Aural skills are probably the most important skills for a musician. To develope a good musical ear will help us in every aspect of our musical interpretation. Here are some of the best resources for developing aural skills:
Very interesting articles about ear training. Have a look at: Ear Training: A Direct and Logical Path (by John Mark Piper), which has very good exercises to detect the personality of each note in a scale or a chord.
Earmaster is probably the best software for ear training. You can work on the identification of intervals, chords, scales and harmonic progressions. You also can customize it with your own chords.
Great book for ear training, with lots of exercises for self working. Slight disadvantage: it is in German. There is a Spanish translation: “La formación musical del oído”. Will it be translated into English soon?
- Your imagination
As a conductor, it is important for me to identify not only intervals, rhythms and harmonies, but also dynamics, articulations, instruments, intonation, etc. A great exercise: transcribe what you hear in a recording and then compare what you have written with the original score. That will make you pay attention to every detail and your aural skills will develop very fast!
