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Developing Musicianship
through Aural Skills
Developing Musicianship through Aural Skills is a comprehensive method for learning to hear, sing,
understand, and use the foundations of music as a part of an integrated and holistic curriculum for training
professional musicians.
Each chapter is organized to take advantage of how our minds and instincts naturally hear and understand
music, and presents a variety of exercises for practicing and integrating the structure into your musical
vocabulary. Developing Musicianship through Aural Skills will provide you with the musical terms, pro-
gressions, resolutions, and devices that you will be able to draw upon as a functional and usable musical
vocabulary. Ear training exercises on the companion website reinforce both discrete structures (intervals,
chords, etc.) as well as all rhythmic and melodic material, and sections are provided to open discussion
and reflection on the skills and attitudes professional musicians need to be successful.
Features:
Easy to Understand Explanations: Topics are logically ordered and explained to help the student make
connections to their theory instruction and common usage.
A Complete Method: Detailed instructions are given for singing and hearing structures as they most
commonly appear in music, providing students with a proven, reliable process for creating and discerning
musical structures.
Exercises: Ideas for drill, pitch patterns, rhythms, melodies, duets, self-accompanied melodies, and
examples from the literature help the student to integrate each chapter’s material.
Reflections: Discussions of topics that help students to develop as a person, a professional, and an artist,
and to integrate aural skills into their musical education.
Ear Training Tools and Video Demonstrationscan be found on the companion website.
Kent D. Cleland is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Music Theory at the Baldwin-
Wallace College Conservatory of Music. He holds degrees from Ohio University, Indiana University, and
the University of Cincinnati, and he has taught at the University of Cincinnati and Oberlin College.
Mary Dobrea-Grindahl holds the Diplôme Jaques-Dalcroze from the Institute Jaques-Dalcroze
in Geneva, Switzerland. She is Associate Professor of Piano and Chair of the Keyboard Department at
the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music, where she teaches private piano, pedagogy,
Eurhythmics, and solfège.
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Developing Musicianship
through Aural Skills
A Holistic Approach to
Sight Singing and Ear Training
Kent D. Cleland and Mary Dobrea-Grindahl
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Please visit the companion website at
www.routledge.com/textbooks/developingmusicianship
Senior Editor: Constance Ditzel
Senior Development Editor: Nicole Solano
Senior Editorial Assistant: Denny Tek
Production Editor: Sarah Stone
Project Manager: Maggie Lindsey-Jones, Keystroke
Marketing Manager: Chris Bowers
Text Design: Karl Hunt, Keystroke
Copy Editor: Ruth Jeavons
Proofreader: Ann King
Cover Designer: Jayne Varney
Composition: Keystroke
Companion Website Designer: Leon Nolan, Jr.
First published 2010
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
©2010 Taylor & Francis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for i dentification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cleland, Kent D.
Developing musicianship through aural skills : a holisitic approach to
sight singing and ear training / Kent D. Cleland. – 1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Sight-singing. 2. Ear training. I. Dobrea-Grindahl, Mary. II. Title.
MT870.C58 2010
ISBN 0-203-86156-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–80243–1 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–415–80244–X (pbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–86156–6 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–80243–7 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–80244–4 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–86156–1 (ebk)
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For Eric
Karen, Larkin, and Chloe
Our families, for their love and patience.
To Larry Hartzell and Allyn Reilly, colleagues, mentors and friends.
To our students, from whom we have learned so much.
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Contents
Preface xi
Chapter 1 Simple Meter, Rests and Phrases; The Major Mode, Major Triads and
Tonic Function 1
Rhythm 1.1 Beats, their First Divisions and Multiples, and Simple Meters 1
1.2 Second Division and Second Multiple of the Beat in Simple Meter 8
1.3 Rests 15
1.4 The Phrase 20
Reading 1.5 Treble and Bass Clefs 25
Scales 1.6 Major Scales and Major Scale Degrees 29
Intervals 1.7 Major and Minor Seconds 36
1.8 Major and Minor Thirds 46
1.9 Perfect Fifths and Octaves 56
Chords 1.10 Major Triads in Root Position 65
Harmony 1.11 Improvisation I: Tonic Function 73
1.12 Music from the Literature 78
Ideas Reflections: Why Study Solfège? 83
1.13 Dictation Materials 84
Chapter 2 Compound Meters, Ties and Dots; The Minor Mode and Inverted Triads 88
Rhythm 2.1 Compound Meters 88
2.2 Ties and Dotted Rhythms in Simple Meter 95
Scales 2.3 Minor Scales and Minor Scale Degrees 102
Intervals 2.4 Perfect Fourths 111
2.5 Major and Minor Sixths 119
Chords 2.6 Minor Triads in Root Position 128
2.7 Major and Minor Triads in Inversion 136
2.8 Music from the Literature 144
Ideas Reflections: Professionalism 149
2.9 Dictation Materials 150
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viii Contents
Chapter 3 Changing Meter; Second Division in Compound Meter;
The Dominant Sound 155
Rhythm 3.1 Changing Meter I: Simple Changing Meter 155
3.2 Second Division of the Beat in Compound Meter 160
Intervals 3.3 Minor Sevenths and Tritones 166
Chords 3.4 Dominant Seventh Chords 175
3.5 Diminished Triads 184
Harmony 3.6 Improvisation II: Dominant Function 193
3.7 Music from the Literature 199
Ideas Reflections: Musicality 204
3.8 Dictation Materials 204
Chapter 4 Triplets and Duplets; Seventh Chords and Predominant Function 210
Rhythm 4.1 Irregular Divisions I: Triplets and Duplets 210
Intervals 4.2 Major Sevenths 220
4.3 Compound Intervals 228
Chords 4.4 Major-Major and Minor-Minor Seventh Chords 235
4.5 Diminished Seventh Chords 245
Harmony 4.6 Improvisation III: Predominant Function 254
4.7 Music from the Literature 261
Ideas Reflections: Listening 264
4.8 Dictation Materials 265
Chapter 5 Less Common Meters; C Clefs and Harmonic Progression 270
Rhythm 5.1 Less Common Simple and Compound Meters 270
Reading 5.2 Reading the Alto and Tenor Clefs 275
Harmony 5.3 Harmonic Progressions 282
5.4 Frequently Used Progressions 283
5.5 Improvising Melodies Over Harmonic Progressions 286
5.6 Progressions for Arpeggiation and Improvisation 287
Ideas Reflections: Perseverance 288
5.7 Dictation Materials 289
Chapter 6 Syncopation; Beginning Non-Modulating Chromaticism 293
Rhythm 6.1 Syncopation 293
Scales 6.2 The Chromatic Scale and Surface Chromaticism 301
Harmony 6.3 Modal Mixture 310
6.4 Music from the Literature 318
Ideas Reflections: Creativity 321
6.5 Dictation Materials 322
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Contents ix
Chapter 7 Triplets and Duplets; More Non-Modulating Chromaticism 327
Rhythm 7.1 Irregular Divisions II: Triplets and Duplets in Augmentation and Diminution 327
Harmony 7.2 Secondary Dominants and Leading Tone Chords 335
7.3 The Neapolitan Chord 347
7.4 Augmented Sixth Chords 355
7.5 Extended and Altered Dominant Chords 363
7.6 Music from the Literature 371
Ideas Reflections: Confidence 375
7.7 Dictation Materials 376
Chapter 8 Triplets; Other Clefs; Beginning Modulation 382
Rhythm 8.1 Divisions of the Beat into Numbers Greater than Four 382
Reading 8.2 Reading in Other Clefs 388
Harmony 8.3 Modulation to Closely Related Keys 390
8.4 Diatonic Modulation to Distantly Related Keys 401
8.5 Music from the Literature 412
Ideas Reflections: Performance Preparation 415
8.6 Dictation Materials 416
Chapter 9 Reading Complex Rhythms; More Complex Modulation 419
Rhythm 9.1 Reading Complex Rhythms 419
Harmony 9.2 Direct, Chromatic, and Enharmonic Modulation 423
9.3 Rapidly Shifting and Unexpected Tonalities 436
9.4 Music from the Literature 442
Ideas Reflections: Energy, Space, and Time 445
9.5 Dictation Materials 447
Chapter 10 Twentieth-century Rhythmic Techniques 450
Rhythm 10.1 Changing Meter II: Complex Changing Meter 450
10.2 Polyrhythms 458
10.3 Asymmetric Meters 467
Ideas Reflections: Understanding and Appreciating Twentieth-century Music 472
10.4 Dictation Materials 473
Chapter 11 Twentieth-century Material based on Tonal Models 478
Scales 11.1 Pentatonic and Blues Scales 478
11.2 The Ecclesiastic Modes 487
11.3 Other Scales 495
Harmony 11.4 Polytonality and Polymodality 503
11.5 Music from the Literature 508
11.6 Non-Western Music from the Literature 511
