Welcome to Episode 21 of the Doremi Teach podcast.

Today we're going to chat about aural skills and how you can help your students, and yourself, become a triple threat.

My name is Helen Russell from Doremi Connect and I’m going to help you achieve your goals using the Kodály approach. So if you’re interested in teaching musical skills and literacy through singing then this is the place for you.

A few years ago I was called up by the mum of a desperate Grade 8 cellist. Their exam was in a few weeks and their teacher hadn’t covered the aural element AT ALL.

Could I help?

Sadly, I was fully booked and the idea of missing family-time to cram some poor kid for Grade 8 was not appealing. So I pointed them to some books and online resources and wished them well.

All the time cursing their teacher in my thinking voice.

It broke my heart.

I wish I could tell you that this was an isolated incident but it was not. But it was probably the worst.

I have helped students with their aural when given more time. But their teachers are seriously missing a trick.

Aural skills are precious and essential.

Far more valuable than the few marks in an instrumental exam.

And they deserve more attention too!

When you think about learning an instrument, it feels like learners are split into three types.

#1 Playing by Rote

Whenever I have a beginner student who’s older than 5 or 6 they can usually play something already. And it’s almost always taught by their cousin.

I ponder on this cousin link a lot and have some theories - but I’ll save those for another time.

Rote teaching is great. Even in a formal lesson we can teach patterns and techniques by rote.

But with YouTube and other online apps, learning purely by rote is increasingly common.

#2 Playing by Ear

Growing up I was sooo jealous of those people who could play by ear.

Possibly because they were accessing cool pop music in a way that was off limits for me and my “proper” piano lessons.

They were so cool - sigh!

I was mystified and thought it would always be out of my reach. Spoiler: It’s not!

#3 Classically Trained

We’re always hearing that some pop star or other was “classically trained”. Really that just means they had a piano teacher, some piano books, diligently practised their scales and possibly did some grade exams.

This was me. Apart from the diligently practising their scales bit! Ahem!

Learning to read from the score but also becoming beholden to it. Unable to play without.

Apart from when my cousin taught me Tomorrow from Annie by rote - hang on - full circle!!

The Triple Threat

Imagine if you could do ALL THREE of these things?! You’d be, what’s known in showbiz, a TRIPLE THREAT!

And who doesn’t want that - for their students and for themselves!

And the secret? Aural skills.

Which of the three types of learners do you most associate with? I’ll be fascinated to see if there’s a pattern?

So what do we know?

#1 Aural skills are essential, desirable and hugely valuable. They deserve more than a "exam prep" after-thought.

#2 We can teach our students to become a triple threat by combining the three types of teaching and learning.

#2b It’s not too late to get that for ourselves too!

Happy Birthday

Have you had a student try and pick out Happy Birthday on their instrument?

It’s actually really hard!

It’s especially frustrating when they don’t have pitch awareness. Jabbing randomly at the keys seeking that elusive next note. When the pitch goes higher they still test notes that are lower.

Sure it’s hard to nail the EXACT interval, but they are so much more successful when they slow down, think about the direction and then move the right way.

#microstepsalert

When they can hear the pitch changing, by singing or inner hearing then it’s a joy.

Even better - make sure they’ve worked with much simpler melodies from their very first lesson.

Gosh it’s easier to play by ear when there’s only two notes!

Do you know what? Teaching aural skills to all your students will help you become a triple threat too!

How to cheat at sight reading…

I don’t love "sight reading" books.

"What a shocker!" I hear you say. "Is there ANYTHING conventional you DO love?"

Haha, anyway - how I approach sight reading will have to wait for another email.

This email is about a time when I WAS using the graded sight reading books.

One of my students was preparing for an exam. And even though I don’t TEACH sight reading from these books, I do need my student to be familiar with the style in order for them to enjoy their exam.

So I open the book and show them the exercise. While they were preparing it, I was reading through the melody and sight SINGING it in my head.

I was using my inner hearing and aural skills to HEAR the music.

So actually, if this was MY music exam - when it came to performing the exercise, would I have been sight READING or playing by EAR.

This is what I mean by triple threat!

When you’ve been taught the Doremi way, you aren’t just limited to one skill. You’re using all your senses. All your skills. All of the time. Every task is supported by all those other skills that you’ve been developing all along.

You might find one is stronger than another. You might find you have a preference. But they are all there supporting each other like a highly functioning team.

And that’s where the magic happens.

And guess what? That magic is available to you too?

When you teach this way, YOUR skills start to develop.

Not hot at aural? YOUR aural skills will improve!

Hate sight reading? YOUR sight reading will improve!

Uncomfortable singing? The simple songs you start with your students, and repeat over and over will improve YOUR singing voice.

Never been able to play by ear? Guess what!? Teach it, and it will come to YOU TOO!

I asked Doremi members what their experiences were and I loved hearing their stories. Although many were less than uplifting!

Angela recalled accompanying some ABRSM exams where it transpired that not one of the candidates had any idea there was even an aural part of the exam or what it meant! Argh!

Emma was never taught sight singing, despite studying singing. And sadly that was reflected in her sight singing exam mark too.

But also some positives...

Rachel attributes her Triple Threat status to improvising chords in a worship band combined with her Kodály-inspired A-Level music lessons where they were lucky enough to get one hour of aural training every week!! Yup, that'll do it Rachel!!

Es remembers the moment one of her choristers learnt to listen after recognising his voice was out of tune on a recording. Hooray!

One of Rachel's five year olds described singing in your thinking voice as "hiding the singing" Sooooo cute!

Please keep them coming. I love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Make sure you let us know what you think of the episode and do share it with your colleagues if you’ve found it helpful

For more free resources and webinars on teaching music through singing make sure you visit doremiconnect.co.uk and sign up to our daily emails.

I hope you have a lovely week, filled with music and singing.

You’ve been listening to the Doremi Teach podcast with Helen Russell from Doremi Connect. Helping you achieve your music teaching goals with the Kodály approach.