12 Weeks
Level 2
3-Credit Tuition
$1,545Non-Credit Tuition
$1,290Ear Training 2 is designed to help you learn essential musicianship skills applicable to all styles of music: the ability to read music notation, as well as the ability to recognize, imagine, remember, and notate musical sounds. Through guided practice of ear training techniques, your musical perception and performance will become more accurate and you will become more fluent in translating sound into notation and notation into sound. The techniques for learning ear training—moveable Do solfège, conducting, counting systems, and dictation techniques—are time-tested aids for the development of these musicianship skills. The skills you will learn will be useful in composition, arranging, production, learning new repertoire, and bandleading. Ear Training 2 will also improve improvisation skills, musical interaction in performance, and music perception in listening.
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Accurately perform sight-singing of rhythms in common meters and diatonic melodies in major and minor keys, including all forms of the minor scale
- Listen and accurately dictate rhythms in common meters and diatonic melodies in major and minor keys
- Accurately perform rhythms and melodies using moveable Do solfège syllables and conducting patterns
- Demonstrate swing feels in 4/4 and 3/4 meters
- Recognize triads, 7th chords, and diatonic major-key chord progressions
Syllabus
Lesson 1: Take It from the Top! Reviewing the Foundation
- Diagnostic Evaluation
- History
- Interview with Lea Washington
- Singing for Success
- Sight Singing: Reviewing the Majors
- Return to Rhythms
- Assignment 1: Melodic and Rhythmic Videos
Lesson 2: Introducing Me, the Minor 3rd
- Jazz Melodic Minor—The Scale and the Sound
- Tendency Tone Pairs
- Jazz Melodic Minor—Melodies
- Moving Forward: 6/8 Rhythms
- Talking about Triads—Review
- Assignment 2: Rhythm and Melodies
Lesson 3: Inversions and Crafty Rhythms
- Jazz Melodic Minor Melodies
- Rhythms—Mixed Subdivisions
- What Is a Chord Inversion?
- Hearing Inversions
- Melodic Dictations
- Assignment 3: Transcribing
Lesson 4: Swinging into Harmonic Minor and 7ths
- Harmonic Minor—The Scale and the Sound
- Harmonic Minor—Melodies
- Swing vs. Straight Rhythms
- Triads and Inversions
- Singing Roots of Chords
- Assignment 4: Performance and Dictation
Lesson 5: Harmonic Minor, the Jazz Waltz, and 7th Chords
- Harmonic Minor Drills and Melodies
- Swing in 3/4—Jazz Waltz
- Rhythmic Reading
- Major Key 7th Chords
- 7th Chord Qualities
- Assignment 5: Sight-Reading, Rhythmic Etude, and Melodic Dictation
Lesson 6: Lesson 1—5 Review and Midterm Preparation
- Mastering the Melodies
- Review of Sixteenth-Note Rhythms, and Swing Feel
- Swing Review
- Listen to the 7ths
- 7th Chords
- Assignment 6.1: Midterm Assessment—Part 1: Sight-Reading
- Assignment 6.2: Midterm Assessment—Part 2: Dictation
Lesson 7: Exploring Natural Minor and 6/8 Time
- Natural Minor—Scale and the Sound
- 6/8 in 6
- Practicing and Conducting in 6/8
- All the 7ths
- Guide Tone Practice and Songs You May Know
- Assignment 7: Natural Minor Scale and 6/8 Pattern
Lesson 8: Natural Minor Melodies and 6/8 Adventures
- Natural Minor
- Tetrachords
- Natural Minor Melodies and Sight-Reading Review
- Melodic Dictation Review
- Further Exploration 6/8
- 7th Chord Review
- Assignment 8: Melodic Performance, Rhythmic and Harmonic Dictation
Lesson 9: Traditional Melodic Minor and Cut Time
- Traditional Melodic Minor—Scale and the Sound
- Tendency Tones
- What Is Cut Time?
- Cut-Time in Performance
- Reading Cut Time Rhythms
- Minor Chord Patterns—Natural Minor
- Assignment 9: Traditional Melodic Minor and Cut Time Rhythms
Lesson 10: Traditional Melodic Minor Melodies and Sixteenth-Note Syncopation
- Traditional Melodic Minor Melodies
- Mixed Minor Melodies
- Comparative Phrases
- Sixteenth-Note Syncopation
- More Minor Triads
- Borrowing "Ti"
- Assignment 10: Traditional Melodic Melodies and Rhythms
Lesson 11: Reviewing Natural and Traditional Melodic Minor with Quarter-Note Triplets
- Natural Minor and Traditional Melodic Minor Melodies
- Quarter-Note Triplets and Performance
- Quarter-Note Triplet Subdivision
- Thinking Ahead
- 7th Chords in Minor
- Assignment 11: Read and Perform Melodies
Lesson 12: Review and Create
- Review All Minor Scales
- Warming Up with Scales
- Melodic Sight-Reading
- Reading and Writing Rhythms
- Cut Time Review
- Quarter-Note Triplets
- Minor Harmony—Triads and 7ths
- Assignment 12: Final Assessment—Sight Reading
- Assignment 12: Final Assessment—Dictation
Requirements
Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements
Prerequisite Courses, Knowledge, and/or Skills
Completion of Music for Beginners and Ear Training 1 or equivalent knowledge and experience is required.
Students should be able to:
- Match pitch vocally
- Read and notate basic rhythms (whole notes, half notes, quarters, eighths, and sixteenths) in time signatures of 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4
- Identify and notate pitches in treble and bass clef
- Notate major scales in C, F, G, B♭, D
- Recognize simple major key harmonic patterns including the I, IV, and V chords
Textbook(s)
- Ear Training 2 Workbook by Scott deOgburn, Tony Germain, Mitch Haupers, Steve Prosser, Roberta Radley, and Dave Vose
- Note: Click here for a PDF with instructions on downloading and printing the workbook. Start on step 3 if you don't have a XanEdu account, or step 5 if you do.
Recording
- Students are required to record video for their assignments. Options for recording video include:
- Smartphone
- Digital camera
- Webcam (using either video recording software, or the video recording tool that is built into the learning environment)
Software
- MuseScore (free)
Student Deals
After enrolling, be sure to check out our Student Deals page for various offers on software, hardware, and more. Please contact support@online.berklee.edu with any questions.
General Course Requirements
Below are the minimum requirements to access the course environment and participate in Live Classes. Please make sure to also check the Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements section above, and ensure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements for all software needed for your course.
Mac Users
PC Users
All Users
- Latest version of Google Chrome
- Zoom meeting software
- Webcam
- Speakers or headphones
- External or internal microphone
- Broadband Internet connection
Instructors
Author
Gaye Tolan Hatfield is a graduate of Berklee College of Music and a professor in the college’s Ear Training department. She has also taught in the Harmony, Voice, and Ensemble departments, and co-wrote and teaches the Berklee Online course Music Foundations. Her work outside of the college includes writing, arranging, transcribing, and performing locally as a vocalist, pianist, and flutist. She has assisted orchestrators for the Boston Pops, and in the summer of 2013, wrote a choral arrangement that was performed at the Pops 4th of July concert.
Hatfield's compositions can be heard on a variety of television shows, including Navy NCIS, History Detective, The Young and the Restless, Revenge, NUMBER3, C.S.I. NY, Good Wife, and United States of Tara, in addition to the films Dear John and What To Expect When You're Expecting. She has also been a member of the Providence Singers, and penned an arrangement of "Someone to Watch Over Me" for their 2007-2008 Gershwin tribute concert.
Gaye earned 2015 and 2016 Daytime Emmy award nominations for her work as a member of the composing team for The Young and the Restless. Read Less
Instructor
Ruthie Ristich is a Boston based jazz vocalist, bandleader, arranger, voice teacher and music educator whose long career includes appearances in club and concert settings in the US and abroad. She is featured on a solo album project “Carefully Taught” and along with singers Gaye Tolan Hatfield and Roberta Radley as “The Singers of Swing” on their CD “Mood Indigo”. She has also worked as a producer for various music recordings and video projects. Other interests include nature photography, mushroom hunting, kayaking, swimming and bicycling.
What's Next?
When taken for credit, Ear Training 2 can be applied towards the completion of these related programs:
Related Certificate Programs
Related Degree Majors
Questions?
Contact our Academic Advisors by phone at 1-866-BERKLEE (U.S.), 1-617-747-2146 (INT'L), or by email at advisors@online.berklee.edu.
