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Note: This is not a tutorial and cannot replace individual practice or classroom instruction in ear-
training. It is a resource intended to help direct the attention of those who wish to try to improve their
listening skills to the proper areas of the music.
"Associative listening" refers to the way educated listeners approach music, especially tonal music. This approach on
the part of the listener involves making connections and/or comparisons between events heard in the music and tonal
structures in one's memory. The musical structures in the memory include events that one remembers hearing earlier in the
music, events that one has heard in previous musical experiences, and, most importantly, prototypical musical models in
the memory. These models are abstracted from music and given specific terminology (such as "scale", "arpeggio", "half
cadence", "subdominant", and "homophony"). Clear understanding of a large number of theoretical categories of musical
events and their aural function in music is the prerequisite for such a method of listening.
Associative hearing is the essence of music analysis. If one sees a relationship between two events in the score to a
piece of music, then one should be able to hear this relationship upon listening to the piece, and vice versa. Knowing the
distinctive sounds of all of the rudimentary musical elements informs all advanced listening techniques. One must know
what a deceptive cadence sounds like in order to perceive such a cadence wherever it can be shown to be in a piece of
music. But associative hearing is linked with music analysis at higher levels as well. If one analyzes that a particular
motive or theme is presented in an inner voice, then that is something to "listen for" in the piece. If one does not know
what that theme sounds like to begin with, then one must learn what it sounds like in order to listen for it. But only once
one has "listened for" a particular analytical reading of a piece can one pass judgment as to the validity of that analysis of
the associations in the piece. In this way, music analysis informs ear training and listening informs analysis.
Music analysis is a way of encoding the way one perceives a complicated piece of music so that others who read one's
analysis can listen to the piece in a new way and gain new insight into the music. Ear training itself is thus essential to any
musician whose purpose is the mastery of the inner workings of the musical art and the successful performance or
composition of music. The acquisition of associative hearing skills is not a quick or easy process, but ear training can be
learned. For individuals with a great deal of innate musical talent or early childhood musical training, a practice regimen
of particular listening strategies is all that is usually required to master associative hearing. However, those for whom the
goal associative hearing is more elusive may have to take a more rudimentary approach at first. One effective strategy
involves a considerable narrowing of the rudiments trained at any one time. Rather than trying to write down eight-
measure melodies by ear, one may begin by listening to short melodies that end on the tonic and on the dominant, and
decide which of the two ending pitches one is hearing. Once that skill has been acquired, one can proceed to
discriminating dominant from submediant, and so on. I recommend using solfege syllables (or simply scale degree
numbers) to identify these scale degrees, and sing them after verifying whether "do" or "sol" is the correct answer. One
can perform the same exercise with cadence types, progressions using supertonic vs. subdominant chords, etc. It is
important to sing everything that is learned—with solfege. That way, not only can one recognize a dominant-seventh-
chord arpeggio when one hears it, but one can also sing the pattern when one sees it written in the music.
Ear training is not easily taught with such a method in a classroom situation, simply because of the limitations of the
time and the individual attention to students that would be necessary. Any music student who is serious about gaining
critical listening skills must take personal responsibility for one's own ear training. Regular practice is necessary. Skills
acquired in practice must be immediately applied to one's routine listening experiences (in rehearsals, in the practice room,
on the radio, in television commercials and theme songs, in music history class, in music theory class, in singing in the
shower, etc.) for them to be made permanent. Not only is individual practice necessary, but also drills testing the
identification of musical rudiments with the help of a partner who can play them at the keyboard (or possibly other
instruments). When using this approach both in individual practice and in consultation with an ear-training teacher,
improvement will be possible, though not always quick. This document contains an outline of musical parameters that
play a crucial role in the skill of associative hearing.
I. Listening to Melody
1. Hearing scale degrees
It is important to be able to relate any note to the prevailing tonality.
Be able to sing the tonic note given a key-defining progression, even if the tonic note is
not present in the melody (or bass) in the final tonic chord.
Always be able to sing the tonic note at any point during a melody or chord progression
The dominant is the next most important scale degree to be able to recognize within the
context of a melody of chord progression.
Basic training in scale degree recognition can be done at Good-Ear.com
It is important that in any melodic pattern the listener recognize when the melody returns
to a previously heard pitch or an octave transposition of that note. Recognition of intra-
melodic pitch-level equivalence is an important part of the associational listening
technique.
2. Hearing patterns
Being able to identify the difference between a step and a skip is an essential skill to have,
because the educated listener should be able to distinguish between scales and arpeggios
in a melody. When a melody moves by step, the new note will tend to displace the old
note in a listener's memory. When a melody moves by leap, the mind will often want to
compare new note harmonically with the old note in order to establish a chordal
relationship between them.
If the listener can determine that the melody is proceeding by chordal skips, the next step
is to decide what chord is being arpeggiated. All notes of the chord must be held in the
memory (even though they weren't sounding simultaneously) in order to hear the implied
harmony.
Motives play a large role in the construction of a melody. The identification of the
construction of each motive will aid in the correct interpretation of later occurrences of
the motive in different guises. The compositional techniques often used to vary melodic
motives are summarized below. For examples of each of these, see Melodic Development
Techniques.
Transposition
Inversion
Retrograde
Retrograde-Inversion
Augmentation
Diminution
Intervallic augmentation
Intervallic diminution
Ornamentation
Rhythmic Manipulation
3. Hearing repetition
Rhythmic repetition is perhaps the simplest to identify and may be the most important
element in identifying repeated motives. Mental separation of rhythm from melody in
listening will aid in correctly interpreting rhythm.
The identification of melodic repetition is closely associated with the identification of
repeated scale degrees within a melodic span. It is important for the listener to have the
different sounds of the various scale degrees firmly in memory so that, whenever scale
degree 5 is played (regardless of how it is melodically achieved), the "scale-degree-5
alarm" goes off in the listener's mind. If the listener can approach a melody in this way,
then, when a particular pattern of scale degrees repeats, the perception of melodic
repetition will be unquestionable.
Sequential repetition is common enough that it should be specifically and consciously
listened for in any melody. Certain melodic patterns are very likely to reappear at
different pitch levels (in order to unify the melodic material without sounding like a
broken record). A more intervallic approach (rather than a scale-degree-oriented
approach) will help the listener to identify transpositions of a motive.
© 2002 Robert T. Kelley. Reproduction of any part of or ideas from this document without
permission is unlawful.