIRED TEXTS AND MATERIALS

 

1.  Clendinning, Jane Piper, and Elizabeth West Marvin. The Musician's Guide to Aural Skills, Vol. 1 (freshmen) or Vol. 2 (sophomore).  New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005.

2.  freshmen: Krueger, Carol.  Progressive Sight Singing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007; sophomore: Ottman, Robert. Music for Sightsinging, 6th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 2004

3.  Manuscript paper and pencil (only).

 

 

REQUIREMENTS AND PROCEDURES

 

Prerequisite: To begin the theory sequence all new and transfer students take a placement exam.  Following this initial placement, students must earn a grade of C- or higher in each theory course to proceed into each successive level.

 

Dictation and Aural Analysis:  To attain the goals stated above, students will receive classroom guidance on how to recognize aurally a wide variety of musical constructions, contexts of meaning, styles, and conventions of harmony, rhythm, and melody.  Students will be led through techniques for analyzing such aspects aurally.

 

Singing and Singing Exams: Roughly one third of this course involves singing melodies, rhythmic passages, and other exercise material.  The entire four-semester sequence of Aural Skills is divided into eight levels of singing mastery (two levels for each semester).  The Singing Syllabus and the Student Singing Exam Policies will be provided for you; they detail the material to be studied and practiced, and the manner in which your exam is to be prepared.  You will be given two singing examinations each semester, one roughly at mid-term and one during finals week.  These two examinations, averaged together constitute 30% of your semester grade.  Your instructor will guide you through this material and provide strategies for mastering the skills involved but will not devote all class time to practicing the material on the singing syllabus.  You should plan a regular practice schedule for getting through this material and learning the skill of singing prepared and unprepared material.  You are encouraged to find a singing partner now; collaborating with another student as you pursue this skill allows for feedback and support, and usually makes the pursuit quite enjoyable.  As you practice you should take note of any material that gives you excessive trouble and should ask the instructor for help in class; chances are fairly good that other class members will have similar experiences. 

 

Lab Assignments: The School of Music is fortunate to maintain two large state-of-the-art laboratories with access to the Music Theory Server.  Students should expect to work in the lab two or three times per week on assignments designed to develop aural dictation and analysis skills.  As with singing practice, you should plan on a regular practice schedule to develop your ability to understand what you hear.  Each semester a variety of assignments are to be completed in the lab; these assignments are drawn from several instructional applications, the audio CD in your Musician's Guide text, and customized assignments developed by School of Music faculty.   

 

Assignment Policy: Individual instructors will set their own assignment policies.  Unless stated otherwise, assignments are due at the beginning of class.  Any assignment turned in after that time will be considered late.  Acceptance of late assignments, and policies regarding penalties for late assignments will be set by the instructor.  Instructors may allow the re-submission of homework for corrections and adjustment of score but are not required to do so.

                                                                             

Dictation Exams and quizzes: Unit exams in dictation are given as specified by individual instructors.  Comprehensive final dictation exams are given at the conclusion of each semester during finals week.  The final dictation exams for MUS 122 and 224 are comprehensive standardized School of Music exams given to all freshmen and sophomores respectively during the first Monday and Tuesday of exam week and after any individualized unit exams.  The standard final dictation exam for MUS 124 and MUS 224 constitutes 15% of the semester average.

 

GRADING

 

Grades are based solely upon performance.  It is important to understand that the instructor will assign grades based only upon the quality and quantity of work you complete in the course.  The grade you earn on  an assignment, a quiz or exam, or on your final semester report does not reflect and is not based on your potential or your desire to earn a high grade, nor is it based in an absolute way on what you know.  The grade you earn in this class will reflect your performance in this class, i.e., what you do.

 

Grading Scale:

                 

93-100:      A         indicates that the quality of the work has been outstanding

90- 92:       A–      

87-89:        B+

83-86:        B         indicates that the quality of the work has been high

80-82:        B–

77-79:        C+

73-76:        C         indicates that the quality of work has been generally acceptable

70-72:        C–       (lowest acceptable grade for majors to continue to next level)

67-69:        D+

63-66:        D         indicates that the quality of work has been poor

60-62:        D–

Below 59:  F          indicates failure

 

The final semester average for MUS 121 and 221 will be derived from the standardized singing exams, unit dictation exams, quizzes and homework, and other activities as articulated by individual instructors below:

 

Singing exams:                                                                                          30%  

Unit Dictation Exams:                                                                               _____

Quizzes and Homework (Including Lab Assignments)                            _____

Other                                                                                                         _____

 

 Total                                                                                                         100%

 

The final semester average for MUS 122 and 222 will be derived from the standardized singing exams, the standardized final exam, unit dictation exams, quizzes and homework, and other activities as articulated by individual instructors below:

 

Singing exams:                                                                                          30%

Standard Final Exam                                                                                 15%

Unit Dictation Exams:                                                                               _____

Quizzes and Homework (including Lab Assignments)                             _____

Other                                                                                                         _____

 

 Total                                                                                                         100%

 

Attendance:  Each student is expected to attend all class sessions of each course of enrollment.  For MUS 121-122 two (2) absences are allowed without penalty; for MUS 221-222 this limit is three (3).  Each absence exceeding allotted number will lower the student's grade by one-third of a letter grade (approximately 3% of the semester average).  The only absences that an instructor is required to excuse are those that result from participation in sanctioned college or School of Music activities and announced in advance to the instructor.  Arrangements for managing missed information and missed assignments due to such an absence must be secured with the instructor prior to the absence, and are the responsibility of the student.  Waiver of any absence penalty in extreme circumstances is left only to the discretion the instructor.  Do not be absent from exams or quizzes: there are no make-ups.

 

 

 

SUNY-Fredonia School of Music

 

General Calendar for Aural Skills  I-IV

 

Freshman

 

Aural Skills I (MUS 121)

 

Singing: SOM Singing Exam Levels I and II (chapters 1-9 and 18 of Krueger)

      includes: facility with movable Do solfge in major and minor, and diatonic solfge when singing diatonic modes; tonic and dominant (7th) arpeggiations; root-, first, and second-inversion triads on all diatonic scale degrees; major and minor scales, diatonic modes; all simple intervals ascending and descending; rhythms including divided beats in compound meter, and divided and subdivided beats in simple meter, sung using rhythmic syllables (TaKaDiMi) while conducting (chapters 1-9 of Krueger)

 

Dictation/Improvisation/Keyboard Skills: material through Chapter 10 of The Musician's Guide to Aural Skills, Vol. 1

      includes: identifying all simple ascending and descending pitch intervals; melodic diction including diatonic scalar and modal patterns and arpeggiations of I and V7; identification of M, m, o and + triads and M7, Mm7, m7, o7, and o7; soprano/bass factors of triads; two-part dictation in species counterpoint with 1st bass and soprano notes given; melodic and rhythmic embellishments in two-voice counterpoint; NCT identification; rhythmic and melodic dictation including divided beats in compound meter, and divided and subdivided beats in simple meter;

 

Lab: Assignments and Contextual Listening as assigned

 

 

Aural Skills II (MUS 122):

 

Admission to Aural Skills II assumes mastery of skills and understanding from MUS 121

 

Singing: SOM Singing Exam Levels III and IV (chapters 10-18 of Krueger)

      includes: singing M7, Mm7, m7 chords arpeggiated through root-position and all inversions; chromatic alterations of scale degrees; rhythms including triplets, syncopation, and subdivided compound beats, sung using rhythmic syllables (TaKaDiMi) while conducting (chapters 10-18 of Krueger)

Dictation/Improvisation/Keyboard Skills: material through Chapter 19 of The Musician's Guide to Aural Skills, Vol. 1

      includes: melodic and rhythmic dictation encompassing triplets and syncopation, in simple meters, and subdivided compound beats; harmony/two-part dictation (w/ only the first bass note given) starting with the basic I-V phrase model and expanding to include all other diatonic triads; introduction of secondary harmonies; phrase and cadence identification

 

Lab: Assignments and Contextual Listening as assigned

 

 

Aural Skills III (MUS 221)

 

Singing: SOM Singing Exam Levels V and VI (chapters 13-16 of Ottman)

      includes: facility with movable Do solfge in major and minor in diatonic and chromatic melodies (incl. modulation and secondary triads and sevenths): facility with diatonic solfge when singing diatonic modes; all simple intervals ascending and descending, adding M and m 9ths and 10ths; five seventh chords arpeggiated (MM7, Mm7, mm7, o7 and 7 in root position and inversion; rhythms encompassing triplets and duplets counting syllables while conducting

 

Dictation: material through chapter 26 of The Musician's Guide to Aural Skills, Vol. 2

 

      includes: all simple intervals ascending and descending, adding M and m 9ths and 10ths triads (M, m, o and +) all inversions; Dom. 7th, M7th, m7th, 7th, o7th, Dom. M/m 9th in root position and all inversions; diatonic and chromatic melodies (incl. secondary triads and sevenths and parallel periods that modulate to NRK's); harmony/two-part dictation encompassing non-dominant seventh chords, two-phrase chorales, and progressions modulating to closely-related keys w/ only the 1st bass note given; aural analysis of binary and ternary forms

 

Lab: Assignments and Contextual Listening as assigned

 

 

Aural Skills IV(MUS 222)

 

Singing: SOM Singing Exam Levels VII and VIII (chapters 17-21 of Ottman)

      includes: : facility with movable Do solfge in major and minor in diatonic and chromatic melodies (encompassing modulation, secondary triads and sevenths, and remote modulations): facility with diatonic solfge when singing diatonic mode; facility w/ fixed Do solfge for non-tonal melodies (chs. 20-21); church modes, chromatic, whole-tone, pentatonic, and blues scales; all trichords in prime form (012-048); rhythms encompassing asymmetric meters, changing time signatures and notation in slow tempi, counting syllables while conducting for metered music

 

Dictation: material through chapter 34 of The Musician's Guide to Aural Skills, Vol. 2   includes: melodies encompassing those from church modes, and the whole-tone, pentatonic, and blues scales; all trichords (012-048); four-note non-tonal interval successions; melodies encompassing modulation, secondary triads and sevenths, and remote modulations; harmony/two-part dictation encompassing augmented sixth chords, the neapolitan sixth chord; aural analysis of phrase, cadence and key relationship encompassing simple binary, rounded binary, and ternary forms; typical blues figures; rhythms encompassing asymmetric meters, changing time signatures, notation in slow tempi, and the super triplet

 

Lab: Assignments and Contextual Listening as assigned