Unit 64 - Singing techniques and performance

Listening and aural tests

In some of my sessions, I have been carrying out some listening tests with my lecturer. These listening tests can include anything from picking out notes from a chord, to finishing off a tune. These listening tests will help me gain better tuning when performing.

Here is a video of me carrying out a chord recognition task:

Here is a video of me carrying out some melodic phrases in 4/4 timing:

Here is a video of me carrying out some melodic phrases in 2/4 timing:

Here is a video of me carrying out some melodic phrases in 3/4 timing (waltz time):

When I was first introduced to these exercises, I really struggled with them and found it hard to remember the melodies. However, as time has progressed, I have been able to work on remembering these phrases and now I can carry out melodic phrases in 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 timings. As you can see from the videos above, I struggled slightly with the melodic phrases in 3/4 timing. This is because throughout my past when I have done a lot of dance where we have always counted in either 2/4 or 4/4 and therefore I wasn't used to the 3/4 timing. This meant that as well as remembering the sequence of notes, I also had to focus especially on the timing of the phrases because this did not come naturally as it did for the other timings.