Learning the basic intervals

Josh Bertelli

Objective:

Ä The high school students will improve their harmonic dictation by using the computer program Auralia.

Purpose:

Ä The students have already learned melodic dictation.

Ä Harmonic dictation is the next lesson in the curriculum to help train the ear.

Materials Needed:

Ä One computer for every student.

Ä Headphones for every student.

Ä The Auralia computer program for each computer.

Ä CD player and a piano.

Anticipatory Set:

Ä While students are arriving to class I will play The Beatles song Let it Be, which contains a very basic chord progression.

Ä This will lead to a discussion about how the bass line can help students hear the chord changes.

Procedure:

Ä Before moving to the computer lab, students will listen to some basic chord progressions on the piano.

Ä They will all have a chance to take a guess at a few examples. We will then talk about ways to make harmonic dictation easier.

Ä Students will move to a computer. They will then be instructed how to use the harmonic dictation portion of Auralia.

Ä Using their harmonic dictation skills they will attempt to complete many practice examples on the computer.

Check for student understanding:

Ä I will monitor their progress by checking the scores given by the Auralia program.

Closure:

Ä A class discussion about the difficulties of harmonic dictation.

Extensions:

Ä The students will go home and listen to some of their favorite songs and try to figure out the harmonic progression without using their instruments.

Ä The students will be asked to bring in a simple song for the next class.