Skip to main content

Ties: Arithmetic

Goal: To use various ways of counting to hear, sing, and play ties with greater accuracy.

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, rhythms.

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.

Refer to the Tie Smorgasbord for tie combinations to use in the improvisations.

Addition

Beginning

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Sing or play an upbeat tied to a downbeat.” Example: 4/1…4/1...4/1, etc.
  2. Students do so.

Intermediate

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Sing or play an upbeat tied to a downbeat and add the next beat.” Example: 4/1, 2...4/1, 2…4/1, etc.
  2. Students do so.

Advanced

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Sing or play an upbeat tied to a downbeat and add the next two beats.” Example: 4/1, 2, 3, 4/1, 2, 3, 4/1, etc.
  2. Students do so.

Subtraction

Beginning

  1. Teaching sets up as above and prompts, “Sing or play (using repeating solfege/notes), an upbeat tied to a downbeat and remove beat three.” Example: 4/1, 2, …, 4/1, 2, …, 4/1, etc.
  2. Students do so.

Intermediate

  1. Teaching sets up as above and prompts, “Sing or play (using repeating solfege/notes) an upbeat tied to a downbeat and remove beat two and three.”
  2. Students do so.

Example: 4/1, …, …, 4/1, …, …, 4/1, etc.

Advanced

  1. Teaching sets up as above and prompts, “Sing or play (using NON-REPEATING solfege) an upbeat tied to a downbeat and remove beat two and three.”
  2. Students do so.

Example: 4/1, …, …, 4/1, …, …, 4/1, etc.

Multiplication

Creating syncopations.

Beginning

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Sing a quarter note and two eighth notes.”
  2. Students do so
  3. Teacher prompts, “Repeat the combination four times.”
  4. Students do so

Intermediate

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Tie the quarter note to the first eighth note.”
  2. Students do so.

Advanced

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Repeat the combination two, three, or four times depending on the time signature.”
  2. Students do so.

Division

Beginning

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Take two quarter notes and sing the second quarter note as two eighth notes.”
  2. Students do so.

Intermediate

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Take two quarter notes and sing the first quarter note as two eighth notes.”
  2. Students do so.

Advanced

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Take the two combinations from the beginning and intermediate prompt and connect them with ties in various ways.”
  2. Students do so.