Every so often we get a student in our freshman aural skills class who can't match pitch. I worked with one student yesterday in an effort to help her start matching pitches. This student is neither a singer nor a pianist. Here's what I did to diagnose and help her.
First, I asked her to sing back some pitches that I played on the piano. Second, I sung some pitches and asked her to sing them back. She was unable to do either of these things. That she couldn't do either suggested to me that it wasn't a question of instrumental timbre.
I then sung some pitches and asked her to try to pick them out on the piano. She was unable to do that. This tells me that the problem is not one of poor vocal control.
I then asked her to sing a pitch, I sung a different pitch and gradually slid up in pitch to match her. We did this a second time, and I sung a pitch higher than she did and slid down. We reversed roles and I asked her to slide up or down into the pitch that I was singing. My intent here was to model a very fundamental pitch-matching task.
Following this, I asked her to sing the lowest note that was comfortable for her to sing. I recorded this note as her lower boundary. I asked her then to sing the highest note she could comfortably sing and labeled this as her high boundary. I asked her to sing two more notes: one would be a high-middle and the other would be a low-middle. I then started playing pitches on the piano and asked her to match them (to sing them back). I started by choosing among the four notes we had just identified, and she was able to match these quite easily. I then started adding pitches that were a half-step above or below her "anchor" pitches. This was more difficult, but she was able to tell me that they were close to a boundary or middle pitch. After a while, she was able to bend up or down by a half step from her boundary pitches into the notes I was playing.
It struck me later that this approach is actually not too far off from the octave-framing approach to post-tonal ear training that I outlined in a recent Indiana Theory Review article.
I'm curious to hear about other strategies for helping students learn to match pitch. This is the first time I've tried this and I was pleased with the rather speedy results. I'll try to post updates over the course of the semester.
First, I asked her to sing back some pitches that I played on the piano. Second, I sung some pitches and asked her to sing them back. She was unable to do either of these things. That she couldn't do either suggested to me that it wasn't a question of instrumental timbre.
I then sung some pitches and asked her to try to pick them out on the piano. She was unable to do that. This tells me that the problem is not one of poor vocal control.
I then asked her to sing a pitch, I sung a different pitch and gradually slid up in pitch to match her. We did this a second time, and I sung a pitch higher than she did and slid down. We reversed roles and I asked her to slide up or down into the pitch that I was singing. My intent here was to model a very fundamental pitch-matching task.
Following this, I asked her to sing the lowest note that was comfortable for her to sing. I recorded this note as her lower boundary. I asked her then to sing the highest note she could comfortably sing and labeled this as her high boundary. I asked her to sing two more notes: one would be a high-middle and the other would be a low-middle. I then started playing pitches on the piano and asked her to match them (to sing them back). I started by choosing among the four notes we had just identified, and she was able to match these quite easily. I then started adding pitches that were a half-step above or below her "anchor" pitches. This was more difficult, but she was able to tell me that they were close to a boundary or middle pitch. After a while, she was able to bend up or down by a half step from her boundary pitches into the notes I was playing.
It struck me later that this approach is actually not too far off from the octave-framing approach to post-tonal ear training that I outlined in a recent Indiana Theory Review article.
I'm curious to hear about other strategies for helping students learn to match pitch. This is the first time I've tried this and I was pleased with the rather speedy results. I'll try to post updates over the course of the semester.