Scales: Call and Response
Goal: To hear, sing, and play church modes, octatonic scales, and twelve-tone rows.
Out of Tempo
All Levels
“Out of Tempo” exercises are not presented separately in Ear Training III and Ear Training IV improvisations. Should any exercise prove difficult performed in tempo, out of tempo versions of the materials in Ear Training III and Ear Training IV can be modeled on Ear Training I and Ear Training II approaches to out of tempo improvisations.
In Tempo
Teacher sets up a tempo, time signature, tonality, and rhythms.
Phrases can be four to thirty-two measures in length depending on the student’s ability.
Start with one note per measure and add different rhythms as students become more comfortable with the exercise. For more confident students, use non-repeating notes and rhythm patterns.
Students sing one, two, three, or four notes per measure.
Speaking, singing, playing.
Refer to the Scale Smorgasbord for ideas.
Beginning
- Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “I sing or play four non-adjacent notes from a church mode then student A sings the other four.”
- Student A does so.
Intermediate
- Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “I sing or play octatonic scale x then student B sings octatonic scale y.”
- Student B does so.
Advanced
- Student C sets up as above a prompts, “I sing four notes of a tone row, then student D sings four more notes of a row, then student E sings the remaining four notes of a tone row.”
- Students D and E do so.
More Advanced
Continue the process as above using the retrograde, inversion, and retrograde inversion of combinations of two, four, and six notes. Can be done one student at a time until all students have participated.