Ear Training for Live Performance

Allan Chase

Authored by Allan Chase

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Course Code: OEART-215

Learn to respond faster to what you hear in rehearsal and onstage in this undergraduate ear training course. Call-and-response, transcription, and singing-to-playing exercises build connections between inner hearing, voice, and instrument across major/minor, pentatonic, blues, and modes—plus syncopation, swing, and mixed rhythms.

Level 2
Intermediate
Modality
Online
Duration
12 Weeks
3-Credit Tuition
$1,575
Semester Starts
Apr 6
Accreditation
NECHE

Key Learning Outcomes

  • Recognize, sing, play, and transcribe melodies and bass lines fluently across major, minor, pentatonic, blues, and modal contexts in any key
  • Perform and transcribe complex rhythmic material with accuracy, including swing, syncopation, triplets, mixed subdivisions, and compound meters
  • Respond musically in real time through call-and-response, melodic duets, and improvisation that connect inner hearing, voice, and instrument
  • Identify scales, modes, intervals, and melodic patterns by ear and apply that recognition directly to live performance situations
Overview Syllabus Requirements Instructors Related Music Career Roles
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Course Description

To grow as a musician, it is essential to develop your ability to recognize what you hear on recordings and what others are playing in your band and then translate that to your instrument. Ear Training for Live Performance is designed to teach you to play what you hear more quickly, allowing you to interpret and respond to music with greater conviction and expression because you are more certain of the notes you are singing or playing. The course works to build connections between your instrument, your inner hearing or aural imagination, your voice, and music notation.

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The course begins by exploring the melodic possibilities of the major scale, using the solfège technique to identify scale steps. You will also learn to master basic rhythms in common meters of 4/4, 3/4, and 2/4, using conducting patterns to keep your place and subdivide accurately. The course then covers all the forms of the minor scale, the major and minor pentatonic and blues scales, and the modes of Dorian, Mixolydian, Lydian, and Phrygian. In each scale or mode, you will learn to recognize, sing, and play the common melodic patterns and tendencies of the notes. As the course progresses, it adds new rhythms, including syncopated and tied sixteenth-note and eighth-note rhythms, triplets, and swing rhythms. In addition, it examines mixed-mode melodies, using all 12 notes of the chromatic scale, and introduces polyrhythms.

The course uses the classic method of call and response—listening to melodic ideas, singing them in response, and then playing them, gradually building skills to recognize and play back more complex melodic ideas in all keys and scale types. You will practice identifying bass lines, melodies, intervals, scale types, and rhythms by ear, and then transcribing them. You will also perform melodies, rhythms, and melodic duets in a variety of keys and modes. The course features a number of creative ear training exercises, in which you write simple melodies and rhythms and sing or play them, or improvise a melodic idea and then identify the pitches and rhythms. Each lesson will also include sight singing of melodies and rhythms.

The course uses musical examples from many artists, styles, and eras, including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Keith Jarrett, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, King Oliver, Bessie Smith, and other examples from jazz, blues, rock, R&B, folk, country, classical, and film music.

The goal of the course is to make you better able to recognize the notes and rhythms you hear, play what you imagine, write down musical ideas, and hear the sounds clearly as you read music notation. Performance ear training skills will make you a better performer, improviser, band member, accompanist, songwriter, composer, arranger, producer, and/or teacher.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Apply movable Do solfège to strengthen pitch accuracy, inner hearing, and coordination between voice and instrument
  • Transcribe short melodic and rhythmic phrases directly from recordings to notation with increasing speed and accuracy
  • Demonstrate stylistic rhythmic fluency by performing swing, samba, blues, and modal grooves in live performance contexts
  • Design and perform original ear-training exercises that integrate pitch, rhythm, and improvisation for continued skill development
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Syllabus

Lesson 1: Building Connections: Inner Hearing, Voice, and Instrument

  • Singing Basics for Performance Ear Training
  • Workshop: Pitch Matching
  • Major Scales, Solfege, Your Voice and Inner Hearing
  • Workshop: Reviewing Movable-Do Solfege
  • Solfege and Inner Hearing
  • Workshop: Call and Response with Voice and Instrument
  • Workshop: Solfege and Inner Hearing
  • Rhythmic Vocabulary: Recognizing, Reading and Writing the Building Blocks of Rhythm
  • Workshop: Performing Basic One-Beat Rhythms
  • Workshop: Identifying One-Beat Rhythms
  • Assignment 1: Playing and Singing Major Scale Material and Composing Rhythms

Lesson 2: Major Scale Interval Exploration

  • More Major Scale Intervals: Indirect Resolutions, Bass Lines, and Leaps
  • Indirect Resolutions with V7 to I Accompaniment
  • Using Songs to Identify Intervals
  • Workshop: Major Scale Intervals and Patterns
  • Identifying Diatonic Major Scale Intervals and Patterns in Music
  • Workshop: Which Bass Line is It?
  • Expanding Our Rhythmic Vocabulary
  • Workshop: Rhythms and Rests
  • Workshop: Sight Singing Melodies
  • Assignment 2: Melodic Phrases, 3/4 Transcription

Lesson 3: Minor Keys and Cut Time

  • Minor Keys and Scales
  • Natural and Harmonic Minor Scales
  • Tendency Tones in Minor
  • Workshop: Warm Up
  • 2/2 meter: Cut Time
  • Workshop: Samba Rhythms
  • Assignment 3: Minor Key and 2/2 Rhythms

Lesson 4: More Minor Scales

  • Le vs. La and Te vs. Ti in Minor
  • Quiz: Identify the Type of Minor Scale
  • Line Cliches
  • Workshop: Identify the Line Cliche
  • Workshop: Sing a Mixed Minor Warm-Up Routine
  • Quiz: Identify the Minor Scale Type
  • Assignment 4: Minor Scales

Lesson 5: Minor Pentatonic Scale and the Minor Blues Scale

  • Minor Pentatonic Scales
  • Workshop: Minor Pentatonic Scale
  • Blues Notes and the Minor Blues Scale
  • Workshop: Sing and Play Blues Scale Melodies
  • Syncopated Eighth Notes, Ties, and Anticipations
  • Swing Feel and Syncopation
  • Workshop: Sing Syncopated Rhythms in 4/4, 3/4, and 2/4 While Conducting
  • Assignment 5: Pentatonic and Blues Sounds

Lesson 6: Major Pentatonic and the Melodic Language of Blues

  • Major Pentatonic Scale
  • Workshop: Major Pentatonic Call and Response
  • Major Blues Scale
  • Workshop: Major Pentatonic and Major Blues Scale Melodies
  • Mixed Blues Scales: Minor and Major
  • Workshop: Mixed Blues Scale Call and Response
  • Quiz: Identify the Scale
  • Mid-Term Sight Singing Exam Preparation
  • Workshop: Melody Practice
  • Assignment 6: Blues Tonality

Lesson 7: The Mixolydian Mode and More Syncopated Rhythms

  • Mixolydian Mode
  • Mixolydian Melodies
  • Workshop: Warm Up Using Solfege Ladder
  • Exercise: Call-and-Response
  • Tied 16th Notes and 16th-Note Syncopations
  • Workshop: One-Bar Examples with a Metronome
  • Assignment 7: Mixolydian Phrases

Lesson 8: The Lydian Mode

  • Lydian
  • Lydian Melodies
  • Workshop: Warm Up Using Solfege Ladder
  • Lydian Melodies from Real
  • Mixed 8th- and 16th-Note Syncopations, Ties
  • Workshop: Juke-Box
  • Exercise: Rhythmic Duet Etude
  • Assignment 8: Transcribe, Call-and-Response

Lesson 9: The Phrygian Mode, ♭II and Ra, the Spectrum of Modes

  • Phrygian Activity
  • Sing Phrygian Melodies
  • Recognizing Phrygian Melodies
  • Quiz: Identify The Mode
  • More Work On Mixed 8th-Note and 16th-Note Syncopations
  • Sight-Singing One- and Two-Bar Rhythmic Examples
  • Assignment 9: Record Yourself Singing Mixolydian, Lydian, and Phrygian

Lesson 10: Mixed Modes

  • Singing and Playing Mixed Modes in Melodies
  • Workshop: Melodies in Mixed Major Modes and Mixed Minor Modes
  • Recognizing The Sounds Of Mixed Modes
  • Eighth-Note Triplets
  • Workshop: Sight Reading and Sing
  • Getting Ready For Next Week's Sight-Singing Final
  • Workshop: Practice Quiz
  • Assignment 10: Compose and Perform

Lesson 11: Mixed Modes, Part 2, and Polyrhythms

  • Mixed Modes
  • Guided Warm-Up from Lydian To Phrygian
  • How to Improvise a Warm
  • Workshop: Listen to Mixed Mode Phrases and Sing Back
  • Quarter-Note Triplets
  • Quarter-Note Triplets and Mixed Rhythmic Performance
  • Introduction to 3:2 Polyrhythms
  • Assignment 11: Improvised a Warm-Up in Mixed Modes, Recording, Transcription

Lesson 12: Practice Techniques and Final Project

  • Chromatic Notes in Modal and Blues Contexts
  • Workshop: Sing Along with a Comprehensive Warm-Up
  • Exercise: Call-and-Response
  • Note-Chasing
  • Rhythms Review
  • Exercise: Perform a Comprehensive Rhythm Warm-Up with Accompaniment
  • Assignment 12: Design and Share an Ear Training Exercise and Final Project

Requirements

Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements 

Prerequisite Courses, Knowledge, and/or Skills
Completion of Ear Training Fundamentals or equivalent knowledge and experience is required. Your voice and/or a melodic instrument will be used throughout this course.

Textbook(s)

  • No textbooks required

Recording

  • Students are required to record video while performing with a backing track 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

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

  • macOS Monterey 12.0 or later

PC Users

All Users

  • Latest version of Google Chrome
  • Zoom meeting software
  • Webcam
  • Speakers or headphones
  • External or internal microphone
  • Broadband Internet connection

Instructors

Allan Chase
Allan Chase

Author

Chair of the Ear Training department at Berklee from 2008-2021 and currently a faculty member in Harmony and Jazz Composition, saxophonist and composer Allan Chase has appeared as a soloist on more than 60 jazz, pop, and classical recordings, in addition to several movie scores. Chase has taught a wide range of college courses in ear training, transcription and analysis, harmony, counterpoint, music theory, and music history, as well as ensembles and private lessons. He began his teaching career at Berklee in 1981, and has also taught at Tufts University and New England Conservatory, where he served as chair of jazz studies and dean of the faculty. From 1992 to 2000, he performed and recorded with avant-garde jazz drummer Rashied Ali, who is best known for his playing with John Coltrane. Chase has also been a member of Your Neighborhood Saxophone Quartet since 1981 and has released several recordings as a leader or co-leader of jazz and improvisation ensembles.

Dan Rosenthal
Dan Rosenthal

Instructor

Dan Rosenthal is a renowned jazz trumpeter and composer. He has made several recordings as a leader and appears on over 50 recordings as a sideman, including works by Mulatu Astatke, the Either/Orchestra, Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra, Fernando Huergo, Omar Thomas, Greg Hopkins, Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, Naomi Sommers, Phil Rosenthal, Charlie Kohlhase, Eric Hofbauer, David Wax Museum, Joe Crookston, Steve Langone, Anthony Braxton, and others. He has performed throughout North America, Europe and Africa. In addition to teaching at Berklee Online, Dan is currently an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music in the Ear Training department and also adjuncts in the Brass and Electronic Production Departments. Dan was raised in a musical family and often plays and sings folk and bluegrass music w/ his father, acclaimed bluegrass musician, Phil Rosenthal. 

What's Next?

When taken for credit, Ear Training for Live Performance can be applied towards the completion of these related programs:

Related Certificate Programs

Related Degree Majors

Related Music Career Roles

Employers look for skills learned in this course, when hiring for the following music career roles:

Backup Singer

Cantor

Opera Singer

Vocal Coach

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.

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