My daughter is 12. She plays the Violin, Viola and Piano and Sings. She has always had problems with Aural sections of exams, always getting low marks. Her teacher is wanting her to take her Grade 8 Violn, but wants a distinction.

She gave her some ear tests and concluded she is not hearing as she should. She needs to train her ears apparently. She has to start singing her scales starting with Chromatics. Is there anything I can do to help her speed things up? Exercises etc

Another teacher has always said it will come in time and not to worry. She got 129 on her G5 Singing with only 13/18 for Aurals.

Any advice please?

My advice would be to wait a while. This might not be the advice that you or she will want to hear but it is good advice. Twelve years of age is young to be taking a grade eight exam. She might be as well to have fun making music with others, singing and playing in a choir and some ensembles. Get her to listen to as much live music and recorded music as you can, of all sorts and let her expand her own repertoire for a while longer. If her teacher wants her ear to improve then he or she should be doing some aural training in her lesson each week and teaching her how to do it. It is a myth that students can either do aural work or not. They can all learn to do it and do it well but they need to have this skill developed over time with properly thought out teaching.

It isn't something which is going to happen overnight, but with time, patience and assistance from someone who knows what they are doing, there can be scope for improvement.

I agree with everything that has been said already. It's a bit too early for grade 8 - she simply won't have the musical maturity to play as well as she could at that level.

Far better to encourage her to develop her musicality and ear by engaging in other fun activities - Kodaly would be an excellent place to start - speak to Cyrilla about that.

Allan

(naturally!)

I have to say I think that saying 'it will come in time' is a bit of a cop-out on her teacher's part.

Aural awareness and musical understanding did not 'come in time' with me. 11 years of learning the piano taught me something about playing the piano and almost nothing about MUSIC.

I thought I was 'not musical' because I hated aural and couldn't do it (I didn't understand intervals or chords either and couldn't have sight-sung or done a dictation to save my life).

Apologies to those who have heard this (many!) times before, but Kodály was my salvation. When it is taught well it can work miracles - although it's not a 'quick fix'. I have learned 90-95% of what I know and understand about music through this approach.

Believe me, your daughter CAN learn to improve. She just needs someone who knows how to teach her...

If I can be of any help at any time, please just PM me.



PS The thought of starting ear-training with singing CHROMATIC scales makes me ..

The thought of starting ear-training with singing CHROMATIC scales makes me ..

i had the same feeling ...

Sorry to say it, but it sounds as though both teachers have given you some rather dodgy advice re aural training - little and often from the earliest days of learning an instrument is the best method. However, there are various 'DIY' resources that your daughter could look at to catch up. If she has never done any proper aural training I would suggest she goes right back to basics and works up from the grade 1 materials. I like these:

Improve your Aural series by Paul Harris - grades 1 - 5 (with CD)
Aural Test Survival Guide - grades 1 - 8

There are various online resources eg Hofnote and some free ones that are quite good for practice for exams, but aural training has much wider applications than just passing exams - good aural skills help with sightreading and many other aspects of performance.

Thanks to you all, she has only been with this lovely teacher for a few months. She is slowly getting daughter just how she wants her and has been gradually working through a list of problems. This is just the next on the list and last I think.

Aurals have always been a problem for her, I am not musical so have gone by what I have been told. It seems now is the time for action. If there is anyone who teaches this Kodaly in the Lincoln/Grimsby area please contact me. I will ask at school too.

Thank you again,

I hope I'm not overstepping the mark when I say that Cyrilla teaches Kodaly to me and I'm in North West France. We get together on an internet videoconference and we see and hear each other perfectly well (apart from the odd outage). It works really well and she may consider teaching your daughter this way too (added advantage of not actually having to leave the house to do the class either - no travel time !)

Just so you know there's an option.

*feels a whole new career coming on*